256 CLUB NOTES. 



NOTES FROM "SOMERSET MEDI/EVAL WILLS" BY 

 THE REV. F. W. WEAVER. 



A.D. 1441. William Wenard. 



To the Friars Minor of Dorchester zo s . 



A.D. 1467. Nicholas Carent. 



To the parish church of Iwerne Minstre for the repair of the 



nave. 40% 



W. M. B. 



THOMAS BEACH, 



THE DORSET PORTRAIT PAINTER. 



Thomas Beach was born in the old town of Milton Abbey, 

 under the shadow of the Abbey Church, in the year 1738. His 

 parents, Thomas l and Ursula Beach, lived next to the house 

 adjoining the old Abbey Vicarage (see plan of the old town in 

 Proceedings, Vol. XXV.). He was baptised in the Abbey on 

 October 2nd, 1738, by the Vicar, the Rev. James Martin; and 

 was educated at the Milton Grammar School, which wa 

 under the head-mastership of the Vicar. Here, Beach's 

 for drawing, and his desire to be an artist, attracted the at* 

 of Joseph, Lord Milton (one of the governors of the scho<" 

 his Lordship, in the year 1760, sent him as a pupil to Sir , 



Reynolds, under whose tuition he made rapid and reir. le 



progress. From 1772 to 1783 Beach's pictures found _ce 

 in most of the Exhibitions of the Incorporated Society of 

 Artists; and from 1783 to 1800 he exhibited at th Royal 

 Academy. His paintings have occasionally been taken Jor those 

 of Gainsborough and Romney, and often for those of Jiis great 

 master, Sir Joshua Reynolds, President of the Academy.. During 

 the years mentioned (1772 to 1800; Beach " seems to have 

 limned the features of everybody who was anybody ; and nearly 



1 The will of Thomas Beach was proved in the Eoyal Peculiar Court of Milton 

 on August 9th, 1749, and is now deposited in the Probate Court, Blandford, 



