market-town and chapelry of Derbyshire, in the parish of Duffield, and hundred of Appletrewe. The town is agreeably situated on the banks of the Derwent, which here crosses by a handsome stone bridge. It is seven miles north of Derby, on the line of the North Midland railway. Belper, now one of the most flourishing towns of Derbyshire, is principally indebted for its prosperity to the establishment of cotton works here by Messrs Strutt. It also manufactures linens, nails, hosiery, &c. It has three churches, several chapels for Independents, Methodists, Baptists, &c., a mechanics' institution, and a subscription library. Pop. (1851) 10,082.

Belsham, Thomas, LL.D., for some years the principal of the Dissenters' Academy at Daventry, was born at Bedford in 1750. He abandoned Calvinism for the Unitarian theology, and proved himself in numerous publications a learned exponent of that system. In 1801 he gave to the world Elements of the Human Mind, and of Moral Philosophy, in which, following the doctrines of Hartley, he explained all mental operations by the association of ideas. He died at Hampstead in 1829.

Belsham, William, the younger brother of the preceding, was born in 1752, and died at Hammersmith in 1827. He published various political tracts in support of Whig principles, and was the author of a history of Great Britain from the accession of George I. to the peace of Amiens in 1802, in 12 vols. 8vo. His volume on the Philosophy of the Mind is less known.