BEESTON, William (d.1638), and Possbrook, Titchfield, Hants.

Beeston assumed the arms of the Cheshire Beeston family, and inherited land in Nottinghamshire; but his known relatives were only on the fringes of the gentry, and he entered Cambridge as a sizar. While at St. John’s he served as tutor to the earl of Southampton’s heir, accompanying him on a European tour in 1622-3. Autobiog. of Sir Simonds D’Ewes ed. J.O. Halliwell, 166-71. It was through this connection that he was nominated by Southampton, captain of the Isle of Wight, for Yarmouth to the 1624 Parliament. He was returned, but left no trace on the records of proceedings. He used the opportunity of being in London to take his close friend from Cambridge, the antiquary (Sir) Simonds D’Ewes†, to hear a sermon on 7 Mar. preached by Richard Senhouse, bishop of Carlisle, with whom they afterwards dined. D’Ewes Diary 1622-4, 185. In September Beeston again accompanied Southampton and Wriothesley to the Low Countries, and when both succumbed to fever two months later he became tutor to the 4th earl, living on his estate at Titchfield. C3/397/59. By his own account a ‘poor man’, he died in December 1638, and was buried at Titchfield. Autobiog. of Sir Simonds D’Ewes, 166; Berry, 290. After bequeathing token legacies of 5s. each to his children, he left all his property, worth £571, to his wife, whom he made executrix. His father-in-law and Southampton’s steward Thomas Risley* were appointed overseers. Hants RO, 1638A15/1. His eldest son and heir, Henry, became warden of New College, Oxford, and his younger son William rose to become governor of Jamaica, but none of his descendants entered Parliament.