1866) he had fourteen children: six sons and eight daughters. His eldest son, Gilbert, was member of parliament for the central division of Glasgow, 1885, and for the Inverness district of burghs, 1892-5. Another son, John Alexander, was a justice of the peace and closely connected for many years with philanthropic and educational work in Manchester; he died in October 1896. Both brothers were partners in the well-known firm of Beith, Stevenson, & Co., East India merchants, Glasgow and Manchester.
An excellent portrait of Dr. Beith, painted by Norman McBeth, was presented to him by his congregation in Stirling, and is in the possession of his son Gilbert in Glasgow.
Dr. Beith was a voluminous writer. Besides many pamphlets on public questions, he published: 1. 'A Treatise on the Baptist Controversy' (in Gaelic), 1823. 2. 'A Catechism on Baptism,' 1824. 3. 'Sorrowing yet Rejoicing, a Narrative of successive Bereavements in a Minister's Family,' 1839. 4. 'The Two Witnesses traced in History,' 1846. 5. 'Biographical Sketch of the Rev. Alex. Stewart, Cromarty,' 1854. 6. 'Christ our Life, being a Series of Lectures on the first Six Chapters of John's Gospel,' 2 vols. 1856. 7. 'Scottish Reformers and Martyrs,' 1860. 8. 'The Scottish Church in her relation to other Churches at Home and Abroad,' 1809. 9. 'A Highland Tour with Dr. Candlish,' 1874. 10. 'Memoirs of Disruption Times,' 1877. 11. 'The Woman of Samaria,' 1880.
[Personal knowledge; private information; Scott's Fasti Eecles. Scotican, 11. i. 61, 70, 101, III. i. 43.]
BELCHER, JAMES (1781–1811), prize-fighter, was born at his father's house in St. James's churchyard, Bristol, on 15 April 1781. His mother was a daughter of Jack Slack (d. 1778), a noted pugilist, who defeated John Broughton [q. v.] in April 1750. 'Jim' Belcher followed the trade of a butcher, though he was never formally apprenticed, and signalised himself when a lad by pugilistic and other feats at Lansdown fair. He was a natural fighter, owing little to instruction in the art. His form is described as elegant; he was, at any rate, good-humoured, finely proportioned, and well-looking. He came to London in 1798 and sparred with Bill Warr, a veteran boxer, of Covent Garden. On 12 April 1799, after a fight of thirty-three minutes, he beat Tom Jones of Paddington at Wormwood Scrubbs. On 15 May 1800 Belcher, aged 19, met Jack Bartholomew, aged 37, on Finchley Common, and after seventeen rounds knocked him out with a 'terrific' body blow. On 22 Dec. 1800, near Abershaw's gibbet on Wimbledon Common, he defeated Andrew Gamble, the Irish champion, in five rounds, Gamble being utterly confounded by his opponent's quickness. On 25 Nov. 1801 he met Joe Berks of Wem, and defeated him after sixteen rounds of desperate fighting. He fought him again on 20 Aug. 1802, and Berks retired at the end of the fourteenth round, by which time he could scarcely stand and was shockingly cut about the face. In April 1803 he severely punished John Firby, 'the young ruffian,' in a hastily arranged encounter. Next month he had to appear before Lord Ellenborough in the court of king's bench for rioting and fighting, upon which occasion he was defended by Erskine and Francis Const [q. v.], and was merely bound over to come up for judgment upon his own recognisance in 400l.
In July 1803 Belcher lost an eye owing to an accident when playing at rackets. His high spirit and constitution forthwith declined, but he was placed by his friends in the 'snug tavern' of the Jolly Brewers in Wardour Street. Unhappily he was stirred by jealousy of a former pupil, Hen Pearce, the ' Bristol game-chicken,' once more to try his fortune in the ring. He had a terrible battle with Pearce on Barnby Moor, near Doncaster, on 6 Dec. 1805. He displayed all his old courage but not his old skill or form, and was defeated in eighteen rounds. He fought yet again two heroic fights with Tom Cribb — the first on 8 April 1807 at Moulsey in forty-one rounds, when Belcher would have proved the winner but for his confused sight and sprained wrist — the second on 1 Feb. 1809, in answer to a challenge for the belt and two hundred guineas. Belcher was again defeated after a punishing fight in thirty-one rounds, though the best judges were of opinion that, had Belcher possessed his once excellent constitution and eyesight, Cribb must have been the loser. This was Belcher's last fight. He was one of the gamest fighters ever seen in the prize-ring, and probably the most rapid in his movements: 'you heard his blows, you did not see them.' A truly courageous man. Belcher was in private life good-humoured, modest, and unassuming; but after his last fight he became taciturn and depressed. He was deserted by most of his old patrons : one of the best of these was Thomas Pitt, the second lord Camelford, who at his death on 10 March 1804 left him his famous bulldog Trusty. Belcher died on 30 July 1811 at the Coach and Horses, Frith Street, Soho, a property which
