DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY Beal BEAL, WILLIAM (1815-1870), religious writer, was born in 1815, and educated at King's College, London, and Trinity College, Cambridge. He took the degree of B.A. in 1841; in the same year he was ordained deacon, and he was made vicar of Brooke near Norwich in 1847. The degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by the university of Aberdeen. He is best known as the promoter of harvest homes for country districts in 1854. At Norwich he was vicepresident of the People's College, and corresponding member of the Working Men's Congregational Union. He died in 1870. He was the editor of the 'West of England Magazine' and author of the following works: 1. An Analysis of Palmer's Origines Liturgicæ (1850). 2. 'The Nineveh Monuments and the Old Testament. 3. A Letter to the Earl of Albemarle on Harvest Homes. 4. A First Book of Chronology (1846). He edited with a preface Certain godly Prayers originally appended to the Book of Common Prayer.' [Men of the Time, 7th ed.; Brit. Mus. Cat.] A. G-N. BEALE, FRANCIS (A. 1656), was the author of the Royall Game of Chesse Play, sometimes the Recreation of the late King with many of the Nobility, illustrated with almost one hundred Gambetts, being the study of Biochimo, the famous Italian,' London, 1656. A portrait of Charles I, engraved by Stent, forms the frontispiece of the volume; the dedication is addressed to Montague, Earl of Lindsey. The book is translated from Gioacchimo Greco's famous work on chess; was reissued in 1750, and again in 1819 (with remarks by G. W. Lewis). He contributed a poem to 'The Teares of the Isle of Wight shed on the tombe of . . . Henrie, Earle of VOL. IV. 20 [Brit. Mus. Cat.; Hunter's MS. Chorus Vatum in MSS. Addl. 24489 f. 285.] S. L. L. BEALE, JOHN, D.D. (1603–1683 ?), scientific writer, was descended from a good family in Herefordshire, in which county he was born in 1603, being nephew of Sir William Pye, attorney in the court of wards (BOYLE, Works, v. 429). He was educated first at Worcester School, and afterwards at Eton, whence he proceeded in 1629 to King's College, Cambridge, where he read philosophy to the students for two years (HARWOOD, Alumni Etonenses, 228). 'At his entrance into that university he found the writings of the Ramists in high esteem, from which they sunk within three or four years after, without the solicitation of any party or faction, or other concernment, merely by the prevalence of solid truth and reasonable discourse. And the same fate soon after befel Calvinism in both universities' (BIRCH, Hist. of the Royal Society, iv. 235). From childhood Beale had been diligent in cultivating the art of memory, and he himself has left us an account of the marvellous proficiency which he attained. He says: By reading Ovid's "Metamorphoses" and such slight romances as the "Destruction of Troy," and other discourses and histories which were then obvious, I had learned a promptness of knitting all my reading and studies on an everlasting string. The same practice I continued upon theologues, logicians, and such philosophers as those times yielded. For some years before I came to Eton, I did (in secret corners, concealed from B others' eyes) read Melancthon's Logicks, Magirus's Physica, Ursin's Theologica, which was the best I could then hear of; and (at first reading) by heart I learned them, too perfectly, as I now conceive. Afterwards, in Cambridge, proceeding in the same order and diligence with their logicians, philosophers, and schoolmen, I could at last learn them by heart faster than I could read them-I mean, by the swiftest glance of the eye, without the tediousness of pronouncing or articulating what I read. Thus I oft-times saved my purse by looking over books in stationers' shops. . . . Constantly I repeated in my bed (evening and morning) what I read and heard that was worthy to be remembered; and by this habitude and promptness of memory I was enabled, that when I read to the students of King's College, Cambridge (which I did for two years together, in all sorts of the current philosophy), I could pro- | vide myself without notes (by mere meditation, or by glancing upon some book) in less time than I spent in uttering it; yet they were then a critical auditory, whilst Mr. Bust was schoolmaster of Eton' (BOYLE, Works, v. 426). Beale, who graduated B.A. in 1632, M.A. in 1636, and was subsequently created a doctor of divinity, spent some time in foreign travel, being at Orleans in 1636, when he was thirty-three years of age. His love of learning brought him into frequent correspondence with Samuel Hartlib and the Hon. Robert Boyle. Two of his letters to Hartlib on Herefordshire Orchards' were printed in 1656, and produced such an effect, that within a few years the author's native county gained some 100,000l. by the fame of its orchards (GOUGH, Brit. Topog. i. 415). In the preface Beale makes the following autobiographical remarks: My education was amongst scholars in academies, where I spent many years in conversing with variety of books only. A little before our wars began, I spent two summers in travelling towards the south, with purpose to know men and foreign manners. Since my return I have been constantly employ'd in a weighty office, by which I am not disengaged from the care of our public welfare in the peace and prosperity of this nation, but obliged to be the more solicitous and tender in preserving it and promoting it.' Beale resided chiefly in Herefordshire until 1660, when he became rector of Yeovil, in Somersetshire, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was also rector of Sock Dennis in the latter county. He was an early member of the Royal Society, being declared an honorary one on 7 Jan. 1662-3, and elected a fellow on the 21st of the same month. In 1665 he was appointed chaplain to King Charles II. In his last letter to Boyle, dated 8 July 1682, he mentions that he was then entering into his eightieth year, and adds that 'by infirmities I am constrained to dictate extempore, and do want a friend to assist me.' It is probable that he did not live long after this. Samuel Hartlib, writing to Boyle in 1658, says of Beale: There is not the like man in the whole island, nor in the continent beyond the seas, so far as I know it—I mean, that could be made more universally use of, to do good to all, as I in some measure know and could direct' (BOYLE, Works, v. 275). His works are: 1. Aphorisms concerning Cider,' printed in John Evelyn's 'Sylva, or a Discourse of Forest Trees,' 1644, and entitled in the later editions of that work, 'General Advertisements concerning Cider.' 2. 'Herefordshire Orchards, a Pattern for all England, written in an Epistolary Address to Samuel Hartlib, Esq. By I. B.,' Lond. 1656, 8vo; reprinted in Richard Bradley's 'New Improvements of Planting and Gardening,' 1724 and 1739. 3. Scientific papers in the Philosophical Transactions.' 4. Letters to the Hon. Robert Boyle, printed in the 5th volume of that philosopher's works. [Information from the Rev. Dr. Luard; Birch's Hist. of the Royal Society, iv. 235; Gough's British Topography, i. 415, ii. 221, 225, 391, 634; Boyle's Works, v. 275, 277, 281, 346, 423-510; Harwood's Alumni Eton. 228; Worthington's Diary, i. 122; Birch's Life of Boyle, 115; Collinson's Somersetshire, iii. 212; Felton, On the Portraits of English Authors on Gardening, 2nd ed. 21; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. i. 447, iv. 256; Addit. MSS. 6271, f. 10, 15948, ff. 80, 136, 138; Thomson's History of the Royal Society. Append. xxiv.] T. C. BEALE, MARY (1632-1697), portrait painter, born in Suffolk in 1632, was the daughter of the Rev. J. Cradock, vicar of Walton-upon-Thames. She is said to have learned the rudiments of painting from Sir Peter Lely, but it is more probable, as Vertue thought, that she received instruction from Robert Walker, and only copied the works of Lely, who was supposed to have had a tender attachment to her, and through whose influence she obtained access to some of the finest works of Van Dyck, by copying which she acquired that purity of colouring for which her portraits are remarkable. She married Charles Beale, the lord of the manor of Walton, in Buckinghamshire, who had some employment under the board of green cloth, and took great interest in chemistry, especially the manufacture of colours, in which he did business with Lely and other painters of the day. His Mrs. Beale had two sons, BARTHOLOMEW, who commenced life as a portrait painter, but afterwards studied medicine under Dr. Sydenham, and practised at Coventry; and CHARLES, who followed his mother's branch of art. He was born 28 May 1660, and after studying under Thomas Flatman, the miniature painter and poet, assisted his mother in draperies and backgrounds. He painted portraits both in oil and in water-colours, and some few in crayons, but soon after 1689 he was compelled by weakness of sight to relinquish his profession, and died in London, but in what year is not known. There are portraits of Archbishop Burton and Bishop Burnet engraved after him by Robert White. [Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting (ed. Wornum), 1849, ii. 537-44; Scharf's Catalogue of the National Portrait Gallery, 1884.] R. E. G. BEALE, ROBERT (1541-1601), diplomatist and antiquary, is said to have been descended from a family settled at Woodbridge in Suffolk. Of his parents, however, we know nothing but their names, Robert and Amy. He married Edith, daughter of Henry St. Barbe, of Somerset shire, sister of the wife of Sir Francis Walsingham. Apparently, he very early formed decided opinions upon the theological controversies of his age; for he seems to have been obliged to quit England at some date during Queen Mary's reign, and not to have returned until after the accession of Elizabeth. It is probably to this period that he refers when, at a much later date, he writes that in his youth he took great pains in travelling in divers countries on foot for lack of other abilities.' In 1562 Lord John Grey consulted him concerning the validity of the marriage of his niece with Edward Seymour, earl of Hertford, and Beale in consequence made a journey to the continent for the purpose of laying the case before the learned Oldendorpius and some eminent Italian canonists. The opinion which Beale formed after consultation with these sagacious persons, and which he subsequently maintained in a Latin tract, has stood the test of time; for though a royal commission, with Archbishop Parker at its head, pronounced the marriage void, its validity was established in 1606, and has never since been questioned. In 1564 he obtained some post in connection with the English embassy in Paris. What was the precise nature of his duties does not appear; but they seem to have sometimes carried him into Germany. Apparently, Walsingham found him in Paris on his appointment as ambassador-resident there in 1570, and made him his secretary. In the correspondence between Burghley and Walsingham of this period he is frequently mentioned as carrying despatches to and fro between Paris and London. He appears to have been a witness of the massacre of St. Bartholomew two years later (24 Aug. 1572), which furnished him with material for a ‘Discourse by way of Letter to the Lord Burghley,' written shortly after the event. The same year he succeeded Robert Monson, then raised to the bench, as M.P. for Totnes. It must have been about this time that he was appointed clerk to the council, as in a letter dated 1591 he states that he had then held that post nineteen years. In April 1575 he was sent to Flushing to recover goods which the Flushingers had seized, consisting partly of merchandise and partly of property of the Earl of Oxford; and in the following year he accompanied Admiral Winter to the Low Countries to demand the liberation of the |