Author: Beesley, Alfred
Biography:
BEESLEY, Alfred (1799-1847: ODNB)
He was born on 17 Apr. 1799 at Banbury, Oxfordshire, to Quaker parents, Thomas Beesley (1763-1802), druggist, and his wife Elizabeth Foord (1765-1831), who had married in 1791. He was apprenticed to a watchmaker in nearby Deddington but abandoned it and preferred literary pursuits. He also left the Quakers and conformed to the Church of England. His mother left him over £1200 in 1831 which enabled him to pursue his studies in literature, local history, astronomy and botany. He was a strong supporter of the Reform Bill (1832) but later became more conservative. Japheth, Contemplation, and Other Poems (1834) consists of religious poetry and loco-topographical and historical poems which eulogise rural life compared to the industrial city: “The Village Daughter,” “Edge-Hill,” “The Two Hamlets,” “To my Greenhouse,” etc. With the publication of The History of Banbury (1841), he achieved some fame and reputation as an antiquarian scholar. He never married. His listing alongside Elizabeth Beesley, of the same age, in the 1841 Census refers to his living in the house of his sister-in-law, the widow of his brother Joseph, not to a wife. She had continued the family druggist business; Alfred was listed as a Stamp Agent. He died on 10 Apr. 1847 at Cornhill, Banbury, leaving most of his wealth to his sisters-in-law. (ODNB 30 Aug. 2022; ancestry.co.uk 30 Aug. 2022; findmypast.co.uk 30 Aug. 2022; Northampton Mercury 17 Apr. 1847; GM July 1847, 99; B. J. Burben, “Alfred Beesley: poet,” Cake and Cockhorse [Nov. 1962], 19-28; Banbury Historical Society) AA