Rev. Joseph3 Belcher (Joseph,2 Gregory1), born May 14, 1669, in youth inherited a considerable estate for those times, which enabled him to obtain a liberal education at Harvard College, where he was graduated in 1690. He then studied for the ministry, and began to preach in Dedham, in the spring of 1692, which resulted in a permanent call, and he was ordained and settled there on Nov. 29, 1693. He remained pastor there for nearly 30 years, until the autumn of 1721, when he was incapacitated by a paralytic shock, and was removed to the house of his son-in-law Rev. Thomas Walter, in Roxbury, to be under the care of his brother-in-law Dr. Philip Tompson, where he died Apr. 27, 1723. His portrait in oil hangs in the First Church in Dedham.
He married, Mar. 8, 1693/4, Abigail, born Nov. 25, 1670, daughter of Benjamin and Susanna (Kirkland) Tompson, whose father was a graduate of Harvard College, and for many years taught school and practiced medicine in Roxbury and Braintree, and also was noted as a poet and philosopher. She survived her husband.
