Robert Murray Keith (the younger)
Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Murray Keith
Early life
He was born in Edinburgh, the eldest son of Robert Murray Keith and his wife Margaret, daughter of Sir William Cunningham, 2nd baronet, of Caprington. He was educated at the High School in Edinburgh.[1]
He took the additional name Murray on inheriting the estates of Murrayshall (formerly Halmyre) at the death of his great-uncle Robert Murray on 8 February 1743.
Soldier
Destined for a military career, he was sent to an academy in London and was commissioned a cornet in 1747 and quickly transferred to a Scots Brigade in Dutch service, with which he remained until the regiment was reduced in 1752. He then returned to England, but failed to gain a British commission. He therefore traveled with
Diplomat and later life
Keith's knowledge of German and friendship with Pitt and Conway enabled him to be appointed
His next appointment was as
He returned home in 1774 to settle his father's estate. His London friends wanted him to enter Parliament for
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1786. His proposers were James Gregory, William Miller and Robert Arbuthnot of Haddo.[3]
Keith's daughter, writer Amelia Gillespie Smyth, was born in Vienna in 1788.[4]
He retired in 1792 and settled in Hammersmith, where he died suddenly three years later.
References
- ISBN 0-902-198-84-X.
- ^ "MURRAY KEITH, Sir Robert (1730-95), of Murrayshall, Peebles". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
- ISBN 0-902-198-84-X.
- ISBN 978-1-4674-4624-2.
- Du Toit, Alexander (2011). "Keith, Sir Robert Murray, of Murrayshall (1730–1795)". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/15272. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)