Sydney Robert Bellingham
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Sydney Robert Bellingham (August 2, 1808 – March 9, 1900) was an Irish-born businessman, lawyer, journalist and political figure in Canada East. He represented Argenteuil in the Legislative Assembly of Quebec from 1867 to 1878.
He was born in Castlebellingham, Ireland in 1808, the son of Sir Alan Bellingham, 2nd Baronet Bellingham, of Castle Bellingham. Bellingham came on his own to Lower Canada in 1824. In 1827, he was hired by a lumber merchant to operate an office at Montreal. In 1831, with a partner, he set up an import-export business. Later that year, he married Arabella Holmes, the daughter of a Quebec doctor. In 1834, he was an unsuccessful candidate in Montreal East for a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada. He opposed the reforms to government being proposed by the parti patriote. He was named a justice of the peace in 1837. During the Lower Canada Rebellion, Bellingham served as aide-de-camp to Lieutenant-Colonel George Augustus Wetherall and led a cavalry detachment.
He studied law with Alexander Buchanan, was called to the Lower Canada bar in 1840 and entered practice with William Walker at Montreal. He also edited the Canada Times, a reform-oriented newspaper. Bellingham supported the reforms proposed by Lord Durham but opposed the union of Upper and Lower Canada. In 1843, he became editor of the Times and Daily Commercial Advertiser. Bellingham was a proponent of annexation with the United States and served as secretary of the Montreal Annexation Association. He helped found the Montreal and Bytown Railway in 1853. He was named lieutenant-colonel of the local militia. In 1854, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada for Argenteuil. His election was declared invalid twice after it was alleged that he had used intimidation and bribery but he was reelected in the by-elections that followed and he finally took his seat in May 1856. He was elected again in 1858, his election was overturned in 1860. After Confederation, he was elected to the Quebec legislative assembly. In 1871, he criticized Joseph-Édouard Cauchon, another member of the assembly, for the deplorable conditions in his asylum which received government grants; this led to Cauchon's resignation. In 1871, he became editor of the Daily News of Montreal. Originally elected as a Conservative, Bellingham became a Liberal following the Tanneries scandal in 1874.
After Bellingham retired from politics in 1878, he returned to the castle in Ireland that he had inherited in 1874. He died there in 1900.
