Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/287

 BELLOWS.

BELLOMONT.

BELLOWS, Henry Whitney, clergyman, was

born in Boston, Mass., June 11, 1814. After a preparatory course at Round Hill school he at- tended Harvard college, graduating in 1832. He pursued a theological course at the Cambridge divinity school, and became pastor of the First Unitarian Congrega- tional church in New- York city in 1839. This church was afterwards known as the Church of the Unity, and later as All Souls church. He was a gifted orator and attained celeb- rity both as preacher and lecturer. His writings are dis- tinguished for their clearness and purity of style. He estab- lished in 1846 a weekly Unitarian publication en- titled Tlie Christian Inquirer, and was also con- nected with the Liberal Christian and the Christian Examiner. He received the degree of D.D. from Harvard in 1854. He was president of the U. S. sanitary commission, of which great charity he was a prime mover and to which he gave much of his time during the continuance of the civil war and thereafter vmtil 1866. Dr. Bel- lows was a broad-minded and philanthropic man, full of zeal for his profession, but also entering fully into the public life of his day with large interest and sympathy. His lectures were mainly upon social topics, some of them being delivered at the Lowell institute, Boston, and afterwards published. He issued in 1860 a volume of twenty- five sermons, entitled " Restatements of Christian Doctrine," and a book of travels, "The Old World in its New Face ; Impressions of Europe in 1867-1868" (2 vols., 1868-69). Among his other books are: "Historical Sketch of the Union League Club of New York " (1879), and " Twenty- four Sermons Preached in All Souls Church, N.Y., 1865-1881" (1886). He was pastor of All Souls church, New York city, until his death, Jan. 30. 1882.

BELLOMONT, Richard Coote, earl, col- onial governor, was born in 1636; son of Sir Charles Coote, raised by Charles II. to the peerage of Ireland under the title of the Earl of Mont- rath, in 1660, to which title Richard succeeded. The first mention of Richard Coote is as a mem- ber of parliament for Droitwich, England. When James II. acceded to the English throne Lord Coote left England, and for several years resided on the continent. He was ordered to re- turn in 1687, and the following year became again

a member of parliament. He was a Whig, a leader in the movement to establish Protestant succession, and a friend to the Prince of Orange. Soon after the accession of William and Mary, Coote was appointed treasurer and receiver- general to the queen and, on Nov. 2, 1689, was made Earl of Bellomont. In 1695 William III., having learned that piracy was being carried on in New York, unrestrained and even .secretly encouraged by the governors, summoned Bello- mont and appointed him governor of New York and New England. As soon as his appoint- ment was made public, his London hou.se was besieged by men, who were materially inter- ested in New York, and among these was " Colonel Robert Livingston, a man of consider- able estate and fair reputation, who has several employments in that province." By his advice the earl, wishing to find a method of suppressing piracy in New York, engaged Captain William Kidd, who, Macaulay says, was " well acquainted with all the haunts of the pirates, who prowled between the Cape of Good Hope and the Straits of Malacca." An expedition was fitted out with Kidd at the head, and the money necessary for the enterprise was raised in England. On Oct. 10, 1695, an agreement was signed to the effect that all prizes taken from the French should be disposed of according to law, and all those taken from pirates should be divided between the owners and the crew. Bellomont arrived in New York on April 2, 1698. Finding that Fletcher, his prede- cessor, had left affairs in a very bad condition, he ordered the seizure of vessels engaged in illegal traffic, dissolved Fletcher's assembly and called a new one. His reforms did not seem popular, and he wrote the king : "I am obliged to stand entirely upon my own legs ; my assistants hinder me, the people oppose me, and the merchants threaten me. It is indeed uphill work." Matters were finally somewhat quieted in New York, and he started for Boston in May, 1699. There he was received with marked cordiality. He was awarded a larger salary for his stay in New England than any of his predecessors had received, the simi be- ing £1, 875 sterling. Meanwhile, the fact that Cap- tain Kidd had turned pirate became known to Bellomont, who exerted his influence to effect his capture. At last, on July 1, 1699, Kidd landed in Boston, was arrested and confined in prison. Bellomont then visited New Hampohire, where again he received a royal welcome. He made a speech to the assembly, which favorably im- pressed the people, and during the three weeks of his stay there he reorganized the courts and adopted measures satisfactory to the people. In 1700 he left Massachusetts for New York, and in that year issued a decree ordering all " Jesuits and popish priests, and other spiritual or ecclesias-