Jeremy Belknap
| Jeremy Belknap | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
June 4, 1744 Boston, Massachusetts |
| Died | June 20, 1798 (aged 54) Boston, Massachusetts |
| Resting place | Mount Auburn Cemetery |
| Occupation | clergyman and historian |
| Known for | study of the History of New Hampshire, helping to found the Massachusetts Historical Society |
Jeremy Belknap (June 4, 1744 – June 20, 1798) was an American clergyman and historian. His great achievement was the History of New Hampshire, published in three volumes between 1784 and 1792. This work is the first modern history written by an American, embodying a new rigor in research, annotation, and reporting.
Belknap was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of a tanner. His uncle was Mather Byles, one of New England's intellectual leaders. Belknap was baptized by the historian Thomas Prince, another leading figure of 18th-century New England. He was educated at the Boston Latin School and Harvard College, where he graduated in 1762. In 1764 he moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he "kept the school" and studied theology with Samuel Haven (Harvard College class of 1749). In 1767 he began his ministry in Dover, New Hampshire, where he would spend twenty years at the Congregational Church. He also married that year, and acquired a house in Dover.
After the Battle of Lexington in 1775 some units of the Dover militia were called out to support the Siege of Boston. Belknap accompanied them, and remained through the next winter as chaplain to the New Hampshire troops involved with the siege.
Besides attending to his growing congregation, Belknap served as a secretary to the convention of New Hampshire ministers from 1769 until 1787. This position required travel throughout the state, and he used it as a chance to begin accumulating notes on the history of New Hampshire. In 1772 he began to write his history. In 1784 he published the first volume of the History of New Hampshire, but it would take until 1792 to complete the work. The work was not successful at first, but its reputation grew over the years until, after his death, named him as America's best native historian.
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