Jeremy Belknap was a noted preacher, educator, naturalist, and historian. Born in Boston, Mass., he graduated from Harvard College in 1762, taught school at Portsmouth and Greenland, and served as pastor of First Congregational Church at nearby Dover from 1766 to 1786. He published the first History of New Hampshire, founded the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1794, and has his name perpetuated by a New Hampshire county.