Family and Education

bap. 14 Feb. 1633, 2nd but 1st surv. s. of Gilbert Keate, Grocer, of Water Lane, London, being 1st s. by 2nd w. Elizabeth, da. of Gilbert Armstrong of Rempstone, Notts. m. (1) 1 May 1655, Susannah (d. 11 June 1673) da. and h. of Thomas Hoo of Kimpton, 2s. (1 d.v.p.) 3da.; (2) lic. 17 Mar. 1675, Susannah (d. 13 Jan. 1720) da. of John Orlebar, Merchant Taylor, of London, s.p. suc. fa 1658; cr. Bt. 12 June 1660.1

Offices Held

Commr. for militia, Herts. Mar. 1660, j.p. July 1660-70, bef. 169-d.; commr. for assessment, Herts. 1664-80, 1689-90, Kent 1673-9; sheriff, Herts. 1665-6; commr. for concealments, Mdx. and Surr. 1670.2

Biography

Keate came from a cadet branch of a family settled in Berkshire in the early 16th century. His father was apprenticed to a London Grocer and prospered as a ship-owner, sugar-refiner, and a substantial investor in the East India Company. He was not active during the Civil War, and after one nomination as an assessment commissioner in 1648 he fined for alderman in 1650. As a merchant he chartered ships to the Commonwealth and Protectorate. Keate himself also became a merchant, and during the Interregnum imported sugar from Barbados. He retired from business after his wife inherited the Hoo estate, rebuilt the mansion there, and later acquired two adjacent manors. At the Restoration he was granted a baronetcy and appointed to the commission of the peace; but he was removed in 1670, presumably as a opponent of the second Conventicles Act.3

Keate was returned for the county at a contested election in August 1679, doubtless as an exclusionist. A moderately active Member of the second Exclusion Parliament, he made no recorded speeches, but he was appointed to five committees, including those to inspect the law concerning the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot, to draw up an address for a fast, and to examine the disbandment accounts. He is not known to have stood again. Though he conformed to the Anglican church, an ejected Presbyterian minister served him at an unknown period, and he maintained a Congregationalist chaplain from 1683 to 1688. He appears to have been restored as a j.p. after the Revolution, and signed the Association in 1696. He died on 17 Sept. 1700 and was buried at Kimpton, the only member of his family to sit in Parliament.4

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: E. R. Edwards / Geoffrey Jaggar

Notes

• 1. St. Dunstan in the East (Harl. Soc. Reg. lxix), 67; (lxxxiv), 46, 73; London Mar. Lic. ed. Foster, 781; Clutterbuck, Herts. iii. 73.
• 2. Cal. Treas. Bks. iii. 607.
• 3. Vis. Berks. (Harl. Soc. lvii), 162-3; Inhabitants of London in 1638 ed. Dale, 50; Cal. Co. Mins. E. I. Co. ed. Sainsbury, ii. 262; v. 153; CSP Dom. 1651-2, p. 526; 1652-3, p. 137; 1655, p. 545; CSP Col. i. 432; ii. 14; VCH Herts. ii. 407; iii. 30, 31; Clutterbuck, iii. 77.
• 4. D. R. Lacey, Dissent and Parl. Pols. 417; Herts. Recs. vi. 523; Clutterbuck, ii. 192; iii. 77.