Henry L. P. Beckwith, Jr.

Henry Lyman Parsons Beckwith ("jr." until the death of his surviving parent, 1989) ((1935-05-22)May 22, 1935 -) is an author of books and articles on heraldry and H. P. Lovecraft.He is a member of the Society of the Cincinnati and several other hereditary, patriotic and historical organizations.His book on Lovecraft, Lovecraft's Providence and Adjacent Parts, was published by Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. in 1979.

Mr. Beckwith was elected in 1969 Secretary of the Committee on Heraldry (1864) of the New England Historic Genealogical Society (until it ceased to exist, the oldest existing unofficial body concerned with the subject) succeeding a distant kinsman, Harold Bowditch, MD, elected 1924. He has served as Secretary of the successor N.H.G.S. Heraldry Committee, created 2000, to date. He also serves as Secretary of the Diocesan Committee on the Old Narragansett Church (a committee of the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island, created 1914) as the 4th generation of his family to so serve. He has served as Secretary of the Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations since 1986 succeeding his cousin, Frank Mauran. He is the surviving founding member of the American Heraldic Association (1973).

He was a Trustee (now Trustee Emeritus) of The Gilbert Stuart Birthplace, North Kingstown, R.I. (established 1932), third generation of his family to do so. He has served the Town of North Kingstown, R.I., on the North Kingstown Historic District Committee (Chair) of which his uncle (Joseph Warren Greene Jr.) was first chair, and the North Kingstown Conservation Commission, he proposed the creation of and was Chair of the Updike Park Renovation Committee, and various other committees.

He has served as a trustee of the Rhode Island Historical Society, and on other private boards, and state and municipal, committees. In politics he is an Independent, and in religion his beliefs are latitudinarian.

Mr. Beckwith's memberships in hereditary and patriotic organizations include the following -

• Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Rhode Island (Secretary)
• Order of the Crown in America
• Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York
• General Society of Colonial Wars (former Governor of the Rhode Island Society)
• Colonial Order of the Acorn
• Order of Americans of Armorial Ancestry
• Society of Descendants of Knights of the Garter
• Aztec Club of 1847 (representing Major Julian MacAllister, U.S.A.)
• Order of the Founders and Patriots of America
• Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (representing Major Francis Marion Cutler, U.S.A)
• Order of the Indian Wars of the United States
• General Society Sons of the Revolution
• National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution
• Descendants of the Illegitimate Sons and Daughters of the Kings of Britain
• Huguenot Society of South Carolina (great (X times) grandnephew of Francis Marion "The Carolina Swampfox")
• Artillery Company of Newport, Rhode Island (Descended from Captain Jahleel Brenton, its first commanding officer.)