This may have been true, but it was mere bravado, for he appealed from his prison to the benevolent, as we see by the following advertisement. "_To the Compassionate._ By the late Marriage Act, the Rev. Mr. Keith, from a great Degree of Affluence, is reduc'd to such a deplorable State of Misery in the Fleet Prison, as is much better to be conceiv'd than related, having scarce any other thing than Bread and Water to subsist on. It is to be hoped he will be deemed truly undeserving such a Fate, when the Publick are assured, that not foreseeing such an unhappy Stroke of Fortune, as the late Act, he yearly expended almost his whole Income (which amounted to several Hundred Pounds per Annum) in relieving not only single distress'd Persons, but even whole Families of wretched Objects of Compassion. This can be attested by several Persons of the strictest Character and Reputation, as well as by Numbers who experienced his Bounty. Mr. Keith's present calamitous Situation renders him perhaps as great an Object of Charity himself, as all Circumstances consider'd, as ever in his better Days partook of his own Assistance, or that of others equally compassionate; and is indeed sufficient to awaken Humanity in the most uncharitable. Any Gentleman or Lady may be satisfied of the above by applying to Mr. Brooke, Engraver, facing Water Lane, Fleet Street, by whom Donations from the Publick will be received for the Use of Mr. Keith."
[Footnote 156: Joshua Lilly, who kept one of the Hand and Pen houses, and said that he had been appointed Registrar of Marriages, by the Lord Chancellor, and had paid £1,000 for the post. He did not marry people, but kept presumable Clergymen to do so. He is mentioned several times in the Registers and Pocket-books. Once, at all events, he was in danger of the judgment seat, as Ashwell writes in one of his pocket-books: "N.B. On Sunday, November y^e 6, 1740, at y^e hour of 9, in my house declared that, if he had not come home out of y^e country, being fled for punishment, having Cut of his hair (to prevent being known), y^t y^e indictment for marrying James Hussey to Miss Henrietta Arnold, he had (been) ruin'd but y^t he swore it off and y^e attorney promis'd to defend him, and it cost him only a treat of 10/; had I staid, says the s^d Joshua Lilley, where I was, viz.----, the indictment would have stood good against me, but my taking y^e side of the prosecutor, y^e young ladies, I have got safe off." In a Register is a notice relating to him. "June y^e 13th, 1744. Whereas one Joshua Lilley, being a noted man for having more marriages at his house than the generality of y^e people could have, he the said Joshua Lilley keeping several plyars, as they are call'd, to gett these weddings, I have put his marriages down in a separate book, but findend ill-convenience arise thereby, fro' this 13th instant, do insert it w^{ th} y^e rest." And one of his handbills describes him as "I. Lilley, at y^e Hand and Pen, next door to the china shop, Fleet Bridge, London, will be perform'd the solemnization of marriages by a gentleman regularly bred att one of our Universities, and lawfully ordain'd according to the institutions of the Church of England, and is ready to wait on any person in town or countrey."]