William Henry Alonzo Keans (1804 -1876): Revered Leader in the City of Saint John – and Child of a British Soldier

from History of Saint John's Lodge F.&A.M. New Brunswick
William Franklin Bunting 1895

I have been chasing down a bit of a mystery the past few weeks – one I thought I had solved, then not solved, then solved again, and now I am just not sure.  I sought the help of the Nova Scotia archives (they are amazing), who were able to answer some questions, but it left me again without answers.  I would like to tell you what I know about one of my ancestors, William Henry Alonzo Keans, and then tell you what I don’t know, and then ask for your help. 

The Keans link to my family tree is through the Haywards.  Harvey Parlee Hayward (1861-1949) married Annie Everitt Anderson (1861-1929), who was the daughter of John Michael Anderson (1832-1910) and Eliza Keans (1839-1916).  Eliza is W.H.A. Keans’s daughter. 

William Henry Alonzo Keans (let’s call him “WHA” for short), married Lucy Ann Robinson in October 1827 in Saint John, New Brunswick.  Back in the early 1860s, WHA was listed as a general agent.  He must have been a capable fellow, because by 1866 he was the superintendent of weighers of coal and measurers of salt.  He was building a reputation in the city of Saint John as reliable and astute.  He had three young children: Anne, Eliza and George Frederick.  WHA and Eliza’s first child, Amelia Augusta, died in infancy.

WHA worked hard to build his reputation as a community member and leader.  He was an elected representative of the city of Saint John, a school trustee, magistrate, prohibitionist, President of the Mechanic’s Institute, the 25^th Worshipful Master of the Saint John Masonic Lodge, and so much more.  I managed to pull out a few highlights so you can get a sense of the man, but a complete accounting would be a difficult venture.

Prohibitionist

WHA was an outspoken advocate for prohibition, an issue which divided Saint John in the 1850s.  He ran for and won a seat on the 1852 Common Council based on the temperance slate and as a member of the Total Abstinence Society.  According to Thomas W. Acheson’s historical account, Saint John: The Making of a Colonial Urban Community, Saint John became a city divided over this issue.  The elections put the temperance advocates in positions of power, denying liquor licences and enforcing the law, and enraging leading merchants, lawyers and other leaders of the community.  By 1856 the New Brunswick legislature had repealed the prohibition statute and most prohibitionists realized that being tied to that slate was not to their advantage in the long run.

WHA, a man of high ideals and principles, in an 1857 address to the Sons of Temperance, described the remaining prohibitionists as:

…a band of sons… for the sole purpose of advancing the true and with real interest in the work of reform… to persevere to the end in the sacred cause of human progress… The good must eventually triumph.  The God, in whom we rely, will turn and overturn until this destructive foe of our race shall meet with a doom proportional to his deserts.

With their membership more than halved, and most now residing in Saint John, there is no doubt that they all, including their then scribe WHA, felt beset from all sides – the last defenders of a cause in which they all believed, and which had brought them recently to positions of power in the city.

WHA’s position on prohibition may have fallen out of favour, but his reputation as a man of courage and principles was strengthened.

Mason

WHA seems to have built a solid community reputation through the Masonic Lodge.  He was initiated there on January 7, 1840, and held a number of positions including Secretary and Treasurer.  Admittedly I have had a hard time figuring out the Masons – they follow a path from initiation, to apprenticeship, to mastery, and the position titles and investitures seem to follow that path. WHA rose to the highest ranks in the Saint John Masonic Temple: exalted to the R.A. degree in 1846 (sounds like a heady title) and a Knight Templar in 1856.

On the 27^th of September, 1876, WHA was unanimously elected Deputy Grand Master, and installed into his position on the 28th.  He addressed the members on his installation, referring to his failing health, and promising that “during so long as it pleased the Great Architect of the universe to prolong his life, his best services would be as ever devoted to the fraternity.”

It was two days later that WHA died.  The Masons passed resolutions in his honour, including the following:

…resolved, That his brethren bear testimony to the fact that he was ever an ardent and enthusiastic worker in all stations occupied by him, as worshipful master, treasurer, private member or other capacity; and to his untiring efforts in years gone by may, in a great measure, be attributed to the present prosperous and satisfactory condition of the lodge.  Beloved, respected and venerated, he has gone to “the narrow house appointed for all living,” full of years and honours.

The lodge was draped in mourning for three months.  When they collected again in November 1876, they had the opportunity to speak to his character and history with the lodge.  A personal tribute was also paid which described how WHA was seen by his brother Masons:

In adding my testimony to the worth of Bro. Keans, I can truly say that he was eminent in all the relations of public and private life; active and influential in the community as in the masonic fraternity which he so greatly loved ; zealous, methodical and punctual in all his undertakings; a warm and generous friend and a wise and discreet counsellor; decided and firm in his opinions; opposed to humbugs and shams; the work which his hands and brains found to do was done readily and energetically. His long and active life was expressed in a wide sphere of public and private activities, and in all he was faithful to every trust committed to his keeping.

Childhood and Early Life

I can find no primary records that help me decipher the early life of WHA.  My best lead is a secondary source:  the biographical sketch of WHA Keans written for the Masons and by those who knew him.  It would likely have been developed based on what WHA Keans told his masonic brethren.  As we know from our genealogical research, family stories are often embellished or changed to hide what was possibly a shameful past, or to project a more appropriate public persona. 

If we go on what the Masonic biographical sketch tells us, the basics are that WHA Keans was born 11 March 1804 at Ryde on the Isle of Wight.  He was the child of John Keans, a Captain and Quartermaster of the 60^th Regiment of Rifles, and he spent his childhood in the British army.  John Keans was stationed at several West India Islands and then to Halifax where his regiment was disbanded.  WHA Keans spent a short time in his youth as a midshipman on the frigate “Rifleman”.  He arrived in the parish of Portland, Saint John from Halifax in 1825.  The rest of his life is well-documented in primary sources.

Who is John Keans?

Prior to WHA’s move to Saint John, there is nothing I can find about him that is definitive in the primary sources available to me.  That isn’t to say that there aren’t more sources available, just none I can access.  So, I went to my next best available source, which is the Mason’s biographical sketch, for clues.  John Keans was a soldier in the 60^th Regiment of Foot in British Army recruited from his home on the Isle of Wight.  His service included time in the West Indies.

The Regimental Chronicle has only one quartermaster whose name resembles John Keans:  a John Kiens, quartermaster in the 3^rd Battalion.  The 3^rd battalion chronology is very consistent with the Masonic biographical sketch.

Fortunately, a fair bit has been written about the 60^th Regiment, known in the latter part of the 1700s as the 60^th Royal American Regiment of Foot.  The 60^th Regiment of Foot was a sort of French Foreign Legion fighting for the British.  They were made up of non-British infantrymen, but the officers were British.  Originally the Regiment was authorized to be raised in 1755 to fight in North America.  Recruiting for the Regiment took place in Germany and with German colonists in North America. 

In 1775, the 3^rd Battalion was raised, on the Isle of Wight, and stayed there until 1776, at which point they sailed to St. Augustin and Jamaica.  Over the following years the 3^rd Battalion would see action in the Caribbean and in America, landing for the first time in Halifax in 1783.  The 3^rd Battalion was decommissioned for the first time in that year. 

The Regimental Chronicle tells us that on September 22, 1787, the 3^rd Battalion was raised in Chatham, England and “composed of foreign recruits.”  The “depot” is listed as the Isle of Wight.  They were then moved to the West Indies.  They transferred between the West Indies and Channel Islands over the following years. 

The history of the 5^th Battalion is important here as well, as some were merged with the 3^rd in 1808.  The 500 men recruited for this battalion were mostly Hessians: a name given to German riflemen recruited by the British.  There were others in this battalion as well, foreigners that had been displaced as a result of battles throughout the Napoleonic period.

The 3^rd Battalion did not return to British soil after 1787 and continued their battles around the West Indies until 1816 when they arrived on North American shores in Halifax.  There they stayed, first as light infantry, and then decommissioned by 1819.

The first time John Kiens shows up on the Regimental Chronicle as a Quartermaster is 1816, with his “rank in regiment” as 6 April 1815.  The Chronicle, unfortunately, had some unreadable pages, but the last time we see him with certainty, as Quartermaster, is 1818.  The next readable page is 1822 and he is no longer there. The timeline certainly works for John Kiens to then be decommissioned to Halifax as a former Quartermaster of the 60^th Regiment.  The facts seem aligned, except for the spelling of the name.  However, Keans is an anglicized version of the German Kiens.  Could WHA be of German heritage?

Since the facts line up with regard to John Kiens’s rank in the British Army and eventual decommissioning to Halifax, what else did I learn about John Kiens?  According to his army records, he married an Elizabeth in 1799 in Barbados.  This definitely means he was a private in the army at that time, and likely recruited into the 3^rd Battalion in 1787.  Was he then a German recruit who joined the 3^rd in Chatham?

The Quartermaster position in the British Army is drawn from the soldiers themselves and given the title Captain.  This lines up with the Biographical Sketch.  John Kiens may have been one of the Hessian soldiers that made up 30,000 British troops during the American Revolutionary War.  This potential German heritage however does not line up with WHA’s biography, nor the story that WHA himself told about his heritage.  He was deeply committed to his claimed British roots – speaking of it often and joining societies (like the Masons and the Albion society) that continued to support that claim.  It is either true or a fiction he created to hide his heritage.  He would regardless have grown up in the British Army and most certainly would have adopted the British traditions – and likely would have felt more British than German in any case.  This is all assuming John Kiens, Quartermaster and Captain of the 3^rd Battalion, 60^th Regiment of Foot is the same John Keans that the Masons write about in their Biographical Sketch of their former Grand Master WHA Keans.

Some records of John Kiens align, and others confuse the history.  Sergeant John Kiens marries Elizabeth Ival June 14, 1799 while stationed in the Barbados.  Elizabeth is from the Island of Saint Christophus.  Certainly, a marriage in 1799 works out for a timeline that sees WHA born in 1807.  However, John Kiens and the 3^rd Battalion never went back to the Isle of Wight, so WHA could not have been born there.

Further, these same records show John and Elizabeth with three children:  Elanora (1816, Halifax), Amelia Augusta (1812, Martinique), and Guillaume (1814, Martinique).  No WHA.  Further, Guillaume is the French equivalent of William, and surely they would not have named two of their children William.  The record for Guillaume is in French and the hand-writing significantly less tidy than other records.  To be honest, some of it I am not sure I understand.  It certainly says that Guillaume was baptized as the legitimate son of John and Elizabeth.  However there are other notes that are probably worth understanding (another odd note here: I did find a record of a William Keans, living in Halifax, of German heritage, born around 1815, whose child is named Alonzo!  It is a different William from WHA, but I find the coincidence almost too much).

The record for Guillaume does not make sense for our William, as it would mean WHA married Lucy Ann Robinson at the age of 13.  Perhaps this completely eliminates John Kiens as the parent of William.  Perhaps the other writing on the document holds the clue.  However, if the Biography is right, there were no other John Kiens, Quartermasters of the 60^th that fit the bill (and I reviewed all of the names for the relevant period). 

John Kiens received a 500 acre grant in Sherbrooke as a Quartermaster of the 60^th Regiment when the Battalion was decommissioned.  His grant was in 1822, and he is listed with other members of his regiment in a grant listed as Captain William Ross et al. (my thanks to the Nova Scotia archives for taking the time to look it up for me as it was not available virtually).

We learned from the Biography that WHA spent some time in the British navy on the ship Rifleman.  There are no available records for that ship, and likely there wouldn’t have been any that listed a teenager in their ranks, as that is likely what he would have been while serving on that ship.  The ship was a Cruizer class brig-sloop that served, among other places, in Halifax and Jamaica.  Not knowing the details of how youth, children of British army, are possibly brought on board ships to work, it’s hard to say how and when WHA ended up on the Rifleman.

The illustrated London News 14 Dec 1850 showing The Rifleman pursuing a Brazilian slaver

The ship was in Halifax in 1814, Jamaica in 1817, and it was under repairs from 1820 to 1823.  It went to the Mediterranean after that.  It is very hard to say during which period and in which theatre of war WHA would have served, and no records provide proof of this claim.  If poor WHA served on the vessel while it was in New England capturing privateers, it would have been under the command of Commander Henry Edward Napier, during which time “Rifleman had more punishments, with a higher number of lashes, than any other British ship in New England waters.”  If so, it’s no surprise that he opted for a career outside of British armed services.  He certainly did not serve long enough to be entitled to a land grant.

What happened to John Kiens?

If in fact John Kiens of the records I have found is WHA’s father, there are several reasons for WHA, a man who has fashioned himself a proper English gentleman, a stalwart of the community, a magistrate, leader and prohibitionist, to disengage from his past.

The first is that his father, according to the records, is likely of German heritage.  All of the logical reasons listed above would suggest this: his rank, the history of the 60^th, the spelling of his name among them.  One other piece of evidence is that his military record shows that one of his baptisms was presided over by the “Missionary to the Germans at Halifax”.

The second is that John Kiens, Quartermaster and Captain of the British Forces, who fought in some ugly campaigns in the West Indies and elsewhere, died in 1828.  A coroner’s inquest was held and it was found that John Kiens “hanged himself in a fit of Temporary derangement” (Halifax Acadian Reporter, 13 September 1828).  Given how recent his decommissioning and the fact that he was essentially fighting in wars most of his life, I think we can guess that his trauma made the stresses of colonial living difficult to bear, not to mention the likely PTSD he was suffering.

Here’s something else that’s weird.  We have been referring the subject of our research as WHA Keans – his full name being William Henry Alonzo Keans.  Alonzo is a strikingly odd name for an Englishman – and perhaps why he went with WHA for his public persona.  It is, however, a German name (it’s also Italian). 

This is a mystery that I have not been able to solve.  Almost everything points to John Kiens as WHA’s father but one fact:  there is no record of his birth in the John Kiens’s military file.  It is possible it fell out – as other pages were included with paper clips.  The files are, after all, more than 200 years old.  But it begs the question as to why they would name another of their children Guillaume.

If WHA is not the child of John Kiens, then the Masonic Biographical Sketch is full of odd inaccuracies that make no sense to randomly put into someone’s biography.  Why would you make up the father being the Quartermaster of the 60^th, spending time in Martinique, and so on.

I am hoping that posting this blog will discover others looking into this mystery who have information that could help.  For now, I surrender to my limitations and hope that new clues will emerge over time.

Postscript:  Literally the next day I am looking at notes and realize that WHA's first daughter, Amelia Augusta Keans, who died in infancy, has exactly the same name as John Kiens first daughter as noted in the military records.  Too many coincidences.