Spottiswoode Society > History of the affairs of the Church and State of Scotland from the beginning of the reformation to the year 1568 > Volume 1

RIGHT REVEREND BISHOP KEITH. Ivii
was confined to his bed only one day before his death, which
was the first time he had been so situated for sixty-four
years, though he had, during the whole of his residence in
Edinburgh and the vicinity, been constantly affected with
nervous headaches. Bishop Keith was married, 1 and left one
daughter, whose family settled in Leith, and whose society
he enjoyed during his old age. His declining years were
spent in study and religious meditation, preparing himself
for his dissolution, with Christian composure and resignation.
Bishop Russell observes — " Amidst the scarcity of biogra-
phical incident, of which the reader has had cause to com-
plain, he may be surprized to meet with the following notice,
which I find regularly recorded in an authentic paper —
' Bishop Keith, a married man, and having children, died
worth only L.450 at the most, and J. M. (his colleague or
assistant), a bachelor, died, proh dolor ! worth about L.3000
sterling, and left not a farthing to the poor suffering clergy. 1 "
Exclusive of his published Works, Bishop Keith seems to
have projected some others which he never completed. Among
his Manuscripts were found a " Treatise on Mystical Divi-
nity, 11 in the form of " Letters to a Lady, 11 and a " Scheme
of Religion derived solely from the Scriptures, 11 intended,
it is supposed, for his own family. " This statement, 11 says
Bishop Russell, " is given on the authority of Bishop Alex-
ander, who appears to have consulted Mrs Keith after the
death of her husband, and even to have inspected all the
literary papers committed to her custody. Bishop Alexander
made this inquiry to answer a question put to him by an ' Eng-
lish clergyman, 1 who was desirous to know whether Bishop
Keith ' had left any posthumous Works behind him. 1 "
Bishop Keith was interred in the parish burying-ground
of the Canongate of Edinburgh, near the wall on the western
in 1734 ; a Catalogue of the Bishops of Scotland down to 1688, 4to. in
1755, and a translation of Thomas a Kempis many years ago." The learned
Thomas Ruddiman, the intimate friend of Bishop Keith, and the printer
of his Works, died at Edinburgh on the 19th of January, the day before the
Bishop's death, in the 83d year of his age. — Scots Magazine, vol. xix. p. 54.
1 The writer has been unable to ascertain the name of the lady whom
Bishop Keith married.
E