ON THIS DAY: 18 May 1812 – John Bellingham was hanged for assassinating British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval. Perceval is the only British Prime Minister to have been assassinated.
On 11 May 1812, the 40-year-old Bellingham walked into the lobby of Parliament and waited for Perceval. As Perceval approached, Bellingham took out two pistols he had purchased and shot him through the heart. As Perceval fell to the ground, Bellingham walked to a bench in the lobby and sat down.
Immediately after Perceval fell, the lobby door was shut, preventing anyone from leaving. Henry Burgess, a solicitor, approached Bellingham as he sat on the bench, clearly agitated. He was able to safely take one of the pistols without resistance. The other was removed from Bellingham’s pocket by another bystander.
Burgess asked Bellingham, ‘What could have induced him to do such a thing?’ He replied, ‘Want of grievance, and refusal by government.’ At the Old Bailey on 15 May 1812, Bellingham explained that he had no ‘personal or premeditated malice towards that gentleman.’
In fact, Bellingham had terrible grievance against Perceval and the British government. Eight years earlier, in 1804, Bellingham, a London merchant, had gone to Russia to do business. When he was in Archangel waiting for the ship to arrive to take him home, Bellingham claims he was mistakenly connected to the chartering of a ship, Soleure, that was lost in the White Sea. She was insured by Lloyd’s Coffee House, who refused to pay for its loss. As a consequence, Bellingham was deemed responsible and therefore seized and thrown in prison, where he was starved and beaten. Bellingham claimed that his requests for help from Lord Gower and the British Consul were abandoned after the Russians told lies about his character.
Other charges were laid against Bellingham, including refusal to pay 2,000 roubles to the Russian merchant who went bankrupt, allegedly due to him. While Bellingham was imprisoned, his 20-year-old wife and baby were living alone in St Petersburg waiting for him.
Bellingham spent over five years behind bars for a crime he stated he did not commit. He was finally permitted a pass to leave Russia and returned to Liverpool where his wife and family were now living. He was broke and mentally broken, with no business or funds. Bellingham soon began his mission to claim compensation and redress from the British government and the British minister in Russia who had refused to help him.
In December 1811, Bellingham moved to London, leaving his wife and child in Liverpool. For months, he wrote letters to high-ranking people including the king, but he was shuffled between different departments and ministries. No one was prepared to assist his plea until he was finally told that Mr Perceval had been consulted and would not let his petition go any further.
Bellingham was sent to trial on 15 May and found guilty of murder. He was hanged at Newgate Prison three days later. At his trial, when asked why he murdered the Prime Minister, Bellingham replied:
‘Gentlemen, a refusal of justice was the sole cause of this fatal catastrophe; His Majesty’s ministers have now to reflect upon their conduct for what has happened.’
To read the full transcript of the trial: https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/record/t18120513-5