Note 76 — Chapter IX

Jonathan Belcher, for many years Governor of Massachusetts and New Jersey. He succeeded Governor Burnet, eldest son of the celebrated Bishop Burnet. He was named William, after the Prince of Orange, who stood his godfather. At one period he possessed a considerable fortune, but it had been wrecked in the South Sea scheme, which reduced so many opulent families to indigence. After the loss of his fortune, he emigrated to America, and in process of time became Governor of New York and New Jersey. He was afterwards Governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, which post he held to the time of his death. When Mr. Whitefield was at Boston, in 1740, Governor Belcher treated him with the utmost respect and attention. He even followed him as far as Worcester, and requested him to continue his faithful instructions and pungent addresses to the conscience, desiring him to spare neither ministers nor rulers. This good man expressed the humblest sense of his own character, and the most exalted views of the rich, free, and glorious grace offered in the Gospel to sinners. His faith worked by love, and produced the genuine fruits of obedience. It exhibited itself in a life of piety and devotion, of meekness and humility, of justice, truth, and benevolence. He died August 31, 1747, aged 76 years. One of his sons studied law at the Temple in London, and gained some distinction at the bar in England. He was afterwards Chief Justice of Nova Scotia, and died at Halifax, March, 1776. Governor Belcher was succeeded by William Shirley, Esq., a relative of Lady Huntingdon’s, who was for a time commander-in-chief of the British forces in America, in which office he was succeeded by Major-General Abercrombie. Governor Shirley was also Governor of one of the Bahama Islands for a number of years. He died in 1771.