Details of Sculptor

Surname

Beauchamp

Alternative Surname

First Name

Ephraim

Initial of Surname

B

Year of Birth/Baptism

Flourished

Year of Death

-1728

Biographical Details

Beauchamp is thought to have come from Burford, Oxon. He was the brother-in-law of Edward Strong I (who married Martha Beauchamp in 1675) and was probably the uncle of Edward Beauchamp who served his apprenticeship under Edward Strong II between 18 July 1705 and 14 June 1717. He may also have been related to Thomas Beauchamp who built Founders’ Hall between 1669 and 1671 (Founders Company Archives, cited by Gunnis 1968, 44). He was made free of the Masons’ Company by redemption on 16 October 1684, became a renter warden in 1697, upper warden in 1698, and master in 1701.
He was employed as a master mason at St Paul’s Cathedral for many years. Working there on his own account in 1684 (St Paul’s Aquittance Book, cited by Knoop and Jones 1935, 33), he supplied stone for the building from 1688 until 1698 and between 1691 and 1707 he carried out building and carved stonework in partnership with Christopher Kempster. In 1699 he was employed at Greenwich Palace, either as a partner or assistant of Edward Strong I and Edward Strong II. He worked independently at St Dunstan-in-the-East, 1696-7, receiving £30 from the vestry in June 1697 when he promised to ‘hasten the fitting up of the church and finishing the steeple’ (Wren Soc, XIX, 19). He was at Sir Edward de Bouverie’s London house in 1698 (Longford Castle Archives, cited by Gunnis 1968, 44). In May 1716 he was called in to advise upon the condition of the cloisters at Christ’s Hospital, Newgate Street, which had become ‘not only ruinous but very dangerous’ (Wren Soc, XI, 79).
Beauchamp appears to have retired from business and to have left London by 1708, for his address was recorded as ‘Tottenham High Cross’ in a list of members of the Masons’ Company that year. He was buried at All Saints, Tottenham, where his tomb bore a long inscription stating that he died on 16 September 1728, that he was for many years one of the governors of the Christ Church, Bethlem and Bridewell Hospitals, and that his widow, Laetitia, daughter of John Coppin of Pullox Hill, Bedford, died in 1739, at the age of seventy-two (Cansick 1875, 53).
Literary References: Knoop and Jones 1935, 32-33; Gunnis 1968, 44; Wren Soc VI, 40; XIV, passim; XV, passim; XVI, 66
Archival References: Masons’ Co, Freemen, fols 4, 5 (16 Oct 1684, 14 June 1717); Masons’ Co, Masters and Wardens (1697, 1698, 1701); Company Members (1708)