• Name: Belsham, Thomas
• Gender: Male
• Birth Date: 15  April  1750
• Death Date: 11  November  1829
• Occupation: Unitarian minister

Belsham was professor of divinity at New College, Hackney 1789-1796. He later succeeded John Disney at the Essex Street Chapel, the foremost dissenting chapel in London, in 1805. He was persistently engaged with the struggle for civil rights for dissenters.

It is possible that the references are to his brother William who also moved in reforming circles. However, as Godwin distinguishes W Belsham in the 1796 list and notes the encounter in 1805 which matches the '2 Belshams' of 18 June that year, it is reasonable to assume that Godwin's main contact was with Thomas.

There are seven entries to Belcham in the 1780s and early 1790s. These are in circles with the Hollis's, Kippis, Price, and others strongly linked to dissent. It is unusual for Godwin to mispell names - and to use different spellings interchangeably (although see Hays/Hayes), although in this case there is only one Belsham before the Belcham's stop. . Nonetheless there is at least presumptive evidence for these entries being references to Thomas Belsham. The entries are on 25 September 1789; 3 November 1789; 4 November 1789; 1 February 1790; 5 March 1790; 30 November 1790; and 11 January 1791. They have been coded for Thomas Belsham, in large part because of the almost identical pattern of the circles in which the names appear, although there must remain some doubt over the attribution.

• DNB
• Memoirs of the late Reverend Thomas Belsham, ed. by John Williams (London, 1833).

This table lists the people this person is most frequently noted with in the diary.