![Thomas Keightley (1650–1719)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Thomas_Keightley_%281650%E2%80%931719%29.jpg)
Thomas Keightley (1650–1719) was an English courtier and official in Ireland, who as brother-in-law to
Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon
Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon, PC (2 June 163831 October 1709) was an English aristocrat and politician. He held high office at the beginning of the reign of his brother-in-law, King James II.
Early life
He was the eldest son of Edward Hyde ...
played a role in the abdication of
James II.
Life
Baptised at
Great Amwell
Great Amwell is a village and civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district, in the county of Hertfordshire, England. It is southeast of Ware and about north of London.
History
On a hill above the church there are some traces of an Iron Age ...
, he was the son of William Keightley (born 1621) of
Hertingfordbury
Hertingfordbury is a small village in Hertfordshire, England, close to the county town of Hertford. It was mentioned in the ''Domesday Book''. Hertingfordbury is also the name of a neighbouring civil parish, which does not contain the village. ...
,
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...
, by his wife Anne, daughter of John Williams of London, (who had married in 1648). Thomas Keightley was appointed gentleman-usher to James, Duke of York, on 2 June 1672. Keightley appears to have temporarily adopted Catholicism, the religion of his master.
Soon after his marriage in 1675 he sold his property at Hertingfordbury, and migrated to Ireland. On the appointment of his brother-in-law,
Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon
Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon, PC (2 June 163831 October 1709) was an English aristocrat and politician. He held high office at the beginning of the reign of his brother-in-law, King James II.
Early life
He was the eldest son of Edward Hyde ...
, to the lord-lieutenancy in the autumn of 1685, Keightley was admitted into intimate relations with the Irish government. He was appointed
Vice-Treasurer of Ireland
The Lord High Treasurer of Ireland was the head of the Exchequer of Ireland, chief financial officer of the Kingdom of Ireland. The designation ''High'' was added in 1695.
After the Acts of Union 1800 created the United Kingdom of Great Britain a ...
early in 1686, and in July following was sent to London by Clarendon, nominally to attend to his private affairs, but really to keep Clarendon's brother, Rochester, posted on Irish matters, and to maintain Clarendon's influence at court.
Keightley seems to have stayed in London throughout James II's reign, but Clarendon's efforts to induce the king to give his brother-in-law a high place in the Irish government failed. When James II fled from Whitehall at the approach of William of Orange (December 1688), Keightley was sent by Clarendon to the fugitive king at
Rochester
Rochester may refer to:
Places Australia
* Rochester, Victoria
Canada
* Rochester, Alberta
United Kingdom
*Rochester, Kent
** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area
** History of Rochester, Kent
** HM Prison ...
to entreat him to stay in England. James II saw Keightley on the night of 22 December, but left for France early the next morning.
After the
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution; gd, Rèabhlaid Ghlòrmhor; cy, Chwyldro Gogoneddus , also known as the ''Glorieuze Overtocht'' or ''Glorious Crossing'' in the Netherlands, is the sequence of events leading to the deposition of King James II and ...
Keightley returned to Ireland. In 1692 he was appointed a commissioner of the Irish revenue, a post which he had long sought. In 1696 he was granted
Portlick Castle
Portlick Castle is a late medieval tower house castle near the village of Glasson, County Westmeath, Ireland. It is located approximately 6 miles from Athlone on the shores of Lough Ree. It comprises a square late medieval 4-storey stone tower wi ...
which had been confiscated from Garret Dillon.
Many of his letters to
John Ellis, dated between 1698 and 1705, are in the British Museum. He welcomed his younger brother-in-law,
Lawrence Hyde, 1st Earl of Rochester
Laurence Hyde, 1st Earl of Rochester, (March 1642 – 2 May 1711) was an English statesman and writer. He was originally a supporter of James II but later supported the Glorious Revolution in 1688. He held high office under Queen Anne, daugh ...
, who came to Ireland as
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (), or more formally Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland, was the title of the chief governor of Ireland from the Williamite Wars of 1690 until the Partition of Ireland in 1922. This spanned the Kingdo ...
in 1701, and was a lord justice on the retirement of Rochester in 1702. He was commissioner for the
Lord Chancellor of Ireland
The Lord High Chancellor of Ireland (commonly known as Lord Chancellor of Ireland) was the highest judicial office in Ireland until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. From 1721 to 1801, it was also the highest political office of ...
in 1710. Keightley died on 19 January 1719.
Family
![Rose Keightley](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Rose_Keightley.jpg)
His paternal grandfather, Thomas Keightley, born at
Kinver
Kinver is a large village in the District of South Staffordshire in Staffordshire, England. It is in the far south-west of the county, at the end of the narrow finger of land surrounded by the counties of Shropshire, Worcestershire and the We ...
, Staffordshire, 28 March 1580, purchased the estate of Hertingfordbury before 1643, when
John Evelyn
John Evelyn (31 October 162027 February 1706) was an English writer, landowner, gardener, courtier and minor government official, who is now best known as a diarist. He was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society.
John Evelyn's diary, or memo ...
visited him there (''
Diary
A diary is a written or audiovisual record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. Diaries have traditionally been handwritten but are now also often digital. A personal ...
'', i. 39), and he was sheriff of Hertfordshire in 1651. He may be the Thomas Keightley, merchant, of London, who sat as M.P. for
Beeralston in the parliament of 1620–1. He died in London on 22 February 1662–3, and was buried in Hertingfordbury Church. He married Rose (1596–1683), daughter of Thomas Evelyn of Ditton, Surrey. This lady was a first cousin of
John Evelyn
John Evelyn (31 October 162027 February 1706) was an English writer, landowner, gardener, courtier and minor government official, who is now best known as a diarist. He was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society.
John Evelyn's diary, or memo ...
the diarist, and is described by him as possessing unusual sprightliness and comeliness when 86 years old.
On 9 July 1675 he married Frances, youngest daughter of
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (18 February 16099 December 1674), was an English statesman, lawyer, diplomat and historian who served as chief advisor to Charles I during the First English Civil War, and Lord Chancellor to Charles II from ...
and
Frances Hyde, Countess of Clarendon
Frances Hyde, Countess of Clarendon (25 August 1617 (baptised) – 8 August 1667), born Frances Aylesbury, was an English peeress. As the mother of Anne Hyde, she was mother-in-law to James II and VII, the deposed king of England, Scotland, and I ...
, and sister of the Duke of York's first wife. In January 1713, after an absence of more than twenty years, he met his wife at
Somerset House
Somerset House is a large Neoclassical complex situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian era quadrangle was built on the site of a Tudor palace ("O ...
,
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
. The long quarrel was due, in the opinion of the lady's relatives, to the uncertainties of her temper, and to no fault in her husband. She appears to have had religious difficulties, and was in 1686 living in retreat at
Glaslough
Glaslough ( ; ) is a village and townland in the north of County Monaghan, Ireland, on the R185 regional road south of the border with Northern Ireland and northeast of Monaghan town. Glaslough won the Irish Tidy Towns Competition in 1978 a ...
, where she made the acquaintance of the controversialist
Charles Leslie. Leslie may have written his ''Short and Easie Method with the Deists'', 1698, in order to remove her doubts. His seven sons, all born in Ireland, between 1678 and 1688, died young. His wife and a daughter Catherine, wife of
Lucius O'Brien, survived him.
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keightley, Thomas
1650 births
1719 deaths
Members of the Privy Council of Ireland
People from East Hertfordshire District