John Belasyse, 1st Baron Belasyse (or Bellasis) (24 June 1614 – 10 September 1689) was an English nobleman, Royalist officer and Member of Parliament, notable for his role during and after the Civil War. He suffered a long spell of imprisonment during the Popish Plot, although he was never brought to trial. From 1671 until his death he lived in Whitton, near Twickenham in Middlesex. Samuel Pepys was impressed by his collection of paintings, which has long since disappeared. Origins He was born at Newburgh Grange, Yorkshire and was baptised on 24 July 1614 at Coxwold, Yorkshire. He was the second son of Thomas Belasyse, 1st Viscount Fauconberg (1577–1652), a Member of Parliament for Thirsk in the Short and Long Parliaments, by his wife Barbara Cholmondeley, a daughter of Sir Henry Cholmondeley of Roxby in Yorkshire. Career Civil War Shortly after the start of the Civil War, he was "disabled" from sitting in the Long Parliament as he had joined the Royalist cause. He raised six regiments of horse and foot soldiers at his own expense and took part in the Battle of Edgehill and the Battle of Brentford, both in 1642, the First Battle of Newbury (1643), the Battle of Selby (1644), the Battle of Naseby (1645), as well as the sieges of Reading (1643), Bristol and Newark and was wounded several times. He later became Lieutenant-General of the King's forces in the North of England, and Governor of York and of Newark. At Oxford on 27 January 1645 he was raised to the peerage by King Charles I under the title of Baron Belasyse of Worlaby, Lincolnshire. On 4 February 1665 Samuel Pepys recorded an anecdote about Belasyse's civil war activities in a diary entry: To my office, and there all the morning. At noon, being invited, I to the Sun behind the Change to dinner to my Lord Bellasses – where a great deal of discourse with him – and some good. Among other at table, he told us a very handsome passage of the King's sending him his message about holding out the town of Newarke, of which he was then governor for the King. This message he sent in a Slugg-bullet, being writ in Cypher and wrapped up in lead and swallowed. So the messenger came to my Lord and told him he had a message from the King, but it was yet in his