The Scots Gaelic for Clan Keith is Ceiteach.

(Click here to hear it pronounced.)

Historical Spotlight JANUARY 2012

GEORGE KEITH (c.1638 - 1716)

Scottish Preacher

Born in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, George received his degree from the University of Aberdeen. In the 1660’s he joined the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and did missionary work in the Netherlands & Germany. In 1682 he was made the non-resident governor of the Province of East Jersey which later became the state of New Jersey. George Keith eventually traveled to East Jersey to serve as the Surveyor General presiding over the first land survey of the border between West Jersey and East Jersey in 1686. As payment for this, he received land grants including seven hundred acres in Monmouth County where he founded the town of Freehold (later known as Marlboro). In 1689 he moved to Philadelphia to serve as headmaster of a Quaker school. By 1691 Keith decided that Quakers had strayed too far from orthodox Christianity and he created a group called the Christian Quakers. When that group collapsed, he returned to England and tried with even less success to persuade Quakers there to follow his lead. In 1702, he left the Quakers and was ordained an Anglican priest returning to missionary work with trips to the West and East Jersey to try and win converts from the Quakers there. He returned to England where he worked for the Church of England as rector of the parish of Edburton, Sussex until his death on March 27, 1716.

Further Information about this Keith can be found:

• Kirby, E. W. (1942) George Keith. New York: American Historical Association (includes a full bibliography)

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The Clan Keith Society USA, Inc. is a non-profit organization whose sole purpose is to promote education and fellowship for individuals and families living in the United States whose ancestry trace back to one of Scotland's oldest and most illustrious clans.

Among the family names associated with Clan Keith are Austin, Dickson, Dixon, Falconer, Faulkner and Marshall. [See our list of septs]

We have sister societies in Canada and Australia/New Zealand. We are also honored to have our own official band, the Keith Highlanders Pipe Band from Seattle, Washington.