John Bellingham - Assassination of The Prime Minister

Assassination of The Prime Minister

Back in England, Bellingham began to petition the United Kingdom Government for compensation for his imprisonment, but was refused (the United Kingdom had broken off diplomatic relations with Russia in November 1808). His wife tried to persuade him to drop the issue and Bellingham went back into work.

In 1812, Bellingham again went to work in London, where he renewed his attempts to win compensation. On 18 April, he went in person to the offices of the Foreign Office where a civil servant called Hill told him he was at liberty to take whatever measures he thought proper. Bellingham had already started preparations for resolving the matter in another way, and, on 20 April, he bought two half-inch calibre (12.7 mm) pistols from W. Beckwith, gunsmith of 58 Skinner Street. He also arranged with a tailor to have a secret inside pocket put on his coat. Around this time, he was often seen in the lobby of the House of Commons.

After taking the family of a friend to see a water-colour painting exhibition on 11 May 1812, Bellingham casually remarked that he had some business to attend to, and made his way to Parliament. He waited in the lobby until the Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, appeared, then stepped forward and shot him through the heart. Bellingham then calmly sat on a bench. He was immediately detained by those present and identified by Isaac Gascoyne, MP for Liverpool.

Bellingham was tried on Friday 15 May at the Old Bailey where he argued that he would have preferred to kill the British Ambassador to Russia, but that he was entitled as a wronged man to kill the representative of those he saw as his oppressors. He gave a formal statement to the court, saying:

"Recollect, Gentlemen, what was my situation. Recollect that my family was ruined and myself destroyed, merely because it was Mr Perceval's pleasure that justice should not be granted; sheltering himself behind the imagined security of his station, and trampling upon law and right in the belief that no retribution could reach him. I demand only my right, and not a favour; I demand what is the birthright and privilege of every Englishman. Gentlemen, when a minister sets himself above the laws, as Mr Perceval did, he does it as his own personal risk. If this were not so, the mere will of the minister would become the law, and what would then become of your liberties? I trust that this serious lesson will operate as a warning to all future ministers, and that they will henceforth do the thing that is right, for if the upper ranks of society are permitted to act wrong with impunity, the inferior ramifications will soon become wholly corrupted. Gentlemen, my life is in your hands, I rely confidently in your justice."

Evidence that Bellingham was insane was put forward by witnesses, but not by Bellingham himself, and was discounted by the trial judge, Sir James Mansfield. Bellingham was found guilty and his sentence was handed down:

"That you be taken from hence to the place from whence you came, and from thence to a place of execution, where you shall be hanged by the neck until you be dead; your body to be dissected and anatomized."

The hanging was carried out in public on Monday 18 May. According to René Martin Pillet, a Frenchman who wrote an account of his ten years in England, the sentiment of the very large crowd that gathered at Bellingham's execution was:

"Farewell poor man, you owe satisfaction to the offended laws of your country, but God bless you! you have rendered an important service to your country, you have taught ministers that they should do justice, and grant audience when it is asked of them."

A subscription was raised for the widow and children of Bellingham, and "their fortune was ten times greater than they could ever have expected in any other circumstances". His widow remarried in 1813.