Bartholomew Beale

Last updated

Bartholomew Beale (died 8 May 1674) was an English bureaucrat of the Commonwealth and Restoration periods.

Beale was the third son of Bartholomew Beale, of Walton, Buckinghamshire. His elder brother, Charles, [1] was the husband of the portrait painter Mary Beale.

Educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge, Beale was admitted to Gray's Inn on 18 June 1639. [2] He obtained the reversion of the office of auditor of the imprests for life on 17 August 1641, and took up the post in 1650. A relative of Samuel Pepys by marriage, Beale appears several times in Pepys' diaries, and his methods seem to have met with approval:

After dinner by coach with Sir G. Carteret and Sir J. Minnes by appointment to Auditor Beale's in Salisbury Court, and there we did with great content look over some old ledgers to see in what manner they were kept, and indeed it was in an extraordinary good method. [3]

The office of auditor, which required Beale to examine the books of various officials who spent government money "on account", was a fairly lucrative one. With the emoluments from his employment, Beale was able to purchase Hopton Castle, Shropshire, which remained in the family for several generations. He also owned a house in Hatton Garden, London. On 8 May 1674, Beale died by suicide, "throwing himself downe in his frantick fitt" from the upper window of this house, much to the puzzlement of his contemporaries. [4] His wife, the former Miss Hunt, survived him, as did two children, the eldest also named Bartholomew. [1] He left them a large estate, and was in no financial difficulties at the time of his death.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Pepys</span> English diarist and naval administrator (1633–1703)

Samuel Pepys was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade. Pepys had no maritime experience, but he rose to be the Chief Secretary to the Admiralty under both King Charles II and King James II through patronage, diligence, and his talent for administration. His influence and reforms at the Admiralty were important in the early professionalisation of the Royal Navy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Williamson (English politician)</span> English civil servant, diplomat and politician

Sir Joseph Williamson, PRS was an English civil servant, diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons of England variously between 1665 and 1701 and in the Irish House of Commons between 1692 and 1699. He was Secretary of State for the Northern Department from 1674 to 1679.

Samuel Hartlib or Hartlieb was a Royal Prussian born, English educational and agricultural reformer of German-Polish origin who settled, married and died in England. He was a son of George Hartlib, a Pole, and Elizabeth Langthon, a daughter of a rich English merchant. Hartlib was a noted promoter and writer in fields that included science, medicine, agriculture, politics and education. He was a contemporary of Robert Boyle, whom he knew well, and a neighbour of Samuel Pepys in Axe Yard, London, in the early 1660s. He studied briefly at the University of Cambridge upon arriving in England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Penn (Royal Navy officer)</span> English Royal Navy admiral, politician and member of parliament

Sir William Penn was an English admiral and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1660 to 1670. He was the father of William Penn, founder of the colonial Province of Pennsylvania, which is now Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich</span> Royal Navy admiral, diplomat and politician

Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich, 27 July 1625 to 28 May 1672, was an English military officer, politician and diplomat from Barnwell, Northamptonshire. During the First English Civil War, he served with the Parliamentarian army, and was an MP at various times between 1645 and 1660. Under The Protectorate, he was also a member of the English Council of State and General at sea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Cooper (painter)</span> 17th-century English painter of miniatures

Samuel Cooper, sometimes spelt as Samuel Cowper, was an English miniature painter, and younger brother of Alexander Cooper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Byron, 1st Baron Byron</span>

John Byron, 1st Baron Byron KB was an English nobleman, Royalist, politician, peer, knight, and supporter of Charles I during the English Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sir Orlando Bridgeman, 1st Baronet, of Great Lever</span> English lawyer and politician (1606–1674)

Sir Orlando Bridgeman, 1st Baronet, was an English common law jurist, lawyer, and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 to 1642. He supported the Royalist cause in the Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Batten</span> English naval officer and politician, 1600/1601–1667

Sir William Batten was an English naval officer and administrator from Somerset, who began his career as a merchant seaman, served as second-in-command of the Parliamentarian navy during the First English Civil War, then defected to the Royalists when the Second English Civil War began in 1648. After the 1660 Stuart Restoration, he was elected Member of Parliament for Rochester and re-appointed Surveyor of the Navy, a position he had previously held from 1638 to 1648. In this capacity, he was a colleague of the author Samuel Pepys, who mentions him frequently in his "Diary", often to his detriment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Montagu (Trinity)</span> English churchman and academic

John Montagu or Mountague was an English churchman and academic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sir Edward Seymour, 4th Baronet</span> British politician (1633–1708)

Sir Edward Seymour, of Berry Pomeroy, 4th Baronet, MP was a British nobleman, and a Royalist and Tory politician.

Sir Richard Pepys was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1640 and was Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. He was a great-uncle of Samuel Pepys, the diarist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonas Moore</span> English mathematician and engineer (1627–1679)

Sir Jonas Moore, FRS (1617–1679) was an English mathematician, surveyor, ordnance officer, and patron of astronomy. He took part in two of the most ambitious English civil engineering projects of the 17th century: draining the Great Level of the Fens and building the Mole at Tangier. In later life, his wealth and influence as Surveyor-General of the Ordnance enabled him to become a patron and driving force behind the establishment of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Hewer</span> English politician

William Hewer, sometimes known as Will Hewer, was one of Samuel Pepys' manservants, and later Pepys's clerk, before embarking on an administrative career of his own. Hewer is mentioned several times in Pepys' diary and was ultimately the executor of Pepys' will.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Vaughan (chief justice)</span>

Sir John Vaughan SL, of Trawsgoed, was a justice in the Kingdom of England.

Sir Samuel Tuke, 1st Baronet was an English officer in the Royalist army during the English Civil War and a notable playwright. He is best known for his 1663 play The Adventures of Five Hours, possibly co-authored by George Digby – the play was produced by the Duke's Company and later proved an influence on Richard Brinsley Sheridan's opera The Duenna.

Roger Pepys was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1661 to 1678. He is chiefly remembered as Samuel Pepys's "Cousin Roger". He and his children appear regularly in Samuel's great Diary. Relations between the two men were always good.

Sir John Povey (1621–1679) was an English-born judge who had a highly successful career in Ireland, holding office as Baron of the Court of Exchequer (Ireland) and subsequently as Lord Chief Justice of Ireland during the years 1673–9.

Sir Robert Slingsby, 1st Baronet (1611–1661) was an English baronet, author and Naval commander, and in his last years a much-loved colleague of Samuel Pepys.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Pepys Club</span>

The Samuel Pepys Club is a London club founded in 1903 to do honour to the memory of Samuel Pepys (1633–1703), the English naval administrator and Member of Parliament now best known as a diarist.

References

  1. 1 2 Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry (1875)
  2. "Beale, Bartholomew (BL639B)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  3. Diary of Samuel Pepys, January 7, 1664 N.S.
  4. Smyth, Richard (1849). Smyth's Obituary. p. 102. Retrieved 5 May 2008.
Political offices
Preceded by
John Worfield
Auditor of the Imprests
1650–1674
Succeeded by