Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 04.djvu/92

Beckwith to the provincial chapter of the Carmelites at Northampton, referring to a charge that had been brought against Beckley for his absence from the university 'anno primo regentiæ' for which offence he had been suspended. He also notices Walden's reply to this letter. In his old age, after having spent many years at Cambridge, Beckley seems to have withdrawn to his native place, Sandwich, where, according to Bale, he became head of the Carmelite friary, and devoted the remainder of his life to study. On his death, which occurred in 1438, he was buried in the last-mentioned town, and the Latin verses inscribed upon his tomb, and probably written by himself, are preserved in Weever's 'Funeral Monuments.' Dempster has claimed Beckley as a Scotch monk, and gives several details of his life, how he was exiled from Scotland and took up his abode in France, whence he was recalled by James III, but apparently preferred to remain in England when once he set foot in that country on his return journey. But the authorities to whom Dempster appeals, 'Gilbert Brown' (d. 1612), and P. M. Thomas Sarracenus, an ex-professor of Bologna, can hardly be accepted as sufficient testimony for these statements in the face of so much contrary evidence. The tradition of a residence in France may, however, contain some degree of truth when we consider Bale's plain statement as to Beckley's being employed in royal business, and his subsequent statement that Beckley delivered declamations to the nobility and chief officers in many parts of England, and in Calais also. The chief works assigned to this author are similar in their titles to those of most mediæval theologians, and consist of 'Quodlibeta,' 'Quæstiones Ordinariæ,' 'Conciones Variæ,' and one which, had it been preserved, might perhaps have been of some slight interest, entitled 'De Fraterculorum Decimis.'

[Leland. 437; Bale, 579; Pits, 627; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. 84; Bale's Heliades. Harley MSS. 3838, ii. 85; Lambard's Perambumlation of Kent, 106; St. Etienne's Bibliotheca Carmelitana, i. 590; Weever's Funeral Monuments, 264.]

 BECKWITH, GEORGE (1753–1823), lieutenant-general, was the son of Major-general John Beckwith, who commanded the 20th regiment at the battle of Minden and the brigade of grenadiers and highlanders in the Seven Years' war. On 20 July 1771 he was appointed to an ensigncy in the 37th regiment, which embarked in that year for America, and, with the 10th, 38th, and 52nd regiments, formed the third brigade under Major-general Jones in the division commanded by Lieutenant-general Earl Percy (Records of the 37th Regiment). He obtained his lieutenancy on 7 July 1775, his company on 2 July 1777, and the rank of major on 30 Nov. 1781. From 1776 to 1782 he bore a prominent part in the contest between England and her American colonies, during which he commanded in several surprises of the enemy and in storms and captures of important places, including those of Elizabeth Town and Brunswick in New Jersey.

From 1787 to the end of 1791, during which time no British minister was accredited to the United States, he was entrusted with an important and confidential mission. On 18 Nov. 1790 he obtained the rank of lieutenant-colonel, that of colonel on 21 Aug. 1795, major-general on 18 June 1798, and of lieutenant-general on 30 Oct. 1805. In April 1797 he was appointed governor of Bermuda, and in the following July commandant of the troops in that island. In October 1804 he became governor of St. Vincent, and on 8 Oct. 1808 governor of Barbadoes, with the command of the forces in the Windward and Leeward Caribee islands. England being then at war with France, he organised an expedition for the conquest of the island of Martinique, and, having been reinforced by the 7th, 8th, and 23rd regiments under Lieutenant-general Sir George Prevost, he sailed from Carlisle Bay on 28 Jan. 1809, arrived off Martinique on the 29th, landed on the 30th, and completed the conquest of the island on 24 July. The French eagles then taken were sent home by him, and were the first ever seen in England. On 14 April 1809 the thanks of the House of Commons, and on the 17th those of the House of Lords, were voted to Lieutenant-general Beckwith for 'his able and gallant conduct in effecting with such signal rapidity the entire conquest of the island of Martinique.' On 1 May he was created a knight of the Bath.

On 22 Jan. 1810, having organised a second expedition, he sailed for Guadaloupe, the last possession of the French in that part of the world, landed on the 28th, and on 5 Feb. the conquest of the island was completed. Returning to Barbadoes on 29 July 1810, he remained there till June 1814, when, after nine years' service in the West Indies, he obtained permission to return to England. The last bill presented to him by the legislature of the island was a vote for a service of plate to him. 'This bill, gentlemen,' he said, 'is the only one from which I must withhold my consent.' He sailed from Barbadoes on 21 June. After his departure a vote of 2,500l. was passed for a service of