Beale, Robert (1541-03-25 - 1601-05-27)

Robert Beale was born in 1541 (exact date unknown), the first son of Robert Beale (d. 1545?), mercer, of London. He was educated at Coventry and never took a university degree. Beale was a Marian exile in Strasbourg, and later studied logic, rhetoric, and Greek at Zurich. Subsequently, he served as secretary to Sir Henry Norris and then Sir Francis Walsingham. In July 1572, Elizabeth I made Beale one of the clerks of her privy council. On 19 November 1586, he delivered the death sentence of Mary, Queen of Scots, at Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire. Beale was admitted as an honorary member of Gray's Inn in 1587. On 27 May 1601, Robert Beale died at his house at Barn Elms, Surrey, and was buried in All Hallows, London Wall. He is remembered today for a number of documents which he produced, including 'A treatise of the office of a councellor and principall secretarie to her majestie' (in BL, Add MS 48149). His library and personal papers passed into the Yelverton Collection at the British Library.