Mason Family History

Richard Keep

Name: Richard Keep
Born:
1765 Wootten Bedfordshire
Married: Elizabeth Hull
Died: 23 Dec 1817 Sydney

Details

Richard was born in 1765 in Wootten Bedfordshire. He was married to Elizabeth Hull (do not know what happened to her, could be the Elizabeth transported also- do not know). They had 8 children.

He was tried in Surrey in 1807 for receiving stolen goods and received 14 yrs and was transported to Australia on the "Admiral Gambier". The ship left Portsmouth on 2 July 1808 and arrived in Sydney on the 22nd December 1808.

Richard died (as a convict?) on 23 December 1817 in Sydney aged 52 yrs, and was buried at the Old Sydney Burial Ground, NSW.

Children

  1. Thomas KEEP b 1789 married Mary Mobbs
  2. William KEEP b 1790 to Tasmania ? another convict? married Mary Limmet to Tasmania + 4 children 1830? another convict?
  3. Mary KEEP b 1792 married William HURST, a convict to Tas
  4. James KEEP b 1797 married Mary Grummet in 1816
  5. Samuel KEEP b 1799 died young (The younger brother Samuel apparently took his birth certificate to get married)
  6. Phillip KEEP b 1801 married Jane Neal
  7. Samuel KEEP b 1803 married Mary Walker in 1821 (Samuel & Mary came as free persons on the 'Ascendant').
  8. Sarah KEEP b 1806 married Charles Gascoin

More notes

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Here are some research notes provided by a fellow researcher, the info has not been confirmed but may lead to further information.

The indictment against Richard Keep - (for handling a stolen bag of beans!) - from the Surrey Summer Assizes for 1807. He was found guilty and sentenced to transportation for 14 years. I have a small problem with this, because I have had to take it on trust that this is Richard Keep born in Marston, Beds in 1765, but I have no direct evidence for this. In the indictment, Richard Keep is said to be 'of St Mary Lambeth in the county of Surrey'. I have copies of the account book of the overseers of the poor of Marston, which continue to record payments to 'Richard Keep in want' until 1809 - by which time Richard was in Australia. Perhaps this is a shorthand way of recording payments made to his dependents. There is a record of someone with the surname Keep breaking into the local lock-up in neighbouring Wooton to rescue an accomplice, and Richard's son in law, William Hurst (alias Goodman) was certainly transported to Australia for horse theft in 1823. (I have a copy of a small book written by the owner of the horse, describing his chase across England to catch William Hurst. In this, Hurst tells how he and his friends sold stolen farm produce in London, so this could explain Richard's Surrey address.) It would not be out of character for Richard to be convicted of theft, but have you any direct evidence that the man transported in 1808 came from Beds?

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posted by Carolina (2013):

Further information re Richard Keep, the convict:

Surrey Assizes on 5 August 1807 Richard Keep was found guilty of receiving stolen goods, namely eighty bushels of beans of the value of twenty pounds and nine sacks to the value of thirteen shillings and six pence. He was sentenced to be transported to Australia for a term of fourteen years. The beans were stolen by a Robert Benns at Queenhithe Wharf on the River Thames, from a Nathaniel Brickwood with force and arms.

Baptisms for Richard & Elizabeth Keep, Richmond, Surrey:
Mary b.1792 
Richard b.1794 - bur.22.8.1794 Richmond, inf.
Richard b.1796 - bur.4.12.1796 Richmond, inf.
Elizabeth Keep bur.4.12.1796 Richmond, 21 years.

Partnerships dissolved:
John Woodcock & Richard Keep, of the New Cut Windmill, Lambeth Marsh, millers. 18.5.1807

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Message from Rowena Newton (June 2019)

Greetings,
My husband Geoff Newton is a direct descendant of Richard Keep. Geoff's mother's cousin, Jean Hope, wrote a history of the Keep Family in 2005 which was fairly comprehensive, but was put together before so much information has become available online. I worked with Jean on that and picked up where it left off a few months ago and have worked extensively on the Walker and Brooker families where Lucy Keep, daughter of Samuel Keep and Mary Walker, married John Walker on 2nd June, 1856 at Saint Peter's Church, Petersham, Sydney. 

Richard Keep was our first ancestor to set foot in Australia and I'm currently putting his story together and placing it in its historical context.  I wanted to touch on a few points. 

Firstly, I have read accounts that Richard Keep was rejected by his parents and abandoned to the local welfare network. However, it is my understanding that his father died on 17 January 1768 at Marston Moretaine when young Richard was only three years old and these would’ve been desperate times for his mother, Ann. To further compound her struggles, after a liaison with Richard Stillman, Ann Keep gave birth to another child, Stephen Keep, who was noted as “Ann Keep’s son” in the parish register. On the 4 October 1771, Ann Keep married John Denton. It is unclear what this meant for Richard Keep. However another baby, James, arrived on the 25th February, 1776 at Kempston, Bedfordshire. Unfortunately, it's too early to cross-reference the welfare payments made by the parish for the care of Richard Keep with census records to confirm who was living where. However, I question whether he was rejected by his mother, and suggest she was too poor to care for him.

Secondly, moving onto Richard Keep's conviction for the receiving the stolen beans, yesterday I managed to find the trial notes for Robert Benns at the Old Bailey on the 8th April, 1807. t is also interesting to note that his trial was held months before Richard Keep's trial on the 5th August, 1807.

Here's a quick synopsis:
Nathaniel Brickwood was a corn factor and coal merchant living at 5 Broken Wharf, Upper Thames Street, London . While Brickwood and his clerk were away at the Corn Exchange, his foreman Robert Benns hand wrote an order for 80 bushels of beans to be delivered to Richard Keep at the New Cut Windmill on Blackfriar’s Road. Benns placed the order with carman, Mr Guerney, for delivery. As soon as Guerney saw the handwritten note, he should’ve raised a red flag. Orders were almost always printed by Brickwood or his clerk and no deliveries were to be made “without their knowledge” and the order hadn’t been written into the book either. Yet, during Robert Benns’ trial at the Old Bailey on the 8th April, 1807, Guerney testified that he“drew ten quarters of beans” and “I put them into sacks into Mr Brickwood’s storehouse; then we loaded them into the cart”. There were “twenty sacks. I drew them to the New Cut windmill, Blackfriar’s-road, to Mr Keep”. According to James Lockey, a police officer living at the New Cut Mill at the time, after the beans arrived in Mr Blackwood’s sacks, they were split. ” 

Benns was found guilty of grand larceny and sentenced to Seven Years transportation and was removed to Newgate Prison. 

I don’t believe Guerney was charged as their unwitting accomplice. However, Richard Keep ended up facing his day in court. On the 5th August, 1807 at the Surrey Assizes Richard Keep was found guilty of receiving stolen goods, namely eighty bushels of beans of the value of twenty pounds and nine sacks to the value of thirteen shillings and six pence. He was sentenced to be transported to Australia for a term of fourteen years, which might suggest he was more of a ringleader.

Partnerships dissolved:
John Woodcock & Richard Keep, of the New Cut Windmill, Lambeth Marsh, millers. 18.5.1807
Source: Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org), version 8.0, 10 May 2019), April 1807, trial of ROBERT BENNS (t18070408-12).

Finally, according to Jean Hope's research which as I said was done before digital, Richard Keep was assigned to Mr Garnham Blaxcell as a convict labourer to serve out his sentence. You can find Blaxcell's bio
Unfortunately, when I looked up Richard Keep's convict records online, there was no listing so a trip into the Mitchell Library looks in order.

Lastly, from what I've gleaned and I'd appreciate any available feedback on this, that when Richard Keep sailed out of England on the Lord Admiral, that was the last time he saw his wife or children. I've been trying to nut out whether Elizabeth ever came to NSW, as has been suggested by some researchers. However, there is no record of her here and one researcher had Elizabeth KEEP, Widow, was Buried 09 May 1830, St Mary, Bedfordshire age 66 which seems to fit.

I look forward to hearing from others researching Richard Keep to see if we could nut out a few of the issues.

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Sources

see also