Background
Richard Bellingham was born in 1592 at Boston, Lincolnshire, England, son of Frances (Amcotts) Bellingham and William Bellingham of Manton and Brombye.
Richard Bellingham was born in 1592 at Boston, Lincolnshire, England, son of Frances (Amcotts) Bellingham and William Bellingham of Manton and Brombye.
Richard studied law at Brasenose College, Oxford, matriculating on 1 December 1609.
Bellingham was made a freeman in 1625 and served as recorder of the borough from 1625 to 1633. He was also a member of Parliament for Boston in 1628, and in the following year became one of the patentees of the Massachusetts Bay Charter. Together with his first wife and his son, Samuel, who was to be a graduate of Harvard's first class (1642), he came to New England in 1634 and settled at Boston, where he was elected deputy governor in 1635. The General Court seems to have appreciated his legal knowledge, for on more than one occasion he was ordered to examine and criticize the laws of the colony. He served as assistant, 1636-40, 1642-53; as treasurer, 1637-40; as deputy governor, 1635, 1640, 1653, 1655-65; as governor, 1641, 1654, 1665 until his death in 1672 .
Bellingham's espousal of the popular cause, which brought him into conflict with Gov. Winthrop, probably dates from the "Stoughton affair" in 1635. By the time of the trial of Nicholas Trerice in 1639 there had developed an open breach, and in the election of 1641 Bellingham was chosen governor by a majority of six votes over Winthrop. His administration was marked by disputes with the other magistrates, and it is significant that the annual allowance to the governor was withdrawn by the Court. In the same year he further irritated the magistrates and clergy by his unique marriage to Penelope Pelham, in which he not only violated the law by neglecting the previous publication of his intentions, but performed the ceremony himself. As governor, Bellingham refused to leave the bench to stand trial, and the perplexed magistrates dropped the case.
During the confusion following the Restoration, Bellingham rendered valuable service to the colony. He had succeeded Endicott as governor upon the latter's death in 1665, and was in office during the visit of the Royal Commission to Boston in that year. With others he was appointed to receive the Charter for safe keeping, and under his leadership the General Court denied the authority of the Commission, on the grounds that the Charter did not require the recognition of that body. As a result, Bellingham with several others was summoned to England in 1666 to explain his action, but the tactful present of a shipload of masts to the Royal Navy enabled him to ignore the order. He died on December 7, 1672, and his peculiar will, which provided for the eventual entrusting of his large estate to the care of the clergy, produced litigation lasting over 100 years.
Richard Bellingham was a famous and wealthy lawyer of his time who served as the 8th, 16th, and 18th Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1641–1642; 1654–1655; 1665–1672). Author Nathaniel Hawthorne immortalized him as a character in his novel "The Scarlet Letter", as the brother of Ann Hibbins.
Richard Bellingham was a member of Parliament for Boston (1628-1629).
Contemporary writers agree on his honesty and marked legal ability, but consider Bellingham of slow and difficult speech.
Bellingham's first wife was Elizabeth Backhouse. They had a number of children, although only their son Samuel survived to adulthood. During the wedding of his second wife, Penelope Pelham, it was said she had been betrothed to another, he performed the ceremony himself and was prosecuted for it.
