​KEPER, JOHN (fl. 1580), poet, appears to have been born at Wells, Somerset, about 1547. He entered Hart Hall, Oxford, in 1564, and graduated B.A. on 11 Feb. 1568–1569 (Oxf. Univ. Reg., Oxf. Hist. Soc., i. 268). He was still in residence at college in 1572. On 8 July 1580, being then M.A. of Louvain, he petitioned to be incorporated at Oxford, but the grace was refused, as he was supposed to be a Romanist (ib. vol. ii. pt. i. pp. 35, 156–7, 377).

Wood, on the authority of Bishop Barlow, assigns to Keper the authorship of ‘The whole Psalter, translated into English Metre’ (1567?), which is known to have been written by Archbishop Matthew Parker. Keper is author of three complimentary poems, besides an address to the reader, in Thomas Howell's ‘Arbor of Amitie,’ 8vo, 1568. J. K. (who, as Bliss conjectures, may be John Keper) translated from the Italian of Count Annibale Romei ‘The Courtiers Academie,’ 4to, London, 1598.

G. G.