This data was taken from Parish records to show where Keeps were located during the century. You will note from the list of counties below that it provides only an indication of the spread, and not the density of the Keep population in the county. Gloucestershire, for example, only recorded one event, the marriage of Robert to Anne Wadley in 1696. Whilst this is after the death of John Keep of Longmeadow, it does indicate a Keep presence in Gloucestershire during the 1600s. What the spread shows is that John’s ancestry could originate from a wide and diverse area.

These pages are devoted to family histories and other items of interest about the British and Irish Keep families.

Our Saxon Connections Explored

During his research into the Keep family, Philip Keep of Norwich, England, consulted the Liber Winton, a survey of Winchester compiled in 1110, during the reign of Henry I, which had the following entry:

“In gerestret … Ulward Cheppe reddebat xviii d et consuetudinem TRE Modo Willrlmus scutarius debet idem”.

Which reads:

“In Gere Street … Wulfward Cheppe paid 18 pence and the custom in the time of King Edward now William the Ragman owes the same”.

According to Philip, the list of Saxon tenants in Winchester was compiled from a census conducted in 1056 during the reign of Edward the Confessor, which means that Wulfward Cheppe was a Saxon tenant at the time of the survey living in Gere Street, also known as Gerestrete or Garstret, Winchester.  He was one of 144 householders rendering their customary dues. The street remains today in Winchester, but it has now been renamed Trafalgar Street.

Unlike today’s standard orthography of one word, one spelling, this did not occur in Old English, so the Anglo-Saxons used a phonetic system.  In Old English a “k” sounded like “ch”; therefore, Wulfward Cheppe would have been Wulfward Keppe.  This demonstrates that a byname sounding like Keep was an established hereditary surname in England during the eleventh century.

The Doomsday Survey, which was completed in 1086, was commissioned by William the Conqueror to assess what taxes were due to him.  The title comes from the Old English word “Dom”, which means accounting or reckoning.  An entry for Hertfordshire shows a freeman “Kip”, more than likely a Saxon, was the tenant of a mill in Sawbridgeworth, rated a 20s that was owned by a Norman nobleman, Lord Geoffrey de Manderville.  Philip found other local references to support his theory that Keep was an established surname.  In 1229 a Ralph Kepe was noted as a merchant of Waterford, which is a village north of Hertford and six miles from Sawbridgeworth.  In 1259 a Ralph Kepe was shown at Beauchamp Roding, which is just over the county border in Essex, and eight miles away from Sawbridgeworth. A Robert Keppe was unlawfully killed in Hereford in 1270.  Considering that there was an established Keep family in Hertfordshire during the eleventh century, members of the family could easily have migrated to Buckinghamshire.  There is a possibility that they were the forefathers of Walter Kep.  Likewise he could have descended from Wulfward Cheppe.

The Saxon word “cepe” or “chepe” means “barter”, “merchant” or “the man who lives near the market”.  An example of its usage is Cheapside in London, which from the thirteenth century was a bustling market place for jewellery, shoes, bread, meat, spices, wine, etc.  So contrary to popular belief, did our name derive from our ancestors’ trading activities in the eleventh century, and not as gaolers?

An interesting point with regard to Winchester is that the main street, High Street, was known as Chepe Street in Anglo Saxon times.  Wulfward lived in a side road off of the main street, very close to the Cathedral.

I have a very vague memory of meeting the man everyone in the family called Grandsar.  I didn't know who he was nor was I terribly interested.  I was only five at the time and he was very, very old.  Throughout my younger life and into adulthood there were many stories told about him and what he accomplished in his lifetime.  The older I got, the more I listened, and the more I became intrigued by the man.

My uncle was an avid researcher of our family history in the 1970's and 80's and shared everything he found with us.  One of the things he was always very interested in was a small "painting" my father had in the living room. I never paid much attention to it when I was little but later learned it was our family Coat of Arms granted by Queen Elizabeth I in 1565.  I also learned it was brought over from England by Grandsar.  Because of my uncle's enthusiasm about our family history, and the seed he planted in me, I've continued his work.  This is but a fraction of what I've been able to discover about the man known as Grandsar...

Nigel Keep was born February 28, 1873, in Burghfield, Berkshire, England.  He was the youngest child of Richard William and Anna Maria (Courtier) Keep, and would be their last.  At that time, the Berkshire Keeps of my family were wealthy farmers deeply involved in their communities and church. Richard William's brother and their father, both named William, were churchwardens at the Aldermaston church for a combined total of almost sixty-eight years.  A memorial to them still adorns a wall in the middle of the nearly thousand year old church.

Unfortunately, Nigel never knew his mother.  Anna Maria passed away at a quarter to two on the morning of March 18, 1873, a mere eighteen days after his birth.  The cause remains unknown.  In the 1881 England census I find Nigel along with his brothers and sisters, William Richard, Susan Brown, Edith Sarah, and John Palmer living at 130 Portway Place, Wantage.  The children are listed as orphans.  Nigel was all of eight years old then.  Their father, Richard William, had apparently become incapacitated to the point of not being able to care for his children any longer.  Again, the reason is unknown.

Nine years later in March of 1890, Nigel boarded a ship with a cousin, David Edward Hugh Allen, bound for Boston, Massachusetts, their final destination being Grimsby, Ontario, Canada  where the Allen family was living.  Nigel, at the ripe age of seventeen, had decided to leave England and start a new life in Canada.  He was later followed by brother John, in 1893, then his eldest sister, Susan, in 1901, and finally his eldest brother, William, in 1903.  Sister Edith was the only one to stay in England.  Susan stayed in Grimsby and married, William headed west to British Columbia, while John moved to the San Diego area along with four of the Allen cousins.

Nigel stayed in Grimsby with the Allen family.  At age twenty-three he married Emma Mae Millard, then nineteen, at Niagra Falls in September, 1897, and they would spend the next sixty-seven years together.  Nigel carried on with family tradition and had become a fruit farmer.  They had two children together while still living in Canada, Norman Millard and Dorothy Courtier.  Soon after starting his family, Nigel was initiated into the Masonic Temple in Grimsby.  This would be a life-long affiliation with which he ultimately achieved the designation of Master Mason, Third Degree, the highest degree obtainable in Freemasonry.

Because of his knowledge and honesty, Mr. Hearst soon hired Nigel as his chief landscaper and horticulturist.  He was forty-six by that time.  Thus began a life-long friendship and mutual admiration between the two men.  They both had a deep love for trees, plants, and nature in general.  When at the castle, Hearst often invited Nigel to his immense library for afternoon tea. Nigel said in one newspaper interview, “We discussed pretty near everything except politics.  I didn't feel I was equal to discussing politics with him.”

One day Mr. Hearst and Nigel were out on the grounds of the castle, more commonly known as The Hill.  Hearst pointed to a rocky hillside and told Nigel it had always been his dream to see it covered with trees.  “Can you do it for me?” Hearst asked.  Nigel replied, “It'll be expensive.”  Hearst told him, “I don't care what it costs.”  Nigel and his crew of twenty-five men set to work.  They planted 6,335 pine trees, having to use two sticks of dynamite to blast each hole on the rocky slope.  When the new forest was completed, Mr. Hearst called Nigel into his office and said to him, “Mr. Keep, you have performed a miracle for me.”  Nigel was also responsible for planting countless flowerbeds, shrubs, vines, fruit orchards, trees of all kinds, and unrivaled rose gardens.  Much of his work is still visible today.