Whilst writing my book, Utterly Immoral about Robert Keable and his scandalous novel Simon Called Peter, I concentrated my research on the author himself and his closest friends and relatives. What I have not done, until now, is to try to find his other relations, the children and grandchildren and possibly even great grandchildren of his cousins.

If anyone reading this believes they are related to Robert Keable, however tangentially, I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to use my contact page to send me a quick message.

Keable

According to the Forebears website there are over 1,300 people called Keable around the world with over half living in England. One theory is the name is rooted in Anglo-Saxon culture as the name of a cudgel maker or seller, the short sticks used as weapons. I prefer that to another theory that it was a nickname for someone who was short and stout.

As anyone who has the Keable surname knows there are many ways of spelling the name. When I owned a restaurant, called Keables, back in the 1990s the local bakery would always bill me as Mr Key-balls. Keable itself is probably derived from Kibble, as are Kable, Keble, Keeble, Kieble, Kauble and many other versions.

Robert Keable wing of the family

I think I can date Robert Keable’s wing of the family back to Benjamin Keable (1780-1852) who lived much of his life in Clapham, London and was buried in St Pauls church in Clapham. Benjamin married three times but his second marriage, to Hannah Kelsey (1775-1829) produced at least three children including John Keable (1812-1845), Mary Ann Keable (born 1816) and the first Robert Keable.

Robert Keable (1814-1854), the second son of Benjamin Keable was born in Clapham, married Ann Batten (1814-1886) in Putney in 1849 and was buried in West Norwood cemetery. Robert and Ann had three children, Fanny Hannah Keable (1851-1936) who never married; Rev Robert Henry Keable and Benjamin Batten (or Bayley) Keable.  

Rev Robert Henry Keable

Robert Henry Keable (1852-1931) was the author Robert Keable’s father. He began his working career – probably aged 16 – as a clerk to a tallow melter. Tallow melters took the fat of an animal – normally a cow or sheep – and ‘rendered it’, heating it gently until the fat liquefied. Until he married, he lived with his widowed mother and brother and sister, moving around south London from Coldharbour lane in Brixton to Lewisham and on to Clapham. At some stage he set up his own business as a candle manufacturer. In 1886 he married Margaret Clarke Hopkins (1852-1837) and they had two children, Robert and Henry. Henry Keable (1888-1918) never married and died in Malta a few weeks before the end of the First World War.

In his 40s Robert Henry decided to sell his business and retrain as a priest. He moved the family to Croydon, (in the 1901 census he called himself a ‘Tallow Chandler’) and was priested in 1905. He stayed in Croydon as the parish priest based at St Matthews Church until the end of the First World War, before moving to Pavenham in Bedfordshire where he was parish priest for many years.

Keable-Elliott

I cover the life of Robert Keable (1887-1927) in Utterly Immoral. Tony (1924-2020), his son from his relationship with Jolie Buck (1899-1924) was adopted by the Elliotts and changed his surname by deed poll when he was 17 to Keable-Elliott. He had four children, me and my three older brothers David, Ian and Trevor. Although Tony had eight grandchildren and a growing number of great grandchildren whether the Keable-Elliott name will survive is open to conjecture. Some of my nephews and nieces have reverted back to Keable and others may agree to give up the name when they marry.

Bonvallet

Ina Salmon, the Tahitian princess gave birth to Robert Keable’s second son, Henry, in November 1927, a month before Robert Keable died. Initially Henry took his mother’s surname but after he had moved to France, and wanted to take up French nationality, he took his stepfather’s name, Bonvallet.

In 2003 Hugh Cecil visited Henry Bonvallet and his wife at their home in Ambronay, north east of Lyon in France. He reported back to my father that Henry was humorous, intelligent, reflective and saw himself as 100% French – certainly not English. Henry has now died but his three children have all had families. Jean Marc who lives in Paris has two daughters, Nelly has a son and daughter and the youngest son who has sadly died has two sons living near Lyon.

Benjamin Batten Keable

Benjamin Batten Keable (1854-1919) married Georgiana Langford and the photography accompanying this article shows them with Robert H Keable and his wife Margaret. Benjamin and Georgiana had seven children – Frances, Edith, Dorothy, Grace, Mary, Benjamin and Geoffrey. In his semi-autobiographical novel Peradventure, Robert Keable wrote:

He had no sister, and his girl friends were mainly a family of cousins so closely interested in each other, that, although they were friendly enough and admitted him to the family circle on long summer holidays together, he was not really intimate with any one of them.

Robert did however invite his cousin Benjamin to visit him when he was at Cambridge and Ben wrote later (in 1959):

My memory is always of a gay, clever and generous youth. As a schoolboy I once paid a visit to Robert at Magdalen and he devoted the whole day to canoe, picnic and a tour of the colleges that I shall never forget. The last time I saw him he offered to buy me a motor car to help me in the handicap of a leg lost in the war. That was a handsome offer in those days which I stiff-neckedly and probably sanctimoniously refused.

All I know, from an unreliable family tree produced by my father, is that of the seven children of Benjamin and Georgina: Frances had two children – Alan Tillott and Joyce Robinson; Mary had two – Robert Derrick and Mary; Ben had one – Marjorie Knapman; and Geoffry had one – Julian.   

Tracking down Robert Keable’s relations

I have decided to try and track down Robert Keable’s relations. One major problem is that many of them no longer carry the Keable surname. Still, I have decided to begin with the Keables. From the BT website I have the address of fifty Keables living in England and on Facebook there are another fifty. If you are a Keable, have read this far, received a message from me out of the blue and know no one I have mentioned so far in this post, my apologies. If however you are related to Robert Keable I would love to hear from you!