The Battle Abbey Roll. Vol. I.
by
The Duchess of Cleveland.

Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Bellewe : from Belleau, or Bella Aqua, in Normandy. "In 1165 this family held knight's fees in Kent, Berks, and York. Gilbert de Bella Aqua witnessed a charter of the Archbishop of York, c. 1140 (Mon. i. 476)."—The Norman People. "Gascoign and Bellew," says Hunter, in his History of South Yorkshire, "have both attempted to throw in exact genealogical detail what is known of the family of Bellew. They differ; and by both the absence of evidence has been supplied by conjecture. They appear to have inherited from an Adam de Sancta Maria, who lived before the age of private charters, and in him, as it seems from the long continued dispute about Bolton between the Annesleys and Bellews, who were both descended from him, Bolton was vested about the reign of Henry I. A William de Bellew appears holding Bolton of Newmarch, and also of Normanville, in Kirkby's Inquest. As late as 18 Ed. III. a John de Bellew was living, whose daughter Lucy married Sir Thomas de Burgh, and ultimately succeeded to his inheritance." They also held Warmsworth and Barnborough of the Newmarches. "In 23 Edward I. John de Bella Aqua or Bellew had summons to parliament among the barons of the realm, as also in the 24th of the same reign, to a great council to be holden at Newcastle-upon-Tyne; but only in those years, and not afterwards. He married Laderina, youngest of the four sisters and coheirs of Peter, the last Lord Brus of Skelton; and in her right, upon the partition of that inheritance, had the lordships of Carleton in Balne, Ramlesforth, Thorpe-Arches, Tibthorpe, and certain lands in Sethbarne—all in the county of York. They had issue three daughters and coheirs; Alicia, who married William Hunke, but died without issue. Sibilla, who married Milo de Stapleton; and Joan, who wedded Aucher Fitz Henry of Copped Hall, Essex; which last mentioned two coheirs divided the share of Laderina. But, according to a MS. in the Bodleian Library, he had two other daughters, namely Alicia and Lucia; of which the latter married Sir Thomas Burgh. Alicia, the other, appears to have died unmarried, and to have been buried in the Church of the Dominican Friars at York, being thus described, Dame Alys de Bella Aqua. In the same church are interred two others of the family, viz., Thomas de Bella Aqua, Chev. and Thomas de Bella Aqua. The said John died 29 Ed. I."—Banks. In spite of the confusion in the dates, this baron is clearly the John de Bellew spoken of by Hunter. One of the two Thomases above-named, living in the reign of Edward I., was the grandfather of Robert, Lord of Golborne-Belleau, whose heiresses were his two grand-daughters, Cecily and Margaret.

In Ireland the Bellews were very early established at Bellewstown, and are still represented at the present day. The common progenitor of all the different branches, Sir John Bellew of Bellewstown, lived in the latter end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century. From his eldest son Christopher descended another Sir John, who was raised to the peerage in 1686 by James II. as Baron Bellew of Duleck. He died in 1692, of a wound received at Aughrim; and was followed by his two sons, Walter and Richard, and his grandson John, the fourth and last Lord Bellew, who was three times married, but left only daughters. The title expired at his death in 1770. He bore Sable, fretty Or.

A second barony was granted in 1848 to Sir Patrick Bellew of Barmeath, co. Louth, who derived from the third son of the first-named Sir John; and has now passed to his son, as second Lord Bellew.