Exhibition: The History of Walton Hall

Owners of Walton Hall: The Beales 

In 1622 brothers Bartholomew and John Beale purchased Walton Hall from the Longueville family. The Beale family were Puritans who originated from the West Midlands areas of Warwickshire and Coventry. Bartholomew Beale (c.1583-1660) was a Gray’s Inn lawyer and senior civil clerk, and his brother John Beale (c.1587-1643) was a London printer, typesetter, and stationer.

According to The Open University’s Estates Assistant Surveyor David Ball who researched the building in the 1980s - at the time of its purchase by the Beales, Walton Hall was based on a typical sixteenth century design which consisted of a timber framed three bay house, with two storeys and a thatched roof with one chimney. A drawing of the house as it may have looked is shown on this page. 

 

John Beale 1587-1643

Biographical information about John Beale exists in a 1907 published work titled 'Plomer Dictionary of Printers and Sellers'. He was a printer, typesetter, and stationer who developed partnerships with various printers during his career, including William Hall, Thomas Brudenell and Stephen Bulkley. His companies printed works including Francis Bacon’s ‘Essays’ (1612 & 1639), Robert Recorde’s ‘Arithmetic: the Ground of Arts’ (1618), an edition of ‘Cicero’ (1628), Ben Jonson’s play ‘Bartholomew Fayre’ (1631) and Christopher Marlowe’s play ‘The Jew of Malta’ (1633).

An image of cartographer John Speed’s Map of Buckinghamshire is shown on this page. It was donated as part of a collection of framed antique maps of Buckinghamshire to the University Archive. The map appeared in John Speed’s atlas 'The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine' printed in 1611. The maps were produced on engraved copper plates with additional text typeset by John Beale and William Hall. The atlas featured county and city maps of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Walton is included on the map of Buckinghamshire.

John Beale worked in a printing house in Fetter Lane, not far from St Paul's Cathedral in London which he purchased from his partner, William Hall in 1612. He worked there until 1641. Towards the end of his life he became blind but appears to have still carried on the business with Stephen Bulkley. It is not known who John Beale married or if he had children, but a relation by marriage, the successful seventeenth century London bookseller Humphrey Robinson, took over his copies after his death which occurred on 17 September 1643 at the age of 56 years.

 

Bartholomew Beale c.1583-1660

The elder of the brothers who purchased Walton Hall, Bartholomew Beale, was a Gray’s Inn lawyer and senior civil clerk. According to author Helen Draper in her PhD thesis ‘Mary Beale (1633-1699) and her ‘paynting roome’ in Restoration London’ (2020) “…a surviving glebe terrier relating to the village provides evidence that Bartholomew Beale was in possession of more than 25 acres of land in and around Walton, and a rectory described as a ‘dwelling howse contayning three bay’ along with a sizable barn and stables.” As well as the country estate, Bartholomew Beale also owned a town house in Hatton Garden, London.

Bartholomew Beale married Katherine Beale (c.1590-1657) in 1611. The couple had at least nine children including seven sons and two daughters. The four youngest sons were all baptised at Walton – William in 1625, Robert in 1627, Charles in 1631 and John in 1633. Not all of the Beale children reached adulthood, John died at less than one month old and was buried at Walton on 4 November 1633.    

Several years after their deaths, a memorial to Bartholomew and Katherine Beale was erected in St Michael’s Church in 1672. The third image on this page is a photograph of the memorial. It was commissioned by the Beales' sons Henry and Charles and sculpted by Thomas Burman (1618-1674) of London. The inscription on the Beale memorial in St Michael’s Church is as follows:

“Neare this Place in hope of a Blessed Resurrection ly buried the Bodys of

Bartholomew Beale Esq & Katharin his only Wife

At once the Happy Uniters & Restorers of two Ancient but almost extinct Familys

Who till then were Different Houses, though bearing the same Name

They enjoyed each other in Wedlock XLVI [46] years III [3] Moneths

Happy longer then others use to live

The Religious Parents of VII [7] Sonnes and II [2] Daughters

By their Death may bee seen the Triumphs of the Grave, as those

Of Piety & Virtue were in their lives

Hee dyed at London XV [15] June MDCLX [1660] aged LXXVII [72] years

Shee at Walton XVI [16] August MDCLVII [1657] aged LXVII [67] years

Henry Beale & Charles Beale

The Eldest & Youngest Sonnes of them

Who survive To the Pious & Beloved

Memory of their Honoured Parents

Erected this Monument”

The inscription reveals that although Bartholomew and Katherine shared the same surname, they apparently came from two unrelated families. The couple appeared to have been happily married for 46 years and their nine children are mentioned although not by name. This information is still useful as not all their baptisms can be located in parish records.

 

In 1976 St Michael's Church was excavated by Buckinghamshire Archaeological Society during its restoration by The Open University. This plan of the church floor shows the position of several graves including two seventeenth century brick vaults in the chancel. One of the vaults is thought to be that of the Beale family and is likely the resting place of Bartholomew Beale and his wife Katherine along with other members of the family.