Background
John Keate was born at Wells, Somerset, the son of Prebendary William Keate, Doctor of Divinity, rector of Laverton, Somerset, and brother of Robert Keate Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (1777–1857), Serjeant-Surgeon to King William IV and Queen Victoria.
Education
John Keate was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge. He took the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1810.
Career
At King's College John Keate had a brilliant career as a scholar; taking holy orders, he became, about 1797, an assistant master at Eton College. In 1809 he was elected headmaster. The discipline of the school was then in a most unsatisfactory condition, and Dr Keate took stern measures to improve it. His partiality for the birch became a by-word, but he succeeded in restoring order and strengthening the weakened authority of the masters. When he retired in 1834, the boys, who admired his courage, presented him with a handsome testimonial. A couple of years before he had publicly flogged eighty boys on one day. Keate was made a canon of Windsor in 1820.
Religion
John Keate took a prominent part in the Catholic Young Men's National Union and in the Total Abstinence Union of North America; and was in general charge of the Catholic delegation to the World's Parliament of Religions held at the Columbian Exposition in 1893.
Personality
Beneath an outwardly rough manner he concealed a really kind heart.