Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/470

BEA BEAUDOUIN,, a miniature painter of miniature fame, born at Paris, 1717, and died in 1769.  BEAUFILS,, a portrait and genre painter, pupil of Lefevre.  BEAUFORT,, youngest son of John de Beaufort, a French protestant refugee, was born in the year 1700 at Wesel in the Prussian dominions, where his father took refuge on quitting France, and where his eldest son, Alexander, rose to be a general, while his third son, Louis, settled at Mastricht, where he wrote his two remarkable well-known works, "La Decadence de l'Empire Romaine," and "Les Incertitudes de l'Histoire." Daniel was educated at the university of Utrecht, and was a man of great ability and learning. He came to England with George II., and having entered the established church, was soon appointed to the living of Barnet near London. Very few years after this he went to Ireland as first chaplain to the duke of Devonshire, lord-lieutenant, who gave him the provostship of Tuam, which after a year he exchanged for Navan in the county of Meath, where he resided, and was an active and exemplary parish minister. About the year 1775 he was given the living of Clonenagh, in the diocese of Leighlin; with permission to resign the parish of Navan in favour of his son. He lived to the great age of eighty-eight, in full possession of his fine intellect, having in the last year of his life written the clever and witty little work, "The Doctrine of the Church of Rome," which went through several editions.—J. F. W.  BEAUFORT,, LL.D., only child of the former, was born at Barnet the 1st of October, 1739. He was sent to school in Dublin, and at an early age entered the university of Dublin, through which he passed in a highly honourable manner. After leaving college he went to Holland, and spent some time with his uncle, Louis de Beaufort, after which he remained chiefly at Salisbury, with the bishop of that diocese, by whom he was ordained about the year 1764; when he returned to Ireland, and acted as his father's curate at Navan. His father having been permitted to resign Navan to him, he continued to live there for some years; but when he was laying down his "Civil and Ecclesiastical Map of Ireland," he found it necessary to reside three or four years in Dublin, during which time he actively joined in the establishing of the Royal Irish Academy in 1786; and in 1787, in union with a small body of intimate friends, founded the first Sunday school in Ireland; from which humble beginning has arisen the present wide-spread establishment of Sunday schools throughout that kingdom. About the year 1789 his friend the Right Hon. John Foster, then speaker of the Irish House of Commons, presented him to the vicarage of Collon, county of Louth, where he thenceforward resided. But though no longer living in Dublin, he gave his hearty assistance to founding the association for the encouragement of virtue in 1792, and joined actively in the preparation of books for distribution among the lower classes. The map of Ireland was undertaken and carried out at great expense, under the encouragement of the marquis of Buckingham, the then lord-lieutenant. He died in May, 1831, in his eighty-third year. Dr. Beaufort was not only a philanthropist, but a scholar. He possessed an extraordinary variety of information, which, while it was never suffered to lie idle, was never produced for parade; and his manners and conversation charmed and instructed wherever he associated. Like his father, his intellectual vigour continued to the last, and shortly before his death he was occupied in preparing an improved edition of the memoir accompanying his map.—J. F. W.  BEAUFORT, E. G., a historical portrait painter, pupil of Gros, was born in 1800. She copied old masters, and painted some religious pictures.  BEAUFORT,, K.C.B., son of Daniel Augustus, was born at Navan, in the county of Meath in Ireland in 1774. His father gave him his early education at home, whence he was sent to Dublin to school, where his courage, enterprise, and good temper made him a favourite. On leaving school he was placed under Dr. Usher, regius professor of astronomy, where his progress in science was rapid, and at thirteen his name was entered in the books of the Trepassy. In 1787 he joined the East India Company's service in the Vansittart; and such was his skill in nautical knowledge, that all the ship's valuable instruments were placed in his care, and he afforded important assistance in surveying the Straits of Gaspard in the Java sea. In August, 1789, while thus employed, the vessel struck on a sunken coral reef in the Banca Strait and was wrecked. The crew took to the boats, one of which with six men was lost. Young Beaufort, abandoning his own property, secured the ship's instruments, and, after many days' suffering, his party was taken on board a vessel bound to Canton, whence he was conveyed, and in March, 1790, he returned to England. In 1791 he joined the Latona, after which he was appointed to the Aquilon, where his career was near being terminated. One day he was superintending some repairs of the vessel, when the carpenter dropped his hammer into the water; Beaufort, forgetting that he could not swim, jumped after it, and would have been drowned but that the first-lieutenant, Oliver, sprang from the chains and saved him; the rescued and the rescuer, both Irishmen, lived to be brother-admirals. The Aquilon was the signal-ship in the glorious fight of the 1st June, 1794, when Lord Howe defeated the French fleet, and Beaufort was appointed to superintend the signals. His ship had the dangerous honour of towing Admiral Sir Thomas Packenham's dismasted ship out of the battle. Upon the promotion of Captain Stopford to the Phaeton, he took Beaufort with him, who thus was present in the masterly series of manœuvres known as Cornwallis's retreat. After nine years' active service, he obtained the rank of lieutenant, and in 1800 he performed an exploit of great gallantry and spirit, boarding and capturing, after an obstinate resistance, the Spanish ship San Josef. He was severely wounded in the action, for which he received a pension and his captain's commission. From November, 1803, till June, 1804, we find him gratuitously devoting his time, in conjunction with his brother-in-law, Mr. Edgworth, in establishing a line of telegraphs between Dublin and Galway. In 1805 he was again in active service as commander of the Woolwich, in which he sailed to the East Indies, the Rio de la Plata, and the Cape of Good Hope. While engaged in 1812 in a survey of the coast of Karamania he was desperately wounded by a fanatic Turk, and forced to abandon the work and return home. For several years afterwards he was busily occupied in constructing a number of charts, under the orders of the lords of the admiralty, being appointed their hydrographer in 1832. In 1845 Sir Francis was raised to the rank of rear-admiral, having been previously elected a fellow of the Royal Society, as well as of the Astronomical and Geographical Societies. He died near Brighton on Dec. 16, 1857, in the 84th year of his age. Sir Francis Beaufort was a brave and skilful officer, laborious in the discharge of his duties, a man of scientific attainments, and deservedly respected.—J. F. W.  BEAUFORT,, duc de, grandson of Henry IV. of France, born. at Paris in January, 1616; died 25th June, 1669. When very young he served in the armies of his country under the ministry of Cardinal Richelieu. He distinguished himself at the battle of Avein, and at the sieges of Corbie (1636), of Hesdin (1639), and of Arras (1640). He appears to have been a person of no great judgment, though restless and ambitious; and more than once brought himself into trouble by his intrigues against the court, and exposed himself to ridicule by his vanity and presumption. When Louis XIV. returned to Paris in 1652, Beaufort submitted to the royal authority, and for several years afterwards took an active part in the civil war. He was subsequently commander of the French fleet, and lost his life at the taking of Candia.—G. M.  BEAUFORT,, chevalier de, a French traveller, born at Aubevoye, Eure, 25th February, 1798; died 3rd September, 1825. At the age of fourteen he entered the military marine, and for three years navigated in the Levant. Being of an observing turn and enterprising character, he applied himself to the study of geography, as a means of qualifying himself to undertake voyages of discovery. He soon formed the vast project of an entire exploration of the African continent, and with this view studied the Arabian language, together with botany, zoology, natural philosophy, and chemistry. In the end of January, 1824, he sailed for Gambia, which he explored, together with the countries of the Mandingoes, Bakil, Bondou, and Karta. In 1825 he visited the country of Kasso, which he penetrated to the cataracts of Felou and Gavina, which had been previously unknown to Europeans. He afterwards explored Bambouk, and carried away many rich specimens of the gold mines of that country. In these expeditions he made many valuable observations and important discoveries. In the midst, however, of these noble efforts for the extension of science, his career was cut short by brain-fever.—G. M. <section end="470Hnop" />