An excerpt from Ministers of the Philadelphia Baptist Association, Joseph Belcher

Joseph Belcher: b. Apr. 5, 1794, Birmingham, England; d. July 10, 1859, Phila., Pa.; converted and baptized in 1814, uniting with the Cannon Street Baptist Church, Birmingham; began preaching on trial before the church in 1815; m. Elizabeth Ball (1796, England-Mar. 22, 1886, Phila., Pa.), Feb. 19, 1819, Oundle, Northampton, England; . . . emigrated to America, Dec. 1843, arriving in New York, Jan. 8, 1844; spoke in April 1844, at the last meeting of the General Missionary (or Triennial) Convention, at Phila.; preached at Phila., New York, and Boston for “several months;” pastor, Second or Granville Street Baptist, Halifax, N.S., 1845-1847, ord. pastor, Mount Tabor Baptist Church, Phila., 1847-early 1849, pastor, East Thomaston, Me., 1849-1850, First Baptist, Battle Creek, Mich., 1850-1851; “finding the climate unfavorable to his health, he returned with his family a second time to Philadelphia, 1852,” where he became an associate minister to pastor David B. Cheney (q.v.) at the Eleventh Baptist Church, devoting the rest of his life to writing, mainly for the American Baptist Publication Society, and supply preaching; . . . “The number of his publications reach nearly two hundred, many of which have attained enormous circulations”―Simpson. Belcher died of heart disease, with his remains being buried on July 12, 1859, in the Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia.