John Beach

Trustee of Thomas Lucas of Lee (q.v.), and assignee from his co-trustee Joseph Paice (q.v.) of one moiety of an estate in St Kitts that was not named in his will but was almost certainly Lucas's. Probably the London merchant whose partnership with Thomas Plummer was dissolved in 1788.

1. Will of John Beach of Hackney Middlesex proved 01/10/1796. Under the will he left £1000 of Royal Exchange Assurance stock in trust for his daughter Hester for life and then to his other children [if any]; and he provided a further £2000 to buy £100 p.a. in Bank long annuities for his daughter Mary and on her death to be to be divided among such children as he may have living; he left further £2000 for his daughter Elizabeth in the same terms. He had been assigned by his 'friend' Joseph Paice [q.v.] of Bread Street Hill one moiety or one half of an estate on St Christopher: he left 1/4 of the produce of the half-interest to his daughter Lydia Harden; and 1/4 each to his daughters Hester, Mary and Elizabeth. He then provided that £50 p.a. rent for a house for his unmarried daughters and an annuity of £40 p.a. for his sisters Mary Newton and Martha Beach be paid out of the produce of the estate before the net produce was divided among his daughters, and an annuity of £20 p.a 'for reasons best known to myself' to Elizabeth Chapman of Castle Hedingham [sp?], Essex. The estate itself was to pass to his son-in-law Nathaniel Harden after the death of the 4 daughters. He left monetary legacies of £50 each to his sisters and £100 each to his daughters Hester, Mary and Elizabeth. He left 2 houses on St Kitts, one in Colledge Street, one in Irish Town, to his son-in-law Nathaniel Harden. His will also shows that he had purchased from Charles Johnson an annuity of £40 p.a. granted by Thomas Lucas [of Lee] on the life of Charles Johnson, which he left half each to his daughters Mary and Elizabeth. Administration of the will was granted in 1871 to Rev. Henry William Harden, the administrator of Lydia Harden.

London Gazette 12982 15 April 1788 p. 184.

1. PROB 11/1280/3.