This article together with The Scottish Scholar and Missionary discuss the life and ministry of Rev. George Keith, and also provide proof that Rev. George Keith is a qualifying ancestor for the Society of the Descendants of the Colonial Clergy and proof of his lineage through Anne Keith and George Walker II to the Mullins family.
George Keith (1638-1715) was born in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. He received his M.A. from the University of Aberdeen, and in 1660 joined the Religious Society of Friends as an active missionary. He accompanied George Fox, William Penn and Robert Barclay in a mission to the Netherlands and Germany in 1677. In 1672 he married Elizabeth Johnston (bef 1758-?), the daughter of an Aberdeen physician.[1,2]. Their daughter Anne Keith was born in Aberdeen in 1674. Anne was the next in our lineage.
Rev. Keith moved to New Jersey in 1685 to take the post of Surveyor General. He spent the next 19 years in the Colonies, continuing his missionary work for the Quakers, returning to England in 1704.
In the meantime his daughter Anne married George Walker I, an attorney and a pilot on the James River. Their home was at Kecoughtan, at the mouth of the James River near Jamestown.
From The Diaries Of 3 Quaker Ministers
Thomas Story was a Quaker minister who visited Kecoughtan twice [3], in 1699 and again in 1705—visiting the Walkers on both occasions. Story kept a journal of his travels and visits, which was printed in 1747 through the efforts of one of his sons. In 1699, Thomas Story describes visiting George Walker (Senior) in Kecoughtan, and meeting with “the Wife of George Walker the younger, who was one of the Daughters of that unhappy Apostate George Keith” [4].
The travel diary of Rev. George Keith [5], states that on May 2, 1704, he arrived at “Keketan by James-River, and staid some Days at the House of my Son in Law there”.
The diary of a third Quaker minister, Samuel Brownas [6], recounts a visit to Hampton in 1728, where he stayed with George Walker for 4 nights. He discusses “his [George Walker’s] wife being more loving than I expected: she was the daughter of George Keith”.
A Legal Suit Between Anne And George
These three Quaker diaries do not mention the name of George Walker’s wife. Her name is confirmed in a legal suit [7] that Anne Walker brought against her husband in 1708. By 1708, Anne Walker had converted to Anglicanism from Quakerism and wished to take the couple’s children to Anglican Church services. George Walker did not allow her to do so, and she brought a suit before the council for an order to allow her to determine the church attendance of the children.
Anne Walker’s suit is interesting when viewed through the prism of contemporary American thought. The Council faced a decision between promoting Anglicanism over Quakerism on the one hand and protecting a husband’s prerogative over important family decisions on the other. They chose the latter, but were obviously distressed to impose such a decision on her, calling themselves “y’r friends”, and also stated that if Anne were to prove that George was “not a Christian”, they would rehear the case.
© 2013 W. Mullins