Richard Keatinge (judge)

He was born in Dublin, son of Maurice Keatinge, barrister, and Anne Harte, daughter of Sir Richard Harte, Mayor of Limerick, and his first wife Anne Johnson. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin, which he entered in 1805, and graduated BA in 1812. He was called to the Irish Bar in 1813, King's Counsel in 1835. He was Third Serjeant-at-law (Ireland) in 1842–3, a Bencher of the King's Inns and a member of the Privy Council of Ireland. ==Career ==

In 1843 he became a judge of the Irish Prerogative Court, which dealt with probate cases, and was reconstituted as the Probate Court in 1857. The Government was enthusiastic about the idea, but informed legal opinion in Ireland was generally against it, the objection being that Keatinge was already seriously overworked, and despite his undoubted ability, he had no experience of Admiralty work. Keatinge himself strongly opposed the proposal, citing his very heavy workload, and the plan came to nothing. ==Family and later descendants==

He married in 1814 Harriet Augusta Joseph, the third daughter of Samuel Joseph, a London merchant. They had at least four children, Maurice, Richard Harte Keatinge, Harriet and Laura. Maurice (1816-1896) became Chief Registrar of the Probate Court. The younger Harriet married the Scottish geographer Coutts Trotter (1831-1906) and was the maternal grandmother of the eminent scientist J.B.S. Haldane and the writer Naomi Mitchison. ==Sources==