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 'jewels,' as he styled his rarities. Beloe, who knew him, has described Beatniffe as 'a shrewd, cold, inflexible fellow, who traded principally in old books, and held out but little encouragement to a youth who rarely had money to expend. &hellip; The principal feature of this man's character was suspicion of strangers, and a constant apprehension lest he should dispose of any of his libri rarissimi to some cunning wight or professed collector. If any customer was announced as coming from the metropolis, he immediately added at least one-third to his price' (Sexagenarian, 1818, ii. 246). Booksellers have not unseldom thought it necessary to cultivate blunt and eccentric manners; but Beatniffe's knowledge of books, skill as a bookbinder, and business habits, made him a prosperous tradesman. For many years he owned the best collection of old books among provincial dealers, and was long the first secondhand bookseller in Norwich. He published a few works. His first catalogue was printed in 1779, and his last in 1808; they contained many rare volumes, which he knew how to price at their full value. Among the libraries purchased by him was that of the Rev. Dr. Cox Macro, of Little Haugh in Suffolk, who died in 1767, after having brought together a rich treasure of early-printed books, old poetry, original letters, and autographs. The library remained unexamined for forty years, when it came into Beatniffe's hands at the commencement of the century for the small sum of 150l. or 160l. On being sold piecemeal the collection realised nine or ten times as much.

Beatniffe married Martha Dinah Hart, who died in 1816, daughter of a writing-master and alderman of Bury St. Edmund's, by whom he had a son and a daughter. Having amassed a considerable fortune, Beatniffe retired from business a short time before his death, which took place 9 July 1818, in the seventy-ninth year of his age, at Norwich. He was buried in the nave of the Norwich church of St. Peter at Mancroft.



BEATON or BETHUNE, DAVID (1494–1546), cardinal archbishop of St. Andrews, was the third son of John Bethune of Balfour, elder brother of Archbishop James Bethune. He studied at the universities of St. Andrews and Glasgow, and in his sixteenth year was sent to Paris, where he studied both the civil and the canon law. About that time his uncle presented him to the rectory of Campsie, and in 1523 he resigned in his nephew's favour the abbacy of Arbroath, though the pope dispensed the young abbot from taking orders till two years later. In 1537 David Beaton was consecrated bishop of Mirepoix in Foix, and very shortly after Pope Paul III made him cardinal of San Stefano on Monte Celio. He succeeded his uncle as archbishop of St. Andrews in 1539, and was murdered at St. Andrews in 1546. From a very early age he was resident for Scotland at the court of France, was made lord privy seal in 1528, and chancellor in 1543. He was also proto-notary apostolic and legate a latere from 1543. Till he became primate Beaton was frequently employed on foreign diplomatic service, for which his education and abilities specially fitted him. He negotiated the marriage of James V with Magdalen, daughter of Francis I, and on her death he was sent on the commission to bring to Scotland the king's second wife, Mary of Guise. He continued his uncle's policy of knitting closer the alliance with France, and standing on the defensive against England. It was due to his influence that James V rejected all his uncle Henry's proposals, and refused to act in concert with him in religious reforms. On the death of James V in 1542, Beaton produced a will appointing himself and the earls of Huntly, Argyle, and Arran, joint regents. This will his opponents rejected as a forgery. Arran was declared governor of the kingdom by the estates. Beaton was arrested; but his imprisonment was more nominal than real, as Lord Seaton, to whose custody he was committed, was one of his sworn partisans, and very shortly restored him to his own castle. It was suspected that his arrest was merely a pretence to secure him against being kidnapped by the English. For a short time the English party, which was also that of the reformers, triumphed. The governor drew the preachers round him, and two treaties with England were set on foot. One in July 1543 arranged the marriage of Mary with Henry's son Edward; the other concluded an alliance with England. But no sooner did the cardinal find himself at liberty than he raised a faction against the governor and the English marriage. His party mustered in great force, and escorted the queen and her mother from Linlithgow to Stirling Castle in July 1543, a proceeding which was approved at the next meeting of the estates. Arran, too, dismissed the preachers, and went over to the cardinal's party on 8 Sept. 1543. The English treaties were repudiated 24 Sept. 1543, a step which provoked a declaration of war from England; and when Hertford invaded Scotland in 1544 