John Keate

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John Keate (1773 – 5 March 1852) was an English schoolmaster.

He was born at Wells, Somerset, the son of Prebendary William Keate, D.D., rector of Laverton, Somerset, and brother of Robert Keate FRCS (1777-1857), Serjeant-Surgeon to King William IV and Queen Victoria..

He was educated at Eton and Kings College, Cambridge, where he had a brilliant career as a scholar; taking holy orders, he became, about 1797, an assistant master at Eton College. In 1809 he was elected headmaster. The discipline of the school was then in a most unsatisfactory condition, and Dr Keate (who took the degree of D.D. in 1810) took stern measures to improve it. His partiality for the birch became a by-word, but he succeeded in restoring order and strengthening the weakened authority of the masters. Beneath an outwardly rough manner the little man concealed a really kind heart, and when he retired in 1834, the boys, who admired his courage, presented him with a handsome testimonial. A couple of years before he had publicly flogged eighty boys on one day.

Keate was made a canon of Windsor in 1820. He died at Hartley Westpall, Hampshire, of which parish he had been rector since 1824.

[edit] See

  • Maxwell Lyte, History of Eton College (3rd ed., 1899);
  • Collins, Etoniana;
  • Harwood, Alumni Etonienses;
  • Annual Register (1852),
  • Gentleman's Magazine (1852).

[edit] References