# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Keith, Robert (1681-1757)

​KEITH, ROBERT (1681–1757), bishop of Fife and historian, younger son of Alexander Keith of Uras, Kincardineshire, by his wife Marjory, daughter of Robert Arbuthnot of Little Fiddes in the same county, was ​born at Uras on 7 Feb. 1681. His father, a zealous royalist, whose sacrifices in the cause had compelled him to sell the hereditary estate of Cowton, claimed descent from Alexander, the fourth and youngest son of William, third earl Marischal, and, in opposition to the Keiths of Ravelston, claimed to be the nearest lineal representative of the noble family of Marischal attainted in 1716. Keith lost his father when only two years old, and in his seventh year his mother removed with him to Aberdeen, where after attending school he was educated at Marischal College. In July 1703 he became tutor to his kinsman George, lord Keith, afterwards tenth earl Marischal [q. v.], and his brother James, afterwards Field-marshal Keith [q. v.] He denied a report that he was tutor also to Alexander Garden of Troup, and at the same time stated that he was employed by Dr. George Garden [q. v.] in translating into Latin the last seven years of ‘Dr. Forbes's Diary, or Vita Interior,’ for Garden's edition of Forbes's ‘Works.’ He continued tutor to the Keiths till July 1710, and on 10 Aug. was admitted to deacon's orders by George Haliburton, the deprived bishop of Aberdeen. In November following he became domestic chaplain to Charles Hay, twelfth earl of Errol, whom in June 1712 he accompanied to the baths of Aix-la-Chapelle. He left the earl on the continent, and returning to England in November, reached Edinburgh in the following February. Having been invited to become minister of an episcopalian congregation in the city, he was ordained priest by Bishop Haliburton on 26 May. On 10 June 1727 he was consecrated coadjutor to Bishop Millar of Edinburgh, who was aged and infirm. Though specially entrusted with the superintendence of the clergy in the ancient dioceses of Caithness, Orkney, and the Isles, he continued to reside in Edinburgh. Keith's election was made by the party opposed to the college of bishops which the chevalier patronised. Lockhart describes Keith as ‘one that had the best character of any’ of the factious party (Papers, ii. 327). The points which chiefly divided the episcopalians were the relation of the church to the government, and the question of ‘usages.’ Chiefly through the mediation of Keith, an arrangement was ultimately arrived at, which was ratified by a ‘concordat’ prepared and subscribed by all the bishops on 13 May 1732. One result of this was to extinguish the project of governing the church by a college of bishops nominated solely by the chevalier and his trustees. In 1733 Keith became diocesan of Fife, but he continued to perform the offices of bishop on behalf of Orkney and Caithness down to a considerably later period. In 1738 he had a dispute with Bishop Fairbairn of Edinburgh regarding Fairbairn's ordination of a Mr. Spens belonging to the Fife diocese, and refused to institute Spens to the chapel of Wemyss until Fairbairn acknowledged the irregularity. At an episcopal synod held at Edinburgh on 11 July of the same year he acted as clerk, and by the synod he was directed to make a registration of all the bishops of the Scottish church since 1688, ‘lest the documents of the episcopal succession might perish.’ On the death of Fairbairn in 1739 it was supposed that Keith was desirous to be elected his successor, but he declared that he declined the appointment when it was actually offered him. In August 1743 he resigned the bishopric of Fife, but continued to discharge the functions of bishop in Orkney and Caithness. Bishop Rattray of Dunkeld, the primus, who is stated to have been chosen bishop of Edinburgh, had died shortly before Keith resigned the bishopric of Fife, but no movement was made to choose a new bishop for Edinburgh, and Keith himself denied that he wished the appointment. At an episcopal synod held at Edinburgh on 20 Aug. of this year Keith was unanimously chosen primus, and presided over its deliberations. The chief result was the adoption of a set of canons which the late primus Bishop Rattray had bequeathed to the bishops for ‘the more formal exercise of their authority in the government of their districts.’ These proceedings of the synod aroused some jealousy among the Edinburgh clergy, who at that period were in the habit of assuming considerable powers as a regular presbytery. They presented several addresses to the bishops on the subjects in dispute, to which Keith ultimately, on 25 Jan. 1745, sent a letter of explanation and remonstrance. For some years the Edinburgh clergy had declined to choose a bishop for their diocese; but to indicate their dissatisfaction with the synod's declaration they now entered into correspondence with George Smith, one of the nonjuring bishops of England, to consecrate one of the number bishop of the diocese. This led to a letter of expostulation from Keith, dated 22 May 1744.
About 1752 Keith removed from his residence in the Canongate, Edinburgh, to the small villa of Bonnyhaugh, his own property, near Bonnington, Leith. There he died on 26 Jan. 1757, after a day's illness. He was buried in the Canongate churchyard, where there is a plain tombstone to his memory, not far from the monument erected by Burns to the poet Fergusson. By his wife Isabel Cameron, daughter of the Rev. John Came​ron, he had a son, who died young, and a daughter Catherine, married in 1752 to Stewart Carmichael, merchant in Edinburgh. Keith's most important and valuable work is ‘The History of the Affairs of the Church and State of Scotland from the beginning of the Reformation in the Reign of King James V to the Retreat of Queen Mary into England Anno 1568,’ Edinburgh, 1734. The ‘History,’ with biographical sketch of Keith, additional notes, and an index, was published by the Spottiswoode Society in 1844–5, vols. i. and ii. being edited by John Parker Lawson, and vol. iii. by the Rev. J. C. Lyon. The ‘History’ is the result of laborious original research, and is indeed the earliest history relating to Scotland of which this can properly be said. It is illustrated by a large number of original documents, and these have been considerably augmented in the Spottiswoode Society's edition. Keith's private copy of the ‘History,’ with his own annotations, corrections, and additions, was acquired by Sir Walter Scott, and is in the library at Abbotsford. Keith's other historical work, the ‘Catalogue of Scottish Bishops,’ is a much less satisfactory performance, and in many details is far from being either complete or accurate. The first edition appeared at Edinburgh in 1755, under the title ‘Catalogue of the Bishops of Scotland down to the year 1688; together with other things necessary to the better knowledge of the Ecclesiastical State of the Kingdom in former times. Also an Account of the first Planting of Christianity in Scotland, and the State of the Church in the earlier Ages.’ The volume was dedicated to his kinsman, Marshal Keith. The account of the Culdees was written by Walter Goodall [q. v.], apologist of Mary Queen of Scots. An edition was published, under the title ‘Historical Catalogue of the Scottish Bishops down to the year 1688. By Robert Keith. Also an Account of all the Religious Houses that were in Scotland at the time of the Reformation. By John Spottiswoode, Esq. Corrected and continued to the present time, with a Life of the Author. By Rev. M. Russell, LL.D.,’ Edinburgh, 1824. The work is also included in J. F. S. Gordon's ‘Ecclesiastical Chronicle of Scotland,’ Glasgow, 1867. The bishop was also the author of ‘Vindication of Mr. Robert Keith and of his young Grand-nephew Alexander Keith to the honour of a lineal Descent from the noble house of the Earls Marischal; in Answer to the unfriendly Representation of Mr. Alexander Keith, jun., of Ravelston,’ printed for private circulation in 1750, and reprinted in the Spottiswoode edition of his ‘History,’ vol. i. pp. lxxii–lxxxix. He is also stated to have published in 1743 some ‘Select Pieces of Thomas à Kempis,’ translated into English. Among his unpublished manuscripts were a ‘Treatise on Mystical Divinity,’ in the form of letters to a lady, and a scheme of religion directly founded on the letter of scripture, and intended, it was supposed, for the use of his family. He devoted a considerable amount of attention to archæology and the study of ancient Scottish coins. He presented to the Advocates' Library a ‘Register of Assignations, 1514.’
T. F. H.