BEALE, WILLIAM, of Oxfordshire; brother of Rev. Jerome Beale DD, Master of Pembroke Coll. Cambridge; b.; adm.; QS; elected to Trinity Coll. Cambridge 1605, adm. scholar 1606, matr. Easter 1606; 9th in ordo 1609/10; BA 1609/10; migrated to Jesus Coll.; Fellow of Jesus 1611-25; MA 1613 (incorp. Oxford 15 Jul 1617); BD 1620; DD 1627 (incorp. Oxford 1645); ordained; Archdeacon of Carmarthen 1623; Master of Jesus Coll. Cambridge 14 Jul 1632-4, Master of St. John’s Coll. Cambridge 20 Feb 1633/4; Vice-Chancellor, Cambridge Univ. 1634; Rector of Cottingham, Northants., from 4 Feb 1624/5; Rector of Paulerspury, Northants., 31 Oct 1637; sinecure Rector of Aberdaron, Caernarvonshire, 1639; got into trouble with the Puritan party for embellishing St. John’s Coll. Chapel with “Romish adornments”; arrested Sep 1642 for sending away the college plate to the King at Nottingham, and imprisoned in the Tower of London; deprived of Mastership of St. John’s 13 Mar 1643/4, and of his other eccclesiastical preferments, but liberated from the Tower after three years’ imprisonment and joined the King at Oxford; nominated by the King Dean of Ely c. Mar. 1646, but never installed; chaplain to Sir Edward Hyde (afterwards Lord Clarendon) in his embassy to Spain 1649-50; a very successful tutor, and, according to Baker, “one of the best governors the University or College ever had”; d. at Madrid 1 Oct 1650. DNB.