came a Jesuit. Gervase died in his seventh year, and very pathetic is his father's poem to his memory. Thomas ultimately came into possession of the family property and title.
Beaumont's son and heir, Sir John, piously prepared and published in 1629 his father's poems for the first time under the title: 'Bosworth Field, with a Taste of the Variety of other Poems, left by Sir John Beaumont, Baronet, deceased: Set forth by his Sonne, Sir Iohn Beaumont, Baronet: and dedicated to the Kings most excellent Majestie.' 'Bosworth Field ' is written in heroic couplets of ten syllables. The preserving fragrance of the book must be looked for, not in his secular, but in his sacred poems. Very strong religious feeling is apparent in many of his poems, especially in his 'In Desolation,' 'Of the Miserable State of Man,' and 'Of Sinne.' The genuineness of his Christianity is well attested by the quotations made from his works by Dr. George Macdonald, in his 'Antiphon' (pp. 143, 145). Beaumont's 'Act of Contrition,' 'Of the Epiphany,' 'Vpon the Two Great Feasts of the Annunciation and Resurrection,' and other of the 'Sacred Poems,' are of a high level for sincerity of sentiment and literary quality.
It is commonly stated, even by Dyce, that Sir John Beaumont's poetry belonged solely to his youth. The dates and names of various of his elegies and other verses disprove this. He seems to have written poetry to the close. Throughout his life he yearned after a true poet's renown, and wrote:–
- No earthly gift lasts after death but fame.
His friend Michael Drayton referred in a poem written after his death to his thirst after celebrity:–
- Thy care for that which was not worth thy breath
- Brought on too soon thy much-lamented death.
The work upon which Sir John evidently put forth all his resources a poem entitled the 'Crown of Thorns: in eight books' – has unhappily disappeared. It must have been printed, for in his admirable elegy on Shakespeare's Earl of Southampton the author thus refers to it:
- His onely mem'ry my poore worke adornes:
- He is a father to my crowne of thornes.
- Now since his death how can I ever looke
- Without some teares vpon that orphan booke?
Sir Thomas Hawkins also celebrates the poem. Sir John seems to have dedicated certain hours daily to the gratification of his literary tastes. He tells us something of his studies in a letter prefixed to Edmund Bolton's 'Elements of Armories' (1610). It is entitled 'A Letter to the Author, from the learned young gentleman I. B. of Grace-Dieu in the County of Leicester, Esquier.'
Burton, the historian of Leicestershire, wrote of Sir John Beaumont: 'A gentleman of great learning, gravity, and worthiness; the remembrance of whom I may not here omit, for many worthy respects' (Nichols). Anthony à Wood remarks: 'The former part of his life he had fully employed in poetry, and the latter he as happily bestowed on more serious and beneficial studies, and had not death untimely cut him off in his middle age he might have prov'd a patriot, being accounted at the time of his death a person of great knowledge, gravity, and worth' (Athenæ Oxon. ii. 434-5).
[Dr. Grosart's Introduction to the first collected edition of Sir John Beaumont's work in Fuller's Worthies Library, where all that is known of the poet may be found; Hunter's MS. Chorus Vatum; Campbell's Specimens; Wordsworth's Poems.]
BEAUMONT, JOHN (d. 1701), colonel,
was the second son of Sapcote Beaumont,
Viscount Beaumont of Swords, Leicestershire, and Bridget, daughter of Sir Thomas
Monson of Carleton, Lincolnshire (ped. in
Nichols's Leicestershire, iii. 744). He attended Charles II in his exile, and was
employed at court under James II; but,
notwithstanding this close connection with
royalty, he was instrumental in thwarting
the policy of the king in a matter deemed
of the highest importance. With, it was
supposed, an ulterior design of gradually
leavening the army with Roman catholic
sentiments, the experiment was attempted
(10 Sept. 1688) of introducing forty Irishmen into the regiment of which the Duke
of Berwick was colonel, then stationed at
Portsmouth. Beaumont, who was lieutenant-colonel, resisted the proposal in his own
name and that of five of the captains. 'We
beg,' he said, 'that we may be either permitted to command men of our own nation or
to lay down our commissions.' At the court-martial which followed they were offered
forgiveness if they would accept the men,
but they all refused, whereupon they were
cashiered, the highest punishment a court-martial was then competent to inflict. In
Clarke's 'Life of James II' (ii. 169) it is
affirmed that Churchill (afterwards Duke of
Marlborough) moved that they should be
put to death, but this is apparently a baseless calumny. The resistance of the officers
was supported by the general sentiment of
the army, and no further attempts were made
to introduce Irishmen into the English regi-
