Keith, George

Keith, George, Scottish preacher

Keith, George, c.1638–1716, Scottish preacher. Joining the Quakers c.1663, he was closely associated with Robert Barclay, George Fox, and other influential Friends. Shortly after his arrival in America (1684) he became the leader of a separate faction known as Christian Quakers, for which he was denounced by William Penn in 1692. Keith returned to England where, in 1700, he was ordained a priest in the Anglican Church. He was again in America (1702–4), preaching and baptizing. His journeys in the colonies are recorded in his Journal of Travels from New Hampshire to Caratuck (1706).

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Keith, George, Scottish Jacobite

Keith, George, 1693?–1778, Scottish Jacobite, 10th earl marischal [marshal] of Scotland. He took part in the Jacobite uprising of 1715 and after its failure escaped to the Continent. A leader of the Spanish expedition to Scotland (1719) in behalf of the Old Pretender, he again escaped. Later he joined his brother James Francis Edward Keith in Prussia and rose high in the favor of Frederick the Great, who appointed him ambassador to Paris (1751), governor of Neuchâtel (1752), and ambassador to Spain (1758). Although pardoned by George II of Britain, he spent most of the remainder of his life in Prussia.