Mr. William John Beamont

Chaplain - Bill Copeland (508) 866-7193

Following his death in 1903, his Carlow and Laois lands were sold and the proceeds given to endow the Lecky Chair of History at Trinity College, where a bronze statue of the historian by Sir William Coscombe John, and financed through public subscription, was unveiled in 1906.
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It seems her son William and son-in-law John Robinson, from Killopharm, Co.

" Let us entertain brotherly affection and love for one another and residents of the United States at large, " said Hingham resident and veteran William Copeland, who served as chaplain for the invocation." I think rain was brought to us today just to bring us closer together."

WILLIAM JOHN COPELAND, B.D.

FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD
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W. J. COPELAND.

WILLIAM JOHN COPELAND, B.D.

FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD

Beamont was a tireless christian who had a glittering academic career but chose to give himself unstintingly to the poor and disadvantaged. Before returning to Cambridge he had worked in the London slums around Drury Lane. In Beamont's estimation, the Church of Christ could be divided into two categories, the workers and the non-workers; types of churchmanship were irrelevant to him. Beamont became Senior Fellow of Trinity College and ran his rooms as an open house to all christian people whether lowly church members or orthodox clergy from the Eastern Church. His magnetic personality could draw everyone together; that seemed to be the secret of his success in initiating new ventures. Beamont had seen the need for a profound work in Barnwell and chose to work alongside Weldon.
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Beamont pioneered the Barnwell Church Extension Committee (formed from the Church Defense Association) together with Archdeacon Emery, Revd John Martin, Reynolds Rowe, Canon Leeke (later to become Chancellor of Lincoln) and Weldon.
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The University and Church in Cambridge was stunned by the sudden death of William John Beamont, Senior Fellow of Trinity College and vicar of St. Michaels, on Thursday 6 August 1868 at the age of 40 years. He had been active on the Monday before his death attending the Assize Courts as its Chaplain, he had spent the rest of the day with friends and was waiting to move the contents of his rooms to Neville's Court in Trinity. His close friend Revd G.W. Weldon, in his recollections, is a little more circumspect about Beamont's health; earlier in the year Weldon had rushed him back to Cambridge from Norwich, where they were both attending a meeting together, because of violent pains.
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Beamont was born in Warrington in Lancashire 16 June 1828. At the age of 7 he became a scholar at Boteler's Free Grammar School. He started work as a Sunday School Teacher a little later. Encouraged by his mother in his Christian work, he developed a strong bond with her and was devastated when she died in 1859. At the age of 14 he went to Eton where he was very studious and enjoyed cricket; he continued with this sport to the weeks before his death. At Eton, he gained first prize for German and the Prince Consort's prize for modern languages. (Beamont was adept at using connections; later he used the Prize as a method of extracting money from the Prince Consort to support the Cambridge School of Art which Beamont was trying to establish.) In his schooldays he visited Paris with his father and caught smallpox but survived. Languages clearly interested him and he went on to win the Newcastle Medal for ancient languages at Eton. After Eton he went up to Trinity College with a sholarship. He graduated in 1850 in mathematics and classics, being 3rd in the Classical Tripos and 39th Senior Optime. He was the Chancellor's medallist and elected a Fellow of Trinity in 1852.

He left immediatly after election to tour Egypt and Palestine before returning for ordination. This period was to give him insights into the manners and customs of the east and a fresh interpretation of the scriptures. While out there, he studied Greek, Syrian, Armenian, Coptic and Arabic churches. He was touched by the poverty of the Holy Land and resolved to do what he could to help. He was ordained on returning home but went back to Jerusalem in 1854 to perfect his knowledge of Arabic and Hebrew.

Beamont started the English College in Jerusalem and became its Principal. This enabled him to teach, first hand, the 17 students in its first year. He specialised in teaching New Testament studies. This educational experiment had an important effect on him and he discovered that to have an effective ministry, you must get alongside people to guide them. He helped in other church work by assisting the Bishop of Jerusalem. He took his first service in Arabic on Christmas Day 1854. He left Jerusalem the following March. The obituarist in the Cambridge Chronicle comments: "Would that his example might stir up others to go and do likewise, to offer a little of their abundance in self-denying labour in the land where Christianity had its birth, the land which ought to be dear to the heart of all true Christians. It was Beamont's earnest wish to return again to Arabia and start a Church there. On route home, he heard of the suffering of the British in the Crimea and went to Sebastopol to volunteer his services as a chaplain.

Beamont returned to England as a curate in Drury Lane in London. There he helped to sort out the finances of a Young Men's Club and a School of Art. Through his ministry in the club, large numbers of young men came to Faith and were confirmed. He stayed at Drury Lane for two and a half years before returning to Cambridge in December 1858 to St. Michael's. He started his Cambridge parish work with relish and in a short time had visited all his parishioners. In some respects he was tiresome and constantly pleaded with parishioners to attend special services and church meetings. A small parish was not big enough for his energies and he started to look further afield. The Cambridge School of Art had just started as part of the Working Men's College. Beamont took the vacant post of secretary and injected new life into the whole idea. Without his efforts the School would have failed. The School of Art started in the Guildhall using funds that Beamont had raised. Next he tried to found a Professorship in Fine Art but did not convince the University that the project would work.

A period of more intense Church activity began in 1859. He saw the need for what became called: Church Extension. Quite simply it was a method of increasing the efficiency of the Church's ministry. He founded the Church Defence Association in Cambridge and circulated many papers on these new ideas; most of the papers were from his own hand. It became an obsession and he pleaded with his helpers for them to spend more time on the Association's work. However, he was encouraged in this work by the Bishop of Ely. The obituarist describes him thus, "..suggestive power and all-difficulty-conquering energy of Mr Beamont". The Church Defense Association was the concept that gave rise to the Church Congress of 1861, and many decades later, to the General Synod of the Church of England. The Church Congress met 27 November 1861 in Cambridge. The report of the proceedings, written by Beamont, became a model for guiding subsequent Congresses and developed its world-wide reputation. A further development of the Church Defense Association's work was to improve the efficiency of ministry in the Rural Deaneries. His ideas were applied to Cambridge and his childhood territory of Warrington and St. Helens. The end result was to improve the ministry to the poor in overcrowded parishes. In Cambridge the plan was strongly promoted and gave rise to the Church of St. Matthew in Gas Lane.

In 1860, Beamont returned to the Middle East with his father. This was part of their therapy to overcome his mother's death in the previous year. While there, he wrote an excellent text book on Arabic Grammar.

His chief published works were: The Prayer Book Interleaved, to which he contributed the plan and some of its contents
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In summary, Beamont was a workaholic. He ate little, slept little and lived off the adrenaline of his pioneer spirit. Clearly he was a man of vision and his work has had incalculable effects on Christianity in Cambridge, the Church of England and the Middle East. Nothing would deter him, people were cajoled into spending time on his projects. In essence he caught the vision and made things work.