Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Keating, Maurice Bagenal St. Leger
KEATING, MAURICE BAGENAL St. LEGER (d. 1835), soldier and author, entered the 3rd dragoons as cornet on 14 May 1778, but obtained a lieutenancy in the 22nd light dragoons on 16 Dec. 1779, and became captain on 20 June 1781, and major 13 Dec. 1782 in the same regiment. In 1783 his regiment was disbanded, and he was put on half-pay. He was M.P. for co. Kildare in 1790 and 1801. While still on half-pay he was promoted lieutenant-colonel, 12 Oct. 1793. On 8 April 1794 he was placed in command of the 107th foot, and when that regiment was disbanded in 1795 he was kept upon full pay. He left the army in 1796, and died in 1835. He married Martha, second daughter of Anthony Brabazon, eighth earl of Meath. In 1784 Keating accompanied Consul-general George Payne on a tour through France and Spain to Morocco, of which he published an account entitled ‘Travels in Europe and Africa,’ London, 1816. This work was reissued in 1817 as ‘Travels through France, Spain, and Morocco.’ Keating also published ‘Eidometria, or Optic Mensuration,’ 1812, and translated ‘The True History of the Conquest of Mexico,’ from the Spanish of Bernal Diaz del Castillo, 1800. The last is favourably reviewed in the ‘British Critic’ (xvii. 27, 151, 252), and is praised by Southey in a note to ‘Madoc.’
[Biog. Dict. of Living Authors, 1816; Army Lists; Burke's Peerage; Brydges's Censura Lit. iv. 43–51.]