Governor Jonathan Belcher Letter Books, 1723 - 1754

File — Container: Microfilm Cabinet: Drawer 3

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

1723-1754, Reels # 1 and 8-10, which consists of Vol. 1 and 8-10 of the letterbooks.

From the Massachusetts Historical Society: "The papers of Jonathan Belcher consist of 11 volumes of letterbooks containing copies of Belcher's outgoing correspondence, including official letters related to his tenure as governor; letters to Richard Waldron, brother-in-law Richard Partridge, Benjamin Lynde, and many others discussing trade, politics, his copper mine in Connecticut, and his farm in Milton, Mass.; and personal letters to his son Jonathan Belcher, Jr., discussing the death of his mother and family members. Other individuals and subjects represented in the correspondence include: Robert Auchmuty, General Braddock, William Brattle, Admiral Boscawen, the Selectmen of Boston, Thomas Hollis, William Johnson, Benjamin Lynde, Josiah Quincy, Peter Thacher, Lord Townshend, John Walley, Hugh Walpole, Isaac Watts, the Wentworths, Lords of Admiralty, Commissioners of the Customs, Lords of Trade, the Massachusetts and New Hampshire Assemblies, the salary question, Maine lands and timber, and many others.

This 11-reel microfilm edition covers the years 1723-1755 (with gaps) and includes a manuscript index for 8 of the volumes (see the Index List for a complete list). All of the indexes appear on Reel 1 of the microfilm."

Dates

1723 - 1754

Creator

Belcher, Jonathan (1682-1757) (Person)

Biographical / Historical

From Massachusetts Historical Society: "Jonathan Belcher was born in Cambridge, Mass., on January 8, 1682, the second son of Andrew and Sarah (Gilbert) Belcher. After graduating from Harvard in 1699, he worked as a merchant in Boston. In 1705, he married Mary Partridge, the daughter of New Hampshire's lieutenant governor, and entered the Second Church in Boston. Mary (Partridge) Belcher would bear him five children before her death in 1736.

Belcher's public career began in 1717. First a member of the Massachusetts Council, then an agent of the House of Representatives in London, he became the governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire in 1730. During his 11-year tenure, he often antagonized the legislature with his uncompromising positions, such as his opposition to the popular Land Bank. In August 1741, he retired to his estate at Milton.

However, Belcher had developed many important friendships in London, where he had traveled four times. In 1744, he went to London, hoping to secure a pension or another appointment. While there, he entered a community of Congregationalists and Quakers, and when the governor of New Jersey died in 1746, Belcher sought and won the appointment with the help of prominent Quaker friends. Arriving back in the colonies in August of 1747, he found New Jersey a violent and provincial place and its government stymied over land claims, taxes, and other issues.

In the fall of 1748, Belcher married his second wife, Louise Teale, a Quaker from London. In his later years, Belcher became devoted to religion. He believed religious and educational decay was the root of the province's problems, and he encouraged the development of a "godly government." To this end, he helped establish a college to educate this "unpolisht ignorant Part of the World" in the merits of "vital religion." The college was called the College of New Jersey, later renamed Princeton University.

Weary of politics, Belcher moved his family to Elizabethtown in the fall of 1751 and gradually withdrew from government. Stricken with palsy, he died on August 31, 1757."