John Keating

John Keating, or Keatinge (c. 1630–1691) was an Irish judge of the late seventeenth century, who held office as Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas. He had an impressive reputation for integrity, impartiality and benevolence. Due to his loyalty to King James II of England, he was dismissed from his office as Chief Justice after the Revolution of 1688. Later, faced with the threat of impeachment, he committed suicide. Family and early career He was born in Dublin, the second son of Edmund Keating of Narraghmore, County Kildare and Elizabeth (or Elinor) Eustace. His mother was the daughter of John Fitzwilliam Eustace of Harristown, County Kildare, and sister of Sir Maurice Eustace, later Lord Chancellor of Ireland. He had one older brother, Oliver, who died in 1683, and at least one sister Catherine, who died in 1699. Catherine married firstly the senior judge Adam Cusack, Chief Justice of Connacht, who died in 1681, and secondly the Jacobite leader Colonel Nicholas Cusack (died 1726), a great-grandson of Sir Thomas Cusack, Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Keating, like his uncle Maurice, combined membership of the Church of Ireland with a notable tolerance in religious matters, which led to claims in later life that he was himself secretly a crypto-Catholic. The Keating family lived as permanent guests of Eustace on his Palmerstown estate, which he bought around 1647, and it later became the home of John and his wife. Keating graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 1655 and entered Lincoln's Inn in 1657; it was said that his knowledge of the law was well below that of his fellow students, although his friends attributed his ignorance to the neglect of his legal studies, his time being taken up with his courtship of the widowed Grace, Lady Shuckburgh, whom he married in 1659. In 1661 he returned to Ireland and became Deputy Clerk to the Irish House of Commons. This job involved a great deal of travel between Dublin and London, and Keating displayed impressive energy in performing his duties, on one occasion completing the return journey in twelve days in the depth of winter, for which task he was paid £200. Due to his diligence in performing his official duties, he later received a gratuity of £300.