KEITH, THOMAS (1759–1824), mathematical writer and teacher, son of Thomas Keith, labourer, and Elizabeth his wife, was baptised at Brandesburton, near Beverley, 22 Sept. 1759. His father died soon after his birth, and Keith spent some years as a private tutor. In 1781 he came to London, and gained his livelihood as a teacher of mathematics and wrote mathematical books. He did other hack-work, such as editing Paterson's ‘Road-book,’ but he became known to persons of influence, and in 1804 was appointed secretary to the master of his majesty's household. In 1810 he was made professor of geography to the Princess Charlotte of Wales, and he also taught the Princess Sophia Matilda. By the patronage of Charles Abbot, afterwards first Lord Colchester [q. v.], he was appointed in 1814 accountant to the British Museum. Keith died on 29 June 1824, at 1 York Buildings, New Road, Marylebone.
Keith's chief works, all published in London, are: 1. ‘A Short and Easy Introduction to the Science of Geography,’ 1787. 2. ‘The Complete Practical Arithmetician,’ 1788; 12th edit. 1838. 3. ‘The New Schoolmaster's Assistant,’ 1796. 4. ‘Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Plane and Spherical Trigonometry,’ 1801. 5. ‘Treatise on the Use of the Globes,’ 1804. 6. ‘The Elements of Plane Geometry,’ 1814.
[Gent. Mag. 1824, ii. 279; information kindly furnished by the Rev. W. H. V. Baker; De Morgan's Arithmetical Books, pp. 73, 97; Biog. Dict. of Living Authors.]
KEITH, Sir WILLIAM (d. 1407?), great marischal of Scotland, eldest son of Sir Edward Keith, great marischal, who was brother of Sir Robert Keith, great marischal [q. v.], and his first wife, Isobel de Keith, succeeded his father about 1350. He took an active part in the arrangements with the English government in 1357 for the ransom of David II (Bain, Calendar, iii. 302), with whom he is said to have been in much favour. He and Thomas, thirteenth earl of Mar, are reported to have fought a duel at Edinburgh, when the king showed such open partiality for Keith as to provoke Mar into making a public protest. Thereupon David laid siege to Mar's castle of Kildrummy (Scalacronica, p. 203). Keith went abroad in 1358 for a time to seek renown in foreign wars (Rotuli Scotiæ, i. 830). He was employed in 1369 to negotiate a truce with England at London (Rymer, Fœdera, iii. 878), and in March 1371 was present at the coronation at Scone of Robert II.
He married Margaret, only daughter and heiress of Sir John Fraser (son of the chamberlain) and Mary Bruce. Their principal residence was at Kintore until in 1392 Keith exchanged with William, Lord Lindsay of the Byres, who had married his daughter Christian, certain lands in the counties of Fife and Stirling for the Crag of Dunnottar in Kincardineshire. Here he built the celebrated castle of Dunnottar, and made it his chief fortress. Before the works began he had to remove the parish church to another part of the lands, and on the plea that he had invaded consecrated ground Keith was laid under a sentence of excommunication by the Bishop of St. Andrews. He appealed to Rome, and on 18 July 1394 Pope Benedict XIII granted his bull, removing the censure, and permitting the castle to remain on the old ecclesiastical site, on condition of an annual composition being paid to the church (Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. Appendix, pp. 405, 409). Keith died between 1406 and 1408. He had three sons and four daughters; one of the latter married Robert, duke of Albany, governor of Scotland.
[Douglas's Peerage of Scotland (Wood), ii. 187.]
KEITH, WILLIAM (fl. 1560), musical composer, [See Kethe.]
KEITH, WILLIAM, fourth Earl Marischal (d. 1581), was the eldest son of Robert, lord Keith (eldest son of William, third earl Marischal), by Lady Elizabeth Douglas, eldest daughter of John, second earl of Morton. His father having been slain at the battle of Flodden in 1513, he succeeded to the title on the death of his grandfather about 1530. On 27 Jan. 1531–2 he received a grant of lands, tenements, and crofts in Kincardine and adjoining hamlets. He accompanied James V in 1535 when he went to France to be married to Madeline, daughter of Francis I. On 2 July 1541 he was made an extraordinary lord of session. He was described by Sir Ralph Sadler in 1543 as ‘a goodly young gentleman,’ well inclined to the English king, ‘but not well willing to have the child’ (the young Princess Mary) ‘delivered out of the realm’ (State Papers, i. 99). By the parliament which met in March of this year he had been chosen a member of the privy council, and one of the keepers of the young queen (Acta Parl. Scot. ii. 414–15). In June of the following year he signed the agreement to support the authority of the queen-mother as regent against the Earl of Arran. Nevertheless he not only continued favourable to an English alliance, but at an early period manifested his sympathy with the principles of the reformers. He was present in 1544 at a sermon preached by George Wishart at Dundee after the inhibition of him ‘in the
