BELASYSE, Henry (1666-91)

Henry Belasyse was the only son of Sir Henry Belasyse^‡ who lost his life from wounds inflicted by his friend Tom Porter, a son of Endymion Porter^‡, in a drunken duel in late July 1667. Pepys Diary, viii. 363-4. Sir Henry’s widow was created in April 1674 suo jure Baroness Belasyse of Osgodby reputedly as recompense for desisting from her claims on James Stuart, duke of York, who was said to have given her a promise of marriage. Burnet, ii: 16-17.

Henry Belasyse succeeded to his grandfather’s peerage and adherence to the Catholic faith in September 1689 but never took his seat in the House, disabled from sitting by his religion. He was among those suspected Jacobite peers apprehended by the government at the time of the invasion scare of the summer of 1690, and bailed later that October. CSP Dom. 1690-1, p. 65; TNA, PC 2/74, p. 20. He died, without heirs, on or just before 21 Aug. 1691, upon which the short-lived Belasyse barony became extinct. Add. 61456, ff. 10-11. His widow, chief legatee and executrix Anne, the daughter of Francis Brudenell, styled Lord Brudenell, the heir presumptive (before his early death in 1698) of Robert Brudenell, 2nd earl of Cardigan, married within two years of Belasyse’s death Charles Lennox, duke of Richmond.