 He had assumed the additional surname, Denison, by letters patent in 1816, but resumed his original surname by the same process on succeeding to the baronetcy in 1872.The surviving evidence shows Beckett to be tough and uncompromising.At his death even the local Tory paper, in its obituary, described him as "brusque in his manner, impatient to a degree of human vanity in all its ugly shapes, and with little trace of sentiment or poetry of any description".