He was born in or near London, the eldest child of Edward Belfour, of the Navy Office, by his wife Catherine, daughter of John Greenwell, of the India House.
In May 1826 he was ordained, and appointed to a curacy in Jamaica, with prospects of preferment.
Belfour also wrote Montezuma, a Tragedy in five acts, and other Poems, by St. John Dorset, London, 1822.
[1] Both these works are now considered collaborations with George Stephens.
[2] St. John Dorset was one of the playwrights included in George Darley's condemnation of followers of Lord Byron, in the "John Lacy Letters".