BELCHER, JONATHAN

American Colonist, born January 8, 1681; graduated from Harvard University, 1699; died August 31, 1757. He was made a Freemason at London in 1704, according to a letter he wrote to the First Lodge in Boston on September 25, 1741, and therefore Brother M. M. Johnson names him the Senior Freemason of America.

Brother Belcher served as Colonial Governor of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New Jersey (see New Age, August,1925; Beginnings of Freemasonry in America, Melvin M. Johnson, 1924, page 49 ; History of Freemasonry in the State of New York, Ossian Lang, page 6 ; Builder, volume x, page 312).