Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Beighton, Henry
BEIGHTON, HENRY (d. 1743), an eminent surveyor and engineer, came from a family of yeomen which had been long settled at Chilvers Coton in Warwickshire. He himself resided at Griff, a hamlet in the same parish, where he assisted a small income of about 100l. a year by surveying, in which, for elegance, accuracy, and expedition, he is said to have had but few equals. Beighton is now best remembered as the illustrator of Dr. Thomas's edition of Dugdale's 'Warwickshire,' the maps in which are taken from an actual survey made by him during a period of four years, from 1725 to 1729. Among other drawings published by him may be mentioned a small view of the south-east side of Fairford Church, Gloucescestershire, 1715, a north prospect of St. Michael's Church, Coventry, about 1721, and in the same year a view of the beautiful cross at Coventry, built after the model of that at Abingdon in 1544. Besides these he made, in 1716, a large finished drawing of Kenilworth Castle, with manuscript references, from a fresco occupying the whole side of a room at Newnham Paddox, a seat of the Earl of Denbigh. This was copied at the expense of John Ludford, Esq., of Ansley Hall, but was not engraved.
About 1720 Beighton had issued proposals for publishing a map of Warwickshire, 'on two sheets of large paper, about forty-three inches deep and thirty broad,' at the moderate price of five shillings in sheets, but he met with so little encouragement that the design was not carried into effect during his lifetime. The map was ultimately published by subscription, about 1750, in two sheets, with the several emendations left by the author, as also the same map reduced to a single sheet. Both editions are now of rare occurrence. Beighton's map is laid down by English measured miles, reduced to horizontal, by his own hand. He measured both with the chain and compass, and set down the medium scale. In 1713 Beighton succeeded John Tipper, of Coventry, in the editorship of the 'Ladies' Diary,' which he conducted with much success until his death. In his prefaces to that ingenious compilation, 'peculiarly adapted for the Use and Diversion of the Fair Sex,' he speaks of his gallant endeavours to introduce his readers to the study of the mathematical sciences. In 1718 he erected a steam-engine at Newcastle with an improved valve (Thurston's Hist. of the Steam Engine (1878), 61-3, where is a figure of Beighton's engine). In November 1720 he became a fellow of the Royal Society, and was a valued contributor to the 'Philosophical Transactions.' His 'Description of the Water Works at London Bridge' (Phil. Trans,. xxxvii. 5-12) is a favourable specimen of his skill in mechanics. He also assisted his friend, Dr. Desaguliers, in the second volume of his 'Course of Experimental Philosophy.' A few of Beighton's scientific manuscripts and note-books are preserved in the British Museum. Dying in October 1743, aged 57, he was buried on the 11th at Chilvers Coton, where a small mural tablet mentions his death but not his merits.
[Pennant's Journey from Chester to London 1782), p. 184; Camden's Britannia, ed. Gough, ii. 347; Colvile's Worthies of Warwickshire, pp. 29-30, appendix, p. 869; Gough's British Topography, i. 377, 733, ii. 300, 303, 305; vol. xv. pt. ii. of Beauties of England and Wales; Dugdale's Warwickshire, ed. 1765, with manuscript notes by W. Hamper, in Brit. Mus.; Thoresby's Diary, ii. 293; Letters of Eminent Literary Men, ed. Sir H. Ellis (Camd. Soc.), p. 304; Ayscough's Cat. of MSS. in Brit. Mus.]