Surname Saturday ~ BELCHER of Ipswich, Massachusetts

BELCHER

Jeremy AKA Jeremiah BELCHER, my 9^th great grandfather, was born about 1614 in England and arrived in New England aboard the ship Susan & Ellen in 1635 as part of the Winthrop Fleet.   The passenger list has a 25 year old woman named Mary Clifford listed next to him.  It is supposed by some that this woman became his first wife because of two reasons.  First, he had a grandson named Clifford Belcher, and second, he had two daughters named Mary (one by his unknown first wife, and another by his second wife Mary Lockwood).  I descend from the second daughter named Mary, born in Ipswich, Massachusetts in 1660 and who married Thomas Andrews in 1681/2.   Her sister Judith married his brother, John Andrews. 

Jeremy Belcher was made a freeman at Ipswich on 13 March 1638/9 and he was granted land and also purchased much land. He appears in the records selling and buying land.  He was a selectman, served on juries, and was a sergeant for the Ipswich militia.  His marriage contract with Mary Lockwood in 1652 granted her land for life in her own right.  He died in 1692/3 and she outlived him and died in 1700.  Jeremy was able to sign all his deeds, but his second wife, Mary signed by mark.

For more information on the BELCHER family see:

The New England Historic Genealogy Society Register, Volume 60, pages 249 – 256, and pages 358 – 364.

Great Migration: Immigrants to New England 1634 – 1635, Volume 1, pages 231 – 237.  

“Belcher Genealogy Research” at Rootsweb  http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~genbel/main/belchers1.html    

Just for fun, a parody blog "The Journal of Constant Belcher" by Tim Abbott, http://constantbelcher.blogspot.com/  (not a relative or descendant!)

My BELCHER genealogy:

Generation 1:  Jeremy Belcher, born about 1614 in England, died 21 March 1693 in Ipswich, Massachusetts; married first to Unknown (four children); married second on 30 September 1652 in Ipswich to Mary Lockwood, daughter of Edmund Lockwood and his wife, Elizabeth (seven more children). 

Generation 2:  Mary Belcher, daughter of Jeremy Belcher and Mary Lockwood, born 12 July 1660 In Ipswich, died 21 March 1731 in Ipswich; married on 9 February 1681 to Thomas Andrews, son of John Andrews and Jane Jordan.  He was born in 1654 in Ipswich and died 22 March 1718/19 in the Chebacco Parish of Ipswich.  Two children.

Generation 3:  Thomas Andrews married Mary Smith

Generation 4:  Mary Andrews m. Stephen Burnham

Generation 5: Joshua Burnham m. Jemima Wyman

Generation 6: Jemima Burnham m. Romanus Emerson

Generation 7: George Emerson m. Mary Esther Younger

Generation 8:  Mary Katharine Emerson m. George E. Batchelder

Generation 9: Carrie Maude Batchelder m. Joseph Elmer Allen

Generation 10: Stanley Elmer Allen m. Gertrude Matilda Hitchings (my grandparents)

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Surname Saturday ~ BELCHER of Ipswich, Massachusetts", Nutfield Genealogy, posted October 8, 2016, ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/10/surname-saturday-belcher-of-ipswich.html: accessed [access date]).