Keith (Golspie)

According to the Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae, Patrick Keith (1780-1805), the son of Rev William Keith (c1740-1816), minister of Kildonan (1776-1786) and of Golspie (1786-1816), 'went to Berbice'. He died there on 5 August 1805 [gravestone, Golspie].

This may be the same Keith who managed Lord Seaforth's plantation Brahan. According to Seaforth's secretary, Peter Fairbairn, Keith - who had been there from early 1803 or before - 'quitted at a moments notice' in October 1804 and went 'to the East Coast to conduct a task gang'. [NAS GD46/17/26]

In 1825 a younger brother, Sutherland Keith (1787-1825), died in the colony [London Gazette]. He had owned six slaves in 1819 and ten in 1822 (Slave Returns). His executor was Robert Grant who, in Edinburgh in 1827, married Sophia Keith (b1798), the sister of Patrick and Sutherland [Scotsman, 21 April 1827].