A wealthy lawyer in Lincolnshire prior to his departure for the New World in 1634, he was a liberal political opponent of the moderate John Winthrop, arguing for expansive views on suffrage and lawmaking, but also religiously somewhat conservative, opposing (at times quite harshly) the efforts of Quakers and Baptists to settle in the colony.

He was one of the architects of the Massachusetts Body of Liberties, a document embodying many sentiments also found in the United States Bill of Rights.

Bellingham notably refused a direct order from the king to appear in England, an action that may have contributed to the eventual revocation of the colonial charter in 1684.

Bellingham is immortalized in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's The New England Tragedies, both of which fictionalize events from colonial days.

[5] In 1628 he became an investor in the Massachusetts Bay Company, and was one of the signers of the land grant issued to it by the Plymouth Council for New England.

[8] Bellingham immediately assumed a prominent role in the colony, serving on the committee that oversaw the affairs of Boston (a precursor to the board of selectmen).

In a case involving an escaped pig, the assistants ruled in favor of a merchant who had allegedly taken a widow's errant animal.

John Winthrop argued that the assistants, as experienced magistrates, must be able to check the democratic institution of the general court, because "a democracy is, amongst most civil nations, accounted the meanest and worst of all forms of government.

[24] In 1650, when Bellingham was an assistant, he concurred in the judicial decision banning William Pynchon's The Meritorious Price of Our Redemption, which expressed views many Puritans considered heretical.

The English Civil War led to the establishment of the Commonwealth of England and eventually the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell.

[35] He also requested specific changes to be made to Massachusetts laws to increase suffrage and tolerance for other Protestant religious practices, actions that were resisted or ignored during the Endecott administration.

[37] The reaction by Charles to this was to issue an order in 1666 demanding that Bellingham, since he was then governor, and William Hathorne, the speaker of the general court, travel to England to answer for the colony's behavior.

[42] The magistrates further pacified the angered sovereign by sending over a ship full of masts as a gift (New England was a valuable source of timber for the Royal Navy).

[39] Distracted by the war with the Dutch and domestic politics, Charles did not pursue the issue further until after Bellingham's death, though for numerous reasons the Massachusetts Bay Colony charter was finally voided in 1684.

[45] His landholdings at Winnessimmett became tied up in legal action lasting more than 100 years, and involved court and procedural decisions on both sides of the Atlantic to resolve.

[49] Bellingham was immortalized as a fictional character in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, as the brother of Ann Hibbins, a woman who was executed (in real life in 1656, as well as in the book) for practicing witchcraft.

[54][55] Bellingham also appears in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's The New England Tragedies, which fictionalizes events dealing with the Quakers.