W. H. Belli, Esq.
(1789-1875)
15 February 1861

Volume 2, page 204, sitting number 2108.

William Hallowes Belli was born in Southampton on 9 October 1789, the son of John Belli and Elizabeth Stuart née Cockerell. He married Sarah Sherman, daughter of John Standiver Sherman, on 29 October 1818 in St John's Cathedral in Calcutta. He was a senior merchant in the Honourable East India Company.

He appears on the 1851 census, living at 9 Prince's Gate, Kensington, with his wife Sarah, two sons, two daughters, and six servants. He gave for his profession 'Retired E. I. Co. Civil Service.'

He appears on the 1861 census, a widower living at 1 Queen's Gate Terrace, Kensington, with his son, daughter and grandson, and seven servants.

William Hallowes Belli died on 29 July 1875 at 'Courtlands,' his residence at Beulah Hill, Upper Norwood, South London. He left an estate valued at £4000. 

According to a short obituary in the Norwood News (7 August 1875). 'For several months past the deceased has been confined to his house, primarily from an acute attack of bronchitis, until other complications supervened, and he passed away almost painlessly in the full enjoyment of every faculty. Those only who had the privilege of Mr Belli's friendship knew what sterling worth, what nobility of character, lay beneath his genial face, and those who knew him the best will miss him the most. Mr Belli's intellectual faculties were in keeping with the nobility of his mind, he was both a classical and an oriental scholar, and his conversational powers and immense innate knowledge of men and manners made him a universal favourite. Dr Hetley and Dr Wise were most assiduous in their attentions to the very last, the latter, as an old and intimate Indian friend and colleague. Requiescat in pace.'