Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 04.djvu/12

Beale islands' (MS. Addit. 5808, f. 152). At length, after a confinement of three years, Beale was released by exchange, and joined the king at Oxford. There he was incorporated D.D. in 1645, and in the following year he was nominated dean of Ely, though he was never admitted to the dignity. He was one of the divines selected by the king to accompany him to Holdenby (1646). Ultimately he went into exile and accompanied the embassy of Lord Cottington and Sir Edward Hyde to Spain. His death occurred at Madrid on 1 Oct. 1651. The antiquary Baker gives this curious account of his last illness and clandestine interment: 'The doctor, not long after his coming to Madrid, was taken ill, and being apprehensive of danger and that he had not long to live, desired Sir Edward Hide and some others of the family to receive the holy sacrament with him, which he in perfect good understanding, though weak in body, being supported in his bed, consecrated and administered to himself and to the few other communicants, and died some few hours after he had performed that last office. He was very solicitous in his last sickness lest his body should fall into the hands of the inquisitors, for the prevention whereof this expedient was made use of, that the doctor dying in a ground chamber, the boards were taken up, and a grave being dug, the body, covered with a shroud, was deposited therein very deep, and four or five bushels of quicklime thrown upon it in order to consume it the sooner. Everything in the room was restored to the same order it was in before, and the whole affair, being committed only to a few trusty persons, was kept so secret as to escape the knowledge or suspicion of the Spaniards, and may so remain undiscovered till the resurrection.'

Beale greatly embellished the chapel of St. John's College, and left manuscripts and other books to the library. His portrait is in the master's lodge. Sir Edward Hyde, afterwards Lord Clarendon, in one of his manuscript papers styles Dr. Beale his worthy and learned chaplain, commemorates the blessings he had enjoyed from him, and bemoans his loss; while Baker, the historian of St. John's, declares him to have been one of the best governors the university or college ever had. Contributions of his are found in almost all the collections of poems published on state occasions by the university of Cambridge during his time.

[Addit. MSS. 5808 ff. 151, 152, 5858 f. 194, 5863 f. 91; Baker's Hist. of St. John's Coll. Camb., ed. Mayor; Cambridge Antiquarian Communications, ii. 157; Alumni Westmon. 73, 74; Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Anglic., ed. Hardy; Bentham's Hist. of Ely, 231, 232; Bridges's Northamptonshire, i. 313; Cooper's Memorials of Cambridge, ii. 88; Cooper's Annals of Cambridge, iii. 328; Prynne's Tryal of Abp. Laud, 73, 167, 177, 193, 357, 359, 360; Parr's Life of Abp. Usher, 471; Life of Dean Barwick, 22, 32, 41, 444; Baker's Northamptonshire, ii. 205.]  BEALE, WILLIAM (1784–1854), musician, was born at Landrake, in Cornwall, 1 Jan. 1784. He was a chorister at Westminster Abbey under Dr. Arnold until his voice broke, when he served as a midshipman on board the Révolutionnaire, a 44-gun frigate which had been taken from the French. During this period he was nearly drowned by falling overboard in Cork harbour. On his voice settling into a pure baritone he left the sea, and devoted himself to the musical profession. He became a member of the Royal Society of Musicians on 1 Dec. 1811. On 12 Jan. 1813 he won the prize cup of the Madrigal Society for his beautiful madrigal, 'Awake, sweet Muse,' and on 30 Jan. 1816 he obtained an appointment as one of the gentlemen of the Chapel Royal, in the place of Robert Hudson, deceased. At this period he was living at 13 North Street, Westminster. On 1 Nov. 1820 Beale signed articles of appointment as organist to Trinity College, Cambridge, and on 13 Dec. following he resigned his place at the Chapel Royal. In December 1821 he threw up his appointment at Cambridge, and returned to London, where, through the good offices of Dr. Attwood, he became successively organist of Wandsworth parish church and St. John's, Clapham Rise. He continued occasionally to sing in public until a late period of his life, and in 1840 he won a prize at the Adelphi Glee Club for his glee for four voices, 'Harmony.' He died at Paradise Row, Stockwell, 3 May 1854. Beale was twice married: (1) to Miss Charlotte Elkins, a daughter of the groom of the stole to George IV, and (2) to Miss Georgiana Grove, of Clapham. His voice was a light baritone, and he is said to have imitated Bartleman in his vocalisation. He was an extremely finished singer, though somewhat wanting in power. His compositions, which principally consist of glees and madrigals, though few in number, are of a very high degree of excellence, and often rival, in their purity of melody and form, the best compositions of the Elizabethan madrigalists.

[Cheque Book of the Chapel Royal; Records of the Royal Society of Musicians; London Magazine for 1822, p. 474; Records of Trinity College, Cambridge; information from Mr. W. Beale.] 