Robert Beaumont d.1567

Robert BEAUMONT d.1567

Biographical Note

Of Netherton, Yorkshire, brother of John (d.1565). BA Peterhouse, Cambridge 1544, after which he spent some time abroad before proceeding MA in 1550; he was a fellow of Peterhouse 1552-54, but returned to Europe during Mary's reign, spending time at Geneva and elsewhere. He came back to Cambridge in 1559, where he was made Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity in 1559, and master of Trinity College in 1561. He held various ecclesiastical preferments, including a canonry at Ely, and was Vice-Chancellor of the University during the 1560s. Described by ODNB as "a reform-minded Calvinist", he was involved in various University disputes around conformity and puritanism.

Books

Beaumont's probate inventory includes over 180 books, valued at just over £42 (from a total estate valued at £164 15s 7d). The books are mostly in Latin, with some Greek and Hebrew, with a predominance of theology (including many writings by Protestant reformers). He bequeathed his divinity books to Trinity College, along with £40 towards the building and glazing of the Library there, and left a number of specific books to academic colleagues. He had himself inherited books from his brother John. The full inventory is edited as Leedham-Green no.126 (see full citation below). A number of his books are still identifiable in Trinity College today.

Sources

• Gaskell, Philip, Trinity College Library: the first 150 years, Cambridge, 1980.
• Greaves, Richard L. "Beaumont, Robert (d. 1567), college head." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Leedham-Green, E. S., Books in Cambridge inventories, Cambridge, 1986, no.126/p.290-4.