making continual efforts to control the natural man. His temper, he tells us in one of his letters, may be described in one little word 'hot,' His business, it has been seen, brought him loss instead of profit; but out of his small supply he was always liberal and ready to listen to the cry of distress. Whilst on a visit to friends in Scotland, by appointment of the yearly meeting in 1808, Bevan began to suffer from cataract in his left eye, and two years later he was attacked by paralysis in his left side. His wife, on whom he was wont to rely, was then seized by an apoplectic fit, which disordered her memory and intellect: it is said she was unable to recognise her own husband. She died in 1813. Bevan, who was now afflicted with asthma and dropsy, bore all these troubles with exemplary humility and patience. In the last part of his life two female friends were accustomed to read to him selections from Kendall's 'Collection of Letters,' Thomas Elwood's 'Journal, and Mary Waring's 'Diary.' These ladies were two sisters, daughters of a Mr. Capper, of whom the eldest had been married to Paul Bevan, the cousin of Joseph Gurney. Paul lived at Tottenham, where his cousin passed the greater portion of his latter days. On 12 Sept. 1814 Joseph Gurney Bevan died, and was buried at the Friends' burial-ground, near Bunhill Fields. In a fly-leaf of a 'Piety Promoted,' preserved at the British Museum, is an autograph of the famous Elizabeth Fry, who was Bevan's cousin, and presented the book to a friend as a memorial of him and of her brother, John Gurney, who both died on the same day.
Lowndes says that Bevan is the ablest of the quaker apologists. Certainly he writes with good sense, good temper, and good feeling. Orme speaks of his 'Life of Paul' as doing credit to the talents and piety of the writer, besides being interesting as affording some explanation of the theological sentiments of the Quakers. The work is written in the very words of Scripture, with care to establish a connected historical chain; the notes are selected from the best commentators. Horne says that those which are geographical are most conspicuous, and stamp a real value on the work, which, though designed for youthful quakers, may be studied by all christians 'without danger of finding anything introduced which can give the smallest bias towards any principle not really and truly christian' (Brit Crit. O. S. 33, 477).
The full titles of his chief works, in their order of publication, are: 1. 'A Refutation of some of the more modern Misrepresentations of the Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers, with a life of James Nayler; also a Summary of the History, Doctrine, and Discipline of Friends,' 8vo, 1800. 2. 'An Examination of the First Part of a Pamphlet, called An Appeal to the Society of Friends,' 8vo, 1802. 3. 'A Short Account of the Life and Writings of Robert Barclay,' 18mo, 1802. 4. 'Thoughts on Reason and Revelation, particularly the Revelation of the Scriptures,' 8vo, 1805, 1828, 1853. 6. 'Memoirs of the Life of Isaac Penington, to which is added a Review of his Writings,' 8vo, 1807. 6. 'Memoirs of the Life and Travels in the service of the Gospel of Sarah Stephenson, chiefly from her own papers,' 8vo, 1807. 7. 'The Life of the Apostle Paul as related in Scripture, but in which his epistles are inserted in that part of the history to which they are supposed respectively to belong; with select notes, critical, explanatory, and relating to persons and places,' 8vo, 1807, and corrected and enlarged 1811. 8. 'A Reply to so much of a Sermon published in the course of last year by Philip Dodd as relates to the well-known scruple of the Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers, against all Swearing,' 8vo, 1808. 9. 'Piety promoted in brief memorials and dying expressions of some of the Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers; the tenth part, to which is prefixed an historical account of the preceding parts of volumes, and of their several compilers and editors,' 2nd edition, 12mo, 1811.
[Brit. Mus. Catal.; Orme's Bibl. Bibl. 31; Home's Introd. 165; Lowndes's Bibl. Man.; Extracts from Letters by J. F.; a Short Account of the last Illness, &c.; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]
BEVER. [See Castorius, John.]
BEVER, THOMAS, LL.D. (1725–1791), scholar and civilian, was born at Mortimer, Berkshire, in 1725. He was educated at Oriel College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. 21 April 1748. At All Souls College, where he became a fellow, he graduated bachelor of law 3 July 1753, and doctor 5 April 1758. He was admitted to Doctors' Commons 21 Nov. 1758, and afterwards was promoted to be judge of the Cinque Ports, and chancellor of Lincoln and Bangor. In 1762, with the permission of the vice-chancellor and the approbation of the professor of civil law, who was unable from ill-health to discharge his duties, he delivered a course of lectures on civil law at the university. In 1766 he published 'A Discourse on the Study of Jurisprudence, and on the Civil Law, being an Introduction to a Course of Lectures.' His intention was to publish the whole series of lectures, but the project did not meet with sufficient encouragement. In
