John Beaumont (poet)

Sir John Beaumont, 1st Baronet (c.1582/3 – April 1627) of Grace Dieu in the parish of Belton in Leicestershire, England, was a poet best known for his work Bosworth Field.

He was born at Grace Dieu, near Thringstone in Leicestershire, the second son of the judge Sir Francis Beaumont (d.1598) by his wife Anne Pierrepont. His younger brother was the dramatist Francis Beaumont.

John matriculated at Broadgates Hall (later Pembroke College) in the University of Oxford on 4 February 1596/1597, entered as a gentleman commoner. He was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1598 or 1600. The death in 1605 of his elder brother, Sir Henry Beaumont, made John the head of the Beaumont family, and he is thought to have returned to Grace-Dieu to manage the family estates. He was a Roman Catholic and together with his wife was fined for recusancy in 1607, and in 1625 was again in trouble on that account.

He began to write verse early and in 1602, at the age of nineteen, he published anonymously his Metamorphosis of Tabacco, written in very smooth couplets, in which he addressed Michael Drayton as his loving friend. After long retirement Beaumont was persuaded by the Duke of Buckingham to return to society. He attended court and on 31 January 1626/1627 was created by the king a Baronet "of Gracedieu, in Belton, County Leicester", in the Baronetage of England.

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