William Belsham was an English political writer and historian, noted as a supporter of the Whig Party

Whig Party (United States)

The Whig Party was a political party of the United States during the era of Jacksonian democracy. Considered integral to the Second Party System and operating from the early 1830s to the mid-1850s, the party was formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic...

 and its principles. In 1789 he coined the term libertarian

Libertarianism

Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...

 in a discussion of free will and in opposition to "necessitarian" (or determinist) views. He justified the American Revolution

American Revolution

The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...

 in excusing Americans in their resistance to the demands of England, and he was an advocate of progressive political liberty.

Life

The brother of Thomas Belsham

Thomas Belsham

Thomas Belsham was an English Unitarian minister- Life :Belsham was born in Bedford, England, and was the elder brother of William Belsham, the English political writer and historian. He was educated at the dissenting academy at Daventry, where for seven years he acted as assistant tutor...

, he was born at Bedford

Bedford

Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire, in the East of England. It is a large town and the administrative centre for the wider Borough of Bedford. According to the former Bedfordshire County Council's estimates, the town had a population of 79,190 in mid 2005, with 19,720 in the adjacent town...

 in 1752. He died near Hammersmith

Hammersmith

Hammersmith is an urban centre in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London, England, in the United Kingdom, approximately five miles west of Charing Cross on the north bank of the River Thames...

 17 November 1827.

Works

He began his career as an author by publishing ‘Essays, Philosophical, Historical, and Literary,’ two vols. 1789–91. In 1792 he published ‘Examination of an Appeal from the Old to the New Whigs,’ and in 1793 ‘Remarks on the Nature and Necessity of Political Reform.’ He also wrote on the test laws, the French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

, the Treaty of Amiens

Treaty of Amiens

The Treaty of Amiens temporarily ended hostilities between the French Republic and the United Kingdom during the French Revolutionary Wars. It was signed in the city of Amiens on 25 March 1802 , by Joseph Bonaparte and the Marquess Cornwallis as a "Definitive Treaty of Peace"...

, and the poor laws.

In 1793 he published, in two volumes, ‘Memoirs of the Kings of Great Britain of the House of Brunswick-Luneburg,’ and this was followed in 1795 by ‘Memoirs of the Reign of George III to the Session of Parliament 1793,’ in four volumes, a fifth and sixth volume appearing in 1801, bringing it down to 1799. In 1798 he published, in two volumes, ‘A History of Great Britain from the Revolution to the Accession of the House of Hanover,’ and in 1806 all the volumes were reissued, with two additional volumes, the twelve volumes appearing under the title, ‘History of Great Britain to the Conclusion of the Peace of Amiens in 1802.’

An eight volume set entitled, 'Memoirs of the Reign of George III from his Accession, to the Peace of Amiens' was published in 1813.