Governor Richard Bellingham

Richard Bellingham, the namesake of Bellingham, was the third Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Born in England in 1591, he arrived in Boston in 1634 and was a Puritan lawyer who lived in Chelsea, Massachusetts, until his death on December 1, 1672. He was buried in the northwest corner of the Granary Burying Ground in Boston, where his grave bears the inscription, “Virtue's fast friend within this tomb doth lie, A foe to bribes, but rich in charity.” His name is also preserved in Hawthorne's famous literary work "The Scarlet Letter."

Bellingham, Massachusetts · United States