George Beeston

[1] For his part in the defeat of the Spanish Armada, during which he fought as captain of the Dreadnought,[3] Beeston was knighted on the deck of the Ark Royal by Lord Effingham on 26 July 1588.

He having been brought up from his youth in the arts of war was chosen one of his company of pensioners by the invincible King Henry VIII when he besieged Boulogne, he merited the same under Edward VI in the battle against the Scots at Musselburgh.

Afterwards under the same King, under Mary, and under Elizabeth, in the naval engagements as captain or vice-captain of the fleet, by whom, after that most mighty Spanish fleet of 1588, had been vanquished, he was honoured with the order of knighthood; and now, his years pressing heavily on him, when he had admirably approved his integrity to princes, and his bravery to his adversaries, acceptable to God, and dear to good men, and long expecting Christ, in the year 1601 he fell asleep in Him, so that he may rise again in Him with joy.And together with him rests a most beloved wife, Alice, daughter of (Thomas) Davenport of Henbury, esquire, a matron most holy, chaste, and liberal to the poor, who, when she had lived in matrimony 66 years, and had borne to her husband three sons, John, Hugh, and Hugh, and as many daughters, Ann, Jane, and Dorothy, passed into the heavenly country in the year 1591 with Christ for ever to live.The dutifulness of their son Hugh Beeston, esquire, the younger, Receiver General of all the revenues of the Crown as well as in the county palatine of Chester as in the counties of North Wales, set up this monument to parents most excellent and beloved.Hugh Beeston, knight, son of George Beeston, knight, mindful of mortality, and in certain hope of rising again in Christ, placed this monument to his parents, himself, and George Beeston an only son, of the same knightly order, a youth, alas!

James VI had a proclamation made at the Mercat Cross of Edinburgh and at the Shore and Pier of Leith urging the townspeople to welcome the "nearest friends confederates to this realm, lately repaired within the same, with some ships of war of ready to fulfill and follow his Majesty's direction.

Three got in to a fight in a tavern, one was stabbed, and then as they returned to Leith and their ship they were attacked by a group of Spanish sailors, and one man, a trumpet officer or signaller, was killed.

Beeston and the English ambassador William Ashby had an audience with James VI on 7 June at the Palace of Holyroodhouse seeking an enquiry and justice.

Fowler wrote:This day the Capteynes of the Vangard and Tygar hathe byn a borde and with the King, who takes it marveylowse kyndly that they were apoynted to offer him service, and is not a lyttel prowde that he used them well; but the villanouse base papists and Spanyers together myused sum of the people, and slue a trompetour; wheareupon the King was extreme angry, and willed me that a demand should be put in to the Cowncell for justice, and it should be granted, for so he wold see it".

On 19 February 1645 his former residence Beeston Hall was burnt down by the order of Prince Rupert to prevent it being garrisoned by Parliamentarian troops in the English Civil War.