Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Keating, George
KEATING, GEORGE (1762–1842), engraver, bookseller, and publisher, son of Patrick Keating (1734–1816), bookseller, was born in 1762. He was brought up as an engraver under William Dickinson. Between 1784 and 1799 he produced plates in mezzotint and stipple, and ‘attained fair proficiency in the art’ (J. Chaloner Smith, British Mezzotinto Portraits, 1884, ii. 778). He had a shop in Air Street, Piccadilly, and afterwards entered his father's business in Warwick Street, Golden Square. In 1800 the Keatings took over the business of J. P. Coghlan, the leading catholic bookseller of the day, and under the style of Keating, Brown, & Keating carried on business on Coghlan's premises in Duke Street, Grosvenor Square. After the death of the elder Keating in 1816, the firm became Keating & Brown. Brown died in 1837, and his widow continued in partnership with Keating until 1840. Keating then opened a shop in South Street, Manchester Square, but was unsuccessful, and in September 1840 a public subscription was opened for him in the ‘Tablet.’
He published many catholic books, and edited the ‘Laity's Directory’ from 1801 to 1839, the ‘Catholicon, or Christian Spectator,’ from 1815 to 1818, and the ‘Catholic Speaker’ from 1824 to 1826. He died in Crawford Street, Marylebone, 5 Sept. 1842.
[Gillow's Bibl. Dict. of English Catholics, iii. 675–6; Tablet, iii. 607; Bryan's Dict. ed. R. E. Graves, 1886, i. 724.]