Sir William Keith
William Keith was one of the most forward-thinking politicians of the Colonial Period in America. He led Pennsylvania and the Provincial Assembly out of internal, financial, and cultural conflicts, to a time of relative stability by the end of his stay in office. In his writings he foreshadowed the commercial growth of the expanding colonies, and saw the rise of the people as a source of political power. Some of his suggestions foretold Colonial interdependence, egalitarianism, and the indomitable American spirit.
Keith was born in 1669 at Boddam Castle, near Peterhead, in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. He was the heir-apparent to the baronetcy of his father, William. His mother, Jean Smith was a relative, by marriage, to the Graeme Clan. He was baptized in 1680 at Peterhead into the Church of England. Keith graduated from Marischal College and University in 1686 with a Master of Arts degree.
King James II, of the Scottish Stuart family, was deposed in the Glorious, or Bloodless, Revolution of 1688, and William III and Mary II ruled England. Peterhead was one of the centers of the Stuart Party. When James II moved his court to St. Germaine, France, William Keith went with the deposed king. This choice was to affect his political career at several points in his future.
Queen Anne succeeded William and Mary in 1702, bringing the Stuarts, and the Tories, back into power. Keith returned to Aberdeenshire as Commissioner of Supply. In 1704, Keith was arrested in connection with a plot to bring James Francis Edward Stuart (the son of King James II) to the English throne. He was released because of a lack of evidence, but was barred from leaving the country.
On July 3, 1704, Keith was admitted to the Inns of the Court to study law. He married a widow, Anne Diggs, shortly after entering the Inner Temple. Anne had a daughter, also named Anne, from her previous marriage.
After several years of service and lobbying for a government position, Keith was appointed Surveyor-General for the Southern District of the Americas in 1713. The Southern District included Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Carolina, Jamaica, and the Bahamas. Queen Anne died in 1714, and George I gained the throne through the Act of the Hanoverian Succession. As a result of the change in government as well as a second attempt to put the Young Pretender (James Francis Edward Stuart) on the throne. there was a sweep of all Tory officials, including William Keith.
Keith received word of this change while in Virginia. At the same time, he discovered that the Quaker government of Pennsylvania was searching for a replacement for the present governor, Charles Gookin.
Keith met with the influential James Logan and other prominent officials of Pennsylvania, and eventually gained their approval and support for his taking the position. He traveled back to England to convince the Proprietors, and to receive the approbation of King George. With the backing of several creditors, and much wining and dining of the appropriate British officials, Keith was successful. On May 31, 1717, William Keith and his family, along with Dr. Thomas Graeme, arrived in Philadelphia.
The first years of Keith's administration saw the speedy establishment of "a perfect peace and a good understanding" among the disparate elements of Pennsylvania according to James Logan.He settled several bothersome disagreements between the Quakers and the Anglicans, the Assembly and the Council, Pennsylvania and the Lower Colonies (now Delaware), and between the settlers and the Indians.
During this benign period, Keith acquired Samuel Carpenter's lands in Horsham. Carpenter had died with some government funds left unaccounted for. Keith, with the Assembly's approval, took the lands as payment for the debt. Later he received those lands as part of his salary for that year. By 1721 he owned over 1700 acres in Horsham.
Because of complicated financial matters in England involving a private company, the South Sea Company, and fraud; trade with Great Britain entered a brief recession at this time. Grain was piling up at seaports like Philadelphia and going to waste. Ever the astute businessman and shrewd politician, Keith proposed building a malthouse to process that excess grain on his Horsham property. Malting was one of the ways to prolong the usefulness of grain, extending its commercial value, as well as contributing to the making of ales and other liquors.
Keith called his property "Fountain Low" and built a large stone mansion in addition to the malt house and other outbuildings. At one time Keith had over 90 workmen employed there, requiring a minister for Sunday services. In 1722, he petitioned the Assembly for two roads to be extended to reach his Horsham properties, one of these was called Governor's Road and went "from the corner of the Governor's new building" down towards Round Meadow (now called Willow Grove).
It is likely that Keith intended to use Fountain Low as a summer residence, a custom brought over from the great estates of Scotland and England. This custom helped those who could afford such a luxury to avoid the epidemic illnesses that were more prevalent during the hot, humid summers in the city. The most recent evidence seems to show that Keith probably spent little time at his Horsham property. The first interior paint dates to Dr. Graeme's ownership. Keith and his family lived at the Shippen House, Second and Spruce Streets in Philadelphia. This was often referred to as the "Governor's House."
The Malthouse was not the only commercial venture that Keith tried. He bought land for a copper mine in 1722 in disputed territory west of the Susquehanna River, and opened the "Keith Furnace" (1725), a foundry on the Christiana River near New Castle, Delaware.
Keith attempted those various projects in order to pay back the loans which used to help secure his position as Governor. He also liked a very high (and expensive) lifestyle. The inventory of items offered for sale in 1726 included dozens of expensive linens, several silver services, furniture, and even a "glass coach."
Another economic plan which Keith championed was the issuance of paper money. It took him several years to get his plan approved. He innovatively suggested using the value of Proprietary lands as the basis for credit. After the bill went into effect, Pennsylvania underwent a dramatic spurt of growth and was economically stable until the time of the Revolutionary War.
In 1724, Keith was introduced to a promising young printer's apprentice, Benjamin Franklin. After some warm conversation about history, Keith offered the young Franklin letters of credit and the promise of the Governments printing orders for a trip to England to acquire presses and other materials. To Ben's chagrin, the letters were not forthcoming. He was stuck in London with no credit and had to survive by his wits for a while. In his "Autobiography," Franklin kindly describes Keith:
"He wish'd to please everybody; and, having little to give, he gave Expectations. He was otherwise an ingenious sensible Man, a pretty good writer, and a good Governor for the People...Several of our best laws were of his Planning, and pass'd during his Administration."
When Keith's father died in 1721, William became the 4th Baronet of Nova Scotia -- the first and only titled governor of Pennsylvania, outranking even the Proprietors! It did him little good however. Because of his family's involvement with the Stuart cause, there was little money in the inheritance, and the family castle was left to crumble into ruin.
Perhaps his title was one source of his subsequent problems. James Logan, on reflection, said that it was "as if (Keith's) very fabric had been changed with his appellation."
Before William Penn's death in 1718, Penn considered selling the colony back to the crown. He had already accepted 1,000 pounds as payment towards that end. Keith took this as a sign to prepare for a Royal, rather than a Proprietary government. In his actions after 1721, he appeared to ignore or circumvent the wishes of the Proprietary at every turn. As time went on, he alienated Hannah Penn and the Provincial Council (including the influential James Logan, now a staunch opponent of Governor Keith.) This led to Keith's replacement as Governor in June of 1726 by Major Patrick Gordon.
Because of his genuine popularity with the people of the colony, Keith was elected to the Assembly in October of 1726, and again in 1727. He tried to gain the powerful Speaker's position, but lost to David Lloyd both times. He then decided to seek a more powerful (and higher paying) position by returning to England.
Lady Anne Keith stayed in Philadelphia with her children. The properties in Horsham and some household goods were placed in trusteeship for her while her husband sailed to London. One of the trustees was her son-in-law, Dr. Thomas Graeme.
While Keith was on shipboard, he wrote "A Short Discourse on the Present State of the Colonies in America with respect to the Interest of Great Britain." In this work he suggested a Stamp Tax to provide the salaries of Government officials, rather than leaving them at the mercy of the local assemblies. Who knows? If this proposal had been acted on at this earlier time, we might still be British citizens! He also suggested the need for greater inter-colonial cooperation, both for the benefit of the colonies and for the economic good of the Mother Country.
While in England, Keith assisted the Board of Trade in negotiating a treaty with the Cherokee Indians. He also served as a consultant on several other matters of trade. His age (he was over sixty at this time) and his impoverished condition handicapped him in his attempts to obtain suitable official positions. He was unable to return to the colonies to be with his family, or to finance their return to him in England.
In 1738 Keith published "A Short History of Virginia," the only complete work of a proposed history of the British Colonies. He published his collected works in 1740 and contributed regularly to the weekly paper "The Citizen."
William Keith, plagued by old debts, and living the life of a discarded public official, died in 1749 in the Old Bailey, a liberty, or parole section of the Fleet Street Prison.
Sir William Keith and the Indians
Almost as soon as Lt. Governor William Keith took office there was an urgent problem requiring his attention to the Indians of Pennsylvania. The son of a Delaware chief was murdered by some settlers and the Indians demanded an immediate conference with the new Governor.
Up to this point, William Penn had established the best relationships with the Indians in all the Colonies. In spite of the Kings's charter granting the lands to Penn, he insisted on purchasing the properties from the Indians as well. This willingness to enter into direct conferences as equal partners with the Indians led to years of peaceful co-existence and friendship.
By Keith's time, the sale of rum to the Indians, and the influx of many nationalities into Pennsylvania, notably the Scotch-Irish, led to increasing friction between the Europeans and Native Americans. Add in the fact that the Nations of the Iroquois claimed jurisdiction over the lands that their subjects (including the Delaware Indians) sold to Penn and you have a situation requiring delicate negotiations, statesmanship, and strength of character.
The major part of Keith's solutions was to get the Governors of Virginia, New York, and himself, to present a unified front to the Iroquois. Keith warned the Indians on his first meeting with them at Conestoga that the English, although divided, were all subjects of the same King, and that an attack upon one colony was an attack on all.
After settling this initial matter, Keith worked to promote good relations with the Iroquois and the local Delaware Indians. He strengthened the enforcement of laws prohibiting the sale of Rum to the Indians and announced the first reservation policy in the history of the colonies.
Keith also arranged an inter-colonial meeting with the Iroquois at Conestoga in 1721, and arranged a treaty with them at Albany, NY in 1722. The Albany Conference established a reasonable peace between Pennsylvania and the Native Americans that would last until the French and Indian War of 1754. Keith's leadership and vision helped to make that treaty possible. The ideas of colonial Interdependence foreshadowed the formation of the United States, and influences many of Keith's suggestions to the Board of Trade in London.
Information for this sketch of Keith was primarily from Thomas H. Wendel's Doctoral thesis entitled "The Life and Writings of Sir William Keith, Lieutenant-Governor of Pennsylvania and the Three Lower Counties, 1717-1726." A copy of this manuscript is in the Office Library at Graeme Park.