He was born at Lincoln, England, 21 October 1768, the son of the Review Henry Beste, Doctor of Divinity, prebendary of Lincoln Cathedral. His mother, Magdalen, daughter and heiress of Kenelm Digby, Esq., of North Luffenham in Rutland, claimed to be the representative of the extinct male line of the historic Sir Everard and Sir Kenelm Digby.
His father dying in 1782, Henry was sent two years later by his mother to Oxford.
He became a commoner of Magdalen College, where he took his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1788 and his Master of Arts in 1781. He was afterward elected to a fellowship, which he resigned when the family estates came to him on the death of his mother. Doubts about the spiritual authority of the Established Church sprang up in his mind, which were strengthened by intercourse with the Abbé Beaumont, then in charge of the small Catholic chapel at Lincoln.
He died at Brighton, 28 May 1836.
