Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Beeard, Richard

by Sidney Lee

BEEARD, BEARD, or BERDE, RICHARD (fl. 1553–1574), author, was admitted to the rectory of St. Mary Hill, London, 31 May 1560, and was deprived of the living in 1574. He was the author of:

1. 'A Godly Psalm of Mary Queen,' with psalm tunes in four parts, 1553.
2. 'Alphabetum primum Beeardi,' a poem of fifty-six short lines printed as a broadside, without date, by William Copland.
3. An untitled piece of verse of forty-four lines, signed by Beeard, beginning 'M. Harry Whobals man to M. Camel greetes,' printed on a sheet without place, printer's name, or date.

A copy of the first is in Trinity College Library, Cambridge, and copies of the last two are in the library of the Society of Antiquaries. In Strype's 'Annals,' iv. 512-516, the dedication to Queen Elizabeth of a manuscript work by Richard Beard 'concerning the doctrine of justification' is printed at length.

[Newcourt's Repertorium, i. 451; Hazlitt's Handbook to Literature, p. 34; Ritson's Bibliographia Poetica, 129; Lemon's Catal. of Broadsides, 10-11.]

S. L. L.