Early Life
He was born at Inverugie Castle near Peterhead, the second son of William, 9th Earl Marischal of Scotland. Through his careful education under the historian Robert Keith, and subsequently at the University of Aberdeen in preparation for the legal profession, he acquired that taste for literature which secured him the esteem of the most distinguished savants of Europe, but at an early period his preference for a soldier's career was clear. The Jacobite rising of 1715, in which he displayed qualities that gave some augury of his future eminence, compelled him to seek safety on the Continent (Nihtinen 1998).
After spending two years in Paris, chiefly at the university, he took part in abortive risings in 1719 in support of James Stuart, son of the deposed King James VII and pretender to the Scottish throne.
Read more about this topic: James Francis Edward Keith
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