George Keate

George Keate
George Keate, 1781 engraving by John Keyse Sherwin, after John Plott
Born	1729 (1729) Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England
Died	1797 (1798) (aged 68) Bloomsbury, London
Occupation	English poet and writer

George Keate (1729–1797) was an English poet and writer.

He was son of George Keate of Isleworth, Middlesex, who married Rachel Kawolski, daughter of Count Christian Kawolski. He was born at Trowbridge in Wiltshire, where his father had property, on 30 November 1729 (according to Daniel Lysons, his baptism was not entered in the Isleworth register until 29 November 1730). Together with Gilbert Wakefield, William Hayley, Francis Maseres, and others, he was educated by the Rev. Richard Wooddeson of Kingston upon Thames.

On leaving school he was articled as clerk to Robert Palmer, steward to the Duke of Bedford. He entered the Inner Temple in 1751, was called to the bar in 1753, and made bencher of his inn in 1791, but never practised the law. In 1850, Henderson inherited his family's money when his mother died. Keate's money came from the dozens of houses that his family owned in Whitechapel. Eight years after his death the income was worth £700 per year.

For some years he lived abroad, mainly at Geneva, where he knew Voltaire, and in 1755 he was at Rome. After settling in England Keate began to write. He was in turn poet, naturalist, antiquary, and artist. A founder member of the Society of Artists in 1761, he was one of those who left it for the Royal Academy in 1768. He was elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and Fellow of the Royal Society in 1766.