The Battle Abbey Roll. Vol. III.
by
The Duchess of Cleveland.
ADDITIONAL NAMES GIVEN BY DUCHESNE.
Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Belasyse : from Bellassize, near Coulommieres. This family bore the punning motto "Bonne et Belle assez" (in allusion to the fleur-de-lis on their coat) and gave their name to Bellasis,—more commonly Bellas—in the county of Durham, which "they held from a period little later than the Conquest."—Surtees. It is believed to have been a Roman station, and is now "a farmhold, with stone walls of great thickness, and the remains of a regular moat, the usual defence of manor houses, of the second class in a level country." During the thirteenth century—probably before 1272 (Surtees shows that the date usually given, 1380, is erroneous) John de Bellasis surrendered the estate to the Prior and Convent of Durham, in exchange for Henknowl, near St. Andrew's, Auckland. This transaction was evidently highly favourable to the monks, and a local distich, still well remembered in the neighbourhood, speaks of it as an act of madness:
"Johny tuth' Bellas, daft was thy poll,
When thou changed Bellas for Henknoll."[1]
It was in fact a sacrifice made on religious grounds, "According to constant tradition, John de Bellasis, being minded to undertake the Crusade, found himself sorely let and hindered by his attachment to the estate of his ancestors. To remove this stumbling-block, he exchanged the green pastures and deep meadows of Bellasis with the Church of Durham for Henknoll. He lived, it seems, to return and repent of his bargain." About 1313, one of his descendants acquired Houghton Le Spring, in the same county, through its heiress. She was the only sister of Sir John Le Spring, the last of his race, who was murdered in his own manor house by Robert Lascelles.[2] This seems to have been in their possession for a short time only; but they continued for more than two hundred years longer at Henknoll, till they were transplanted to a grander home in Yorkshire.
"Anthony Bellasis, a Master in Chancery, and one of the Council of the North, was a prudent, wary man, who laid the foundation of the future fortunes of the family. He was one of the King's Commissioners for visiting the Religious Houses, and obtained a grant of the site of Newborough Abbey in the North Riding, which he settled on his nephew, Sir William Belasyse."—Surtees. He died in 1552; and Sir William then entered upon "a very great estate in Yorkshire," as it is called by Lord Clarendon, and served as Sheriff of the county 16 Eliz. He had six sons, none of whom had issue except Henry, his heir, and Brian, to whom he gave Morton House, in the co. Durham. Henry was among the first baronets made in 1611; and, soon after the accession of Charles I., Sir Thomas, the next in succession, was created Baron Fauconberg of Yarm. In all the troubles that ensued, he faithfully adhered to the King's party; was rewarded with a Viscountcy in 1642, and, after the fatal rout of Marston Moor, was forced to fly the country with the Marquess of Newcastle, whose fortunes he had followed in the siege of York. His second son, Col. John Belasyse, a gallant and zealous Cavalier, who raised six regiments of horse and foot in the King's service, had, at the commencement of the same year, received the title of Lord Belasyse, of Worlaby in Lincolnshire. The eldest, Henry, likewise a staunch and courageous loyalist, died in his father's lifetime, leaving a goodly progeny of seven sons and seven daughters. Lord Fauconberg himself died in 1652, having compounded for his estate with the sequestrators by payment of a heavy fine. Five years afterwards, his heir—the heir of so loyal a house—was married at Whitehall "with all imaginable pomp and lustre" to Oliver Cromwell's daughter[3]—a match that might have stirred the young Viscount's father and grandfather in their honoured graves. "There were," says Clarendon, "many reasons to believe that this young gentleman, being then about three or four and twenty years of age, of great vigour and ambition, had many good purposes, that he thought that alliance might qualify and enable him to perform." Lord Fauconberg was, however, little trusted and still less employed by the Protector, who "grew to hate him perfectly:" and we next find him betraying his brother-in-law, and actively engaged in aiding the Restoration; then sent as Ambassador to Vienna by Charles II.; and finally, receiving an Earldom from William and Mary in 1695. He died without posterity; Mary Cromwell had brought him no children; and the eldest son of his brother Sir Rowland succeeded as third Viscount in 1700. Another Earldom was granted to the next heir by George II. in 1756, but expired with Henry, the second Earl, in 1802. The second of his four daughters, Lady Anne, carried Newburgh and all the great Yorkshire estate to the Wombwells. The older title, thus shorn of its fair possessions, passed to two brothers, who were distant kinsmen of the Earl's, Rowland and Charles Belasyse, successively sixth and seventh Viscounts Fauconberg. The latter, who was a Roman Catholic priest, died in 1815, the last heir-male of his ancient house.
Long before this, all its younger branches had died out one by one; and that founded by the brave Cavalier who had been created Lord Belasyse by Charles I. was the earliest extinct. He was thrice married, and his third wife had twelve children; but the only one of his sons that lived to manhood died before him; and he was succeeded by a grandson, with whom the line expired in 1692. His daughters thus became co-heiresses; and "a costly and lofty monument" erected over his burial place in St. Giles-in-the-Fields by two of them that survived till 1736 records his services to the Crown. He was Governor of York, and commanded in chief in Yorkshire, where he fought the battle of Selby with Lord Fairfax; Lieutenant General of the counties of Nottingham, Derby, and Lincoln; Governor of Newark (defending that garrison till the King himself called upon him to surrender); and three times thrown into the Tower by the rebels.
The posterity of Brian Belasyse of Morton House (uncle of the first Viscount) survived till late in the following century. His son Sir William served as High Sheriff of Durham from 1625 to 1640; and "received King Charles on his Scottish progress in 1633, at the head of the gentry, 'all giving the Sheriff's livery, ash colour, lined with blue bayes.' The loyalty of Sir William's sons during the Civil Wars nearly occasioned the utter ruin of the family; and after the Restoration their losses and services, though acknowledged, passed unrewarded amidst the crowd of suffering loyalists."—Surtees. The last heir, his great-grandson, died in 1769, leaving a daughter named Bridget, who was never married, and bequeathed her estate to Lord Fauconberg. A younger branch had ended in 1751 with Thomas Belasyse of Haughton-le-Skerne, whose only child was the wife of Richard Bowes, a surgeon at Darlington; and of another, that migrated to Cheshire, I can find no account after 1794.
I may note that the name, in its old provincial form of Bellas, is still to be met with in Teesdale.