View source for John Bellingham

{{Short description|English merchant who assassinated Prime Minister Spencer Perceval in 1812}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}
{{More citations needed|date=September 2019}}
{{Inline|date=January 2023}}
{{Infobox criminal
| image_name        = John Bellingham portrait.gif
| image_caption     = Bellingham in ''[[the Newgate Calendar]]'', 1812
| birth_name        = 
| birth_date        = c. 1769
| birth_place       = [[St Neots]], Huntingdonshire, England
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|1812|05|18|1769|||df=yes}}
| death_place       = [[London]], England
| death_cause       = [[Execution by hanging]]
| resting_place     = Dissected, skull preserved at [[St. Bartholomew's Hospital|Barts]] Pathology Museum
| citizenship       = [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland]]
| conviction        = [[Assassination of Spencer Perceval]]
| charge            = Murder
| conviction_penalty = [[Death by hanging]]
| conviction_status = Executed by hanging
| motive            = ''see Notes''
| occupation        = Merchant
| spouse            = {{marriage|Mary Neville|1803}}
| parents           = 
| children          = 
| footnotes         = {{harvtxt|Robinson|2013|page=31}}: "The motive was Bellingham's groundless claim that [[the Crown]] owed him money for time he had served in a [[Russian Empire|Russian]] prison while Perceval had been [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]]."
}}

'''John Bellingham''' (c. 1769{{spaced ndash}}18 May 1812) was an English merchant and perpetrator of the [[Assassination of Spencer Perceval|1812 murder]] of [[Spencer Perceval]], the only British prime minister to be assassinated.

==Early life==
Bellingham's early life is largely unknown,  and most post-assassination biographies included speculation as fact. Recollections of family and friends show that Bellingham was born in [[St Neots]], [[Huntingdonshire]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/cambridgeshire/features/2002/crime_day/cambs_crimes_stneots_assassin1.shtml|title= The St Neots assassin|publisher=BBC|year=2002}}</ref> and brought up in [[London]], where he was apprenticed to a jeweller, James Love, aged fourteen. Two years later, he went as a [[midshipman]] on the maiden voyage of the ''[[Hartwell (ship)|Hartwell]]'' from [[Gravesend, Kent|Gravesend]] to [[Qing dynasty|China]]. A [[mutiny]] took place on 22 May 1787, which led to the ship running aground and sinking off the coast of Africa.

In early 1794, a man named John Bellingham opened a tin factory on London's [[Oxford Street]], but it failed and the owner was declared bankrupt in March. It is not certain this is the same person, but Bellingham definitely worked as a clerk in a [[counting house]] in the late 1790s, and about 1800 he went to [[Arkhangelsk]], [[Russian Empire|Russia]], as an agent for importers and exporters. He returned to England in 1802 and was a merchant broker in [[Liverpool]], living on [[Duke Street, Liverpool|Duke Street]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Clements |first1=Max |title=Liverpool merchant hanged for assassinating the Prime Minister |url=https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/plot-assassinate-prime-minister-liverpool-17051807 |access-date=16 November 2025 |work=Liverpool Echo |date=12 October 2019 |language=en}}</ref> He married Mary Neville in 1803. In the summer of 1804, Bellingham again went to Arkhangelsk to work as an export representative.

==Russian imprisonment==
In autumn 1803, the Russian ship ''Soleure''<ref>Thus transcribed in Proceedings of the Old Bailey.</ref> (or sometimes "Sojus"), insured at [[Lloyd's of London]], was lost in the [[White Sea]]. Her owners (the house of R. Van Brienen) filed a claim on their insurance, but an anonymous letter told Lloyd's the ship had been sabotaged. Soloman Van Brienen believed Bellingham was the author, and retaliated by accusing him of a debt of 4,890 roubles to a bankruptcy of which he was an assignee.{{clarify|date=April 2016}} Bellingham, about to return from Russia to Britain on 16 November 1804, had his travelling pass withdrawn because of the alleged debt.

Van Brienen persuaded the local governor-general to imprison Bellingham, and he was placed in a Russian jail. One year later, Bellingham secured his release and went to [[Saint Petersburg]], where he attempted to impeach the governor-general. This angered the Russian authorities, who charged him with leaving Arkhangelsk in a clandestine manner. He was again imprisoned until October 1808, when he was put out onto the streets, but still without permission to leave. In desperation, he petitioned the [[Alexander I of Russia|Tsar]]. He was allowed to leave Russia in 1809, arriving in England in December.

==Assassination of the prime minister==
{{Main|Assassination of Spencer Perceval}}
[[File:John Bellingham assassin.gif|thumb|A 19th-century illustration of Bellingham's assassination of [[Spencer Perceval]] ]]
Once home, Bellingham began petitioning the United Kingdom's government for compensation over his imprisonment. This was refused, as the United Kingdom had broken off diplomatic relations with Russia in November 1808. Bellingham's wife urged him to drop the matter and he did so reluctantly.

In 1812, Bellingham renewed his attempts to win compensation. On 18 April, he visited the [[Foreign Office]] where a civil servant told him he was at liberty to take whatever measures he thought proper. On 20 April, Bellingham purchased two .50 calibre (12.7&nbsp;mm) pistols from a gunsmith of 58 Skinner Street. He also had a [[tailor]] sew an inside pocket to his coat. At this time, he was often seen in the lobby of the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]].

After taking a friend's family to a painting exhibition on Monday 11 May 1812, Bellingham remarked that he had some business to attend to. He made his way to [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]], where he waited in the lobby. When [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] [[Spencer Perceval]] appeared, Bellingham stepped forward and shot him in the heart. He then calmly sat on a bench. Bellingham was immediately restrained and was identified by [[Isaac Gascoyne]], MP for Liverpool.

==Trial, execution and legacy==
[[File:Bellingham.jpg|thumb|A contemporary engraving of John Bellingham]]
Bellingham was tried on Friday 15 May 1812 at the [[Old Bailey]], where he argued that he would have preferred to shoot the [[British ambassador to Russia]], but insisted as a wronged man he was justified in killing the representative of his oppressors.

He made a formal statement to the court, saying:<ref name="oldbaileyonline1">{{Old Bailey|id=t18120513-5|defendant=JOHN BELLINGHAM, murder|trialdate=13 May 1812}}</ref>
<blockquote>Recollect, Gentlemen, what was my situation. Recollect that my family was ruined and myself destroyed, merely because it was Mr Perceval's pleasure that justice should not be granted; sheltering himself behind the imagined security of his station, and trampling upon law and right in the belief that no retribution could reach him. I demand only my right, and not a favour; I demand what is the birthright and privilege of every Englishman.

Gentlemen, when a minister sets himself above the laws, as Mr Perceval did, he does it as his own personal risk. If this were not so, the mere will of the minister would become the law, and what would then become of your liberties?

I trust that this serious lesson will operate as a warning to all future ministers, and that they will henceforth do the thing that is right, for if the upper ranks of society are permitted to act wrong with impunity, the inferior ramifications will soon become wholly corrupted.

Gentlemen, my life is in your hands, I rely confidently in your justice.</blockquote>

Evidence was presented that Bellingham was insane, but it was discounted by the trial judge, Sir [[James Mansfield]]. Bellingham was found guilty, and was [[capital punishment|sentenced to death]].<ref name="oldbaileyonline1"/>

Bellingham was hanged in public three days later. {{ill|René Martin Pillet|fr}}, a Frenchman who wrote an account of his ten years in England, described the sentiment of the crowd at the [[execution]]:
<blockquote>Farewell poor man, you owe satisfaction to the offended laws of your country, but God bless you! You have rendered an important service to your country, you have taught ministers that they should do justice, and grant audience when it is asked of them.<ref name="rene">''[https://books.google.com/books?id=fDYQAAAAYAAJ Views of England, During a Residence of Ten Years; Six of Them as a Prisoner]'' (1816) René Martin Pillet, pp. 24–25</ref></blockquote>

A subscription was raised for the widow and children of Bellingham, and "their fortune was ten times greater than they could ever have expected in any other circumstances".<ref name="rene"/> His widow remarried the following year.

Bellingham's skull was preserved at [[St Bartholomew's Hospital|Barts]] Pathology Museum.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://spitalfieldslife.com/2013/08/14/at-barts-pathology-museum/ |title=At Barts Pathology Museum |date=14 August 2013 |website=Spitalfields Life |publisher= |accessdate=16 August 2013}}</ref>

[[File:Bellingham plaque.png|thumb|Commemorative plaque to John Bellingham]]In September 2009, the St Neots Local History Society erected a plaque on Bellingham House in St Neots. The house, on the corner of Huntingdon Street and Cambridge Street, is said to be the birthplace of Bellingham.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://stneotslhs.org.uk/#/bellingham/4537254182|title= The New Plaques|publisher=St Neots Local History Society|year=2010}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of assassinations]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* {{citation |title=Assassination of the Prime Minister: The Shocking Death of Spencer Perceval |first=Mollie |last=Gillen |authorlink=Mollie Gillen |publisher=Sidgwick and Jackson |location=London |year=1972 |isbn=978-0-283-97881-4 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/assassinationofp0000gill }}
* {{citation |last=Hanraham|first=David C.|title=The Assassination of the Prime Minister: John Bellingham and the Murder of Spencer Perceval|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yF07AwAAQBAJ|date=2011|publisher=History Press|isbn=978-0-7524-7805-0}}
* {{citation |last=Robinson|first=Daniel N.|authorlink=Daniel N. Robinson|chapter=The Insanity Defense as a History of Mental Disorder|title=The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XzlpAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA18|date=2013|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-166679-7}}
* {{citation |last=Stonehouse |first=James |title=Recollections of Old Liverpool |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/21324/21324-h/21324-h.htm |year=1836 |publication-date=5 May 2007 |page=70 |via=[[Project Gutenberg]]}}
* {{citation |last=Wilson |first=Daniel |authorlink=Daniel Wilson (bishop) |title=The Substance of a Conversation with John Bellingham, the Assassin of the Late Right Hon. Spencer Perceval |edition=2nd |location=London |ol=22894679M}}

==External links==
{{commonscat}}
* {{Old Bailey |defendant=John Bellingham |id=t18120513-5 |trialdate=13 May 1812}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bellingham, John}}
[[Category:1760s births]]
[[Category:1812 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century English merchants]]
[[Category:19th-century English criminals]]
[[Category:Assassins of heads of government]]
[[Category:English assassins]]
[[Category:English people convicted of murder]]
[[Category:English people imprisoned abroad]]
[[Category:Executed people from Cambridgeshire]]
[[Category:Executed assassins]]
[[Category:People convicted of murder by England and Wales]]
[[Category:People from St Neots]]
[[Category:Foreign nationals imprisoned in Russia]]
[[Category:19th-century executions by England and Wales]]
[[Category:Spencer Perceval]]
[[Category:People executed by the United Kingdom by hanging]]