John de Beauchense was born in Paris around 1538, and was probably raised a
Huguenot. He is likely related to a group of printers and booksellers active in Paris in the 16th century named Beauchesne: Abraham Beauchesne (active around 1532), Julien Beauchesne (1545) and Jeanne Beauchesne, wife of the Parisian printer Jean Plumyon, killed In 1572 during the
St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. He immigrated to London around 1565 (perhaps to find a more favourable environment for Protestant opinions); in 1567 he had been living in the ward of
Farringdon Without, home to
Chancery Lane and
St Bartholomew's Hospital, for two years. That year he was working as a scribe for
William Bowyer, Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London.
Berthold Wolpe identified Beauchesne as the creator of the calligraphic pages in Bowyer's
Heroica Eulogia, a manuscript dedicated (but perhaps never presented) to
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester combining "paintings, coats of arms, Latin poems, 14 distinctive styles of handwriting, and historical documents". In 1570, the French Huguenot printer
Thomas Vautrollier published Beauchesne's
A Booke containing divers sortes of hands, the first book of "copies" or sample alphabets for students to be printed in English. Its full title was As Vautrollier had registered two books of "copies" of hands with the
Stationers' Company in 1569, it is possible that this volume combined originally separate works by Beauchesne and by Master John Baildon, a curate of
St Mildred in the Poultry. Shortly after the appearance of his
Booke, Beauchesne travelled to Italy, studying under several masters. By 1579 he was resident in Lyon, where he published a second treatise in 1580, ''Le Tresor d' Escriture, au que I est contenu tout ce qui est requis et necessaire a taus amateurs dudict art. Par jehan de Beauchesne Parisien, Avec privilege du Roi'', which displays a sensitive Italian influence. He returned to England by 1583 and about 1595 published a third treatise on handwriting, ''La Clef de l'Escriture'', dedicated to the three daughters of
Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury. Taxpayer records of 1599 place him in the parish of
St Ann Blackfriars. He was appointed writing master to the new King James I's daughter
Elizabeth (to whom he dedicated a collection of manuscript examples around 1610), and her brother
Charles, later King Charles I. Beauchesne was buried at Blackfriars 20 May 1620. == Engraved works ==