Rev. James Keith - Who was Rev. James Keith's father, and what's your proof?

Was he the son of Robert Keith

Do we have an estimated birth date?

Not to be confused with Field Marshall James Francis Edward Keith

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Keith-694#Claim1

Birth Date

A birth date of 6 November 1696 was previously cited for Rev James Keith. That date is actually the birth date of Field Marshall James Keith, with whom Rev James Keith was originally conflated, and has been removed from this profile.

Rebuttal & Refutation of Claims in Source for Original Profile

The following two paragraphs from Jean Edward Smith's "John Marshall: Definer of a Nation"[17] were quoted as source for the original profile. Footnote (29), which was not quoted in the original profile, has been written out here. Certain assertions (underlined) made in that source material are rebutted or refuted in what follows.

"James Keith, born in 1697, was the son of a professor at Marischal College in Aberdeen.(29) Most of the Keiths, however, were soldiers: a military family whose lineal descendants bore the title Earl Marischal and who traced their roots to ancient Scottish and Saxon kings. Their soldierly exploits won wide renown and were celebrated in song and legend. Robert Keith, the first Earl Marischal, led the decisive cavalry charge at the battle of Bannockburn in 1314, culminating Scotland's struggle for independence.(30) George Keith (1553-1623), the fifth Earl Marischal, founded Marischal College. His grandson, the seventh Earl Marischal, supported the restoration of Charles II and was keeper of the privy seal of Scotland. Another grandson, John, first Earl of Kintore, held the family castle Dunnottar against Cromwell during the civil wars and preserved the regalia of Scotland, keeping it from falling into the hands of the Puritans.(31)"

After the Glorious Revolution of 1688, which brought William and Mary to the throne, the Keiths continued to side with the Scottish James II (the Pretender) and helped to raise the armies that fought on his behalf. The Earl Marischal commanded the Jacobite forces that landed in Scotland in 1719, where they made a desperate but doomed effort to rally the highland clans to the Pretender's cause.(32) When the rebellion failed, the Keiths fled. James Keith, Marshall's grandfather and a first cousin of the Earl Marischal, came to Virginia.(33) His companion, James Francis Edward Keith, the Earl Marischal's younger brother, continued as a soldier, first in the Spanish, then the Russian, and finally in the Prussian army.(34)"

“(29) Paxton asserts not only that James was the son of a professor in Marischal College at Aberdeen but that the professor was also a bishop. That is incorrect. James’s father was George Keith, an uncle and tutor of the Earl Marischal, who lost his chair at the college in 1717 for siding with the Pretender. See John Malcolm Bulloch, A History of the University of Aberdeen, 1495-1895, 140-141 (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1895). Robert Keith, a cousin, was Bishop of Fife from 1733 to 1743, but he was too young to have been the father of James Keith. For the bishops of Scotland, see Crockford’s Clerical Directory 1748-1749 (London: Oxford University Press, 1960). Cf. Paxton, Marshall Family 25.”

Claim1
Assertion: James Keith was born in 1697. Rebuttal: No source is provided for the assertion of birth year: Smith's claim of birth year is unsubstantiated.

Claim2
Assertion: James Keith was son of a professor at Marischal College in Aberdeen. Rebuttal: Smith cites Paxton[18], a secondary source, but provides no primary source for the assertion of Keith's parentage. Offspring of Marischal College professors are not listed in the Marischal records,[19], but that fact neither proves nor disproves the claim: Smith’s claim of parentage is unsubstantiated.

Claim3
Assertion: James Keith was a first cousin of the Earl Marischal. Refutation: William Keith, 9th Earl Marischal, was an only son,[20][21] and thus his son, George Keith, 10th Earl Marischal, could not have had either an uncle or first cousin: Smith's claim of Marischal relationship is refuted.

Implied Claim4
Implication: Smith elides “When the rebellion failed, the Keiths fled” and “James Keith . . . came to Virginia” with the implication that Rev. James Keith took part in the Jacobite rebellion. Rebuttal: Smith provides no evidence of Keith's participation: Smith’s implied claim is unsubstantiated.

Claim5
Assertion: James Keith was a companion of James Francis Edward Keith, younger brother of the Earl Marischal. Rebuttal: The facts of James Francis Edward Keith’s birth, education, participation in the 1715 Jacobite rebellion, and service in Spain, Ukraine, and finally, in Prussia as Field Marshall under Frederick the Great, are not debated, but there is nothing among those facts that includes or points to the Rev. James Keith of Virginia: Smith’s claim of Marischal companionship is unsubstantiated.

Claim6
Assertion: James Keith was son of George Keith, uncle and tutor to the Earl Marischal and a professor at Marischal College who lost his chair in 1717 for siding with the Pretender. Refutation: First, because the Earl Marischal's father was an only son, the Earl Marischal could have had no paternal uncle, and second, it was Robert Keith, later Bishop, a 1699 graduate (not professor) of Marischal College who for seven years was tutor and preceptor to the Earl Marischal.[22]. Yes, there was a George Keith who was Regent (not a professor) at Marischal College who did indeed lose his chair, but in 1714 (not 1717) — and for adultery with a (named) married woman,[23] not for “siding with the Pretender” as claimed. George Keith was neither uncle nor tutor to the Earl Marischal, nor was he a professor at Marischal College: Smith’s claims concerning George Keith are refuted.

Claim7
Assertion: Smith’s cites John Malcom Bulloch as source for claiming that George Keith was a “professor” and “uncle and tutor to the Earl Marischal.” Refutation: Bulloch makes no such characterizations of George Keith. In the pages cited by Smith, Bulloch refers to the retribution meted out by a Royal Commission at the several Scottish Universities that supported the rebellion, writing that “Marischal College suffered more severely, losing George Liddell and Patrick Chalmers, the professors of mathematics and medicine; and four Regents, Alexander Moir, William Smith, George Keith and William Meston, the last of whom took to the hills.” [24] Specifically, while Bulloch refers to George Keith as Regent,[25], he makes no reference to any relationship between George Keith and the Earl Marischal: Smith’s claim to Bulloch as source for his assertion is denied.

For his descent:

From John Franklin Keith, II in an email dated February 1st, 2013 to Erin Spiceland:

My name is John Franklin Keith, II and I am descended from the Rev. James Keith & Mary Isham Randolph via their youngest son, Capt. Alexander Keith - who served with distinction during the Revolutionary War. My lineage is as follows and is documented in rootsweb-world connect project in Connecting Families of Tippah Co., MS entered by Steven Rutherford:

• Rev. James Keith (b 1696-Scotland) & Mary Isham Randolph (b. 1717 - VA) Alexander Keith (b. 1748 VA) & Mary Yancey (b. 1751 VA)
• William Alexander Keith (b. 1776 VA) & Sarah Hampton (b. 1783 NC)
• Sterling Yancey Keith (b. 1811 NC) & Eliza P. Jones (b.1814 GA)
• Franklin Pearce Keith (b. 1853 MS) & Eliza C. Hopper (b.1862 MS)
• William Learcus Keith (b. 1885 MS) & Elizabeth Jane (Lizzie) (b.1886 MS)
• John Franklin Keith (b. 1910 MS) & Venie Matilda Cannon (b.1910 MS)

Please note that a mini-museum was erected at the site of the old Elk Run Anglical Church in Fauquier Co., VA and dedicated on the 200th.-Anniversary of the establishing of Fauquier Co., VA. I was fortunate to be able to attend this dedication with my son, John Franklin Keith, III and grandson, John Franklin Keith, IV. It was most educational and I was able to speak with a number of distant cousins.

In your entry #100932 ; updated 2013-01-07 you included a number of incidents in the life of Rev. James of which I am unable to verify from the data I have available and passed down in family lore.

• Rev. James and his cousins, George and James Francis Edward, were involved in the "First Jacobite" uprising and were forced to flee Scotland.
• Rev James returned to Scotland and was invested in the Anglican church and returned to Virginia, married, and was went to the frontier parish where he helped found the Elk Run Church which was the first non-wooden church on the VA frontier.
• Please note that four of his sons and three-sons-in-law served in the colonial army during the American Revolution.

Here is a corrected listing of the children of Rev. James and Mary Isham Randolph:

1. James Keith b. 1734
2. John Keith b. 1735
3. Thomas Randolph Keith b. 1735 (?1736)
4. Mary Randolph Keith b.1737 -- Chief Justice John Marshall's mother
5. Judith Keith b.1738
6. Isham Keith b.1739
7. Elizabeth Keith b.1745
8. Alexander Keith b. 1748

I hope that this data may be useful to you. Two cousins, Jane Frazier Flynn and Rhonda Keith Sargent , are noted family researchers and I would be happy to send you their contact data. Jane has all the Sommerville DAR data and is currently entering it into "Ancesters". A number of my family members has used this data to qualify for DAR membership. Best Regards,

J. Frank Keith, PhD, Retired Professor, University of South Carolina

The Wikitree comments are paraphrased from:

“Correcting and Expanding the Record of the Rev. James Keith of Hamilton Parish” by Gail Raney Fleischaker. Magazine of Virginia Genealogy, Volume 55, November 2017, Number 4. Page 257-276.

PDF can be downloaded from Ancestry.com at https://mediasvc.ancestry.com/v2/stream/namespaces/1093/media/4fd59...

This Major James A. Keith, I was not the son of Rev. Keith. His son Capt. James W. Keith married Elizabeth Keith

The biographies on both seem mixed up.

See https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Keith-1347, which is even more mixed up.