Eleven generations of the Belsher family

Thomas Bartholomew Belcher (1722–1793)

Thomas Bartholomew Belcher was born on June 28, 1722, in colonial Virginia, of a family with roots in Staffordshire, England. In 1748 he married Elizabeth Mary Mackewen in Amelia County, in Virginia's tobacco country south of the James River. They had at least three sons, McCuin, Abraham and Thomas.

The earliest record of the family is a single line in an Amelia County court order book, ordering the church wardens of Raleigh Parish to "bind out Macquain, Abraham and Thomas Belchers Children of Thomas Beelchers according to Law". To bind out a child was to apprentice him to a master who raised him and taught him a trade.

In the catalogue: Amelia County court order, binding out the Belcher boys

McCuin Belcher (1749–1821)

McCuin carried his mother's maiden name, Mackewen, as a first name. He led his branch of the family south through North Carolina, where his son Ferrell was born, to Georgia. By 1790 he was in Burke County, where he took up land under Georgia's headright system, and he spent his last years in Twiggs County. His brother Abraham is recognized as a patriot of the Revolution.

In the catalogue: Burke County list of slave owners, 1790 · Burke County land plats

Ferrell Belsher (c. 1773–1829)

Ferrell Belsher farmed in Twiggs County, Georgia, and in 1824 bought a 640-acre tract in Marion County, Tennessee, near the town of Jasper. He had two sons, Wiley and Allen. In his last months a bitter quarrel over his property set the brothers against each other. He died on March 4, 1829, signing his will with his mark.

The dispute ended in the Tennessee Supreme Court. In Belcher v. Belcher, decided in December 1836, the court found that Wiley had tricked his brother into burning his deeds while secretly keeping his own, and cancelled them. "The law, as well as the Bible, enjoins that a man should speak the truth in his heart," wrote Judge Green.

In the catalogue: Ferrell Belsher's will · Belcher v. Belcher, 1836

Wiley Belsher (1796–1851)

Wiley Belsher was born in Georgia in 1796. In Twiggs County he was a justice of the peace, the elected sheriff in 1820 and clerk of the court from 1822. In Tennessee he kept a tavern in Jasper and built a grist mill on Cumberland Mountain.

In the 1830s he moved his family to the newly opened Chickasaw lands of northern Mississippi. At Carrollville, on the Tuscumbia–Pontotoc road, he kept the village's first tavern and served on the Tishomingo County Board of Police. He married Eliza H. Belsher, and they raised eleven children. He died in February 1851 on a farm of about 1,440 acres.

In the catalogue: Land patent, 1842 · Tavern deed of trust, 1834 · Letters of administration, 1851

Captain Berrien Troupe Belsher (c. 1830–1862)

Berrien was a merchant at Burnsville and the father of two sons, Robert Pollock and Sammie Milton. In August 1861 his neighbors elected him captain of the company they raised, which became Company D of the 26th Mississippi Infantry. He fell ill at Fort Donelson and died in February 1862, at about 31. His twin, John Ferrel, kept the family farms through the war, while his brothers Wiley M., Arthur Malone and Benton served in the army.

In the catalogue: Service file of Capt. B. T. Belsher · Service card

Robert Pollock Belsher (1853–1923)

Robert Pollock was eight when his father died. He came of age in a county stripped by war, married Nancy Elizabeth "Bettie" Gallaher in 1882, and by 1886 had taken the family to Texas, first to Lee County and then to Hill County. Two of his sons served in the First World War. He died in Dickens County in 1923.

In the catalogue: Deed as heir of Wiley and Eliza, 1875

Arthur Middleton Belsher Sr. (1883–1939)

Arthur was born in Meridian, Mississippi, and grew up on his father's Texas farms. He came to Dallas around 1910 and made his living in music, for many years managing a department of a Dallas music store. He married Mabel Clark in 1921, and they raised two children, Lois Marie and Arthur Jr., at their home in east Dallas.

In the catalogue: Draft card, 1918 · 1930 census · Death certificate, 1939

Arthur Middleton Belsher Jr. (1931–1996)

Arthur Jr. lost his father at eight. He married Betty Lee Gates, and they had three children.

Philip Wayne Belsher (1952–1993)

Philip was born in Texas and worked as a journeyman electrician, a trade he learned from his mother's brothers.

Brandon Lee Belsher (b. 1975)

Brandon Lee Belsher was born in Texas in 1975.

John Robert Belsher

John Robert Belsher was born in Texas, a twin. On September 10, 2021, he legally took back the Belsher name, the eleventh generation to carry it, and as the family historian he founded the Belsher Archives in 2026.

The wider family

McCuin's son Littleton Belsher (1793–1839) founded a branch that settled in Grayson County, Texas. Wiley's son John Ferrel Belsher founded the line of Comanche and Hamilton counties, Texas. Wiley's son Arthur Malone Belsher served as a lieutenant in the 2nd Mississippi Infantry from First Manassas to Petersburg and was twice a prisoner of war. Explore the family tree.

The people they enslaved

McCuin, Ferrell and Wiley Belsher, and later Wiley's children, held people in slavery in Georgia, Tennessee and Mississippi. Their deeds, mortgages and estate papers name some of those people, often only by a first name, an age and a price: Dolly, sold in 1834; Cynthia, pledged as security that year; Hardy, Charlotte and Cynthia in Wiley's estate in 1851; and many others. The Archives keeps these records open and transcribed in full so that their descendants can find them. How these records are handled.