1745 took part in the battle of Fontenoy as aide- de-camp to the Duke of Cumberland. In 1702 he was made lieutenant-general and given command of the army of 14,000 men which, in conjunction with the fleet under Admiral Pocock, took the city of Havana on 4 Aug., 1762. He was subsequently governor of the city, and returned to England with a large fortune. He was great-grandfather of William Coutts Keppel, Viscount Bury. (See Bury.)
KER, Henry, traveller, b. in Boston, Mass.,
about 1785. At an early age he removed with his
father to London, and was educated at Westmin-
ster school for a mercantile life. Being fond of
adventure, he left England on 25 April, 1808, and
after travelling through North and South Caro-
lina, Tennessee, and Mississippi, he went to Jamaica,
W. I., but returned to New Orleans, and sailed up
Red river, where he found a tribe of Indians, the
Mnacedeus, from whose language and customs he
inferred that they were descended from Madoc, a
Welsh prince. Ker remained among these Indians
for some time and discovered a platina-mine, for
which he was condemned to death, but was rescued
by the daughter of a chief. He subsequently trav-
elled through Mexico, Florida, and the Gulf states,
returning to England by way of New York. He
published " Travels through the United States and
Mexico in 1808-'16 " (Elizabethtown, N. J., 1816).
KERATRY, Charles Albert, Chevalier de
(kay'-rah'-tre'), French soldier, b. in Dinan in 1753 ;
d. in Nantes in 1794. He was sent to this country by
Beaumarchais in 1776, and served during the war
of independence in 1776-'83, being wounded at
Brandy wine and at Yorktown. Congress brevetted
him colonel at the close of the war, and he was
made a member of the Society of the Cincinnati.
In 1785 he was appointed major of the Port au
Prince regiment in Santo Domingo, and was con-
spicuous among the members of the council who
urged Governor Blanchelande to disobey the orders
of the home government and to refuse to the
negroes the benefit of the clement laws that had
been voted by the constituent assembly in 1790.
He was instrumental in bringing about by his in-
tolerance the rebellion of 1791, and was left for
dead during the massacres ; but, having recovered,
he organized a company of volunteers and made
terrible havoc among the negroes. Going to
Louisiana in 1793, he offered his services to the
Spanish government, and commanded for some
time the artillery of the colony ; but his hatred of
the blacks and the cruelties to which he resorted
caused his resignation in 1793. On his arrival in
France he was arrested, and after a mock trial
condemned to death and executed. Ho published
"La colonie Francaise de Saint Domingue; ses
ressources, commerce, industrie ; de la population
creole et des negres " (Paris, 1790).
KERATRY, Emile de, French soldier, b. in
Paris, France, 20 March, 1832. His father, Au-
guste Hilarion de Keratry, was made a peer by
Louis Philippe in 1837. Ihe son entered the army
as a volunteer, 30 Sept., 1854, serving in Africa
during the Crimean war, and subsequently in the
Mexican campaign of 1863-'5, after which he pub-
lished articles denouncing the frauds and impolicy
of imperial intervention in that country. He re-
tired from the army in 1866, and devoted his at-
tention to politics and literature. In 1869-'70 he
was prominent in the corps legislatif as an active
opponent of Napoleon, although he approved of
the war against Prussia. At the beginning of the
revolution in 1870, he was prefect of police in
Paris, and as general of division under Gambetta
organized nearly fifty battalions in Brittany. He
was prefect at Toulouse and Marseilles under the
Thiers government of 1871-2. He has been con-
nected with various periodicals, a newspaper en-
titled " Le Soir," and has published several plays
and miscellaneous writings, many of which relate
to the Mexican expedition, and is now (1887) about
to issue a volume entitled " A travers le passe."
KERCKHOVE, Lorenz Wenceslas (kair-ko'-
veh), Dutch naturalist, b. in Bois le Due in 1785;
d. in Amsterdam in 1839. He studied in Rotter-
dam, and early showed a fondness for the natural
sciences. At the age of sixteen he joined an uncle
who was established in business in New York ; but
having made the acquaintance of Alexander von
Humboldt during his sojourn in the United States
in 1802, he gave up business and went to Central
America. He had resolved to follow the steps of
the German naturalist, and like him write an
account of his travels, but after visiting the West
Indies, Central America, Louisiana, Mexico, and
Guiana, during 1804-'9, his health declined and he
was compelled to return to his native land. For
several years he was professor of natural history in
the University of Leyden, but resigned in 1821 to
devote himself exclusively to science, and, settling
in Amsterdam, published many works, including
"Reisen durch Cuba, Porto Rico, Louisiana,
Nueva Esparia und Guiana " (2 vols., Leyden, 1817) ;
" Historia ecclesiastica et Universalis Guianas "
(Amsterdam, 1825) ; " Die Kriege von 1814-1821 in
Mexico " (Leyden, 1833) ; " Surinam in Bildern
und Skizzen " (Amsterdam, 1835) : and " Historia
plantarum circa Havana sponte crescentium "
(3 vols., Amsterdam, 1839).
KERFOOT, John Barrett, P. E. bishop, b. in
Dublin, Ireland, 1 March, 1816 ; d. in Meyersdale,
Pa., 10 July, 1881. He was brought to Lancaster,
Pa., by his father in
1819, and at an early
age entered a Sun-
day-school that had
been opened by the
Rev. William A. Muh-
lenberg, for whom he
formed an attach-
ment that lasted
through life. Young
Kerfoot followed
Mr. Muhlenberg to
Flushing, and was
his pupil there and
at College Point. On
his twenty-first birth-
day he was ordained
to the Protestant
Episcopal ministry
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by Bishop Onderdonk, of New York. On the establishment of St. James's hall in Maryland, Mr. Kerfoot was put in charge, and he continued there, at the head of the school and afterward of the College of St. James, from 1842 till 1864. The civil war had a disastrous effect on the prosperity of the institution. Most of the students were from the southern states, while the sympathy of the rector was strongly with the supporters of the Union. In the midst of much trouble and anxiety, the work of the college was continued until in August, 1864, when the buildings were occupied by Confederate soldiers. Dr. Kerfoot was put under arrest, but released on condition that he should secure the surrender of Dr. Boyd who had been, it was claimed, unjustly held a prisoner by the Federal authorities. This was accomplished, and in September Dr. Kerfoot entered on the duties of the presidency of Trinity college, to
