Family and Education

b. c.1543, 2nd s. of John Beaumont, master of the rolls, by his 2nd w. Elizabeth; bro. of Francis. educ. I. Temple 1561, called 1571. unm.

Offices Held

Bencher, I. Temple 1580, Autumn reader 1585.

Biography

Beaumont was a lawyer returned to Parliament for Derby presumably with the support of the 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, though he had other connexions with Derby and the Derbyshire county families. In December 1584 he was appointed to a committee of lawyers, to examine those statutes which would lapse at the end of the Parliament and determine which should be renewed. He is also mentioned in the parliamentary journals as serving on a committee concerning informers (2 Dec.) and another to examine a bill against fraudulent conveyances (18 Feb. 1585).

In 1582 he bought Normanton (some two miles from Derby) from the Babingtons, and at the time of his death owned land and tenements also at Osmaston, Chaddesdon, in other parts of Derbyshire, and in Ashby Parva, Leicestershire. In March 1578 a London merchant accused either Henry Beaumont or a namesake of ‘indirect dealings’ and brought the matter before the Privy Council, but no further entries relating to the complaint appear in the Council register. Beaumont died 9 Aug. 1585, leaving all his property to his brother Francis. He was buried in the Temple church, where an inscription recorded the main events of his life. His will was proved 7 Feb. 1586.

E. T. Beaumont, The Beaumonts, 155, 191; DNB(Beaumont, John); Nichols, Leics. iii. 653-5; Cal. I. T. Recs. i. 258, 281, 285, 290, 306, 315, 330, 333; D’Ewes, 334, 335, 353; C142/209/27; J. C. Cox, Churches of Derbys. iv. 18-19, 88, 146, 161; APC, x. 187; PCC 7 Windsor.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: M.R.P.

Notes