Robert Murray Keith (d. 1774), descended from a younger son of the 2nd Earl Marischal, was British minister in Vienna in 1748 and from 1753 Minster-plenipotentary. In 1757, he transferred to St. Petersburg (arriving in 1758) and remained there until October 1762, when the imperial government requested that he be replaced by a nobleman. He then retired to live at the Hermitage near Edinburgh, and subsequently held other important diplomatic appointments, being known to his numerous friends, among whom were the leading men of letters of his time, as "Ambassador Keith."
He married Margaret, daughter of Sir William Cunningham, 2nd baronet, of Caprington before 1730 when their son Robert Murray Keith (the younger) was born. Another son was Sir Basil Keith, a naval officer and Governor of Gibraltar.
References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
- W. A. J. Archbold, ‘Keith, Robert (c.1697–1774)’, rev. R. D. E. Eagles, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004) [1] (accessed 3 Aug 2008).
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