from Stade in Bremen, that he had brought to perfection a mode of firing ships which he offered for service against the Dutch, who had done him infinite wrongs. He was then recalled, and consulted as to fortifications at Sheerness to guard the Medway. He was placed in charge of these defences until on 19 Oct. 1670 he was nominated engineer to the office of ordnance, and third engineer of Great Britain from 1 July of that year.
On 9 May of the following year, when Colonel Thomas Blood [q. v.] and his accomplices stole the crown and sceptre from the jewel-liouse in the Tower of London, Beckman, whose official residence was in the Tower, heard the alarm, and after a severe struggle made Blood a prisoner. Beckman was awarded 100l. for his share in the capture.
In 1672 he visited Carlisle and Cliffiard's fort at the mouth of the Tyne, plans of which and some cleverly executed water-colour views are in the British Museum (see Walpole, Anecdotes of Painting, 1888, ii, 235). In the following year he was an engineer of the ordnance train in the expedition against Holland under Prince Rupert, and took part in the naval engagements of 28 May, 4 June, and 11 Aug. At the end of 1674 Charles II gave verbal directions that his salary should be increased by 150l. per annum. In January 1678 he was appointed with Sir Bernard de Gomme [q. v.] and Sir Jonas Moore [q. v.] on a commission to strengthen the fortifications of Portsmouth and to fortify Gosport, and buy land for the purpose. On 3 March a royal warrant secured to him the reversion of chief engineer of Great Britain on the death of Sir Bernard De Gomme.
About this time he was promoted to be major in the army. On 7 Feb. 1081 he was appointed second engineer of Great Britain, and went to Hull as a commissioner to carry out the defence works there, and also reported on the defences of Holy Island and Berwick-on-Tweed in 1682 and 1683. In April 1 683 he was recalled from Hull to join Lord Dartmouth's expedition to Tangier as chief engineer. Samuel Pepys [q. v.] sailed with this expedition, and his narrative of the voyage was published in 1841. On 29 Aug., when at sea, Pepys read Beckman's project for the destruction of Tangier. The object of the expedition — the destruction of the mole and defences of Tangier and the withdrawal of the garrison — having been satisfactorily accomplished, Beckman went to Gibraltar, and made a plan of the Spanish Rock in two sheets, which is now in the King's Library, British Museum. After his return to England he was sent to Scotland to design works for strengthening Stirling, and he also reported on the defences of Carlisle, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Tynemouth, and Scarborough castles, Chester, Yarmouth, and Landguard fort.
Shortly after the accession of James II he was knighted (20 March 1686). On 11 June 1685, when Lord Dartmouth's royal regiment of fusiliers was raised, Beckman was given a commission as captain in it, the regiment being generally quartered at the Tower of London. On 23 Dec. of this year he became chief engineer of Great Britain in succession to De Gomme deceased.
On 14 Feb. 1688 he supervised by royal command a display of fireworks from his own design on the occasion of the queen's delivery. On 11 Aug. he was appointed 'comptroller of fireworkes as well for war as for triumph,' with an allowance of 200l. a year. He thus became the first head of the royal laboratory at Woolwich and principal storekeeper.
On 15 Oct. he was appointed chief engineer of the king's train against William of Orange, but no action was necessary, and he returned to London and served under William. During the absence this year on account of ill-health of Sir Henry Sheeres [q. v.], surveyor-general of the ordnance, Beckman acted for him. In 1689 he was busy with the defences of Hull and Berwick-on-Tweed, and obtained a royal warrant (23 Aug.) for the execution of his proposed fortifications in the Isle of Wight.
In 1691 he accompanied Major-general Thomas Tollemache [q. v.] to Ireland, landing at Dublin at the latter end of May, and took part under Ginkel in the siege of Athlone in June, the battle of Aghrim on 12 July, and the siege of Limerick in August and September. He was appointed on 28 Feb. 1692 to be colonel commanding the ordnance train for the sea expedition, and in April he sat as a member of General Ginkel's committee on the organisation of the train. In June he embarked with the train and a force of seven thousand men under the Duke of Leinster, for a descent upon the French coast ; but the French troops proving too numerous in the vicinity of La Hogue, the troops were landed at Ostend. They captured Fumes and Dixmude, which Beckman strengthened with new works. He returned to England at the end of October. In 1693 he again commanded the ordnance train in the summer expedition.
At the end of May 1694 he sailed in command of the train and of all the bomb-
