John Keating (judge)
Encyclopedia
John Keating was an Irish judge who became Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas
Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas
The Chief Justice of the Common Pleas for Ireland was the senior judge of the Court of Common Pleas ,known in its early stage as the Common Bench or simply Bench, one of the senior courts of common law in Ireland. It was a mirror of the Court of Common Pleas in England...

; despite a reputation for integrity, impartiality and benevolence, he fell from power after the Revolution of 1688
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, is the overthrow of King James II of England by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau...

, and committed suicide.

Family and early career

He was born in Dublin, second son of Edmund Keating and Elizabeth Eustace of Harristown, sister of Sir Maurice Eustace
Maurice Eustace
Maurice Eustace was an Irish soldier, secretly ordained a Roman Catholic priest, and hanged as a traitor.-Life:He was the eldest son of Sir John Eustace, Castlemartin, County Kildare. He was sent to be educated at the Jesuit college at Bruges in Flanders. There, after the completion of his secular...

, later Lord Chancellor of Ireland
Lord Chancellor of Ireland
The office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland was the highest judicial office in Ireland until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. From 1721 to 1801 it was also the highest political office of the Irish Parliament.-13th century:...

. Like his uncle Keating, though conforming to the Church of Ireland, was notably tolerant in religious matters.

He graduated from the University of Dublin
University of Dublin
The University of Dublin , corporately designated the Chancellor, Doctors and Masters of the University of Dublin , located in Dublin, Ireland, was effectively founded when in 1592 Queen Elizabeth I issued a charter for Trinity College, Dublin, as "the mother of a university" – this date making it...

 in 1655 and entered Lincoln's Inn
Lincoln's Inn
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn. Although Lincoln's Inn is able to trace its official records beyond...

 in 1657. It is said however that his legal training was deficient compared to that of his colleagues.In 1661 he returned to Ireland and became Deputy Clerk to the Irish House of Commons
Irish House of Commons
The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland, that existed from 1297 until 1800. The upper house was the House of Lords...

. The office involved much travel between Dublin and London, and Keatiing displayed impressive energy, on one occasion completing the journey both ways in twelve days in the depth of winter. He entered Kings Inn in 1663 and quickly gained a reputation as a barrister. His uncle recommended him to James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde
James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde
James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde PC was an Irish statesman and soldier. He was the second of the Kilcash branch of the family to inherit the earldom. He was the friend of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, who appointeed him commander of the Cavalier forces in Ireland. From 1641 to 1647, he...

 the Lord Lieutenant, whose friendship was generally the path to judicial office. Keating however was content at first to be appointed attorney to the Duke of York
Duke of York
The Duke of York is a title of nobility in the British peerage. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of the British monarch. The title has been created a remarkable eleven times, eight as "Duke of York" and three as the double-barreled "Duke of York and...

; he admitted he could not afford to give up practice and was worried about the envy of older colleagues.

Chief Justice

Given Keating's previous reluctance, his appointment as Chief Justice of Common Pleas, direct from the Bar, in 1679 is surprising. Even more surprising is the choice of a judge noted for Catholic leanings: the anti-Catholic feeling engendered by the Popish Plot
Popish Plot
The Popish Plot was a fictitious conspiracy concocted by Titus Oates that gripped England, Wales and Scotland in Anti-Catholic hysteria between 1678 and 1681. Oates alleged that there existed an extensive Catholic conspiracy to assassinate Charles II, accusations that led to the execution of at...

 was at its height, and it was rumoured that Keating himself might be named in that connection. Probably, as Elrington Ball suggests, Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

 chose Keating precisely because his well-known tolerance meant that he was unlikely to succumb to the prevailing hysteria. In particular, he was expected to quash an unfounded charge of treason against the Earl of Tyrone
Earl of Tyrone
The Earl of Tyrone is a title created three times in the Peerage of Ireland.It was first created as part of the Tudor attempt to establish a uniform social structure in Ireland by converting the Gaelic kings and chiefs into hereditary nobles of the Kingdom of Ireland...

 and duly did so. In the following years he gained an impressive reputation
for integrity, impartiality and mercy, and inevitably made political enemies on all sides. His reputation for mercy did not extend to cattle theft, a serious social problem at the time: in such cases he was prepared to drive hard for conviction, and in the well-known case of R. v Cavenagh in 1689, broke with precedent in refusing to allow two convicted thieves to plead benefit of clergy
Benefit of clergy
In English law, the benefit of clergy was originally a provision by which clergymen could claim that they were outside the jurisdiction of the secular courts and be tried instead in an ecclesiastical court under canon law...

 for a first offence.

Removal and death

In the turbulent years 1688–1691, Keating was in a particularly difficult position since unlike some of his colleagues he was very anxious to keep his position. During James II's first year in Ireland, Keating showed himself a staunch loyalist, praying publicly for the king and referring to the revolution as an "invasion". James was seemingly impressed, and Keating was given a prominent place in the opening of the Dublin Parliament of 1689; yet within days his enemies had him dismissed from the Privy Council
Privy council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the monarch's closest advisors to give confidential advice on...

.

The collapse of the Jacobite cause placed Keating in an impossible position. He could not seriously have expected to keep his job, yet he undoubtedly made friendly advances to the new administration. These met with a cold reception: Keating was dismissed from office, imprisoned for a time and apparently threatened with impeachment. He committed suicide early in 1691.

Marriage

In 1659 he married Grace Holt, daughter of the prominent Royalist Sir Thomas Holt of Aston and widow of Sir Richard Shuckburgh. Grace died in 1677; Keating erected a memorial to her in Palmerstown Chapel, Dublin, paying eloquent testimony to their happy marriage. There were no children.

Character and reputation

Historians on the whole have dealt kindly with Keating's character. He has been accused of undignified clinging to office, and as the Cavenagh case shows he could be ruthless enough when necessary. Yet there is impressive evidence of his good qualities as a man and judge. Duhigg, in a celebrated passage, called him: "the great ornament of the Irish Bench...a great magistrate who in a slippery or stormy period exercised official station with mild manners and untainted integrity. This great man was calm, patient and humane in the trial of prisoners; clear, laborious and consistent in the discussion of civil suits; faithful to his King and country in the indulgence of political principles; and attached to God in the exercise of Christianity."
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