Joseph Belcher

   Another name for Joseph was Joseph Bilcher.

  General Notes:

The Dedham Historical Register. Vol. XIII. January, 1902. No. 1.

JOSEPH BELCHER, Minister of the First Church and Parish in Dedham, 1692-1723.

AT the age of twenty-one years, in 1690, Joseph Belcher graduated from Harvard College, and preached for the first time to the Dedham Church, on April 17, 1692, when he was paid fifteen shillings for his " labrs."

He preached on April 24, and May 15, and in the minutes of the town meeting held on May 23, it is recorded that " ye Chh and Towne haue given a Call " to Mr. Belcher " to come and Hue and laboure amongst vs."

The call of the Church was given at a Church meeting on December 4. He filled the pulpit on June 12, and on October 30 he began to preach regularly. On December 23, it was voted at a town meeting to give Mr. Belcher sixty pounds a year, and the selectmen are appointed to notify him of the action of the town, and to express " ther desire to live : under his ministry and that he wold Except of ye call giuen to him and not delay his coming to Hue in this Towne."

At a town meeting on June 5, 1693, it 1S voted that " the sayd sixty pounds be paid forthwith."

The following extract from Judge Samuel Sewall's Diary (Collections of the Mass. Hist. Society, 5th series, I. 387) relates to his ordination: \emdash
Wednesday Nov. 29 [1693]. Rode to Dedham and saw Mr. Joseph Belcher Ordained.

He preached very well from Exod. 4. 12.

Mr. Neh. Hobert ask'd the Objections ; Mr. Saml. Torrey Solemnly prayed and gave the Charge, Mr. N. Hobart and Jno. Danforth joining in laying on of Hands.

Mr. Moses Fisk gave the right Hand of Fellowship. 118 Psalm sung from the 25th V. to the end ; St. David's Tune. (Register, III. 164.)

The Church records kept during his ministry are missing, and it is therefore impossible to give a complete account of his life.

Occasional references to Mr. Belcher are found in the Town Records, in contemporary manuscripts and in several printed works.

The following, relating to Madame Knight's Journey to New York, in 1704, tells where he lived. (See also Proc. of the 250th Anniv. of Dedham, p. 186.)

Her first call was upon the Rev. Joseph Belcher, the minister of Dedham since Nov. 29, 1693. The parsonage, towards which the town contributed sixty pounds, was built by him on the land now occupied by the Congregational Church, though nearer the street. (Register, II. 37.)

Joseph Belcher was born at Milton on May 14, 1669, and was the son of Joseph and Rebecca (Gill) Belcher.

His grandfather, Gregory Belcher, came to Boston in 1634, later lived in Braintree, and died on March 25, 1674 ; and his father was born on December 25, 1641, and lived in Milton. His grandfather, John Gill, with whom he lived for several years, died in 1678, and left valuable property on Milton Hill, and land, mill, and mill privilege at Neponset. The mill was built by Israel Stoughton in 1634, and with the privilege had passed through several hands until it became the property of the Walter Baker Company. From 1683 to 1741,
it was owned by Rev. Joseph Belcher and his heirs ; for at the former date his grandfather Gill's property mentioned above had fallen to him on the death of Mrs. Gill, who had a life interest in the estate, and with whom he had lived since his grandfather's death in 1678. Joseph was to be sent to school until he was fourteen years of age, and then he was to be bound out to learn a trade ; but the plan was changed and he entered Har- vard College in 1687. During the later years of his ministry his salary was one hundred pounds, and his wood was supplied by members of the parish. For two years, 1695 and 1696, a free contribution was taken up for him in place of his salary ; but the compulsory process was soon resumed. Some time between August 30 and December 28, 1721,, he had been "surprised with a dangerous paralysis." (See Increase Mather's preface to Belcher's sermon, Bristol, August 30, 1726.) Some time in 1722 a contri- bution was taken up every Sunday for two months, and then continued for a longer time ; and a committee was chosen to supply the pulpit. Mr. Belcher went to stay with his son-in-law, Rev. Thomas Walter, of Roxbury, where he was under the care of his wife's brother, Dr. Philip Tompson.
There he died on April 27, 1723, and his body was brought to Dedham for burial. (Register, III. 176.) Cotton Mather, in a sermon preached at a Thursday Lecture in Boston, spoke of him as " one who lived what he spoke," and " one who did what he taught."

The photogravure with this number follows an oil painting, hanging in the meetinghouse of the First Church, which was given in 1839 by Elizabeth Gay, widow of Captain William Gay, whose father, Ichabod Gay, married for his second wife, Lucy, daughter of Dr. Joseph and Mary (Belcher) Richards, on January 25, 1774. The name of artist is not known, nor the time when the portrait was painted.
There is another portrait in the rooms of the Rhode Island Historical Society, which was received many years ago from a family that formerly lived in Bristol, R. I. This may have descended through the Bradford family, and may be a copy from the Dedham painting. (Publications of the Society, III. 86-87, for July, 1895.)
The date of Mr. Belcher's birth is taken from the Milton Records, page 7 of the printed edition. For reference to his library see page 36.

Joseph married Abigail Tompson, daughter of Benjamin Tompson and Susanna Kirtland, March 8, 1 693-4. (Abigail Tompson was born on 25 Nov 1670 in Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony.)