Keeling in the Dragon going to Bantam, and having there filled up with pepper and spices, he sailed for England, where he arrived in May 1610. Early in 1615 he again sailed for the East Indies with a special commission to use martial law during the voyage, and to be captain and commander-in-chief of all the English in India. As it seems to have been intended that he should remain in India, he applied for leave to take his wife out with him, but this, after a lengthy discussion, was refused, Keeling being given 200l. as a compensation (Cal. State Papers, Col. East Indies, 10 Dec. 1614). The prohibition, however, determined him to come home, and after obtaining a grant for trading in pepper from the king of Acheen, and establishing a factory at Teko on the west coast of Sumatra, he returned to England apparently in 1617.
Keeling was some little time afterwards appointed captain of Cowes Castle (cf. ib. 22 Dec. 1618), where, apparently in 1620, he was authorised ‘to levy one penny per ton on every ship that passed Dungeness light’ (ib. 1619–23 p. 210, 1625–6 p. 524). His will, dated 16 Oct. 1620, and proved in London on 20 Nov. 1620, described him as of the Park, in the parish of Carisbrooke in the Isle of Wight. His wife, Anne Keeling was left sole executrix, and, to provide for the children should she die, his brothers-in-law, Edward Bromfield and Thomas Overman, leather-sellers, of London, were to act as executors, and the estate, which is ‘much mingled and dispersed abroad in the East Indies and other places,’ was to be divided in equal shares among the eldest son, Edward, and the other children as they attain the age of twenty-one or marry.
[Purchas his Pilgrimes, i. 170, 188, 703; Harris's Collection of Voyages, 2nd edit. i. 875; Lancaster's Voyages to the East Indies, ed. Markham (Hakluyt Society) (see index); Cal. State Papers, Colonial, East Indies.]
KEELING, WILLIAM KNIGHT (1807–1886), artist, born in Cooper Street, Manchester, in 1807, was apprenticed to a wood-engraver of that town, and showed great aptitude for that art, but at an early age he went to London to become an assistant to William Bradley [q. v.] the portrait-painter, and helped Bradley not only in painting but in engraving portraits of some of his more celebrated sitters. About 1835 he returned to Manchester, practised as a painter of portraits and figure-subjects in oil and water-colour, and gave lessons in drawing. He made some excellent drawings from ‘Gil Blas,’ a few of which were engraved in Heath's ‘Annual.’ Many of his earlier works, especially his illustrations to Sir Walter Scott and other authors, were much in the manner of his friend Henry Liverseege [q. v.] In the exhibition of the Royal Manchester Institution, 1831, he was represented by an illustration to Scott's novel ‘The Betrothed,’ and he long continued a regular exhibitor both at the annual and occasional exhibitions. He was awarded the Heywood silver medal by the institution in 1833 for an oil painting, ‘The Bird's-nest.’
He was a member of the original Manchester Academy, and took a prominent part in the foundation of the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts, of which he was president from 1864 to 1877. To their exhibitions he regularly contributed figure-subjects and portraits till 1883. He was elected an associate of the New Society of Painters in Water-colour in 1840, and a full member in 1841. Most of his best work in water-colour was shown in their exhibitions. He also exhibited once at the Royal Academy, and once at the British Institute. His exhibited pictures included ‘Gurth and Wamba’ (in 1832), ‘Touchstone, Audrey, and William,’ ‘The Interdicted Letter,’ ‘Gil Blas' Adventure with the Parasite,’ and several portraits. He was a successful teacher, and among his pupils was Mr. T. Oldham Barlow, R.A. Keeling died at his residence, Barton-upon-Irwell, near Manchester, on 21 Feb. 1886.
[Manchester Guardian, 24 Feb. 1886; Graves's Dict. of Artists; private information.]
KEENE, Sir BENJAMIN (1697–1757), diplomatist, born at King's Lynn, Norfolk, in 1697, was eldest son of Charles Keene, merchant (alderman, and in 1714 mayor, of King's Lynn), who married Susan Rolfe. The family had long been resident at King's Lynn, and a Benjamin Keene (1631–1709) was its first mayor under the letters patent granted by Charles II. The younger Benjamin was educated at the Lynn free grammar school and at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, where he graduated LL.B. in 1718. He is said to have been for some time at the university of Leyden, but his name does not appear in Peacock's list of its English students. His father's affairs became involved, but through the influence of Sir Robert Walpole, who controlled the borough, he was appointed agent for the South Sea Company at Madrid, and in July 1724 was promoted to be British consul at that city. In September 1727, through the same influence, Keene received the higher post of minister plenipotentiary at Madrid, but was not until the close of the year publicly received in that capacity. The treaty of Seville, whereby a defensive alliance was concluded between England, Spain, and France, was arranged in November 1729
