Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 04.djvu/82

Beche Edwarde the Sixt,' signed by his 'most humble and obedient subiect Edmund Becke.' An autograph copy of the address is among the Ashmolean MSS. at Oxford. Becke there speaks of the book as 'the frutes of myne industry,' but it appears to be merely a re- print of T. Matthew's (i.e. John Rogers') 'Bible,' published in 1537, with trifling variations in the text and notes. It contains Tindal's preface to the New Testament. Becke's chief original contribution consists of 'a perfect supputation of the yeares and tyme from Adam unto Christ, proued by the Scriptures after the colleccyon of dyuers Authours.' In 1551 Becke published two more Bibles, one printed by John Day, 'faythfully set forth according to ye coppy of Thomas Matthewes translacion [really Taverner's Bible of 1539] wherevnto are added certaine learned prologes and annotacions for the better understanding of many hard places threwout the whole Byble.' The dedicatory address and the various prologues which occur in Becke's earlier edition of the Bible are again inserted. The other Bible followed the Matthew revision, and was printed by N. Hyll. Becke's other works included: 1. 'Two Dyalogues wrytten in Latin by the famous clerke D. Erasmus of Roterodame, one called Polyphemus or the Gospeller, the other dysposing of thynges and names; translated into Englyshe by Edmond Becke. And prynted at Canterbury in Saynt Paules paryshe by John Mychell.' 2. 'A Brefe Confutacion of this most detestable and Anabaptistrial opinion that Christ dyd not take hys flesh of the blessed Vyrgyn Mary nor any corporal substance of her body. For the maintenaunce whereof Jhone Bucher, otherwise called Jhon of Kent, most obstinately suffered and was burned in Smythfyelde, the ii. day of May Anno Domini M.D.L.' (London, John Day, 1550, 4to.) The first tract is described by Becke as 'the fyrste frutes of this my symple translacyon,' and as undertaken at the request of 'a nere cosyn of myne' for 'such as are not lerned in the Latin tongue.' It is undated; its publication at Canterbury suggests some ecclesiastical connection between Becke and that town. The second tract is a popular rhyming pamphlet, written to point the moral of the martyrdom of the anabaptist Joan Bocher [q.v.], which is fully described by Stow. The tract has been reprinted by Mr. J. P. Collier in the second volume of his 'Illustrations of Early English Popular Literature ' (1864).

[Lewis's History of the English Translation of the Bible, prefixed to his edition of Wiclif's New Testament (1731), pp. 44, 47; Tanner's Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica; Brit. Mus. Cat.]  BECKET, THOMAS, archbishop of Canterbury. [See .]  BECKET, WILLIAM (1684–1738), surgeon and antiquary, was born at Abingdon, Berkshire. In the early years of the eighteenth century he was well known in London as a surgeon and an enthusiastic antiquary. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society on 11 Dec. 1718, and read three papers on 'The Antiquity of the Venereal Disease' at its meetings during the same year (Phil. Trans. vi. 368, 467, 492), and one on another subject in 1724 (ib. vii. 25). Becket was an original member of the Society of Antiquaries, which was virtually established in 1717, and lived on intimate terms with Stukeley, Bowyer, Browne-Willis, and other antiquaries. He was for some years surgeon to St. Thomas's Hospital, Southwark, but before 1736 he had retired to Abingdon, where he died 25 Nov. 1738. Dr. Stukeley, the well-known antiquary, adds in his common-place book to his note of the death of 'my old friend William Becket, surgeon,' that his papers were bought 'by the infamous Curl,' and purchased of Curll for thirty guineas by Dr. Milward ('s Memoirs, ed. Lukis (Surtees Soc.), i. 97).

His works are: 1. 'New Discoveries relating to the Cure of Cancers,' 1711 and 1712. 2. 'An Enquiry into the Antiquity and Efficacy of Touching for the King's Evil, with a Collection of Records,' 1722. John Anstis the elder gave Becket some assistance in this work (, Lit. Anecdotes, ii. 498). 3. 'Practical Surgery, illustrated and improved, with remarks on the most remarkable Cases, Cures, and Discussions in St. Thomas's Hospital,' 1740. 4. 'A Collection of Chirurgical Tracts,' 1740. Gough in his 'British Topography,' 1780 (i. 519), remarks, on Stukeley's authority, that Becket examined the wills in the prerogative office referring to Lincolnshire and other counties.

[Nichols's Lit. Anecdotes, ii. 88, v. 278; Nichols's Lit. llustrations, ii. 796; Watt's Bibliotheca Brit.; Thomson's Hist. of Royal Society, appendix, xxxiv; Archæologia,. xxxvi n.]  BECKETT, ISAAC (1653–1719), mezzotint engraver, was born in Kent in 1653, and apprenticed to a calico printer in London, but happening to visit Lutterel, he became captivated by a desire of learning the new art of engraving in mezzotint. Hearing that one John Lloyd was acquainted with the process, and being obliged through an intrigue to absent himself from his business, Beckett 