page_title: Sydney Robert Bellingham
section_title: Early years
hierarchical_section_title: Sydney Robert Bellingham / Early years
caption_attribution_description: English: Castle Bellingham, Co. Louth, as appears in the autobiography of Evelyn Wrench, 1920
context_page_description: Lt.-Colonel The Hon. Sydney Robert Bellingham was an Anglo-Irish businessman, lawyer, journalist, military and political figure in Canada East. He served as a captain with the Royal Montreal Cavalry during the Lower Canada Rebellion and represented Argenteuil in the Legislative Assembly of Quebec from 1867 to 1878. After the deaths of his three elder brothers he inherited Castle Bellingham and returned to Ireland to administer the estate
context_section_description: Born at Dunany House, Castlebellingham, Co. Louth, he was the fourth son of Sir Alan Bellingham (1776–1827) 2nd Bt., and his wife Elizabeth (1788–1822), daughter of the Rev. Rees Edward Walls of Boothby Hall, Lincolnshire. Sir Alan Bellingham was heir to his uncle, Sir William Bellingham M.P., but survived him by less than a year.
  By 1824, Sir Alan Bellingham had run into financial difficulties and leaving his family in Ireland, he fled his debtors to France, taking up residence at Châtillon-sur-Loire. Then just fifteen years old, Sydney came to Canada alone to seek his fortune. Arriving in Quebec, he travelled widely throughout Upper Canada until 1827 when he took a job in the timber business at Montreal under another Anglo-Irishman, the brother of George Hamilton. A few months before his marriage, he started an import-export business with his friend James Wallis (1807–1893), formerly of Drishane Castle, Co. Cork, who had settled at Fenelon Falls.
  In 1831, Bellingham married Arabella Holmes (1808–1887), to whom he was related through his grandmothers family. She was the youngest daughter of one of his father's friends, William Holmes of Quebec. Her family were well-connected in the Canadas and in addition to that she was the heiress to 15,000 acres (61 km²) of land in the counties of Buckland and Bellechasse. After the failure of his business with Wallis, aided by his wife's money, Bellingham entered Canadian politics.
caption: Castle Bellingham, Co. Louth; seat of the Bellinghams since 1660.
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