Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 04.djvu/198

Bellingham BELLINGHAM, RICHARD (1592?–1672), governor of Massachusetts, was educated for the law, and from 1625 to 8 Nov. 1633 was recorder of Boston, Lincolnshire (, History and Antiquities of Boston p. 428). Nothing is recorded of his parentage, but he may possibly have been related to Francis Bellingham, who was member of parliament for Boston in 1603. In 1634 he emigrated, along with his wife, to Massachusetts, and in the following year he was elected deputy governor of the colony. By a majority of six votes over John Winthrop he was, in 1641, elected governor. He was several times re-elected, and from 1666 held office uninterruptedly till his death. In 1664 he was chosen assistant major-general. After the visit of the royal commissioners to the colony in the same year he and several others were summoned to England to be examined as to their management of affairs; but, standing on their charter rights, they refused compliance. Happily the present 'a shipload of masts' secured them the goodwill of the king, and no further steps were taken against them by the government in England.

Bellingham died 7 Dec. 1672, having attained the distinction of being the last survivor of the patentees in the charter. Notwithstanding certain eccentricities of character, his knowledge of law and the practical business of government, his strong will, and the incorruptible integrity of his public life, won him the high respect even of his opponents. In 1641 he contracted a second marriage by a method probably without a parallel. He proposed to a young lady who was engaged, with his approval, to a friend of his own, and, obtaining her consent, performed the marriage ceremony himself without any proclamation of banns. The great inquest presented him for breach of the order of court; but when he refused to vacate the bench and answer as an offender, the other magistrates were too nonplussed by the exceptional circumstances to venture on decisive steps, and he thus escaped without any censure. Bellingham was ardently attached to the principles of the 'first church,' and left the bulk of his estates —part of them after the decease of his wife, and part after the decease of his son — for the support and encouragement of 'godly ministers and preachers;' but the will was set aside by the general court as trenching on the rights of his family. Several of his letters and his signatures, and also his seals, will be found in the 'Winthrop Papers' (published by the Massachusetts Historical Society), 4th series, pp. 596-600. A sister of Bellingham, Anne Hibbins, widow of William Hibbins, was burned as a witch in June 1656.

 BELLINGS, RICHARD (d. 1677), Irish historian, eldest son of Sir Henry Bellings, who owned considerable estates in Leinster, was born near Dublin towards the commencement of the seventeenth century. While a student in Lincoln's Inn, London, he composed a sixth book to the 'Arcadia' of Sir Philip Sidney. This production was published with the 'Arcadia' in 1629, and has been appended to most of the editions of that work. Bellings married a daughter of Viscount Mountgarrett, and sat as a member of parliament in Ireland. On the formation of the Irish Confederation in 1642 Bellings was elected a member of and secretary to the supreme council of that body, of which his father-in-law, Mountgarrett, was president. In 1644 Bellings went to the continent as official representative of the Irish Confederation. After his return to Ireland in 1645 he continued, as an adherent of the royal cause, actively engaged in public affairs till 1649, when he retired to France. In 1654 he published at Paris, in Latin, a vindication of his political conduct. Bellings was highly esteemed by Charles II and the Duke of Ormonde. After the king's restoration Bellings obtained possession of a portion of his estates which had been appropriated by the parliamentarians. Bellings died in 1677, and was buried near Dublin. During his latter years he wrote a history of Irish affairs in which he had taken part. This work seems to have been lost sight of for nearly a century. A fragment of it was very incorrectly printed at Dublin in 1772. The original manuscript, supposed to have perished, has, however, been brought to light. The first portion of it, edited by John T. Gilbert, F.S.A., was printed in 1882, in two volumes quarto, for private circulation, under the following title: 'History of the Irish Confederation and the War in Ireland, 1641-3: containing a narrative of affairs of Ireland from 1641 to the conclusion of the treaty for cessation of hostilities between the Crown of England and the Irish in 1643. By Richard Bellings, Secretary of the Supreme Council of the Irish Confederation. With original documents, correspondence of the Confederation and of the English government in Ireland, contemporary personal statements, memoirs, &c. Published, for the first time, from original MSS.' This publication is frequently referred to by 