Background
He was born at Broadchalke, in Wiltshire, about 1496. His father was John Bekinsau, of Hartley Wespell, Hampshire.
He was born at Broadchalke, in Wiltshire, about 1496. His father was John Bekinsau, of Hartley Wespell, Hampshire.
Bekinsau was educated at Winchester School, and proceeded to New College, Oxford. He was made Fellow of his college in 1520, and took the degree of Master of Arts
In 1526. At Oxford he was, according to Anthony Wood, esteemed ‘an admirable Grecian;’ and on proceeding to Paris he read the Greek lecture in the university, probably soon after 1530, the year in which Francis I of France founded the royal professorships and revived the study of Greek at Paris. Having returned to England, Bekinsau married, and so vacated his fellowship, in 1538. On the accession of Elizabeth, Bekinsau retired to Sherburne, a village in Hampshire, where he died, and was buried on 20 December 1559.