Beeching was born at Bexhill in Sussex (now East Sussex), in 1788, to a family who had connections with smuggling, and served an apprenticeship in nearby Hastings as a boat builder. In 1809, he married Martha Thwaites (1789–1831), daughter of shipowner Thomas Thwaites; they went on to have nine children. Beeching and a partner ran a shipbuilding yard in Hastings for several years, until it failed in 1816 and was purchased by Thomas Thwaites. He then went to Flushing in the Netherlands, and built many craft, including several involved in the English smuggling trade such as the cutter known as "Big Jane", launched in 1819.The history of the first lifeboats at Hastings (Hastings & St. Leonard's observer, 4 April 2008). On leaving Flushing he settled at Great Yarmouth in Norfolk where he introduced a design of fishing-vessel that for a time was characteristic of the port.Beeching family tree.
