Anthony Belasyse

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Anthony Belasyse (also Bellasis, Bellows and Bellowsesse) died in 1552. He was an English churchman and jurist who served as archdeacon of Colchester from 1543. He was the younger son of Thomas Belasyse of Henknowle, Durham. He earned a Bachelor of Civil Law at Cambridge in 1520 and later the degree Doctor of Laws (likely earned abroad). He became an advocate in 1528. On 4 May 1533 he received the rectory of Whickham, Durham, and was ordained priest on 7 June by Bishop Cuthbert Tunstal. In the same year he was also presented to the vicarage of St Oswald in Durham. In 1539 he became vicar of Brancepeth and around that time resigned Whickham. He subscribed to the convocation decree of 9 July 1540 declaring Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne of Cleves invalid. Later in 1540 he obtained a prebend at Auckland and a canonry at Westminster. Edmund Bonner, bishop of London, collated him to the archdeaconry of Colchester on 27 April 1543. He also held the mastership of the hospital of St. Edmund, Gateshead, and had a prebend in Chester-le-Street. In January 1544 he was installed in the prebend of Heydour-cum-Walton in Lincoln Cathedral. In 1544 he was made a master in chancery, and on 17 October in that year he was commissioned, with the Master of the Rolls and others, to hear causes in the absence of the lord chancellor. Belasyse became master of Sherburn Hospital around 1545, and that year Henry VIII granted him, his relative William Belasyse, and Margaret Simpson the site of Newburgh Priory in Yorkshire, with the demesne lands, and other properties from dissolved monasteries. In 1546 he held the prebend of Timberscombe in Wells Cathedral, and in 1549 he was installed prebendary of Knaresborough-cum-Bickhill in York Minster. In January 1552 his name appeared on a chancery commission. Some sources say he was part of the Council of the North under Edward VI, but this is disputed. On 7 June 1552 he was granted a canonry at Carlisle Cathedral, though he does not seem to have taken it, and he died the following month. He left much of his estate to his nephew Sir William Belasyse, grandfather of Thomas Belasyse, 1st Viscount Fauconberg.