BELCHIER, William (d.1772), of the Durdans, Epsom, Surr. and Lombard St., London.

Belchier started as a clerk with Messrs. Knight Boone, bankers. He later joined the bank of Edward Ironside, whose daughter he married, trading under the name of Ironside and Belchier at the sign of the Black Lion.2Hilton Price, Handbook of London Bankers, 92. In 1746, together with other London merchants, he fitted out a fleet of privateers.3See A State of the case between the managers of the Royal Family Privateers and James Goddard (1756). In the same year he applied to the Duke of Newcastle for passes to trade with French ports in leather and woollen goods, under cover of which he undertook to secure ‘certain and frequent ... intelligence from our enemies’ seaports’.4Belchier to Newcastle, 21 Oct. 1746, Add. 32713, f. 294. Returned for Southwark in 1747 after a contest, he was classed as a government supporter. On 11 Mar. 1751 he opposed a proposal by the South Sea Company, supported by Pelham, to lower their rate of interest.5Walpole, Mems. Geo. II, i. 63. In 1753 he opposed proposals to increase the number of whites in Jamaica,6AECP Angl. 436, ff. 10-15. and the bill for the naturalization of the Jews.7Add. 33055, ff. 265-7. In the same session he was one of the promoters of a bill to prevent the importation of French lawns and cambrics.8AECP Angl. 436, ff. 148-52.

He died bankrupt 14 Dec. 1772.