Benjamin Keene (1753–1837) was a British barrister and member of parliament who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

from 1776 to 1784.

Early life

Keene was the eldest son of Rt. Rev.

Edmund Keene Edmund Keene (1714 – 6 July 1781) was an English churchman and academic, who was Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge and later served first as Bishop of Chester, then Bishop of Ely. Younger brother of the diplomat Benjamin Keene, the family were ...

, Bishop of Ely, and his wife Mary Andrews, daughter. of Lancelot Andrews of Edmonton. His uncle, Sir Benjamin Keene, MP was ambassador to Madrid. Keene was educated at

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, ...

from 1762 to 1770 and was admitted at

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and W ...

in 1767 and at Peterhouse, Cambridge on 6 October 1770. In 1774 he was awarded MA at Cambridge. He married Mary Ruck, daughter of George Ruck of Swyncombe, Oxfordshire on 18 March 1780, and succeeded his father in July 1780.

Political career

Keene was elected as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

at a by-election on 7 November 1776. He was re-elected for Cambridge at the 1780 general election. In 1784 he was a member of the St. Alban's Tavern group who tried to bring Fox and Pitt together. He did not stand in

1784 Events January–March * January 6 – Treaty of Constantinople: The Ottoman Empire agrees to Russia's annexation of the Crimea. * January 14 – The Congress of the United States ratifies the Treaty of Paris with Great Bri ...

Later life and legacy

Keene was

High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift to ...

in 1804. He died on 21 November 1837. By his marriage to Mary Ruck he had two sons, Benjamin, an Army officer, and Charles Edmund, a clergyman of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

. He also had three daughters, Frances, Sophie-Elizabeth, and Mary-Anne, who married Sir William Blackett, 5th Baronet. Admiral William Ruck-Keene (1867–1935) was one of his great-grandsons.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Keene, Benjamin 1753 births 1837 deaths Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge Members of Gray's Inn Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1774–1780 British MPs 1780–1784 High Sheriffs of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire People educated at Eton College English barristers