Person:Samuel Belcher (6)

Samuel (Belcher), b. about 1639 (d. 10 March 1713/4, aged 74 years [Sibley 2:43-45, citing gravestone and Boston News-Letter for 22 March 1713/4; Ipswich BR 2:489, citing a private family record, gives the date of death as 14 August 1714, but this must be wrong, and may reflect a probate event, as administration on his estate was granted 30 August 1714 (see EPR 311:175)]); Harvard College 1659 [Sibley 2:42-45.

2 Rev. Samuel (Belcher), b. ab. 1641, son of Jeremy of Ipswich, Harvard 1659, was ment. as min. of Kittery in Robert Mussell's will 1663; later settled at the Shoals, and was ord. min. at Newbury, 10 Nov. 1698. At the Shoals, he was a Star Isl. wit. 4 July 1670, appraiser 1675, Capt. Lockwood's bondsman 1677, a wit. with Jeremiah senior 1678, and overseer of Walter Matthews's est. that yr. … Mary Belcher was a Star Isl. wit. 1673 and signed (aut.) a paper 1676, but a Shoals deed was wit. by Samuel and Mercy in Jan. 1686-7 and sworn to by them at Newbury in 1707, and he left a wid. Mercy when he d. at Ipswich 10 Mar. 1715. She d. there 14 Nov. 1723.

Rev. Samuel² Belcher (Jeremiah¹), born in 1639, graduated from Harvard College in 1659, and studied for the ministry, and was preaching at Kittery, Me., as early as 1663. (Sibley's "Harvard Graduates," vol. II, page 42.) About 1665 he went to the Isles of Shoals where he was preaching as late as 1686 (York Deeds, vol. IV, page 64), but finally ill health obliged him to leave that place about 1692. Before 1695 he was preaching in the West church at Newbury, where he was ordained and settled Nov. 10, 1698. About 1711, the infirmities of age compelled him to retire from the ministry, and he removed to his native town, Ipswich, where he died Mar. 10, 1714-15. A contemporary minister, Rev. John Barnard, refers to him as "a good scholar, a judicious divine, a holy and humble man." He married first, about 1668, Mary,² daughter of Rev. Thomas¹ Cobbett of Lynn and Ipswich, who died about 1679; and married second, Mercy,³ born Feb., 1655-6, daughter of Rev. Michael² and Mary (Reyner) Wigglesworth of Malden, and widow of Rev. Samuel Brackenbury of Rowley. She survived her second husband, and died Nov. 14, 1728.

Belcher, Samuel, Rev. ["a preacher at ye Shols many years. He was called to Newbury New-Town & there lived 18 years." (gravestone record, Old Burying Hill), Aug. 14, 1714, a. 74 y. (Family record, now (1910) in possession of Mrs. Daniel Fuller Appleton) [Mar. 10 (gravestone record, Old Burying Hill).