Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 04.djvu/454

 treason against church and state. In defence some of them stated that they were a persecuted flock, and as their worship in a public place was prohibited, they had simply met together in a thicket in Picket's field (part of St. Giles's Fields) to hear the preaching of John of Beverley the priest. On 12 Jan. 1413–14 sixty-nine of the prisoners were condemned, and next day thirty-seven of them were drawn to St. Giles's Fields and hanged and burned. On 19 Jan. John of Beverley the priest, and shortly after Sir Rocrer Acton, knight, and others, were drawn and hanged at the same place.

 BEVERLEY, JOHN (1743–1827), esquire bedell of Cambridge University, was a native of Norwich, where his father was a native of Norwich, where his father was in the wine trade, and received his education at Christ's College, Cambridge (B.A. 1767, M.A. 1770). He was elected one of the esquire bedells of the university in 1770, and held that appointment until his death. Mr. Gunning, who was one of his colleagues, gives some extraordinary instances of the careless and perfunctory way in which Beverley discharged the duties of his office. Beverley was always in pecuniary difficulties, and in order to extricate himself from them he resorted to a variety of ingenious expedients. For example, he would dispose of musical instruments and choice flowers, of which he had a fine collection, at a very high price, by means of a lottery, and he and his friends used to canvass the members of the university to purchase tickets. He was a great favourite with the Earl of Sandwich, first lord of the admiralty, who appointed him commissioner and comptroller of an office in Greenwich Hospital. He married one of the daughters of Cooper Thornhill, the famous rider from Stilton. In consequence of his long services as required bedell he was allowed to have a deputy in 1821. In an undated manuscript note, Cole, the antiquary, says: 'Beverley was extravagant, and his wife improvident and proud; they have six young children; it is said he has others at Norwich. Lord Sandwich ahout three years ago got him a small place in his office of the admiralty, of about 100l. annum, he being a good performer on the violin.' His death occurred in London 25 March 1827.

Besides some poll-books of university elections he published: 1. 'An Account of the different Ceremonies observed in the Senate House of the University of Cambridge throughout the year, together with tables of fees, modes of electing officers, forms of proceeding to degrees, and other articles relating to the customs of the university.' Cambridge 1788, 8vo. 2. 'The Trial of William Frend in the Vice-Chancellor's Court for writing and publishing a pamphlet entitled "Peace and Union recommended to the Associated Bodies of Republicans and Anti-Republicans,"' Cambridge [1793], 8vo. 3. 'The Proceedings in the Court of Delegates on the Appeal of William Frend from the Sentence on the Vice-Chancellor's Court,' Cambridge [1793], 8vo.

 BEVERLEY or INGLEBERD, PHILIP (fl. 1290), Oxford benefactor, rector of Kayingham, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, is said to have been 'the most subtle Aristotelian in Oxford.' Having probably been a member of the society founded by William of Durham, now University College, he endowed it with certain lands in 1290, and again in 1319 he further granted to it other lands in Holderness and elsewhere for the maintenance of two fellows belonging to Beverley, Holderness, or places in the neighborhood.

 BEVILLE, ROBERT (d. 1824), barrister-at-law. was called to the bar at the Inner Temple between 1795 and 1799, and practised on the Norfolk circuit and at the Ely assizes, as well as in London and Middlesex, until 1807, when he seems to have given up practice, as his name does not appear in the 'Law List' after that year until 1816 when he is described as of the Fen Office, 3 Tanfield Court, Temple. He had obtained in 1812 the post of registrar to the Bedford Level Corporation, which he held until his death in 1824. In 1813 a new edition of Dugdale's 'History of Imbanking and Drayning of divers Fens and Marshes' was announced in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' as in preparation by him. It did not, however, appear. Beville married in 1800 Miss Sauter, described as of Chancery Lane. His son Charles survived him. Beville was the author of a small treatise 'On the Law of Homicide and Larceny,' published in 1799, and terribly lacerated the same year by the 'London