He was born at Lincoln, England, 21 October, 1768, the son of the Rev. Henry Beste, D.D., 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 B.A. degree in 1788 and his M.A. 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. In September, 1791, he took deacon's orders in the Anglican church, and a little later retired to Lincoln, where he was active as a preacher. Doubts about the spiri