Surname Saturday: Gregory Belcher of Braintree, Mass.

This is an interesting case.  In the early days of Internet genealogy [July 1995] (also known as the Rootsweb listserv), I came in contact with someone doing work on the Belcher family.  He pointed to Gregory's English origins which was a good circumstantial case.  I tried to get him to work on the problem and publish his results, but to date I've never seen an article.  So, this is not my own work, but put together by this person (whose privacy I feel I should preserve) and sent to me via email (which I printed off and stuck in my paper file!)

The basic framework of Gregory Belcher was published in the New England Genealogical & Historical Register in 1906, 60:128-29, et seq., by Joseph G. Bartlett.  He notes that Gregory was in New England as early as 1637 (without proof), but certainly by 30 December 1639 when he was granted land.  He deposed in June 1665 aged about 60 years.  We know his wife's name was Katherine.

Another Gregory Belcher of Barkswell, Warwickshire left a will dated 20 March 1620 which mentions his wife Joane and son Thomas [Putnam's Historical Magazine, Vol. 4, p. 183].  This Thomas is supposedly the same man who lived at Wardend, Aston, Warwickshire and who had a son named Gregory baptized there on 20 March 1606.  A Gregory Belcher married a Katherine Alcock at nearby Mancetter, Warwickshire on 11 December 1627.  So this all hangs together.  A man with the same name, with a wife of the same name, of the correct age, and who disappears from English records appears in Braintree.  I certainly think this is a strong case.  However, to really nail it down, we need the will or probate of Thomas Belcher the father.

As I noted in this post, last  year the English origins of Gregory's wife, Katherine, and her siblings who also emigrated to New England were published.   Gregory had seven children among which was Mary, the wife of Alexander Marsh, with whom Gregory had several land transactions.  Katherine (Alcock) Belcher survived Gregory and left a will naming her daughter as Mary Marsh.

Additional Sources:

• Belcher-Henshaw and Other Ancestry of Richard Townsend Henshaw 1882-1938 of Rye, New York by Richard Townsend Henshaw (Polyanthos, New Orleans, 1983), pp. 2-4.
•  “The Alcocks of Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire: John Alcock and His Wife Elizabeth Wrightman, Anne Alcock and Her Husband Nicholas Needham, and Katherine Alcock, and Her Husband Gregory Belcher” by Mary Locke Eysenbach, New Hampshire Genealogical Record 26 (2009):49-56.