BEALE, Richard (c.1604-aft. 1660), of Loose, Maidstone, Kent.

Beale was descended from a mercantile Maidstone family, although many of his relatives were prominent London merchants, and from at least two of these he received bequests, including a parcel of land from the Irish Adventure.21Vis. London 1634 (Harl. Soc. xv), 58; PROB11/172/10; CSP Ire. Adv. 85. The nature of Beale’s education remains unclear, however, and he is to be distinguished from a cousin and namesake who was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn in May 1637.22Vis. London 1634, 58; L. Inn Admiss. i. 232. Indeed, little is known about the MP before 1640, when he sought election to the Long Parliament at Maidstone. Although Beale was made a freeman, he evidently stood little chance against two prominent members of the county gentry, Sir Francis Barnham* and Sir Humphry Tufton*.23Cent. Kent Stud., Md/ACm1/2, pp. 178-9; Bodl. Rawl. D.141, p. 7.

Beale made his first impression upon local affairs after his nomination to the commission of the peace in April 1641, but only rose to prominence as a zealous parliamentarian after his appointment to the county committee and the deputy lieutenancy in November 1643.24C231/5, p. 442; CJ iii. 298b. In the same year he became the local treasurer of sequestrations, and in November 1644 he was appointed one of the treasurers or receivers general for the county.25SP28/157, unfol.; E113/9, unfol. Although accusations surfaced regarding the accuracy of his accounts in 1645, suggesting suspicion of corruption, Beale retained his position until December 1646.26SP28/235, unfol.; E113/9, unfol. Indeed, Beale was also appointed as one of the receivers of assessments in late 1645.27SP28/235, unfol.; SP28/197, f. 517. An active member of the county committee, he took a particular interest in the accounts of other collectors and receivers.28SP28/210a (Edward Boys’ acct. 1643-5), f. 76; SP28/210a (Daniel Shetterden acct. bk.), ff. 49-54; SP28/210a (Robert Joseph accts.), ff. 18-23; SP28/210a (William Woolfe accts.), ff. 62-8; SP28/158, unfol.; SP28/130/3, ff. 2v, 103. He was thus a natural candidate for inclusion on the local sub-committee of accounts.29SP28/252i, f. 69.

As a member of the county committee, Beale’s zeal was evident not just from the frequency with which he attended its meetings, but also from his uncompromising attitude towards royalists and neutrals.30SP28/235, unfol.; SP28/210b, unfol.; SP28/158, unfol.; Bodl. Tanner 60, f. 99. He was involved, therefore, in attempts to force Sir Edward Dering* to publish a declaration recanting his royalist past, as well as in the harsh treatment of Sir Roger Twysden* and his family.31Stowe 184, f. 73; Cent. Kent Stud. U120/C4/3; ‘Sir Roger Twysden’s Narrative’, iv. 212. By February 1645, Beale had also taken on military responsibilities, as a captain of trained bands, under Sir Michael Livesay*, and it was as one of the more prominent parliamentarians in the county that Beale once again sought election to Parliament, in the county recruiter election in September 1645. In the face of stiff competition from five other candidates, however, Beale was once again unsuccessful.32CSP Dom. 1645-7, p. 138.

Notwithstanding this disappointment, Beale remained one of the most active members of the county committee in the second half of the decade.33Cent. Kent Stud. U455/O4, unfol.; SP28/210b, unfol.; SP23/228, f. 142; SP28/235, unfol.; SP28/234, unfol.; E. Kent RO, H1257, unfol.; Bodl. Tanner 58, ff. 181, 211; Tanner 59, f. 77; Nalson V, f. 51; HMC Portland, i. 312. During that period he became aligned with more radical elements in Kent, as can be seen in his involvement in a remonstrance against one of the county’s more moderate grandees, Sir John Sedley, in April 1647, and from his participation in a delegation to Parliament on the same matter in the following December.34Cent. Kent Stud. Q/SO/W1, f. 169; SP28/130/4 (Charles Bowles’ acct. bk.), f. 17. Beale was also involved in quelling the Christmas insurrection at Canterbury, and in the political investigation which followed.35SP28/130/4 (Bowles’ acct. bk.), ff. 13, 25; Bodl. Tanner 58, ff. 645, 653, 672-4. As tension rose in the spring of 1648 he also played a leading role in attempts to undermine the crypto-royalist faction in the region, and to prevent their petitioning campaign.36Bodl. Tanner 58, f. 731; Tanner 57, ff. 60-v; M. Carter, Most True and Exact Relation (1650), 18-20; SP28/234, unfol. Allegations that he sought to execute the leading petitioners as an example to their supporters cannot be verified, but Beale clearly remained a central figure in the region during the course of the second civil war.37Briefe Narrative of Some Arbitrary Proceedings (1648), 5 (E.459.12); HMC Portland, i. 459, 472, 491; Bodl. Nalson VII, ff. 50r-v, 101-v, 201-v; Tanner 57, ff. 289v, 457; SP23/118, p. 395. After 1649 he was willing to serve the commonwealth regime as both an assiduous justice of the peace and a militia commissioner.38Cent. Kent Stud. U1593/O1, unfol.; CSP Dom. 1650, pp. 145, 470.

It was almost certainly as a critic of the protectorate that Beale secured election to the first protectorate Parliament in 1654, as one of the knights of the shire. Beale is not recorded as having spoken during debate, and his activity appears to have been limited to ten committees. Although some of these concerned private business, Beale’s financial expertise also ensured that he was named to committees to review the accounting of public money (22 Nov.), to consider the revenue to be provided in the new Government Bill (13 Jan. 1655) and to look into debts raised on the excise revenue to fund the navy and the disbandment of supernumerary units of the army (18 Jan.).39CJ vii. 375b, 380a, 381a, 387b, 415b, 419a. Beale’s sympathies with the Presbyterian opponents of the protectorate are suggested by his appointment, along with fellow Kentish man John Boys, to committees on the enumeration of heresies to be proscribed in the Government Bill (12 Dec.), the proceedings against the Unitarian John Biddle (13 Dec.), and also his appearance on the committee for a bill to curb the activities of the Quakers (30 Dec.).40CJ vii. 399b, 400a, 410a. Beale, like Boys, was secluded from the 1656 Parliament, to which he had once again been returned as a knight of the shire.41SP18/144, f. 111; CJ vii. 425a; Whitelocke, Mems. iv. 280. Thereafter, he withdrew from public life, other than a brief period of activity as a militia commissioner in early 1660, and he died in 1664.42All Saints, Maidstone par. regs.; Add. 42596, f. 8.