KEELER of HYTHE On 16 July 1718 John Dove married Elizabeth Keeler (both of Cheriton, near Folkestone) by licence at St Margaret s, Canterbury. Elizabeth and John s children, baptised at Hackington, Canterbury, were: Susana (1727 1730), 3 September); Joseph (21 November 1730); Elizabeth (10 February 1733); John (30 March 1736); Mildred (1739 40), 25 March; William (1742/3 48), 13 February; Susanna (9 December 1744). 1 Elizabeth Keeler was born c. 1694, a daughter of Stephen Keeler IV (1667 1717/18) and his first wife Elizabeth Sharp. Origins The Keeler family seem first to appear in Boughton-under-Blean, near Faversham in the late sixteenth century. The name is an occupational one, meaning simply bargeman. 2 Thomas Keeler and Alice Juce/Ince/Inge/Juice On 19 January 1580/1 Thomas Keeler married Alice Juce/Ince/Inge/Juice at Boughton-under-Blean. 3 Alice was perhaps Ellis Ince baptised at Boughton on 8 September 1563. Thomas and Alice Keeler had children baptised at Boughton: Thomas and William (1582 1582, baptised 2 June, buried 20 and 22 June); Joan (baptised 13 January 1582/3 & 18 October 1590, buried 4 July 1594); Stephan (13 December 1584); Thomas, infant son of Thomas (buried 18 February 1588/9); Anne (10 March 1592/3, buried 11 May 1593); and Elizabeth (buried 26 January 1616/17). There was perhaps a second William (see below). Stephen [hereafter Stephen Keeler I] was the first to occur in the records. Thomas Keeler, householder was buried at Boughton on 12 February 1617/18. Thomas Keeler s son Stephen Keeler I (baptised at Boughton in 1584) married Margaret, daughter of Thomas Hutchin at St Mildred s, Canterbury on 17 November 1617. Stephen Keeler, householder was buried at Boughton on 11 May 1618. His will [proved in April 1618] mentions only his wife Margaret and father-in-law Thomas Hutchin and it seems likely that he died childless. 4 William Keeler The direct line of descent begins when one William Keeler (perhaps a son of Thomas, see above) married by 1614 and had a daughter Mary baptised at Waltham on 25 October 1614 and a son Stephen Keeler II baptised at Waltham on 6 December 1618. Stephen Keeler II and Elizabeth Berles and Ann Gorram Born in 1618 Stephen married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Alexander Berles at Stowting, near Waltham on 16 July 1640. 5 Their first son William was baptised there on 31 October 1641. Stephen Keeler III was baptised at Stowting on 2 June 1644 and a daughter Elizabeth on 28 February 1647. It was probably Elizabeth who married Richard Hammon at Lympne, near Hythe on 4 October 1674. Stephen Keeler II s first wife Elizabeth probably died during the gap in registration in the commonwealth period. Stephen was almost certainly the Stephen Keeler of Elmstead, labourer or butcher who was tried for murder at Maidstone assizes on 25 July 1653. Thomas Arnold had been fatally injury in a struggle with Keeler (who had had three jugs of beer ) on 18 March. Arnold died on 31 March and there was an inquest on 4 April. At the assizes Keeler was found guilty of manslaughter, but allowed clergy and seems to have survived. 6 Hythe 1
Stephen Keeler spent the rest of his life in the town and port of Hythe. He first occurs there on 17 November 1660, when he was cited in the mayor s court for quarrelling. 7 Stephen was a butcher of Hythe when he married Ann Gorram 8 of Waltham at Hythe on 24 September 1661. 9 Stephen and Ann had daughters Mary and Ann baptised at Hythe on 26 August 1662 and 3 September 1665. On 20 June 1662 there was conveyed to Stephen Keeler of Hythe, butcher a messuage, with stable and garden in the West ward, bounded by King Street on the south and north and by Thomas Harnett s property on the west. 10 Stephen Keeler is found in Middle ward, Hythe in the hearth tax return of 1662 (four hearths). 11 Stephen begins to occur in the Hythe overseers accounts, assessed for a messuage in West ward. From 1665 he also paid 1s 6d for Capt. Deedes land. 12 In 1666 Stephen II, still of Hythe, consented to the marriage of his son Stephen III, a Wingham butcher. Stephen Keeler was admitted as a freeman of Hythe in the year from 2 February 1666. The town s assembly book records that later that year his election being adjudged voide [he] is now de novo admitted and sworne. 13 On 29 January 1668 Stephen Keeler came to an agreement with his neighbour Thomas Harnett, regarding the necessary repair of Keeler s house, which could not be effected without damaging Harnett s wall, on which part of the house rested. 14 Stephen Keeler II (as Stephen Keeler the elder ) was buried at Hythe on 31 March 1670/1. His inventory was appraised on 10 May by David Marsh and Thomas Strong. 15 It was no doubt Stephen s widow Ann Keeler to whom land in Hythe was conveyed in?1671. 16 The 1674 overseers assessment and the church rate for 1675 include three properties in West ward: Widow Keeler s, emptie, 17 late Stephen Keeler, emptie and Stephen Keeler [see below]. Stephen Keeler III and Alice Jull Stephen Keeler III was born at Stowting in June 1644, a son of Stephen II and Elizabeth Keeler. On 23 October 1666, when 22, a bachelor and a butcher of Wingham, near Canterbury, Stephen married Alice Jull, maiden (24) of Adisham at nearby Wingham. 18 The licence describes Alice as the daughter of Alice Browne (alias Jull), wife of John Browne of Adisham, who consented. The consent of Stephen s father was testified by Miller Barles [his brother-in-law], an innholder of St Mary Bredman, Canterbury, who was also the bondsman. Stephen III and Alice s elder son Stephen Keeler IV was baptised at Wingham on 15 October 1667. Stephen Keeler III and Alice moved to Hythe after Stephen s father s death in 1671. Another son James was baptised there on 10 October 1673. There was probably another daughter Elizabeth and a son John: John, son of Stephen Keeler was to be buried at Hythe on 9 March 1689. On 1 November 1672 there was a feoffment of a messuage and slaughter-house in the West ward by Marham Jennett, beer-brewer of Hythe to William Keeler of Folkestone, weaver and Stephen Keeler of Hythe, butcher. 19 Stephen Keeler was assessed by the Hythe overseers for his messuage in West ward from 1674 and for Widow Sladden s land from 1676. The churchwardens assessed him for the same messuage from 1675 until 1694 and for land from 1677 to 1698. The churchwardens paid Stephen Keeler 1s for a fox head in 1680/1, yong Keller for a sparrow s head, 1d in 1681/2, Keeler s boy and Stephen Keeler 2d for a hedgehog in 1694/5 and 1697/8. On 2 February 1684/5 Stephen Keeler was fined 6s 8d for carrying a distress taken within the liberty into the forraigne to pound. He occurs as a freeman at the court held on 12 June 1685, but not afterwards. 20 From c. 1681 September 1691 Stephen Keeler III was tenant of Brockswell Farm, Saltwood (adjacent to 2
Hythe), at rent of 38 and from September 1689 91 of Saltwood rectory, for which he received 18 pence in the pound for the great and small tithe. 21 On 15 January 1692 Elizabeth Keeler, spinster was married at Saltwood to Thomas Heywood. 22 In 1697 it was said that Stephen left Saltwood five or six years since and was now of West Hythe, yeoman. 23 Stephen Keeler was sworn constable of West Hythe on 10 January 1695 and occurs in that capacity throughout 1696 and 1697. He was a jurat of Hythe court in 1696. On 3 October 1696 there was a complaint by Edward Knatchbull that his covenant servant Richard Wheeler (engaged for a year) is now entertained by Stephen Keeler of West Hythe. 24 Stephen Keeler III of West Hythe died by 27 March 1699, 25 when his inventory was appraised by his widow Alice Keeler and his son s father-in-law Moses Sharp: it was administered on 31 March. 26 Alice Keeler, widow of Stephen Keeler, senior of West Hythe, householder died in 1699 and was buried at Hythe on 5 December. Her will made on 4 November 1699 and witnessed by Elizabeth Keeler [her granddaughter] was proved on 20 February 1700, by her sons James of West Hythe and Stephen of Cheriton. 27 There were bequests to her granddaughter Elizabeth Keeler, daughter of Stephen IV and [her? grandson] Thomas Heywood, son of Thomas Heywood. Stephen and Alice Keeler s son James was sworn constable of West Hythe on 14 September 1700 and served again in 1701, when he was also a Hythe jurat. On 25 July 1701 William Keeler was convicted of stealing wood from a jurat and refusing to find sureties is committed. William Keeler, weaver (who marked his signature) was a deponent in an adultery case in Hythe on 2 March 1705. 28 Stephen Keeler IV and Elizabeth Sharp, Jane Allen and Elizabeth Jenkins Stephen Keeler IV was born at Wingham in 1667, a son of Stephen III, butcher. The family moved to Hythe after Stephen s grandfather Stephen II (a Hythe butcher) died in 1670. Stephen Keeler IV was a Cheriton yeoman and bachelor aged 26, when he married his first wife Elizabeth (24), spinster daughter of Moses Sharp, a Hythe cooper, by licence at St Mildred s, Canterbury on 13 March 1693. Stephen and Elizabeth may first have had a daughter Jane. Elizabeth, daughter of Stephen Keeler, junior of Cheriton and Elizabeth was baptised at Hythe on 17 February 1694. Elizabeth, wife of Stephen Keeler, junior was buried at Hythe on 6 March 1694/5. On 29 October 1696 Stephen Keeler IV married his second wife Jane Allen at Cheriton. 29 A daughter Jane was baptised there on 22 January 1697/8. Within the next eight days (25 and 30 January) Stephen s wife Jane and their infant daughter Jane were buried: on both occasions Mary Lott attested that the burials had taken place in woollen. Stephen IV was still of Cheriton when his mother Alice Keeler made her will on 4 November 1699. On 2 January 1700/1 Stephen Keeler IV of Cheriton, husbandman and widower married his third wife Elizabeth Jenkins, a 21-year-old Folkestone virgin, by licence (granted 1 January) at Folkestone. Stephen and Elizabeth had children baptised at Cheriton: Ruth (8 March 1701/2 4 August 1710); Ann (8 April 1703 12 April 1709); Ann (30 June 1706); Ruth (13 April 1712, buried 1712); [another Ruth] and Stephen V (25 May/14 August 1715). Their father attested that Ann and the first Ruth had been buried in woollen. In 1703/4, 2 10s was Pd to Stephen Keeler in discharge of William Baker a poor boy, formerly bound apprentice to the said Keeler out of this gift of Mr Weller s; the said boy being gone from his master a considerable time and being now able to maintain himself. 30 Stephen Keeler was assessed by the Hythe churchwardens for a messuage in the West ward in 1706 and 1707, but not afterwards. In 1710-1713 one Boughton was assessed for Stephen Keeler s barn. Immediately after the birth of Stephen in 1715, Stephen IV made his will on 18 October as a Cheriton 3
yeoman. He bequeathed his house and barn in the town and port of Hythe to his infant son; his house and 2 acres at Westwell, Kent and his garden spot on which stands part of an old house on one side of Hythe town to his daughter Jane; 30 to his daughter Elizabeth three months after his decease; and 50 to his daughters Jane and Ruth at 21. 31 Stephen IV s infant son Stephen died in 1716 and was buried on 8 April: Elizabeth Smith attested that he had been buried in woollen. Stephen himself died less than two years later and was buried at Cheriton on 21 January 1717/18. Certification that the burial had been in woollen was provided by Ann Heely and his will was proved on 5 February. There was no affidavit following the burial of Stephen Keeler on 10 June 1718. On5 January 1718/19 a licence was granted for the marriage at Cheriton, Maidstone or Harrietsham (near Maidstone) of Elizabeth Keeler, widow and Isaac White, bachelor: both were of Cheriton. The marriage took place at Maidstone on 19 January. Elizabeth, late wife of Isaac White, yeoman was buried at Cheriton on 1 January 1724. A licence was granted on 28 May 1725 for the marriage at Dymchurch, Bethersden or Sellinge of Isaac White, widower of Cheriton and Elizabeth Dennis, widow of Dymchurch. Elizabeth Keeler and John Dove Elizabeth Keeler was born c. 1694, a daughter of Stephen Keeler IV and his first wife Elizabeth, who died at or soon after her birth. Elizabeth s father s second wife Jane died when she was c. two and she was brought up by her father and his third wife Elizabeth (who was only 15 years her senior). At c. six, Elizabeth inherited in the will of her grandmother Alice Keeler (proved in February 1700) one chest adjoining to the chamber door where I now lye and at c. nine, 30 (to be paid at 21) in that of her grandfather Moses Sharp of Hythe, made on 22 September 1704 and proved on 25 October. Elizabeth became 21 in c. 1715, which was the year of the birth of her half-brother Stephen Keeler V. Elizabeth was c. 24 when her father died in January 1717/18 and she inherited 30 from him at the end of April. On 16 July 1718 Elizabeth, still of Cheriton, married John Dove by licence at St Margaret s, Canterbury. Other Keelers in Hythe In 1674 the overseers accounts for Market ward show William Keeler, poore and a later assessment that year late William Keeler s, empty. William and Alice Keeler had children baptised at Hythe: Stephen (6 March 1680, buried 23 December 1682; Elizabeth 8 June 1684; and Robert (9 April/10 June 1689). Alice, wife of William Keeler was buried on 22 December 1700. on 21 April 1695 there was baptised at Cheriton Henry, base-born son of Ann Wisdom, reputed father William Keeler of Hythe. On 12 July 1705 a licence was granted for the marriage at Elham, Stowting or Stelling of William Keeller of Hythe, husbandman and Ann Wisdom of Elham, spinster. William Keeler was buried at Hythe on 1 November 1707. Old Romney Stephen Keeler, a youth from Old Romney was buried at Cheriton on 28 May 1737. See also DOVE, SHARP, JULL, BROWN, BERLES, MILLER T.M. Steel 30 May 2010 4
1 For Hackington baptisms, marriages & burials [hereafter cmbs]: Kent Archives Service [hereafter K.A.S.], Canterbury Cathedral Archives [C.C.A.]: U3/. Hackington was in Canterbury archdeaconry 2 C.W. Bardsley, A Dictionary of English & Welsh Surnames (London, 1901), p. 441 3 For Boughton-under-Blean cmbs: K.A.S. 4 For his [consistory] will: K.A.S., C.C.A.,?PRC/44/162 5 For Stowting cmbs: K.A.S., Centre for Kentish Studies [hereafter C.K.S.], P 355/1/1 6 The National Archives [hereafter T.N.A.], ASSI 35/94/6 (833) 7 K.A.S., East Kent Archives Centre [hereafter E.K.A.], H 1037 (court of record book, 1648-1668) 8 One David Gorram was a jurat of Hythe 1619: K.A.S., E.K.A., T3/4 (conveyance) & mayor 1626 9 For Hythe cmbs: K.A.S., C.C.A., U3/282/1/1. Hythe was in Hythe hundred, lathe of Shepway, consistory of Canterbury 10 K.A.S., E.K.A., H U45/T12: Stephen s signature does not appear 11 T.N.A., E179/262/19 12 Widow Sladden s land from 1666: K.A.S., C.C.A., U3/282/5/A4 (Hythe churchwardens & overseers accounts from 1658) 13 K.A.S., E.K.A., H 1211, ff. 300 & 305 (assembly book, 1649-1683) 14 K.A.S., E.K.A., H U 18/39 15 K.A.S., C.C.A., PRC 20/12/17 (inventory)* 16 K.A.S., E.K.A., H U18/39/4* (Saunders to Keeler): date now illegible, noted in card index as 1670, but probably 1671 17 Shown again 1676 18 For Wingham cmbs, K.A.S., C.C.A., U3/... Wingham was in Canterbury consistory 19 K.A.S., E.K.A., H U18/39 20 K.A.S., E.K.A., H 1211a, ff. 2V & 6 (assembly book, 1683 onwards) 21 T.N.A., E134 9Wm3, Easter, no. 14 (Kent) (depositions taken at King s Head, Hythe) 22 For Saltwood cmbs, K.A.S., C.C.A., U3/147/1/1; there are no other relevant parish records extant. Saltwood was in consistory of Canterbury 23 T.N.A., E134 8 Wm3, Michaelmas, no. 2 (depositions at King s Head) 24 K.A.S., E.K.A., H 1042 (sessions book, 1695-1711, unf.) 25 No bur. occurs in Hythe bishop s transcripts 26 K.A.S., C.C.A., PRC 27/35/23 (inventory)* 27 K.A.S., C.C.A., will: the other wits were Jn & Joshua Barton* 28 K.A.S., E.K.A., H 1042 29 For Cheriton cmbs: K.A.S., C.C.A., U3/148/1/1 30 K.A.S., C.C.A., U3/282/5/A4 (Weller s gift accounts) 31 His w. was exec: wits were Thos?Clare & Henry Brockman