KEATINGE, Maurice Bagenal St. Leger (c.1761-1835), of Narraghmore, co. Kildare.

Keatinge travelled to Morocco while an officer on half-pay in 1784 and many years later published an account of his experiences.Travels in Europe and Africa (1816) reissued as Travels through France, Spain and Morocco in 1817. He was also the author of a pamphlet on Irish defence (1794), the translator of Bernal Diaz del Castillo’s Conquest of Mexico (1800) and wrote an essay on optic mensuration, published in 1812. In 1790 he became (like his grandfather) Member for Kildare on the Duke of Leinster’s interest and voted with opposition. He resumed his army career for a time. In 1798 his new mansion was destroyed in the rebellion.G. F. Keatinge, Keating Family, 93 (T/S at Soc. of Genealogists).

He voted for the Union in defiance of county politics, for which the Castle thought he deserved notice, but on taking his seat at Westminster went over to opposition with the Leinster family. On 19 Mar. 1801 he was in the minority on the Irish master of the rolls bill and on 25 Mar. on Grey’s censure motion. He also attempted, 5 Feb., 27 Mar., to sponsor a scheme for Irish poor relief, which was hampered by his ignorance of English parliamentary procedure and by dilatory official returns. He attended in the ensuing session, but there is no evidence of his activity. Keatinge sought but did not obtain re-election in 1802, when the Duke of Leinster, who had in any case fallen out with him, was unwilling to pit him against a government candidate.Fortescue mss, Castlereagh to Grenville, 10 July 1800; PRO 30/9/13, pt. 2; Senator (ser. 2), i. 106, 795; HMC Fortescue, vi. 261, 265. In 1806 Keatinge was considered for a seat at the revenue board, it being thought that he would make an efficient commissioner. In 1813 he sold his Kildare estate to Robert Latouche for £93,000.Fortescue mss, memo n.d.; Keatinge, loc. cit. He died in 1835 at Paris.