John Chippendall Montesquieu Bellew

John Chippendall Montesquieu Bellew (né Higgin; 3 August 1823 – 19 June 1874) was an English author, preacher, and public reader.

Early life He was born at Lancaster on 3 August 1823, the only child of an infantry officer, Captain Robert Higgin, of the 12th Regiment, son of John Higgin of Lancaster. His mother, Anne Maria Bellew, who was a Roman Catholic, who towards the close of 1822 had married Captain Higgin; she was the daughter of John Bellew, of Castle Bellew, County Galway, and cousin of Lord Bellew. She was co-heiress under the will of her uncle, Major-general Bellew, heir-at-law of the O'Briens, earls of Thomond.

Educated during his earlier years at Lancaster Grammar School, Higgin in 1843 matriculated at St Mary Hall, Oxford. On attaining his majority in the autumn of 1844 he took his mother's maiden name Bellew, and dropped his patronymic Higgin. He was induced to do this by the circumstance of his being descended maternally from the senior branch of the O'Briens, and thus a descendant from Teige the second brother of Donough, the fourth earl, brother of Daniel O'Brien, 1st Viscount Clare. Soon after entering the university, he became known as a speaker at the Oxford Union. In so doing he gave up an income of around £1,000 a year. Eva Sibyl (born October 1848), Harold Kyrle Money (better known as the stage actor Kyrle Bellew; born 28 March 1850), and Ida Percy Clare (born 17 June 1852).

Bellew received a mensa et thoro from his wife in 1855 on the grounds of adultery and took custody of their children, eventually divorcing her in 1861 and marrying Emily Louisa Wilkinson (née East) in that same year.