belcher family records

BANDON GENEALOGY

a guide to tracing your ancestors in bandon, cork. ireland

SOME BELCHER FAMILY RECORDS FROM BANDON

An Article which appeared in the Bandon Parish Magazine about the Belcher Family

The family of Belcher were well known in Bandon, came from Gloucestershire, near Bristol in A.D. 1610. The name itself, spelled Belcher, Bellcher, Belshire, is found in the old Registers of the Parish of Frampton Cotterell, six miles from Bristol, where a small cluster of houses is known as “Belcher’s Bartonö to the present day. A Bristol colony was part of the original settlement in Bandon in 1610, and curiously enough the present Rector of Frampton Cotterell is a Bandon man, and son and grandson of Bandonians. He is the son of Henry Belcher and grandson of William Belcher who lived and died at Kilbrogan, Bandon.

In the last century the Bandon Belchers were mostly medical men. William Belcher who died in 1827 and is buried in Kilbrogan Churchyard was a medical man and three of his four sons were medical men.
The eldest was Capt. Robert Tresilian Belcher, who commanded his company in the 32nd Regiment at the battle of Waterloo, and is honourably mentioned by the Duke of Wellington in his report of this famous battle. Capt. Belcher was well known county J.P. He died in 1849 and is buried at Kilbrogan as is his brother William Belcher M.D. who died in 1839.

The third son of William Belcher who died in 1827, was Henry Belcher M.D. and the fourth son John Belcher M.D. R.N. He was born in 1809 and died in 1871 in Avenue House, Bandon next Ballymoden Church where his eldest son William Belcher M.D. died on the last day of the last century.

John Belcher had five sons and one daughter. William Belcher who died in 1899. Rashleigh Belcher M.D. who died at Garston, Liverpool Dec 5th 1906. Robert Henry Belcher L.L.D. Rector of Lewes Sussex. John Hope Belcher M.A.B.Sc. Alfred Poole Belcher, and Elizabeth Belcher (Mrs Richard Clear of Bandon). William Belcher who died in 1827 had also two daughters, Frances who married George Dowden of Shannon Lodge, and Dora who married Richard Dowden. She died in 1849. A curious item in the Belcher family of the nineteenth century is the fact that for many years back and at the present time, three of their first cousins are clergymen and English Rectors.

The Rev. William Belcher eldest son of William Belcher who died in 1839, is Rector of Haveningham near Saxmundham in Suffolk. The Rev. Robert Henry Belcher L.L.D. son of John Belcher M.D. Royal Navy who died in 1871, is Rector of Lewes in Sussex. The Rev. Thomas Waugh Belcher D.D.L.L.D.M.D ect. Eldest son of Henry Belcher who died in 1883, is Rector of Frampton Cotterell near Bristol and the only remaining Belcher of real interest in Bandon, having property there. This Dr Belcher is also a Senior Fellow of the Dublin College of Physicians and Physician to the Cork Fever Hospital, and Dublin Eye and Ear Hospital.

The younger brother of the Rev. William Belcher was Dr John Waring Belcher lately deceased. He was Surgeon in the Navy for three years, and then entered the army Medical Service. He retired as Lieutenant-Colonel and resided at Plymouth where he died leaving issue: His eldest son Lieut. John Waring Belcher died in 1903. His eldest sister married Major Augustus Darrock Spiller of Kilbrogan Hill, Bandon. The Rev T.W. Belcher had a sister (Margaret Tindal Belcher) who died in 1907, she married James Hutchinson Swanton of Glandore, their son Colonel James Hutchinson Swanton of the Royal Marines, is now the Rev. Dr T. W. Belcher’s representative and heir to his property in Bandon.

Rev. Dr T. W. Belcher, Rev Dr Henry Belcher, Rev William Belcher, Dr. John Waring Belcher. Dr William Belcher of Avenue House, Bandon – Dr W. D. Belcher of New York, Capt William Belcher 33rd Regiment, Capt Robert Belcher and Major A.D. Spiller, were all old Grammar School boys and were educated.