Robert Keam, husband of Mary Philips

Research note by Wesley Johnston - begun 25 Jan 2014, last updated 3 Sep 2014

Overview

Robert KEAM married Mary PHILIPS 25 Jul 1775 at Luxulyan, Cornwall. The couple had many children. But finding Robert Keam's origin and parents and siblings has been diffiult. This research note -- which will change as I find more informtion -- is intended to capture all the information on him in one place, so that well-supported conclusions can be made.

The Conundrum

The Robert KEAM who married Mary PHILLIPS is a documentary conundrum for me. His 8 Jan 1837 burial record in St. Blazey gives his age as 85, which would put his birth about 1852. And that date would very much fit with a 1775 marriage to Mary PHILLIPS, who was baptized 7 Aug 1750 at Luxulyan.

I know that there is a tree that has proliferated widely, without documentation of its conclusions, that has the Robert KEAM who married Mary PHILLIPS being the Robert Keam, son of Robert and Frances baptized 5 Nov 1740 at Luxulyan. And there is no other Robert KEAM baptism in the Cornwall Family History Society research database that fits with a 1752 birth (closest is 26 Dec 1759 at St Austell, which is too young for the 1775 marriage).

So the 1740 baptism is the closest one to being the one who could have married in 1775, when he would have been 35 and Mary 25. It makes me wonder if he had been married and widowed. There is a 1737 Robert at Luxulyan, to Humphrey & Elizabeth, but he seems even less likely to be the right one. And yet, Robert and Mary named their first son Humphrey, which was the name of the 1737 Robert's father.

So while I am very skeptical of the 1740 Robert being the right one, the baptism of this son of Robert and Frances is the only one that comes anywhere close to fitting with the 1775 marriage, even though it differs significantly from the much later (and always dubious) death record.

Having said all this as a caveat, I am struck by yet another permutation of KEAM as CEAM in the records. Good job by Peter Keam of Australia for finding that!!! The record is the 21 Nov 1737 Boconnoc marriage of Robert CEAM to Frances TOM. Unfortunately, all I have seen thus far is a typed transcription (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-266-12420-15507-78) where the name is spelled CEAM. I very much need to see the images of the original records, in order to verify the spelling. But the transcript clearly states that Robert CEAM was from Luxulyan (and Frances was "of this parish" of Boconnoc). So it does fit well with the 1740 Robert's baptism, so that I do believe this is his parents' marriage.

The Conclusion

In the complete absence of any other candidate baptisms, althought the 1737 baptism cannot be ruled out and has the name Humphrey in its favor, I am carrying Robert as the 1740 son of Robert KEAM (CEAM) and Frances TOM.

Was Robert KEAM previously married?

There was a Robert KEAIM who married 11 May 1765 at St Austell with Mary BASTARD (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-267-11110-175479-10), both shown as "of this parish". This is the only Robert KEAM/CEAM marriage between 1756 (Robert CEAM = Grace ROWE St Columb Major) and the 1775 marriage of Robert KEAM and Mary PHILLIPS.

I find only one baptism for this 1765 couple's children: Robert, baptized 9 Feb 1766 at St Austell. There are no Robert-Mary children baptized in the 1760's, and the only ones baptized in the 1770's were those of Robert KEAM and Mary PHILLIPS at Luxulyan.

So it seems likely that Mary (BASTARD) KEAM or the Robert KEAM who was her husband died within a year or two after their 1765 marriage. I found no burial for Mary, but there is a Robert KEAIM buried at St. Austell 12 May 1766. This could have been either the child or the father.

So this 1765 marriage may have been the same Robert who married Mary PHILLIPS in 1775. But there is insufficient information in the parish registers alone to verify or refute that.

But .......

There are stiill too many Roberts to really know which is which. There is the Robert (in my tree at http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/12001386/person/961577751) who married Elizabeth VERRAN 26 Jun 1778 at Luxulyan -- clearly not the same Robert as the one who married Mary PHILLIPS, but how do the baptismal Roberts all fit with the marriage Roberts and the burial Roberts? Because there are multiple Robert KEAM burials at Luxulayn in the 1740's.

I continue to carry my database as it is, with the 1740 Robert (definitely the son of another Robert and of Frances TOM) as Mary PHILLIPS' husband. But I am not at all certain that is correct. But for now, I have run out of the available time to detail the other Roberts. So there is still much to be done.