Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 06.djvu/210

 KEIMER

KEITH

U.S. minister to Austria, serving from Dec. 6, 1858, to Marcli 3. 18o9. He vvas surveyor-general of the state of Pennsylvania, 1860-62, and at the outbreak of the civil war commanded the Penn- sylvania militia, being second in command to General Patterson, and with that general marched the militia into Virginia in 1861, where they served for three months. In the fall of 1861 he was commissioned brigadier-general of volun- teers by President Lincoln, and served as com- mander of the 2d brigade, 3d division, 4th army corps in the advance upon Richmond under McClellan. He contracted typhoid fever on the peninsula and died at Harrisburg, Pa., May 18, 1862

KEIMER, Samuel, printer, was born in Eng- land and learned the printer's trade in London. He came to America with his sister in 1722, ■where as members of a sect known as the " French Prophets " they undertook to propa- gate their faith. For this purpose he brought with him a printing press and a worn out font of type. He established himself in the printing business in Philadelphia in oiaposition to Andrew Bradford, and his first order was from the Friends for an edition of " SeweFs History of the People Called Quakers," to which they procured 500 advance subscribers, and in order to finish the edition in a reasonable time he employtd Mere- dith & Franklin to print a part of the edition in 1728, they having just set up a press. Franklin, on his return from England in 1828, announced his intention to publish a newspaper, and Keimer commenced the speedy issue of the Universal Instmctor in all Arts and Sciences and Pennsyl- vania Gazette, the first number of which ap- peared, Dec. 23, 1738. He could not make the venture pay and after nine months sold the paper to Franklin & Meredith. He removed to the Barbados Island and settled at Bridgetown, where in 1731 he established the Barbados Gazette, the first bi-weekly paper published for any length of time in any part of America and the first paper issued in the Caribbean islands. He is the author of: A Brand Plucked from the Burning, Exemiilijied in the Unparalleled Case of Samuel Keimer (1818), and selections from his paper, published under the title: Caribbeana, a Collec- tion of Essays {2 vols., 1841). He died on Bar- bados Island, W.I., after 1738.

KEITH, Charles Penrose, author and lawyer, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., March 15, 1854; son of Washington and Anne Mathews (Penrose) Keith. He was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1873 and taught school, 1875- 76, after which he was librarian j^^o temjyore of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. He was admitted to the bar in 1877, and practised in Philadelphia. He was title clerk in the Real

Estate Title Insurance Trust company of Phila- delpiiia, 1879-89, and chief clerk in the U.S. ap- praiser's office, 1889-93. He is the author of: Tlie Provincial Councillors of Pennsylvania, be- tiveen 1733 and 1776, and llieir Descendants (1883); The Ancestry of Benjamin Harrison and Notes on Families Related (1893), and historical and genealogical contributions to periodicals.

KEITH, Reuel, educator, was born in Pitts- ford, Vt., June 26, 1792. He received a common school training, was clerk in a mercantile house, prepared himself for college, and was graduated from Middlebury in 1814. He studied at the Andover Theological seminary, Mass., in 1815, and was a tutor at Middlebury college, Vt., 1816- 17. He was made a deacon in the Protestant Episcopal church. May 10, 1817, and ordained priest. May 24, 1818. He was assistant minister of St. John's church, Georgetown, D.C., 1817-19; rector of Christ church, Geoi'getown, D.C., 1819- 22; professor of humanities and history at the- College of William and Mary and rector of the Bruton parish, Williamsburg, Va., 1822-26, and professor of jiulpit eloquence and pastoral theol- ogy at the newly organized Virginia Tlieological seminary at Alexandria, Va., 1827-40. He re- ceived the degree D.D. from Middlebury in 1827. He is the author of: a translation of Hengsten- berg's Christology of the Old Testament (1836); Commentary on the Predictions of the Messiah by the Prophets (3 vols., 1836). He died at Sheldon, Vt., Sept. 3, 1842.

KEITH, William, colonial governor of Penn- sylvania, was born ne*ir Peterhead, Scotland, in 1680; son, and in 1720, successor as fourth, baronet, of Sir William Keith of Ludquhairn,, and great-grandson of Sir William Keith, of Ludquhairn, who was created a baro- net of Nova Scotia in 1629. He was sent to France where lie remained at the court of the exiled Stuart at St. Germain for several years ^^^^^ with the hope that ^^/f^ the Pretender would eventually take the throne of England, and appoint him un- der secretary for Scotland. Upon his return to Scotland about 1703, he was involved in the Queensberry plot organized by Samuel Fraser, Lord Lorat. and was arrested and imprisoned, but was sub- sequently released without trial. In 1714. when the Jacobites came into power, he obtained the