Peake, master shipwright of Woolwich dockyard, one of the judges, has served as the
model for the magnificent fleet of lifeboats
now possessed by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (Encycl. Brit. 9th ed. xiv.
572). So confident was Beeching of the
merits of his invention, that he built a boat
on the same model before the prize was
awarded, which boat became the property of
the trustees of Ramsgate Harbour, and was
instrumental in saving several hundreds of
lives on the Goodwin Sands (Gilmore).
Beeching died on 7 June 1858.
[Information supplied by Mr. Beeching's family; Exhibition Reports, 1851, i. 332; Gilmore's Storm-Warriors, London, 1878; Reports Royal Nat. Lifeboat Inst.]
BEEDOME, THOMAS (d. 1641?) poet, is
the author of a scarce little volume of verses,
posthumously published in 1641 under the
title of 'Poems Divine and Humane,' 12mo.
The collection was edited by Henry Glapthorne, the dramatist and poet, who prefixed
a short prose address 'to the reader,' which
is followed by commendatory verses of Ed.
May, Henry Glapthorne (in English and
Latin), W. C[hamberlaine ?], Em. D. (two
copies), H. S., H. P., R. W., J. S., Tho.
Nabbes, and Fran. Beedome (the author's
brother). The chief poem in the collection
is entitled 'The Jealous Lover, or the Constant Maid;' it is a juvenile performance (in
six-line stanzas), showing some smoothness of
versification. Songs, epistles, epigrams, elegies, and devotional poems follow. Two epigrams are addressed 'to Sir Henry Wotten,
Knight,' another is in praise of Wither.
There are also epigrams 'to his deare friend
William Harrington,' 'to the heroicall Captaine Thomas James' (two), and 'to the
memory of his honoured friend, Master John
Donne, an Eversary.' The author appears to
have died at an early age, and of his life nothing is known. His poems have very little
value; but the poetaster Henry Bold seems
to have thought well of them, for the first
fifty pages of his 'Wit a Sporting,' 1657, are
taken verbatim from Beedome's book. A copy
of commendatory verses by Beedome is prefixed to Farley's 'Light's Morall Emblems,'
1638.
[Poems Divine and Humane, 1641; Corser's Collectanea Anglo-Poetica, ii. 246-50, 311.]
BEEKE, HENRY, D.D. (1751–1837), dean of Bristol, a writer on subjects connected with finance, was the son of the Rev. Christopher Beeke, and was born at Kingsteignton, Devonshire, 6 Jan. 1751. He was elected a scholar of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 5 May 1769, and proceeded B.A.
1773; M.A., 1776; B.D., 1785; and D.D.,
1800. He was also fellow of Oriel (1775);
junior proctor (1784), and professor of modern
history (1801). He obtained in succession the
vicarage of St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford (1782),
rectory of Ufton Norcot, Berkshire (1789),
deanery of Bristol (1814), and vicarage of
Weare (1819). He died at Torquay 9 March
1837. His chief work is entitled 'Observations on the Produce of the Income Tax, and
on its Proportion to the whole Income of Great
Britain (London, 1799; new and enlarged
edition, 1800). This was written to prove that
whilst the lately imposed income-tax might
not produce as much as was expected, this was
not because the resources of the country had
been overrated. 'On the contrary, I have
been uniformly persuaded that we are more
powerful, have resources more permanent, a
population more numerous, and an income
more considerable than the most enlarged
computations which have been hitherto published.' The real reason was that 'the
part of the national income which is made
liable to the present tax bears a far less proportion to the whole of it than has been conjectured.' He affirms the tax itself to be
'founded on moral equity and political wisdom.' Of this work J. R. M'Culloch declares
that it affords 'the best example of the successful application of statistical reasoning to
finance that had then appeared.' It gives an
interesting and valuable account of the economic condition of Great Britain at the beginning of the century.
Dr. Beeke had a wide reputation as a financial authority, and Mr. Vansittart, afterwards Lord Bexley, when chancellor of the exchequer (1812-1823), frequently consulted him on questions connected with the duties of his office. He was a keen observer of the politics of the time, and from an unpublished letter, written to Sir Lewis Palk in August 1805, and discussing the condition and prospects of political parties, he seems to have known much of what was passing behind the scenes. It is also said that Pitt 'was indebted to him for the original suggestion of the income-tax,' but, according to Lord Stanhope, 'the scheme of a general tax on all kinds of income (proposed by Pitt in 1798) was by no means a new one. It had several times been suggested to the minister by speculative financiers and writers of pamphlets' (Stanhope's Life of Pitt, ii. 306, London, 1879). Thus Dr. Beeke s suggestion, if actually offered, can only have been one of several to the same effect.
Dr. Beeke's other works were unimportant. They were: 'Sermon for Exeter Hospital
