BELLOT, Sir Thomas, 2nd Bt. (1651-99), of Moreton, Cheshire.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Family and Education

b. 22 Oct. 1651, 1st s. of Sir John Bellot, 1st Bt., of Moreton and The Ashes, Endon, Staffs. by Anne, da. of Roger Wilbraham of Dorfold, Cheshire. educ. Christ Church, Oxf. 1668; L. Inn 1671. m. Feb. 1675, Susanna, da. of Christopher Packe, Draper, of Basinghall Street, London and Cotes, Leics., 2s. 3da. suc. fa. 14 July 1674.1

Offices Held

Commr. for assessment, Cheshire and Staffs. 1679-80, 1689-90, j.p. and dep. lt. 1689-d.; capt. of militia horse, Cheshire by 1697-d.2

Biography

Bellot’s family, of Norfolk origin, had held the manor of Moreton as tenants of the Venables family since the reign of Henry VI. In the Civil War they were Royalists; Bellot’s father was in arms for a short time, but later ‘resolved to live and die in the parliament service’, and compounded jointly with his grandfather for just over £1,000. After the Restoration he lived chiefly on his Staffordshire property, and was created a baronet, although described as a Presbyterian. Bellot succeeded to an estate of £1,500 p.a. and almost immediately married the daughter of one of the leading City Cromwellians, who had been excluded from public life under the Act of Indemnity. He identified himself with the country party, supporting Sir John Bowyer at the Newcastle by-election in 1675 and serving himself for the borough in the Exclusion Parliaments. Although Moreton lies only eight miles from Newcastle, he was the first of the family to enter Parliament, and owed his return chiefly to the Bowyer interest. Shaftesbury marked him ‘doubtful’ in 1679, when his only committee was the committee of elections and privileges, and he was absent from the division on the first exclusion bill. He probably became an exclusionist later, but he left no trace on the records of the second and third Exclusion Parliaments. He was one of the Cheshire gentry who attended the Duke of Monmouth on his progress in 1682, and in 1685 he lost his seat to a Tory. A Whig collaborator in 1688, he was recommended as court candidate for Newcastle; but he did not regain his seat until 1690. A country Whig under William III, he died in August 1699. His son, the 3rd baronet, was returned for Newcastle as a Tory in 1705 and 1708, but unseated on each occasion.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: A. M. Mimardière

Notes

  • 1. Ormerod, Cheshire, iii. 44.
  • 2. Staffs. Dep. Lts. (Wm. Salt Arch. Soc. 1931), 285; Eg. 1626, f. 8.
  • 3. Ormerod, iii. 43-45; SP23/180/747; Staffs. Gentry (Staffs. Rec. Soc. ser. 4), ii. 8; Staffs. Parl. Hist. (Wm. Salt Arch. Soc.), ii. 140-1; CSP Dom. 1682, pp. 383, 387, 408, 428; Luttrell, iv. 556.