Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
Belcher Family fonds
General material designation
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
Level of description
Fonds
Reference code
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
Physical description area
Physical description
40 cm of textual and graphic records
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
Other title information of publisher's series
Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Sir Edward Belcher (1799-1877) was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Members of the Belcher family moved to New England from England in the seventeenth century and then to Nova Scotia, where Belcher’s grandfather, Johnathan Belcher, became the first chief justice. In 1811, Edward Belcher and his family moved back to England, where he joined the Royal Navy the following year. Belcher gained recognition as a surveyor on a number of voyages, including the Beechey expedition in the mid-1820s, and in 1829 he was promoted to Commander. He married Diana Jolliffe in 1830, but the marriage lasted only a few years. In 1841, in reward for his participation in the conflict leading to the ceding of Hong Kong to Great Britain, Belcher was made a Companion of the Order of Bath. He was subsequently knighted in 1843 for his success in surveying the west coast of America. From 1852 to 1854, Belcher commanded an expedition to the Arctic in search of Sir John Franklin. In 1872 he attained the rank of Admiral.
Custodial history
Scope and content
The fonds consists of correspondence, journals, legal documents, financial documents, printed drawings, watercolours, an order book, and personal and other documents created and/or accumulated by Edward Belcher and other members of the Belcher family. The majority of the Edward Belcher material is related to his naval career.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
The papers of the Belcher family were acquired from several sources and were primarily purchased from dealers during the 1960s.
Arrangement
The material has been arranged into series according to family member and has generally followed the series order devised at UBC Library Special Collections by Judy Coombs in the 1970s.
Language of material
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Restrictions on access
None.
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Finding aids
Associated materials
Accruals
No further accruals are expected.