Beaty was born on Ashdale Farm, in Trafalgar Township of Halton County, Upper Canada.

After schooling in Palermo, Province of Canada, he studied law in Toronto, formally becoming a lawyer in 1855.

Following his terms as Toronto Mayor in 1879 and 1880, he won election to the House of Commons of Canada on 28 August 1880.

The Globe newspaper derided him as a "boodler" and "the notorious 'Boy'", and argued that his support for prohibition was based on a hypocritical calculation for personal advantage.

[1] He lost the West Toronto Conservative nomination to Frederick Charles Denison in the buildup to the 1887 federal election,[2] and returned to legal practice.