Return Belden

Return Belden (or Belding) (1721-1764) was the son of Mabel Wright and Josiah Belden, of Wethersfield’s Stepney parish (present-day Rocky Hill). He had at least one sister, Lydia Belden (Mrs. Charles Churchill) (1725-1805). Return Belden apprenticed with William Manley of Wethersfield from about 1735-1742. The apprenticeship is documented by two 1740 references in the account book of Wethersfield shopkeeper Elisha Williams, who also recorded a February 1745 credit to Belden for a chest of drawers, tea table, and dressing table, all shipped to Reverend Chester Williams of Hadley, Massachusetts, who had married Sarah Porter of Hartford the previous year (Williams account book, Wethersfield Historical Society; Miller, Connecticut Valley Doorways, p. 120). Return Belden died unmarried; his estate inventory included a variety of woodworking tools as well as 42 desk escutcheons.

Return Belden may have made the doorway of the Churchill house in Wethersfield, Connecticut.