BEEARD, BEARD, or BERDE, RICHARD (fl. 1553–1574), author, was admitted to the rectory of St. Mary Hill, London, 31 May 1560, and was deprived of the living in 1574. He was the author of:

  1. 'A Godly Psalm of Mary Queen,' with psalm tunes in four parts, 1553.
  2. 'Alphabetum primum Beeardi,' a poem of fifty-six short lines printed as a broadside, without date, by William Copland.
  3. An untitled piece of verse of forty-four lines, signed by Beeard, beginning 'M. Harry Whobals man to M. Camel greetes,' printed on a sheet without place, printer's name, or date.

A copy of the first is in Trinity College Library, Cambridge, and copies of the last two are in the library of the Society of Antiquaries. In Strype's 'Annals,' iv. 512-516, the dedication to Queen Elizabeth of a manuscript work by Richard Beard 'concerning the doctrine of justification' is printed at length.

[Newcourt's Repertorium, i. 451; Hazlitt's Handbook to Literature, p. 34; Ritson's Bibliographia Poetica, 129; Lemon's Catal. of Broadsides, 10-11.]

S. L. L.

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