His old master Hollingworth, if harsh, must have been also generous, since he had advanced Beatniffe £500, in 1763 to purchase the stock of the bankrupt Jonathan Gleed, a bookseller of London Lane, in Norwich.
[3] William Beloe, who knew him, has described Beatniffe as a shrewd, cold, inflexible fellow, who traded principally in old books, and held out but little encouragement to a youth who rarely had money to expend.
The principal feature of this man's character was suspicion of strangers, and a constant apprehension lest he should dispose of any of his libri rarissimi to some cunning wight or professed collector.
[4]In 1766 "having engaged proper assistance from London and purchased a large quantity of Mr Caslon's excellent type", Beatniffe opened a printing office in the parish of St Peter Permountergate (Norwich Mercury 21 June 1766).
In 1772 Beatniffe produced the first edition of his excellent little Norfolk Tour, or Traveller's Pocket Companion, being a concise description of all the noblemen's and gentlemen's seats, as well as of the principal towns and other remarkable places in the county.
In the advertisement the author states that he had carefully revised every page, "and by the friendly communications of several gentlemen in the county and [his] own observations during the last ten years greatly enlarged" it.
Having amassed a considerable fortune, Beatniffe retired from his bookselling business a short time before his death, which took place 9 July 1818, age seventy-nine, at Norwich.