Governor of New Jersey
The fact that he had been supplanted by Shirley came as a surprise to Belcher. He had expected to lose the New Hampshire governorship, but was shocked when news of Shirley's commissioning arrived. Following Shirley's inauguration Belcher retired to his Milton estate. Seemingly restless and in some financial need, he expressed weak interest in the possibility of holding another colonial appointment, and in 1743 traveled to England, stopping in Dublin to visit his son Jonathan Jr. When he arrived in London he joined the social circles of the Congregationalist and Quaker communities (the latter including among its influential members his brother-in-law Richard Partridge), and called on colonial administrators in the hopes of acquiring a new posting. There he remained for three years, until in 1746 word arrived that the governor of New Jersey, Lewis Morris, had died. Since New Jersey had a strong Quaker political establishment, Belcher immediately began mobilizing supporters in the London Quaker community to assist in securing the post. Due to this alacrity he was able to get the posting before agents for Morris' son Robert Hunter Morris had time to organize their effort.
He served as governor of New Jersey from 1747 until his death in 1757. About a year after his arrival in Burlington (then the provincial capital), he married (for the second time) Louise Teale, a widow he met in London, in September 1748. The political situation he arrive in was highly acrimonious, and there had been riots in the previous year over widespread disagreements on land titles between land owners, who controlled the provincial council, and farmers and tenants, who controlled the assembly. Most legislation had been stalled since 1744 due to the inability of assembly, council, and governor to resolve differences on these issues. Governor Morris' high-handed actions in support of the proprietors had united previously divided populist factions against him and the council. The province was also a rural patchwork of different cultures and religions, unlike predominantly English and Congregationalist New England. Elizabethtown, near New York, was heavily populated by evangelical Christians, among them Reverend Aaron Burr, and Belcher found himself welcome there. He regularly attended services there, and was particularly influenced by preachers including George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards, leaders of the Great Awakening with whom he corresponded.
Although Belcher's arrival prompted some goodwill, resulting in the passage of bills to fund the government and deal with ongoing counterfeiting of the colonial paper currency, divisions soon resurface along the same sectional lines. Belcher believed that the land issues should be resolved by negotiation between the parties, and sought to maintain a position as a neutral arbiter of the dispute. Because he had been propelled into the office by antiproprietary interests, he refused to unconditionally support the council in moves to advance proprietary interests, but also received little support from the assembly. Because the assembly and council divided over the issue of how to tax undeveloped lands (which the proprietors owned in large amounts), the government was short of funds between 1748 and 1751.
One controversial matter that Belcher was able to finesse was the establishment of the College of New Jersey (now known as Princeton University). The college was proposed by New Jersey's evangelical Presbyterians, with whom Belcher found religious agreement. However, Quaker leaders and the proprietors had expressed great reservations about the Presbyterians' drive to gain a charter for the school (on the grounds that it would be used as a vehicle for converting their children), and Governor Morris had refused to grant one. After his death, council president John Hamilton, acting prior to Belcher's appointment, granted the charter. The college's opponents pressured Belcher to withdraw the charter; he instead adopted the college as a cause to support, and expanded its board to include a diversity of religious views. When its first building was constructed in 1754, the college's board wanted to name it after Belcher, but he demurred, preferring it to be named in honor of King William, who hailed from the Dutch House of Orange-Nassau. As a result, the building (which still stands) is known as Nassau Hall. He also supported the establishment of the college's library, to which he bequeathed his personal library. In 1748, Belcher issued a second Charter to the College of New Jersey, since the validity of the initial charter, which was granted in 1746 by Acting Governor Jonathan Dickinson, came under question.
The legislature remained divided until after the French and Indian War broke out in 1754, when the demands for support of military action brought some unity. The assembly objected to increased funding of the militia in 1755 because Belcher refused to authorize the emission of additional paper currency. It later acceded to demands for increased security, but was reluctant to support militia for action outside the province's boundaries. Legislators also complained that its meetings were too frequently held at Elizabethtown, primarily because of Belcher's poor health.
For much of his New Jersey administration Belcher was ill, suffering from a type of progressive paralytic disorder. In the summer of 1751 he moved from Burlington to Elizabethtown in the hopes that his health would improve; it did not. Eventually his hands became paralyzed, and his wife was employed to write for him. He died at his home in Elizabethtown on 31 August 1757; His body was transported to Massachusetts, where he was buried at Cambridge.
