Donald McKeithan was likely from Scotland and was a resident of New Hanover County, North Carolina by 1739. By 1746 McKeithan was residing in Bladen County, North Carolina. A tailor by trade, McKeithan was also an owner of enslaved people. In 1753 he sat on a case of the local freeholders court for Cato, an enslaved man charged with attempted murder. McKeithan died sometime after 1773.