John Relly Beard
| John Relly Beard | |
|---|---|
| Religion | English Unitarian |
| Personal | |
| Nationality | British |
| Born | 4 August 1800 Portsmouth, England |
| Died | 22 November 1876 (aged 76) Ashton upon Mersey, Cheshire, England |
| Resting place | Brooklands Cemetery, Sale, Cheshire |
| Religious career | |
| Teacher | Unitarian Home Missionary Board, now Unitarian College Manchester |
John Relly Beard (4 August 1800 – 22 November 1876) was an English Unitarian minister, schoolmaster, university lecturer, and translator who co-founded Unitarian College Manchester and wrote more than thirty books.
He was born in Portsmouth on 4 August 1800, the first child of a tradesman, John Beard, and his wife Ann Paine. After attending the Grammar School in Portsmouth and a brief period in a French boarding-school, he joined Manchester College, York in 1820 and studied under Charles Wellbeloved, a pioneering translator of the Old Testament. One of his fellow students there was William Gaskell (whose wife Elizabeth became the famous novelist) and they remained lifelong friends.
After his training Beard became a Unitarian minister at Greengate, Salford in 1825. Alongside his ministry, he ran a school which was so successful that he built a house to accommodate it. Although he closed it in 1849 to give his attention to other matters, he remained deeply interested in education. In 1842 his congregation migrated to Bridge Street, Strangeways, and Beard remained their minister until 1864, when he moved to Sale, Cheshire.
During this time he and William Gaskell, who was living in nearby Knutsford, worked to establish the Unitarian Home Missionary Board, which became Unitarian College Manchester, of which they were the co-founders and the first two Principals.
He retired in 1874 and died on 22 November 1876 in his 76th year at the Meadows, Ashton upon Mersey.
Beard and his wife Mary (née Barnes (1802–87)) had ten children. To mention only the best known of their descendants: their eldest son, Charles Beard (1827–88), also became a Unitarian minister, writer and educator; their youngest son, James Rait Beard (1843–1917), although engaged in business in Manchester, was active in supporting Unitarian College Manchester: he served as its Treasurer 1886–1914 and President 1900–01 and 1904–05; their eldest daughter Sarah (1831–1922) married John Dendy (1828–94) and their children included: John Dendy OBE (1852–1924); Mary Dendy, the pioneer of residential schools for mentally handicapped people; the social reformer Helen Bosanquet; and the biologist Arthur Dendy.
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