CAPTAIN JONATHAN DANFORTH Founder of Billerica, Massachusetts
Captain Jonathan Danforth, as he was known throughout most of his life, was the youngest and 7th child of Nicholas Danforth and his wife Elizabeth Barber of Framlingham, Suffolk County, England. Jonathan Danforth was born 29 February 1628 at Framlingham, England. Some genealogists have mistakenly recorded his birth year as 1627 which would have been correct on the old Julian Calendar which made the first of the year on March 1st. However the Julian Calendar was abandoned in the 1750's and January 1st was then made the beginning of a new year on the Gregorian Calendar. All events that happened from January 1st through March 24th were recorded as happening in the previous year. Jonathan Danforth was also born in a leap year. Jonathan was christened two days after he was born later on March 2nd at the ancient church of St. Michael the Archangel in Framlingham, the last of the American Danforths to do so.
His father Nicholas Danforth was a prominent and well respected member of his community of Framlingham as a landowner and Puritan. His mother died a little more than a week before his first birthday in February 1629. She was buried 22 February 1629. As he was left motherless before he was one year old and his father never remarried certainly he was raised by a female servant employed by his father. A man of Nicholas’ station would certainly had servants at least a cook and a maid.
A descendant of Nicholas Danforth wrote that Nicholas “lived his life so that his children and their posterity could worship according to the dictates of their own conscience unoppressed. He was the founding Father of the Danforth Family in America and rightfully should be called St. Nicholas and blessed by his large posterity.”
In 1931, nearly three hundred years after Nicholas Danforth left England, the residents of Framlingham held a pageant celebrating the history of their town through the centuries. The pageant began with the martyrdom of the saintly King Edmund in the Tenth Century and concluded with Nicholas Danforth and his six children saying their goodbyes to the Mother Country upon their departure to America.
Historian John M. Merrian wrote that this pageant was of "great interest as depicting inportant events in the history of England until 1630. However, the final episode is prophetic of the life of America. Here is a father with his three sons and three daughters coming to aid in the planting of a new colony, and this colony in time, with other similar units become our great nation and home of a strong people. In Nicholas Danforth and his children, this family of 1634, we find one of the sources of our strengths; for among his descendants from generation to generation are men and women of influence in private and public life, outstanding in their callings; ministers, magistrates, leaders in academic and collegiate life; men of letters, theologians, a diplomat, a cabinet minister, and even a President of the United States."
Merrian continued his praise Nicholas Danforth the father of Jonathan Danforth by saying, "By way of summary it would appear that the descendants of these children of Thomas Danforth, all of whom were natives of Framlingham, have spread throughout our entire country. The index of places given at the end of the genealogy covers a breath of area extending undoubtedly into every state of the Union.”
At one of the Danforth's family occasions in 1886, Samuel May, a son of John Joseph May, wrote a poem to honor the colonial Danforths.
Hardy through grace, robust through sacrifice
Thus were transplanted on our ancestral tree
In yonder field its sturdy form took root
Then from its noble trunk came branches three
And from their life grew vigorous stem and shoot
Under whose sheltering leaves from year to year
Buds swelled and bursts in bloom- the fruit is here!
This is the story of the parent tree
Hardy through grace, robust through sacrific
Do you seek knowledge of the branches three
Does this harvest of their fruit suffice
Surely on thorns, grapes ne'er are found, I wot
And figs from thistles never can be got!
The eldest branch was trained toward the law
To bloom in fields of literary fame
From Harvard's hands triumphal bays he wore
Sheltering alike the ignorant and wisee
And fortune, smiling with propitious fate
Gave him the rudder of the Ship of State
The second branch spread over church yard ground
SHeltering alike the ignorant and wise
And faith's bright tendrils gently twined around
Like Jacob's Ladder leading towards the skies
Towering with graceful strength it seemed to say
To fairer realms than these I point the way
The youngest stretched a leafy guardianship
o'er trackless wastes of Massachusetts soil
Where freedom's loyal votaries might equip
Homes for posterity by honest toil
Foreshadowing thriving cities on her ground
Fixing our Commonwealth by metes and bounds
Country! Religion! Home! Need there be more
To bless man's lot. What further can there be
Now that religion's free from shore to shore
Now that our country spreads from sea to sea
We read the legacy in history's glass
Bequeathed to us by our Saint Nicholas!
It is doubtful that Jonathan Danforth remembered much of his native land, perhaps just fragments of memories about his father’s house and the Castle that seemed to loom over the village. Jonathan was merely 5 and ½ years old when his father and his older siblings were huddled on board the ship Griffin. His oldest sister Elizabeth was 15 years old at the time of the transatlantic crossing and may have been the one responsible for her younger siblings. As that Nicholas Danforth was a man of means to afford the crossing, he may have brought servants with him to care for his children as he would have been busy with the male adults. Almost all families of means brought one or two servants with them.
THE CROSSING
Life on board the ship Griffin was not pleasant. Conditions on board were far from ideal, even for those times. It was monotonous, cramped and boring. The 300 ton ship was over crowded with nearly 200 puritan emigrants mostly children on board. The Griffin was nearly twice as big as the Mayflower and therefore could carry more passenger yet they were all confined to a space about 100 feet long and 30 feet wide. Most of the people on board would have suffered with seasickness at one point or another and a few throughout the whole voyage. The tossing and rolling of these small ships in even a minor storm caused most of the passengers, many of whom had never been on a ship before, to become seasick and feeling deathly ill the entire length of the voyage. Fortunately the Griffin made a relatively quick voyage of six weeks but for a five year old child it must of seemed much longer.
Below deck were the living quarters for the families and animal pens for livestock. These living and sleeping quarters had no sunlight and were dark, cold and damp. The only light came from lanterns holding tallow candles that were carefully watched. Jonathan’s family would have slept below deck with the others in cramp dark putrid smelling conditions. There each family was allotted a very confined amount of space for personal belongings. Some of the families even built smaller "cabins," using simple thin wooden dividers to provide small amount of privacy. The low-ceilings of these cubicles made it impossible for any person over five feet tall to stand up straight.
The emigrants took livestock on the journey to the New World including, sheep, goats, hogs, poultry, milk cows, cattle and horses. Some passengers even brought family pets such as cats, dogs and birds. The smaller livestock were kept in pens on the main decks. However horses, cows and cattle were kept in pens in the cargo hold on the lower deck below the sleeping quarters of the Pilgrims where pens had to be constantly cleaned of manure. The sounds of animals in distress were constant making it difficult to sleep. Cats and dogs however roamed freely on the ship mainly in order to help keep the rat population under control.
The cargo of food, water, seeds, tools, and other supplies were kept in the cargo hold on the lower deck with the livestock. Wooden keg barrels were used for all food storage and contained flour, biscuits, dried meats and vegetables. Daily meals consisted of cheese, salted beef, pork or fish and hardtack a hard, dry biscuit. There also were dried peas and beans, cheese and butter. However after weeks at sea the food became infested with bugs, the biscuits became too hard to eat, the cheese got moldy, butter turned bad and even the beer began to go sour by the end of the voyage. Often passengers suffered from lack of vitamin C and scurvy and other diseases became an issue.
Other kegs below contained drinking water and beer. Although a large amount of water was taken on board for the crossing, after standing in barrels for over a month or more, the water was neither pleasant nor safe to drink. At that point everyone, even the children, drank beer instead as it was thought to be safer to drink than the water. It was mainly used cook with, and to water the animals and seedling trees.
The emigrants spent most of their time below decks in their sleeping quarters especially the children as parents were fearful they might fall overboard on the crowded ship. When the weather was good they might be allowed on the top deck but never in bad weather and rough seas which could result in children or even unsteady people being thrown overboard. In bad weather often water would pour in through cracks and joints, drenching the passengers and their belongings below deck.
As one can imagine the air was rank below deck even by 17th Century standards. There was very little light or air. There was only sea water to clean vomit or diarrhea from seasick passengers and to clean out the wooden “chamber pot” buckets that were used as toilets. As that most of the time was spent below deck, people had to use these buckets to relieve themselves which servants or children carried to top deck to empty over board.
If one wanted to wash themselves, they had to wash in salty water from the sea which dried out the skin. Most likely one would wear the same clothes for the entire voyage as there was no fresh water for washing clothes. Their clothes became dirty with grime and sweat. If the clothes ripped, women mended them the best they could, but there was nothing they could do truly until they reached the New World often looking pretty shabby.
These would have been the conditions aboard the Griffin when Jonathan emigrated to America upon the ship Griffin in the company of his father and five other siblings. One can only imagine what impression the six week journey across the Atlantic Ocean in cramp quarters without much fresh water or any fresh food made on a motherless child of that tender age. The Griffin arrived in September 1634 with the ship making a successful voyage and landing at Boston Harbor in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
REFUGEES IN THE NEW WORLD
Upon arriving in Massachusetts, the refugees lived temporarily in the Boston, the capital of the colony, before Jonathan Danforth's father bought land across the River Charles at the settlement of Newtown. The family pastor, Reverend Thomas Shepherd was pastor there. His father had bought the home of Elder John White who had just recently left Newtown to follow the flock of Reverend Thomas Hooker to the Connecticut River. Thus Jonathan’s childhood, until he was ten years old, was lived in his father’s house hold in Newtown where he would have tended the kitchen garden and cared for the livestock as well as being educated to read and write.
Jonathan Danforth almost immediately after arriving in the new world began to eat food stuff that he had never experienced before. Chief among his new diet was Indian Corn or Maize. A whole variety of new foods became common to him as he grew to manhood, like pumpkins, squashes, beans, yams, tomatoes. As that there were no poaching laws, as in England, venison, wild birds including turkeys, and rabbit found its way onto the table as did plenty of sea foods, especial cod fish and oysters.
ORPHANED
On or about 2 April 1638, his father Nicholas died. Nicholas had been on the governing council of Massachusetts Bay Colony and would have had a basic Puritan funeral with a eulogy no doubt given by Reverend Thomas Shepard. Nicholas Danforth was interred in the town’s Old Burying Ground was established before 1635. In many New England towns the burying ground was placed next to the meeting house, but that was not the case in Cambridge. Less than a month after Nicholas’ death, the village of Newtown changed its name to Cambridge. There’s no marker to locate where Nicholas Danforth is laid to rest. Burial spaces were not permanently marked by headstones until they came into general use in the 1670s.
Before Jonathan Danforth was orphaned, Nicholas Danforth had left his young family in the care of his pastor and friend Reverend Thomas Shepherd. The pastor was married to Joan Hooker the daughter of Rev Thomas Hooker and certainly she would have played a role in the young Jonathan’s life until his majority in 1649.
Elizabeth Danforth, the eldest sister married Andrew Belcher of Sudbury in 1639 when Jonathan was 11. The Belchers operated the tavern that their father had owned. Jonathan could have also lived with his married sister while Reverend Shepard provided an education for him and his brothers. Shepard noticing Samuel Danforth’s scholarly mind sent him off to Cambridge College. Being the youngest son Jonathan Danforth's was not sent to the new college. His education was informal but was taught to read and write and the skill of a land surveyor.
THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR
During Jonathan Danforth's youth the English Civil War between the Puritan Armies of Parliament in 1642 began when he was 14 years old. The war ended nine years later when the Commonwealth was established with Puritan Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protectorate of Great Britain. The greatest historical event to affect Jonathan in his life time occurred about a month from his 21st birthday when King Charles I, who was the reason his family left their ancestral home if Suffolk, was executed. The King of England was convicted of tyranny and on January 16, 1649 King Charles I was beheaded. Jonathan was nearly 21 tears old which would have made him reach the age of his majority. Massachusetts Bay Colony then was not governed by a king or by royal decrees for a decade.
For the next eleven years, until he was 32 years old, Jonathan Danforth years old lived life without a king and the Puritans in New England had been basically self governing since 1640. The Puriatn General Oliver Cromwell ruled England as a Commonwealth until his death in 1658 and then in 1660, the monarchy was restored. Parliament invited Charles Stuart's son Charles II to return to Great Britain to reign as a conditional king. This period of British history is known as The Restoration and King Charles II was known as the Merry Monarch as he rid the government of Puritanism.
When Jonathan turned 21, his guardian and family friend Rev. Thomas Shepard died in late August 1649 at the age of 44 years. “Mr. Thomas Shepard, pastor of Cambridge church, died, a zealous & pious preacher." Shepard was buried at the old Cambridge burying ground perhaps not too far away from Nicholas Danforth who placed the care of his children in his hands. By this time Jonathan Danforth’s older siblings were married and he was expected to make his own a mark in the world.
THE VILLAGE of BILLERICA
As a young man, Jonathan Danforth may have been hired to survey neighbor farms and his keen intellect was noticed when he showed an active interest in the affairs of Cambridge at town meetings especially with the concept of establishing a village in the Shawshin region along the Concord River.
Before his father’s death, in 1638, Massachusetts Bay Governor John Winthrop and Lt. Governor Thomas Dudley had been granted land along the Shawshin River some 18 miles north of the village of Cambridge. The enterprise of creating a settlement came under the supervision of the town of Cambridge but various obstacles kept them from doing so until the early 1650’s. By then the king of England had been executed for treason by Oliver Cromwell, and for the next ten years, New England governed itself as it was mostly neglected by England.
During the 1650’s until the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, the British colonies were left to govern themselves and to make their own laws without approval from Great Britain. In Massachusetts Bay Colony the General Court acted as a legislature to govern and make laws for the colony. They appointed magistrates to enforce the theocratic laws they made influenced by the Puritan Clergy.
In 1654 when Jonathan Danforth was 26 year old, he along with 13 other men were approved by the town of Cambridge to move to the Shawshin River where there was a village known as Shawshin containing so called "praying Indians” who had adopted Christianity. They had been converted primarily by the Puritan missionary efforts of Reverend John Eliot, known as the Apostle to the Indians. Elliot was also a mentor to Jonathan Danforth’s brother Rev. Samuel Danforth. These first Puritan settlers lived among the “Praying Indians” without incident. These original fourteen individuals were William Chamberlain, Richard Champney, Jonathan Danforth, George Farley, John French, William French, Daniel Gookin, Ralph Hill, Ralph Hill Jr., Henry Jeftes, Robert Parker, John Parker, and John Sterne.
The lands near the Shinshaw River were primarily held as grants given to the people of Cambridge including Jonathan Danforth's oldest brother Thomas Danforth and his brother-in-law Andrew Belcher. Jonathan may have even accompanied his brother Thomas to survey the grants at one point. Jonathan purchased 190 acres north of the Shinshaw River where the new settlement was planed. He certainly was up there in the year 1654 clearing the land for cultivation and overseeing the construction of the first home said to have been built in the settlement. Jonathan had built what was perhaps the first English house erected in the Indian village on the north side of what was to be West street along Long Street.
Jonathan Danforth must have had an inheritance or some help from his older brothers as he was only 26 years old when he built a substantial two story home probably not unlike the manor house his father had in England. His house was built along the road that became known as Long Street. Jonathan Danforth's home was the old salt box type so often found in early New England dwellings. It had two stories with what appeared to be a central hall and from the number of windows it appeared to have had six to eight rooms. It was built large enough that it was designated a “garrison house” where families could flee in case of an Indian attack.
At first the settlement was called "Shawshin" until some residents wanted a less Indian sounding name. The name Billerica was chosen most likely because some of the Parker and French families living in the settlement who came from the village of “Billericay” in Essex County, England. These residents of course had influential friends and relatives on the Massachusetts General Court. Jonathan’s own brother, Thomas Danforth, was also a member of the legislature. The court approved the petition on 2 November 1654 and appointed Jonathan Danforth to survey and lay out the boundaries of the new village, no doubt with Thomas’ influence. He was also appointed to the committee for locating for home lots of five or ten acre. With these positions Jonathan had income and property and was now eligible for marriage.Twenty-six year old Jonathan Danforth, now having an income from the surveyor trade as well as a farm and home, married just twenty days later after his appointment, twenty-one year old Elizabeth Poulter, the step daughter of John Parker.
THE POULTER and PARKER FAMILIES
Elizabeth Poulter was the daughter of a wealthy Puritan named John Poulter and his wife Mary [Marie] Pope natives of Rayleigh, Essex County, England, 72 miles south of Framlingham. Elizabeth was born 1 September 1633 in Rayleigh, and christened nearly 3 weeks later on 22 September 1633 in Rayleigh Parish, Essex, England. She was the future wife of Jonathan Danforth and mother of all his children.
Her father John Poulter was christened 29 April 1595 at Little Baddow in Essex County a village about 7 miles east of the town of Chelmsford. Rayleigh was 15 miles south of Little Baddow and and about 4 miles from mouth of the River Thames. He had a similar background as Nicholas Danforth. Like Nicholas he was a wealthy yeoman farmer and also a churchwarden. John Poulter married Mary Pope. Mary said she was 78 years old in 1674 which would have her birthdate in the year 1596 and nearly the same age as her husband when they married. However her tombstone says she was born in 1605 which seems far more reasonable.
Mary [Marie] Pope is thought to be the daughter of John Pope and Bridgett Haisnoth who were married 16 February 1594/5 at St Gregory church in London. John Pope was the son of John Pope and Patience Blakie. They had at least three children, John Pope husband of Jane Clapp, Mary Pope wife of John Poulter, and Thomas Pope husband of Anne Fallowell and Sarah Jenny of Plymouth Colony.
Mary [Marie] Pope is thought to be the daughter of John Pope and Bridgett Haisnoth who were married 16 February 1594/5 at St Gregory church in London. John Pope was the son of John Pope and Patience Blakie. They had at least three children, John Pope husband of Jane Clapp, Mary Pope wife of John Poulter, and Thomas Pope husband of Anne Fallowell and Sarah Jenny of Plymouth Colony.
John and Mary Poulter had three surviving children who were mentioned in John’s last Will and Testament. Certainly they had many more children who died in infancy. If Mary Pope married between 20 and 25 years of age, she and John Poulter would have married between 1625 and 1630.
;Two of their children, Elizabeth and John were born when Mary was 28 and 30 years old; if Mary Poulter was born in 1605. She would have been nine years older if she was born in 1596. Another daughter named Mary Poulter may have been born prior to Elizabeth.
John Poulter was also a brewer or tavern keeper as that at the Easter 1631 Quarter Session of Court he was fined for selling less than a quart of beer for 1 penny. Unlike the Danforth’s he chose to remain in Essex rather than emigrate to New England during the Great Puritan Migration. He made out his last will and testament on 18 March 1639 in Rayleigh when he was 44 years old and by 30 May 1639 he had died when the will was proved in Little Baddow where he was born. John Poulter died about a year after Nicholas Danforth did in New England.
18 March 1638 [1639] John Poulter of Rayleigh, Essex, yeoman, To be buried in the parish church or churchyard of Rayleigh. To my son John [4 years old] £ 50 to be paid at age of one and twenty years. To daughter Mary [about 8 years old] £ 100 pounds to be paid at age of one and twenty years or day of marriage. To daughter Elizabeth [6 years old] £ 100 pounds to be paid at age of one and twenty years or day of marriage. If any of the children died before said age, revision to the survivors at legal age or marrying. If all die before of legal age revision to my wife Mary Poulter. My overseers to put forth my children’s portion for their use during their minority. Mary to pay the children's legacies to his overseers within six weeks after his death, to be "put out by them unto the best advantage and sufficient bond to be taken for the childrens better assurance and the use to be for the mayntenance and bringing up of said children or so many of them as shall live." To my mother Marie [Mary] Poulter 40 shillings to buy her a ring for a remembrance. To my aunt Anne Hayward 20 shillings. To Anne Hudson 20 shillings. To Richard Abraham the son of Richard Abraham 20 shilings. To William Brewster 20 shillings. To Jane Broadwater and Elizabeth Broadwater 5 shillings each [servants]. To William Clements 10 shillings. All my residue of my goods unbequeathed I give to my wife Mary Poulter whom I made executrix and guardian of my children during their minority "keeping governance & bringing up of my said children during their nonages. [minority]." Thomas Purchas clerk, and John Sharpe, yeoman, overseers, to each for remembrance 20 shillings. To my mother-in-law Marie [Mary] POPE my mother-in-law, an annuity of 20 shillings for five years. Signed John Poulter. Witnesses. John Hornsayle, William Brewster, and John Offen.
On 30 May 1639, John Poulter’s Will was proved at Great Baddow, Essex, before Richard Baylie on the oath of Mary Poulter "relict" of the said deceased and the executrix named in the said testement, to whom was committed the administration of the said deceased's estate.
Both Elizabeth Poulter and Jonathan Danforth lost their father when they were children. However while Jonathan was completely orphaned at the age of 10, Elizabeth Poulter still had her mother, the widow Mary Poulter.
Mary Pouletr married in 1639 soon after the death of her husband probably to provide a father for her children and to give her a legal and social standing. As a wealthy widow she would have been a catch. She married another Puritan who was named John Aylett in 1639. His occupation was that of a Draper which was originally a term for a retailer or wholesaler of cloth that was mainly for clothing. Genealogists point to the fact that both John Poulter and John Aylett left legacies to a servant named Elizabeth Broadwater who certainly was Mary’s maid and would have followed her mistress into a new marriage.
Elizabeth Poulter’s step father John Aylette made out his will 9 March 1640 in Rayleigh almost a year after her own father had made out his so her mother could not have been married to John Aylett very long and they had no children from their union.
On 9 March 1639 [1640] John Aylett of Rayleigh, Essex wrote his will. “And for my worldly estate I thus dispose.... unto my brother Gyles Aylett of Sutton magna 40 shillings to buy him a ring.... unto my brother Richard Aylett of Leighe £5 to be paid unto him when he shall accomplish his age of four & twenty years... , unto my Cosen [nephew] Edward Young of Thundersley 20 shillings.... unto my servant John Parker 20 shillings.... unto my servant Elizabeth Broadewater 20 shillings. ... The rest of all my goods chatttells and moveables my debts and legacies being paid I give and bequeath unto Mary my beloved wife whom I make sole executrix of this my last will and testament. ... Witnesses Stephen Vassall, Thomas Gresby, John Parker.
On 17 April 1640, the Will of John Aylett was proved at Maldon, Essex county, before Richard Baylie on the oath of Mary Aylett, “relict of the said deceased and the executrix named in the said will, to who, was committed the administration of the said deceased's estate.” Mary now the widow of John Aylett from her brief second marriage had no children with him which is consistent with the fact that Aylett's will mentions no children.
John Aylett was fairly young when he died. He was born after 1606, when his parents, Rev. Giles Aylett, parson of Sutton, Essex, bachelor, and Mary Thurgood, daughter of Robert Thurgood of Magdalen Laver, Essex, yeoman, were married in 1606 at Chelmsford, Essex. In 1640 John had a brother, Richard, under 24 years of age. John Aylett's parentage is proven by the will of his mother, Mary AyIet, widow, of Sutton Magna, Essex, dated 7April 1634, proved 14 Dec. 1635, in which she named her sons Giles, John, and Richard Aylet; grandson Thomas Westbrok; and son-in-law Thomas Westbrok
At the age of 35 Mary Poulter Aylett was a widow again and still had 3 young children that needed a father so she married again in 1642 during the English Civil War. John Parker had worked for his wife’s 2nd husband and was mentioned in John Aylett’s will. John Parker probably was more an employee than what we think of a servant perhaps he even clerked for him in his business of selling clothes or was a tenement farmer. He was a legatee of John Aylett and even witnessed the 1640Aylett's will. If he witnessed the will of Aylett and later married his widow his position with the family was certainly higher than a simple servant as Mary was still a wealthy woman.
John Parker and Mary Pope Poulter Aylett were married 23 June 1642 in the parish of Great Burstead, Essex, England but may have resided at the hamlet of Billericay a few miles north afterwards. He was 27 years old at the time of his marriage and ten years younger than Mary who was 37 years old.
Elizabeth Poulter’s stepfather, John Parker, was christened 4 June 1615 in Great Burstead Parish in Essex, England about 10 miles from Rayleigh and about 2.5 miles south of the market hamlet of Billercay. He was the son of John and Anna Parker of Great Burstead, Essex, England and one of five Parker brothers, who emigrated to New England during the English Civil War. The exact year John Parker, his wife and step children migrated to New England is unknown but it was thought to be around 1651 after the war ended. As that he migrated so late he may have been a soldier in Cromwell’s Great Model Army.
John Parker’s aunt Sarah Parker who was buried at South Weald, Essex, 13 June 1625, had married Edward Converse at Great Burstead, 29 June 1614. Edward Converse’s children were cousins to the John Parker. John Parker may have been encouraged by his uncle, Edward Converse, who came with his family to New England in 1630 with the Winthrop Fleet to New England. By 1640 Converse had removed to the village of Woburn, where many of his Parker nephews came to settle in 1643. Edward Converse left a will proved 7 October 1663, naming John Parker as a kinsman.
Elizabeth Pouletr's father John Poulter had been dead at least 12 years when his nearly grown daughter made the transatlantic crossing to the New World. When Elizabeth arrived in Boston her father was still referred as “Goodman Poulter” a title of honor and respect. It was his legacy probably that even helped pay for the voyage of his widow and children to America under the care of John Parker.
John Parker had brothers and an uncle residing in Woburn a community about 11 miles north of Boston but the family settled first in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They would not have known the esteemed Rev. Thomas Shepard who died in 1649 but the family would have attended church in Cambridge along with Jonathan Danforth. He would have been was well aware of the Parker family and their pretty daughter Elizabeth, from attending Sunday services at the meeting house.
Elizabeth Poulter was about 9 years old when John Parker became her step father and she lived in John Parker's home in Cambridge until she married Jonathan Danforth who always referred to John Parker as “my father in law” and Parker called Jonathan “son- in-law” in documents.
John Parker was chosen Sergeant of the town’s militia at the 26 March 1655 Middlesex county court session. He drilled and trained the militia was for protection of Billerica from not only hostile indigenous people but also from the French to the north along the Saint Lawrence River. He may have been chosen for military training foe service during the English Civil War. He was well respected enough that he was also chosen to be the agent of the town in disposing two large grants of 8,000 acres and 4,000 acres for the benefit of the town.
In 1659 John Parker was named a legatee of Edward Converse of Woburn and overseer in his will. Even though Edward Converse remarried after John Parker’s aunt died in 1625 evidently he kept close ties with his nephew whom he called "kinsman" and bequeathed to him 40 shillings.
Elizabeth’s step father John Parker was chosen a jurist from Billerica for Middlesex County on 1 April 1662 and again in June of 1664. In a Middlesex county court document, dated 6 April 1664 it showed that John Parker testified that he was 49 years old [1615]. In another Middlesex County court record, a document dated 13 September 1664 referred to a letter that stated "To my loving Brother John Parker at Shawshin [Billerica]", signed by Jacob Parker. Other brothers who also lived briefly in Billerica before settling in nearby villages of Chelmsford, Woburn, and Medford, were James, Joseph and Abraham Parker. These step-uncles of Elizabeth Danforth must have been frequent visitors as that two her own children married children from these Parker step-uncles.
John Parker died without children of his own but he was a stepfather to Elizabeth Danforth and John Poulter Jr. for 25 years. He was the only grandparent that Jonathan Danforth’s older children ever knew and his children Lydia and Samuel would grow up without any memory of him at all. years.
John Parker’s influence in Billerica was significant. Over his life time, he built the first meeting house in Billerica. It was twenty-four feet wide and thirty feet in length. Until 1679 it had a thatched roof but then it was enlarged and galleries added. He became the first collector of taxes and was chosen clerk of the writs there in 1657. He was one of the first selectman and served for seven years. Although John Parker left no children of his own, the descendants of his brothers are numerous. He was a true American pioneer.
Jonathan Danforth’s widow mother in law Mary Parker made out a will dated 10 March 1673 [1674] some 35 years after her first husband John Poulter had made out his. She was around 69 years old and may have been in ill health or perhaps she simply wanted her property disposed of before her marriage to Thomas Chamberlain Sr. whom she married a month after making out her last will and testament.
Mary Parker, bequeathed to her son John Poulter 20 shillings “to be paid to him in a hat and shoes for his own personal use, over and above what I gave to him in the time of my widowhood.” She bequeathed to her grandchild, Anna Danforth, “my feather bed with all its furniture”. Anna Danforth was only 5 years old when she was left this legacy. She must have been a favorite grandchild for no other grandchildren received an inheritance.
She gave her daughter Elizabeth Danforth “the remainder of my estate, linen and woolen goods and chattels. If any should die before the possession of the premises willed by this instrument, then what is willed to either shall be disposed of to their nearest relations.” Her son-in-law Jonathan Danforth was nominated as sole executor.
It is interesting in that she chose her son in law over her own son as the executor of her estate. It is also unusual that she made these bequeathments in a will and not in a Deed of Gift. As that she outlived both her son and daughter by the terms of the will, the granddaughter Anna would have received all the inheritances of her uncle and mother.
A little more than a month after making her will, Mary married for the fourth time a prosperous widower named Thomas Chamberlain on 19 April 1674 at Billerica. He may very well be the Thomas Chamberlain, aged 20, who sail in 1635 from Gravesend, England to America.
Thomas Chamberlain was made a Freeman [voting citizen] 29 May 1644 at the court at Woburn. In 1662 Chamberlain Purchased 1500 acres from Gov. Thomas Dudley in Billerica, Massachusetts in 1652 but appeared on the Woburn tax list of 1655. He and his first wife Mary removed to Chelmsford, Massachusetts where his wife Mary died 20 December 1669 in Chelmsford.
When the King Phillip’s War commenced in 1675, Johnathan Danforth's brother in law John Poulter Jr retreated with his family to the town of Medford. He was listed as one of seven families that fled from Billerica during the conflict most likely not trusting the “Praying Indians” who lived at Billerica. John may have even been in poor health himself as he died in died 20 May 1676 at Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts. John Poulter was buried in the Cambridge Burying Grounds with an Inscription on his tombstone that read “John Poulter Aged 41 Died May 20, 1676.
John's widow Mary Elliott Poulter was pregnant with twins at the time of his death and was married within a month to Deacon John Whitmore of Cambridge who was 11 years younger than Mary. They were married 23 Jun 1676 and John Poulter’s twins were born 18 September 1676 at the conclusion of the King Philip’s War.
An inventory of John Poulter's estate contained a notation stating that the estate was indebted to "Mother Chamberlin,” his mother. After Poulter’s death in 1676, his Poulter children never returned to Billerica. In 1693 after their grandmother Mary Chamberlain had died, his sons John and Jonathan Poulter sold off the remaining farm in Billerica.
Deacon John Whitmore raised John Poulter’s children to adulthood and had three children of his own by Mary Elliott Poulter. “John was one of the earliest settlers of Medford. He was known as a public spirited man. Was largely interested in real estate, owning much valuable land in Medford, Billerica and Johnstown. An old record states that on December 24, 1680, he, with John Hall, Stephen Willis and Stephen Francis, divided among them what is known as the College Farm. Before this Caleb Hobart had sold one-fourth of his estate to John Whitmore. He served in the Indian campaign at Sacco, Maine under Major Swayne. His position was one of influence both in religious and civic affairs. He was Deacon of the First Parish Church, and Town Treasurer."
Jonathan Danforth’s former mother in law, Mary Poulter Parker Chamberlain, the only blood grandparent any of his children ever knew, died 8 February 1693 as the Salem Witch Trials were wrapping up. Town records of Chelmsford stated that “Mari” wife of Thomas Chamberlain Sr died 7 February 1692 [1693]. However church records state that she died February 8 age 88 years old. She died in Chelmsford and was buried there in the old Burying ground. The inscription on her tombstone reads “Mary the wife of Thomas Chamberlaine aged 88 died February 8 1692.” Her last husband Thomas Chamberlain survived her by 7 years and died at Chelmsford 21 December 1700
MARRIAGE and FAMILY
Jonathan Danforth and Elizabeth Poulter were married on 22 November 1654 in Boston by Reverend Increase Nowell. Although wedded in Boston their marriage was the first recorded in the town of Billerica’s registry where Jonathan moved his new bride to the home he built for her.
Whether Elizabeth Poulter ever recieved her £ 100 inheritance from her father at the time of her marriage to Jonathan Danforth is unknown. If she did this would have perhaps made the Danforths one of the wealthiest families in the area. As it were, he and his father in law John Parker were still considered foremost in the settlement of Billerica and certainly John Parker was the main advocate for renaming the Indian village Billerica after his old home hamlet of Billericay.
On 30 May 1655 the town of Billerica was officially incorporated and according to the History of Billerica, Captain Jonathan Danforth "in view of his long life and many varied services might be recognized as the father of the town."
Jonathan became an actual father when wife Elizabeth Danforth’s gave birth to their first child. Mary Danforth was born 29 January 1656 in Billerica, Middlesex, Massachusetts and named for Elizabeth’s mother. Nine months later in September 1656, Elizabeth became pregnant again and another daughter was born 27 May 1657 also in Billerica. She was named Elizabeth after her mother.
The town of Billerica needed a minister and in 1658, at the age of 30 years, Jonathan Danforth was one of nineteen townsmen who agreed to have Reverend Samuel Whiting come and be Billerica’s first Pastor. Danforth left two portfolios of church records and sermons by Whiting. Later Jonathan Danforth and the Reverend Samuel Whiting would share grandchildren when Jonathan’s daughter and Samuel’s son married one another. Although Jonathan was the "life-long and trusted friend of the Rev. Samuel Whiting of Billerica”, he applied to join the Chelmsford Church on May 12, 1661. The Billerica Church was faltering until about 1664 when Danforth again joined the Billerica congregation.
Elizabeth became pregnant again in May of 1658 and gave birth to Jonathan’s first son they named Jonathan after his father. Jonathan Danforth is called Junior by genealogists. Jonathan Danforth Jr. Was born 18 February 1659 at Billerica, Middlesex, Massachusetts.
Also in 1659 Jonathan Danforth’s skills as a surveyor must have become well known as New Hampshire records show that Jonathan was active as a surveyor in that colony in that year. He gave bearings using the 32-point compass (i.e. "South and by East, East North East", etc.) and distances in poles.
In 1660 Jonathan Danforth was elected a selectman for the town. A committee of five men known as selectmen made decisions for the village. Also in 1660, when Jonathan Danforth was 32 years old, the British Monarchy was restored when King Charles II reclaimed the throne of his father, the executed Charles Stuart I. All the laws enacted during the Commonwealth were repealed and men who had participated in the trial of King Charles I were either jailed or executed.
In April 1660 Elizabeth Danforth became pregnant again and bore another son on 23 January 1661. They named the baby John probably for John Parker but the baby died on 7 February about two weeks old. She became pregnant again in May 1661 and bore another son on 22 February 1662. They named this boy also John and he too did not thrive and died 4 June 1662 less than four months old. These two deaths of infants must have been devastating to this family but surely their Puritan faith in their God was of some comfort.
Elizabeth Danforth did not become pregnant again until September 1663 when she bore another daughter they named Lydia [Lidia] on 1 June 1664. She was probably named for her Aunt Lydia Beamon. Jonathan and Elizabeth Danforth had been married for about 9 years and she had given birth to six children during that time.
In 1665, Jonathan’s father in law John Parker stepped down as town’s clerk and Jonathan was chosen to replace him. Jonathan served as town clerk for twenty years from 1665 to 1685.
In May of 1666 Elizabeth Danforth became pregnant again. Jonathan’s fourth son, Samuel Danforth was born 5 February 1666/7 at Billerica, probably named for his uncle the Rev. Samuel Danforth. He grew to maturity as did his oldest brother Jonathan Junior. He was less than three years younger than his sister Lydia.
About the time her step father passed away, Elizabeth Danforth became pregnant with her 7th child. Anna Danforth was born 8 March 1668 at Billerica, Middlesex, Massachusetts. Elizabeth Danforth became pregnant again in July 1669 and she bore a son 29 April 1670 whom Jonathan named Thomas after his brother. Thomas Danforth was the third son to have died as an infant. His death was on 31 July 1670 age 2 months old Billerica, Middlesex, Massachusetts. In October 1670 Elizabeth was pregnant with another baby who was born 1 July 1671. This son was named Nicholas Danforth after Jonathan’s father.
In November 1674 Jonathan Danforth learned of the death of his older brother the Rev. Samuel Danforth who died on the 19th. Samuel Danforth’s "remains were deposited in the tomb of Governor Dudley in the old Roxbury cemetery.
Elizabeth Danforth became pregnant in March 1675 at the age of 42 with her last child. She gave birth 23 December 1676 to Sarah Danforth while her home was being used as a Garrison House during the King Philips Indian War. She was pregnant during much of that stressful time. Her husband was appointed Captain of the town’s militia in 1675 at the age of 47 years and in many records afterwards Jonathan is officially known as Captain Danforth.
THE KING PHILIP’S WAR 1675-1676
In 1675 there was fifty families living in Billerica and in that year a conflict known as the King Phillip War broke out in New England. This conflict between the English colonists and native tribes under the direction of a Native American Chief named King Philip, grew out of encroachment by colonists into the native tribes habitats.
The war was the single greatest calamity to occur in seventeenth century Puritan New England and is considered by many historians to be the deadliest war in the history of English settlement in North America in proportion to the population. In the space of little more than a year, twelve of the region's towns were destroyed and many more damaged, the colony's economy was all but ruined, and its population was decimated, losing one-tenth of all men available for military service.
The English population of New England totaled about 80,000 people in 1675. They lived in 110 towns, of which 64 were in the Massachusetts Colony, which then included the southwestern portion of the present state of Maine. The these towns had about 16,000 men of military age who were almost all part of the militia prevalent in all colonial New England towns. The Indian allies of the colonists, the Mohegans and the Praying Indians, numbered about 1,000, with about 200 warriors.
King Philip was chief of the Wampanoag tribe who’s Indian name was Metacom. He was the second son of chief Massasoit who had coexisted peacefully with the Pilgrims for nearly 40 years. Philip [Metacom] succeeded his father in 1662 and reacted against the English settlers' continued encroaching onto Wampanoag lands. The Wampanoag tribe had entered into an agreement with the Plymouth Colony and believed that they could rely on that colony for protection. However in the decades preceding the war it became clear to them that the treaty did not protect them from English expansion and land they had lost appeared to be given to rival Christian Indian tribes known as the Praying Indians.
In 1675, a Harvard graduate Native America named John Sassamon, a so-called "praying Indian", was murdered. He had been a "cultural mediator", negotiating with both Philip and the English. He was found murdered after he reported to the governor of Plymouth Colony that Philip had planned to gather allies for a Native American attacks on widely dispersed colonial settlements.
Plymouth Colony officials arrested three Wampanoag, including one of Philip's counselors. They were convicted by a jury that included six Indian elders and executed by hanging on June 8, 1675 at Plymouth. Within weeks Philip now known as King Philips as he was head of an alliance of native tribes organized attacks on English villages in retaliation.
Billerica seemed to have had a friendly neutrality towards the Indians who surrounded them. The Danforth family themselves seemed to have had a cordial relationship with their Indian neighbors and had several as servants in their home. Jonathan Danforth even had a trusted Indian servant who slept across the doorstep of the house to guard the Danforth home from intruders.
Jonathan’s friendly attitude towards them may have been influenced by his brother, the Rev. Samuel Danforth who along with his mentor the Rev. John Eliot had labored hard to bring the Christian faith to the Massachusetts Indians. Billerica was even founded within an area where “praying Indians” were dominant.
The New England Confederation, comprising of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth Colony, New Haven Colony and Connecticut Colony, declared war on the Native American followers of King Phillip on September 9, 1675. The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, settled mostly by Puritan dissidents, tried to remain mostly neutral, but like the Narragansett they were dragged inexorably into the conflict.
Each town had local militias, based on all eligible men, who had to supply their own arms. Only those who were too old, too young, disabled, or of the clergy were excused from military service. The officers were usually elected by popular vote of the militia members and Jonathan was selected Captain of the Billerica Militia and James Kidder his ensign. Jonathan Danforth held that military title until his death in 1712.
These militias were usually only minimally trained and initially did relatively poorly against the warring Indians until more effective training and tactics could be devised. Joint forces of militia volunteers and volunteer Indian allies were found to be the most effective.
Throughout the winter of 1675–76, Native Americans attacked and destroyed frontier settlements in their effort to expel the English colonists. Attacks were made at the towns of Andover, Bridgewater, Chelmsford, Groton, Lancaster, Marlborough, Medfield, Medford, Millis, Portland, Providence, Rehoboth, Scituate, Seekonk, Simsbury, Sudbury, Suffield, Warwick, Weymouth, and Wrentham, including what is modern-day Norfolk and Plainville.
Jonathan Danforth’s 21 year old nephew Thomas Danforth, the son of his brother Thomas Danforth was killed 19 December 1675 at a swamp fight with the Narragensett Indians. Thomas Danforth’s only other son Jonathan Danforth died 13 November 1682 at the age of 24 of consumption leaving Thomas Danforth without male heirs.
Thirty miles to the southwest of Billerica in February 1676 the frontier community of Lancaster, Massachusetts was attacked by King Philip with a force of 1,500 Wampanoag, Nipmuc, and Narragansett Indians. They attacked at dawn five fortified garrison houses. The house of the minister, Rev. Joseph Rowlandson, was set on fire, and most of its occupants, more than 30 people were slaughtered. Rowlandson's wife Mary was taken prisoner, and afterward wrote a best-selling captivity narrative of her experiences. Many of the community's other houses were destroyed before the Indians retreated northward.
Each town had local militias, based on all eligible men, who had to supply their own arms. Only those who were too old, too young, disabled, or of the clergy were excused from military service. The officers were usually elected by popular vote of the militia members and Jonathan was selected Captain of the Billerica Militia and James Kidder his ensign. Jonathan Danforth held that military title until his death in 1712.
These militias were usually only minimally trained and initially did relatively poorly against the warring Indians until more effective training and tactics could be devised. Joint forces of militia volunteers and volunteer Indian allies were found to be the most effective.
Throughout the winter of 1675–76, Native Americans attacked and destroyed frontier settlements in their effort to expel the English colonists. Attacks were made at the towns of Andover, Bridgewater, Chelmsford, Groton, Lancaster, Marlborough, Medfield, Medford, Millis, Portland, Providence, Rehoboth, Scituate, Seekonk, Simsbury, Sudbury, Suffield, Warwick, Weymouth, and Wrentham, including what is modern-day Norfolk and Plainville.
Jonathan Danforth’s 21 year old nephew Thomas Danforth, the son of his brother Thomas Danforth was killed 19 December 1675 at a swamp fight with the Narragensett Indians. Thomas Danforth’s only other son Jonathan Danforth died 13 November 1682 at the age of 24 of consumption leaving Thomas Danforth without male heirs.
Thirty miles to the southwest of Billerica in February 1676 the frontier community of Lancaster, Massachusetts was attacked by King Philip with a force of 1,500 Wampanoag, Nipmuc, and Narragansett Indians. They attacked at dawn five fortified garrison houses. The house of the minister, Rev. Joseph Rowlandson, was set on fire, and most of its occupants, more than 30 people were slaughtered. Rowlandson's wife Mary was taken prisoner, and afterward wrote a best-selling captivity narrative of her experiences. Many of the community's other houses were destroyed before the Indians retreated northward.
DANFORTH'S GARRISON HOUSE
Many villages throughout New England had garrison houses for defense against hostiles who resented the encroachment onto their lands. While many of these house had stockades enclosing most of the houses were simply the largest and strongest in the community. Jonathan Danforth's home became a garrison house as the Indian raids came closer and closer to Billerica
Jonathan Danforth and three others had the responsibility of fortifying Billerica and the 48 families who were assigned quarters and they hastening to designated posts when the alarm was sounded. On 14 October 1675 Billerica's selectmen ordered that garrison houses be set up for people to flee to in case the town came under attack. The selected garrison homes for Billerica belonged to Jonathan Danforth, Simon Crosby, James Patterson, and Sergeant Kidder. These were the larger homes which could accommodate more families in case of an attack on the village. The house of Simon Crosby was located northwest of a mound known as Bare Hill at the fork of Lexington and Woburn Roads and Jonathan Danforth’s house was located on West Street opposite of Sergeant Kidder’s home.
The Danforth house became the garrison for three families and six fighting men, including himself, his son 17 year old son Jonathan, and Samuel Manning. The families assigned to the Danforth Garrison were Captain Danforth’s, Samuel Manning’s, and John Dunkins’. Watch was kept day and night during the period as the settlers lived in fear as that danger of an attack.
While all of these homes were strengthened as the war progressed, Jonathan Danforth's house was so well constructed that it stood for over two hundred years until it was torn down in 1878. Until that time Jonathan’s home was one of two Garrison houses still standing as a relic of that time. Besides serving as a military garrison during the Indian raids of King Phillip's War of 1675, it was agarrison during the French and Indian Wars of 1750, and again during the American Revolution from 1776 till 1781.
The Danforth house became the garrison for three families and six fighting men, including himself, his son 17 year old son Jonathan, and Samuel Manning. The families assigned to the Danforth Garrison were Captain Danforth’s, Samuel Manning’s, and John Dunkins’. Watch was kept day and night during the period as the settlers lived in fear as that danger of an attack.
While all of these homes were strengthened as the war progressed, Jonathan Danforth's house was so well constructed that it stood for over two hundred years until it was torn down in 1878. Until that time Jonathan’s home was one of two Garrison houses still standing as a relic of that time. Besides serving as a military garrison during the Indian raids of King Phillip's War of 1675, it was agarrison during the French and Indian Wars of 1750, and again during the American Revolution from 1776 till 1781.
THE PRAYING INDIANS
During the King Phillips War all Indians were held in contempt, even those Indians converted to Christianity. Many were being killed indiscriminately along with King Phillip's warriors. Captain Jonathan Danforth along with his good friend General Daniel Gookin of Boston went to the General Court to condemned the wholesale slaughter of Indians.
General Gookin and Captain Danforth were such vocal advocates for the protection of “praying Indians” that the Puritan militants who called for the destruction of all Indians were enraged by their efforts in behalf of the Christian Indians. On 28 February 1675 [1676], which happened to be the day before Jonathan’s 48th birthday, signs were posted in Boston threatening Danforth and Gookins with death. On one of the placards was written, “Some generous spirits vowed their destruction: As Christians we warn them to prepare for death, for though they will deservedly die, yet we wish health of their souls. By The New Society ABCD.”
Jonathan Danforth and Daniel Gookin, regardless of these threats, stood by "the praying Indians" and Danforth went so far as to give them protection in Billerica which was a source of special embarrassment to friends of the family and the cause of much hardship for the Danforth family themselves who had praying Indians in their household as servants.
THE BILLERICA RAID
On a Sunday, 9 April 1676, while the town of Billerica was at church, King Phillip's warriors attacked. Captain Danforth wrote later in town records, "the Indians beset Billerica round about, the inhabitants being at meeting." The Indians hoped to burn down the church but as the townsmen carried their arms to church, they were able to keep the Indians at bay until twenty militia men from the towns of Woburn and Chelmsford came to the town's rescue hearing the church bell ring and drove the warriors away.
There is no record of any deaths on the part of the town’s people. However Elizabeth Danforth’s uncle Joseph Parker of Chelmsford was shot during the King Philip’s Indian raid but he managed to survive. While farm houses and crops at Billerica were burned with no loss of life in the April attack, the town would not be so lucky, fourteen years later in the next Indian War.
CONCLUSION of HOSTILITIES
Eventually in August of 1676 King Phillip was killed, his head mounted on a pike at the entrance to Fort Plymouth, where it remained for more than two decades. His body was cut into quarters and hung in trees. John Alderman, the Praying Indian who had killed him was given Philip’s right hand as a reward, and the Indian War came to an end.
Following the King Philip's War, many Indian captives, especially children, were sold or divided among the colonists as servants until they became of age. A boy of 12 was bound out to Jonathan Danforth. Known as "John Warrick", he was styled "the Indian servant of Captain Jonathan" when he died at Billerica, 15 January 1686.
For a time, King Philip's War seriously damaged the prospects of English colonists in New England. But they repaired all the damage, replaced their losses, rebuilt the destroyed towns, and continued to establish new towns within a few years. The military defeat of the Native Americans meant that most land in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island was nearly completely open to colonial settlement.
After the war ended Captain Jonathan Danforth, for his military service, was elected chairman of the town’s selectmen in 1676. There he signed a petition to the General Court asking for a reduction in taxes. In 1676 only 48 families remained in Billerica to pay a war tax. His importance to the community increased when at the age of 50 he was one of three men appointed in 1678 by the Governor's Council to suggest “rules of safety” for the outlying towns of Middlesex County. As Jonathan Danforth entered into his fifties he was a well respected and prosperous resident of Billerica which he had seen grown from a meadow in the wilderness to a affluent New England town.
At the age of 50, his eldest daughter Mary Danforth married at the age of 23, on 4 June 1778, John Parker, a son of Abraham Parker and his wife Rose Whitlock. John Parker was the nephew of Elizabeth Danforth’s step father.
In June 1680, Jonathan’s eldest sister died on the 26th at Cambridge. She was the widow of Andrew Belcher and kept the "Blue Anchor" tavern, which stood at the northeast corner of Brighton and Mt. Auburn streets in Cambridge. Elizabeth Belcher was about 61 years old and she left a will dated 10 June 1680 and proved 8 July 1680. Her heirs were Jonathan's nieces Mrs. Elizabeth Blower, Mrs. Martha Remington, and Mrs. Hannah Ballard, the of daughters of a deceased niece Mrs. Jemima Still; and his nephew Andrew Belcher.
On 27 June 1682, his eldest son Jonathan Danforth at the age of 24 married Rebecca Parker, the daughter of Jacob and Sarah Parker. John Parker husband of Mary Danforth and Rebecca Parker wife of Jonathan Danforth were first cousins.
THE ROYAL COLONY
The New England colonists had successfully defended themselves with their own resources with no help from Great Britain. Before King Philip's War, the colonies had been generally ignored but now the Royal Government began to realize the colonies potential.
In 1684 Captain Jonathan Danforth was chosen to be the first deputy to a special General Court of Massachusetts called into session to decide how to respond King Charles II desire to abolish the old charter of Massachusetts Bay Colony and replace it with a royal government. His brother Judge Thomas Danforth was in the forefront of Massachusetts' dispute with the king to save the old charter. Thomas Danforth objected strenuously against the Puritan colony becoming a royal colony governed by royal governors and not the people of Massachusetts. He was nearly arrested and brought to London to be tried for insubordination boarding on treason. Only the death of King Charles II in February 1685 prevented Thomas Danforth’s arrest.
In 1684 the king however revoked the charter of Massachusetts Bay and made Massachusetts a Royal Colony. An Anglican church was established in Boston in 1686 for the first time, ending the Puritan monopoly on religion in Massachusetts. In 1690, Plymouth Bay Colony's charter was also not renewed and its residents were forced into the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Royal Colony. The Massachusetts General Court, the principal elected legislative and judicial body in Massachusetts, was brought under nominal British government control, but all its members except the Royal Governor and a few of his deputies continued to be elected in the various towns, as they had been for 50 years.
Captain Jonathan Danforth served on the General Court committee again in 1685 but with the ascension of James, Duke of York to the throne of Great Britain in 1685 the new governance of royal colony was enforced.
Jonathan Danforth’s sister Lydia Beamon died also in 1686. She died 16 August 1686 at Saybrook in Connecicutt colony. She was survived by her husband William Beamon and many of Jonathan's nephews and nieces. As they lived so far removed from Billerica it is doubtful these two families kept in touch.
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Elizabeth Danforth, at age 19 married Simon Hayward of Concord. She was the second daughter of Captain Danforth. The couple were married 7 March 1687 at Billerica, Middlesex, Massachusetts. Simon Hayward was born 22 Jan 1649 the son of George Hayward, one of the founders of Concord. One of George Hayward’s descedants was one of the first man killed at Concord on 19 April 1775 at the beginning of the Revolutionary War.
The Billerica tax list of 24 August 1688 showed that “Captain Danforth” was one of the wealthiest men in Billerica from the amount of taxes he paid. He was assessed 12 shillings and 1 pence and the only ones assessed more than he were Michael Bacon at 12 shillings and 4 pence, John Lane 13 shillings and 2 pence and Thomas Patten at 13 shillings and 9 pence.
Captain Jonathan Danforth's wife, Elizabeth Poulter Danforth died on 7 October 1689. She was 56 years old and the mother of all his children. Jonathan Danforth and Elizabeth Poulter had been married just one month shy of 35 years. No doubt her funeral eulogy was given by family friend and pastor of Billerica, Rev. Samuel Whiting. She was buried in the Billerica Old South Burying Ground where her tombstone was inscribed “Elizabeth the wife of Jonathan Danforth Aged 56 Dyed October 7th 1689.”
At the time of her death, three of her eldest children, Mary, Elizabeth, and Ensign Jonathan were already married. Of her remaining children Lydia, Samuel, and Anna had reached the age of majority but had not yet married. Minor children she left behind were 18 year old Nicholas and 12 year old Sarah.
Anna Danforth married Oliver Whiting the son of Rev. Samuel Whiting on 22 December 1689 a couple of months after her mother’s death. Lydia Danforth may have been married as a record of her marriage has not been found. She married Edward Wright and her only known child was born in 1695.
Elizabeth Poulter Danforth died during what was called The King William's War.
THE KING WILLIAM’S WAR 1688 – 1701
King James II was overthrown for being a Catholic in 1688 and he fled the country rather than suffer the fate of his father Charles I. The coup that ousted the king was known as "The Glorious Revolution" as that it was nearly bloodless and done without a civil insurrection.
On 30 June 1688, a group of seven Protestant nobles unhappy with King James II when he adopted Catholicism invited the husband of James II eldest daughter Mary, William the Prince of Orange to come to England to take the throne. Orange was a feudal state in Provence, north of the city of Avignon, however the title became associated with the Protestant Dutch Royal family. When William arrived on 5 November 1688 with an army, many Protestant English officers defected and joined William, as did James's own daughter, Princess Anne.
Having no desire to make James a martyr, the William Prince of Orange let him escape to France on 23 December 1688. William and his wife Mary were officially crowned joint King and Queen of Great Britain in April 1689 and the first British Bill of Rights was adopted in November.
Indian relations had worsened in 1688 in New England when French incursions against the English Iroquois Indian allies in upstate New York, led to Indian raids against smaller English settlements in Maine which was governed by Massachusetts. The French in New France were determined to hold the St. Lawrence country and to extend their power over the vast the Mississippi River basin’s fur trade that was economically vital to both French and English colonies.
In 1688 the frontier was on high alert in case war broke out and an inventory of ammunition stored at Capt Danforth’s home was taken by Billerica. Stored in his cellar was a “barrel containing 110 pounds of powder, part of an old barrel of 68 pounds of power, 120 pounds of lead, 130 flints, 38 bullets, and match sufficient.”
After William and Mary became monarchs of Great Britain in 1689 war broke out officially between Great Britain and France called the Nine Year War, but in North America, the conflict was known as the King William's War. The Governor General of New France expanded the war into New England with a series of raids on English settlements. The first was the July 1689 destruction of the village of Dover, in New Hampshire Colony, followed by an August raid of Pemaquid, Maine.
In February 1690 Schenectady in New York was attacked by the French and their Indian allies, followed by massacres at Salmon Falls and Casco. On the English and French border refugees from ravaged regions of upstate New York, Nova Scotia and Quebec, flooded into Essex County, specifically, to Salem Village in the Massachusetts Colony. The stress this caused on the local people would led to an outbreak of mass hysteria surrounding the village of Salem within a couple of years.
Despite numerical superiority, the English colonists suffered repeated defeats as New France effectively organized its French troops, local militia and Algonquins and Abenakis Indian allies to attack frontier settlements. Almost all resources of Great Britain however were sent to defend the English West Indies colonies, the crown jewels of the empire and not the New England colonists.
In 1690 King William and Queen Mary felt that they would be no security for the colonies as long as the French could stir up the Indians to attack English settlements in New England. In response to this French threat, on 1 May 1690 at the Albany Conference, in New York, colonial representatives elected to invade Canada.
Sir William Phips of the British forces on 11 May 1690 had seized Port Royal, the capital of French Acadia. Following the capture the New Englanders hoped to seize Montréal and Québec itself, the capital of New France. The loss of the Acadian fort shocked the Canadians and Governor-General ordered the immediate preparation of the city of Quebec for siege.
On 15 July 1690, Captain Jonathan Danforth, age of 62 years and now a widower, was chosen to lead a company of men from Billerica. Massachusetts for the invasion of Canada. General Court records stated "Captain Danforth, now going forth in their Majesties service in the intended expedition to Canada, (shall) have liberty to hire some meet person in said town to serve his domestic occasions in his absence and that said person be exempted from (being) impress to any public service other then attending duty during said expedition."
Evidently Jonathan Danforth had such a large estate that he was able to get the General Court to exempt a man from military service to look after Danforth's affairs. He likely had his 19 year old son Nicholas exempted from military service as his 32 year old son Ensign Jonathan Danforth and 25 year old son Samuel Danforth accompanied their father on the expedition to Canada. He probably thought that he didn’t want to risk the lives of all his sons.
In August 1690 the Danforths and other Billerica militia men were part of a land force expedition commanded by Colonel Fitz-John Winthrop. They advanced from Albany by way of Lake Champlain to Montreal. In his diary, Winthrop gives an account of the difficulties that they encountered. Under the date of Aug. 4, 1690, is found the following: “I consulted with the officers & twas concluded to march forwards, & then devided our provition, wch was about 35 cakes of bread for each souldr, besides pork, which was scarce eatable. At this post (Saratoga) I left Liut Tho. Avery with some souldrs to gaurd our provition to us wch was coming up the river”.
A naval force, commanded by the future governor of Massachusetts, Sir William Phipps, set sail for Quebec via the Saint Lawrence River. When the envoys delivered the terms of surrender to the French Governor-General, he famously declared that his only reply would be by “the mouth of my cannons.”
The Battle of Québec was fought in October 1690 between the colonies of New France and Massachusetts. Ironically the Danforth and Morisette ancestors of Alan Lee Danforth and his sisters Beverley and Barbara probably fought each other at this major battle.
Sir William Phipps led the invading army, which landed at Beauport in the Basin of Québec. However, the militia on the shore were constantly harassed by Canadian militia until they retreated, while the British ships were nearly destroyed by cannon volleys from the top of the city. The New Englanders were repulsed in Battle of Quebec by the French soldiers and by smallpox which had broken out among the English. The expedition on the St Lawrence River to take Quebec failed and the French retook Port Royal.
REMARRIAGE
Captain Jonathan Danforth and his sons returned from the failed attempt to capture Canada by November when he married on 17 November 1690 a widow named Mrs. Esther Champney Converse. He had waited a year before remarrying. Jonathan and his second wife were companions for 21 years.
Esther [Hester] Champney was the daughter of Richard and Jane Champney of Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was born in 1633 in England and was the same age as Elizabeth Poulter. Her first husband was Deacon Josiah Converse of Chalmsford village, the son of Edward Converse, who was the uncle of John Parker, Jonathan's former father in law. Josiah Converse was thus a first cousin to John Parker.
Josiah Converse was christened 30 October 1618 at South Weald, in Essex County, England. Esther Champney and Josiah Converse were married at Woburn, Massachusetts Bay Colony 26 March 1651 and had been married one month shy of 39 years when he died 3 February 1690, aged 72 yrs, just four month’s after Jonathan lost his wife Elizabeth Poulter. The inscription of Josiah’s tombstone reads, Here lyes the body of Deacon Josias Convers, aged 72 years. "Memento Mori - Fugit Hora" which is latin for “Remember you will die” and “the hour flees”.
THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS
Many of the displaced English people, fleeing Indian massacres during the King William's War had settled in Essex County near the village of Salem, now Danvers, Massachusetts. The village of Salem was only 25 miles south east of Billerica. The strain on Salem's resources aggravated the existing rivalry between families of wealth there. Also the threat of Indian attacks and all the quarreling between neighbors was thought by Puritan villagers to be the work of the Devil.
Controversy in the community also brewed over the choice of Reverend Samuel Parris as Salem Village's first ordained minister in 1689. He was disliked because of his rigid ways and greedy nature. In January of 1692, Reverend Samuel Parris' daughter Elizabeth, age 9, and his niece Abigail Williams, age 11, started having "fits." They screamed, threw things, uttered peculiar sounds and contorted themselves into strange positions, and a local doctor named Griggs blamed the supernatural. Another girl, Ann Putnam, age 11, experienced similar episodes.
On February 29, 1692 on Jonathan’s 64th birthday under pressure from magistrates Jonathan Corwin and John Hawthorne, the girls in Rev. Parish’s household blamed three women in Salem for afflicting them. The women were Tituba, the Parris' Caribbean slave; Sarah Good, a homeless beggar; and Sarah Osborne, an elderly impoverished woman. Beginning in March 1692 and over the course of the year, more than 200 people began to be accused of practicing witchcraft in Massachusetts Colony. Eventually, the colony admitted the trials were a mistake but not before 20 innocent people were executed.
All three women accused by Parris and Williams girls were brought before the local magistrates and interrogated for several days, starting on March 1, 1692. Sarah Osborne claimed innocence, as did Sarah Good. But Tituba fearful of being tortured and executed confessed. She claimed, "The Devil came to me and bid me serve him." She then described elaborate images of black dogs, red cats, yellow birds and a "black man" who wanted her to sign his book. She admitted that she signed the book and said there were several other witches looking to destroy the Puritans. All three women were put in jail to be tried for witchcraft.
With the seed of paranoia planted, a stream of accusations followed over the next few months. Abigail Williams also denounced Rebecca Nurse as a witch and Ann Putnam Jr. accused Martha Corey a loyal member of the Church in Salem Village. This accusation greatly concerned the community for if she could be a witch, then anyone could. Magistrates Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne also questioned Sarah Good's 4-year-old daughter, Dorcus [Dorothy], and her timid answers were construed as a confession. Later in late March 1692, Elizabeth Proctor was accused of witchcraft.
In April 1692 when Sarah Cloyce and Mary Easty defended their sister Rebecca Nurse, they were accused of witchcraft. When John Proctor protested the examination of his wife he became the first man accused of witchcraft and is incarcerated. By the end of April 20 people had been accused of witchcraft including Nehemiah Abbott, William and Deliverance Hobbs, Edward and Sarah Bishop, Mary Black, Sarah Wildes, Mary English and a former Salem minister Rev. George Burroughs.
The hysteria going on in Salem eventually reached Boston and came to the attention of Captain Jonathan's brother, Deputy Governor Thomas Danforth and his assistants who were affectedly governing Massachusetts waiting for the arrival of the new Royal Governor. When they attended the Salem hearings, Jonathan Corwin and John Hawthorne were questioning the accused and dozens of people from Salem and other Massachusetts villages were brought in for questioning.
In May 1692 the following were accused of witchcraft, Sarah Morey, Lyndia Dustin, Susannah Martin, Dorcas Hoar, Sarah Churchchill, George Jacobs, Sr. and his granddaughter Margaret Jacobs. The first fatality occurred when the elderly Sarah Osborne died in prison.
Royal Governor Sir William Phips and Rev. Increase Mather, the theocratic governor, reached Boston in separate ships from London England with the new royal charter for Massachusetts on May 14, 1692. Upon their arrival, Phips and Mather found more than 125 people had been arrested on charges of witchcraft and were being held in Boston and Salem prisons . After meeting with Thomas Danforth, deputy governor, on May 27, Governor Phips ordered a special Court of Oyer and Terminer to be created to hear the accumulated cases. It was designed for one sole purpose: to try and convict accused witches.
Although Governor Phips officially signed the commission, Rev. Increase Mather was likely the proponent, as such courts were specifically mentioned in the new charter, and no one had spent more time working on the details of the charter than Increase Mather. Also Increase Mather's pick for Lieutenant Governor, William Stoughton, a lifelong bachelor, was chosen as chief judge of this new court. Other justices for the Court of Oyer and Terminer, were John Hathorne, Nathaniel Saltonstall, Bartholomew Gedney, Peter Sergeant, Samuel Sewall, and Wait Still Winthrop.
At the end of May 1692, Wilmott Redd, Elizabeth Howe, John Alden, and Phillip English were all arrested and accused, however English and Alden managed to escape prison and would not return to Salem until after the trials ended.
On 2 June 1692 Bridget Bishop was the first to be tried and convicted of witchcraft in the newly commissioned Court of Oyer and Terminer. She was sentenced to die by William Stoughton. Bridget Bishop was hanged at Gallows Hill 10 June 1692 and following the hanging Judge Nathaniel Saltonstall resigned and Jonathan Corwin joined the other justices.
On June 8, Judge Stoughton ordered a woman accused of witchcraft to be executed only two days later, though tradition had been to allow at least four days between order and execution. These women had been convicted on "spectral" evidence or supernatural visions. The following Monday Governor Phips asked the Puritan clergy to officially weigh in on the issue of "spectral evidence" and to put it in writing. The response is called "The Return of the Ministers" while urging caution and speedy prosecution, it did not disallow, or discredit, the admission of spectral evidence against which there is no alibi possible. Increase Mathers, his son Cotton and the other area ministers continued to debate this issue of using spectral evidence throughout the summer and into the fall as women and men were being hanged on this evidence alone.
At the end of June, five more women were condemned to die. They were Rebecca Nurse, Susannah Martin, Sarah Wildes, Sarah Good, and Elizabeth Howe. The five women were hanged 19 July 1692 at Gallows Hill.
Governor Phips had granted a reprieve to one of these women, but was impressed upon "by some Salem gentlemen" to take it back. At this point, Governor Phips seemed to wash his hands of the proceedings, not wanting to gain the enmity of his own lieutenant governor and the theocratic clergymen allied with him. There is no record of Phips ever having travelled north to meet any of the "afflicted", or attend a single Oyer and Terminer trial, or execution.
Sir William Phips, who had just been appointed royal governor in July 1692, was busy with other administrative issues and dealing with the Indian and French raids on New England towns. The Governor was preoccupied recruiting troops and gathering supplies to build a fort in Maine against French attacks. He left the province at the end of July and was gone the entire month of August and much of September. He officially handed over all executive powers to William Stoughton the Lieutenant Governor in his absence beginning August 1st. Stoughton was also the presiding judge at the witch trials in Salem. Thomas Danforth, now a justice on the Supreme Court was one of the main people who worked behind the scenes to see that the trials came to an end but had to wait for the return of the governor.
BILLERICA WITCHCRAFT ACCUSATIONS
On May 28, 1692, the day after the court of Oyer and Terminer was commissioned, Martha Carrier, along with her sister and brother-in-law, Mary Toothaker and Roger Toothaker of Billerica, and their 9 year-old daughter, Margaret Toothaker, were arrested and charged with witchcraft. However Roger Toothaker died in prison on 16 June 1692 before he could be tried. Roger Toothaker was the first person from Billerica who was arrested on charges of witchcraft.
Martha Allen Carrier was from one of the founding families of Andover, Massachusetts. She grew up to marry Thomas Carrier. Somewhere along the line, the couple moved to Billerica, about ten miles southwest of Andover. However, the couple returned to Andover when her father and brothers were suffering from smallpox in 1690. Unsuccessful in nursing them back to health, she soon became a land owner in her own right after they died. Though the couple lost two of their own children to the disease, they were blamed for having brought the disease to Andover.
Some historians believe that Martha Carrier was accused of witchcraft because she was a niece of the Reverend Francis Dane of Andover, who condemned the witch hunts and was arrested himself on witchcraft charges. At that time, over one third of the Salem accused were related to Rev. Dane or his wife in some way. She was also known to have had an independence of mind and was a non-submissive character, which made her vulnerable to authorities.
On May 31st, Martha Carrier was examined by Judges John Hathorne, Jonathan Corwin, and Bartholomew Gedney. Testifying against her were several of the "afflicted girls", including Susanna Sheldon, Mary Walcott, Elizabeth Hubbard and Ann Putnam, Jr. Carrier pled not guilty and accused the girls of lying.
At the end of July the court of Oyer and Terminer in Salem sent a warrant to the Constable of Billerica, James Patterson, ordering several people in Billerica including Captain Jonathan Danforth to testify in a witch trial of Martha Carrier. To his great credit, Jonathan defied the subpoenas of the Court, refusing to witness against accused Carrier who was later hanged when she refused to confess guilt.
The warrant for Jonathan's appearance read: To Constable of Billerica Greetings. Wee command you to warn and give notice unto Capt. Danforth, John Rogers and others that they and everyone of them be personally appear at ye court of Oyer and Termoniner to be held by adjournment at Salem on Tuesday next at ten of ye clock in ye morning to testify ye truth to the best of their knowledge on certain indictments to be exhibited against Martha Carrier of Andover. And Thereby they nor you are to fail at your utmost peril. Making returns there of under your hand. Dated 30 July 1692 in ye 4th year of our reign. Stephen Sewall clerk.
Constable Patterson wrote back to the court at Salem “According to this warrant I have showed it to Capt. Danforth and his answer is that he can say nothing in ye case that is worth mentioning.” At the age of 64, Jonathan had defied the Salem court and at “his peril” refused to go and testify against his former neighbor. This was a very courageous act during this time of hysteria when non compliance could have been construed as sympathy for a witch.
Two things probably saved Jonathan Danforth from serious repercussion. One was his prominence in the community of Billerica and also the fact that his brother Thomas Danforth was on the Supreme Court of Massachusetts Colony and therefore had the influence to protect his brother. Contrary to his portrayal in Miller’s fictional play The Crucible, Thomas Danforth actually was one of the main justice of the court who worked to put an end to the Salem witch trials. Also two days after the warrant was issued the Billerica massacre occurred which would have preoccupied Captain Danforth as a leading citizen of the community in burying the dead.
On 1 August 1692, without warning, an Indian attack fell upon the town of Billerica and ten townspeople were tomahawked to death until the warriors were driven off. The family of John Livingstone was especially hit hard when five of its members were killed. As the town recorder, Captain Jonathan Danforth wrote in the records, "All slain by Ye Indians."
While Billerica was recovering from the massacre and burying its dead, in Salem the trial of Martha Carrier was being fully transcribed at the direction of Rev. Cotton Mather. She was accused of witchcraft and he believed the Carrier trial represented the strongest case for the use of “spectral evidence.”
During the August trial of Martha Carrier, Rev. Cotton Mather directed the event to be fully transcribed, as he believed the case to represent the strongest example for the use of spectral evidence. The evidence he found most persuasive was the testimony of Martha's 18-year old-son, Richard, and her 8-year-old daughter, Sarah, who stated that she made them become witches to "haunt" others at her direction. However, John Proctor, who was hung the same day as Martha, wrote the governor that he witnessed these children being tortured in the jail where he was also imprisoned. He stated that they were reportedly tied neck to ankles with a rope down their backs and left that way until said what their interrogators wanted to hear.
The closest member of Jonathan Danforth’s extended family to be accused of witchcraft was Rebecca Addington Chamberlain. Rebecca married William Chamberlain on January 4, 1646 in Roxbury, Massachusetts. William Chamberlain was the brother in law of Captain Jonathan's former mother in law, Mary Poulter Parker Chamberlain wife of Thomas Chamberlain. Rebecca Chamberlain was thus the sister in law of Mary who was the grandmother of his children.
Rebecca Chamberlain was nearly 67 years old when she was arrested but she died at the Cambridge prison on September 26, 1692 before she could be tried. Though no court records exist regarding a warrant for her arrest, most historians believe that she was in prison for suspicion of witchcraft.
Another resident of Billerica connected with the witchcraft hysteria, although no legal documents remain for him, was John Durrant. He was known to have lived in Billerica at the time of the witchcraft trials and died in the Cambridge prison on October 27, 1692 a month after Rebecca Chamberlain. Because of the timing and family ties to other alleged "witches", historians believe that John Durrant was imprisoned on the charge of witchcraft. He had married a widow named Ruth Hooper 1684 and Ruth's step-daughter Sarah Hooper Hawkes Wardwell was accused of witchcraft in August, 1692. Sarah's husband was Samuel Wardwell, Sr., who was hanged for witchcraft on September 22, 1692. Sarah and Samuel's daughter, Mercy Wardwell was also accused of witchcraft.
All of these people who died in prison or were executed were convicted from testimonies given by people who had dreams or claimed some spectral evidence. On 8 October 1692 Governor Phips who had been busy with skirmished by the French and Indians during much of the summer and fall, ordered that “spectral evidence” could no longer be admitted in witchcraft trials possibly persuaded by Thomas Danforth the Deputy Governor.
By the end of October the governor prohibited further arrests of people, released many accused witches, and dissolves the Court of Oyer and Terminer. By the end of the year those who remained in prison were to be tried by a Superior Court that the General Court of Massachusetts established instead of a Court of Oyer and Terminer. Governor Phipps finally put an end to the insanity and possibly under the counsel of Thomas Danforth and others.
At the first of the year 1693 Judge William Stoughton, to clear the court docket, ordered the execution of all suspected witches who had been exempted by their pregnancy. Governor Phips denied enforcement of the order causing Stoughton to leave the bench. In January 1693, 49 of the 52 surviving people brought into court on witchcraft charges were released because their arrests were based on spectral evidence and in May 1693 Governor Phips pardoned all those still in prison on witchcraft charges.
Arthur Miller’s 1953 famous historical fiction play, "The Crucible", portrayed Jonathan Danforth’s brother Thomas Danforth as a rigid inflexible judge at the Salem Witch Trial while truth was that he was probably neither. He was never a judge on the Court of Oyer and Terminer although he probably was at some of the hearings. Samuel Sewell, who was the only judge to publicly express regret over the proceedings, said that Thomas Danforth "did much to end the troubles under which the country groaned in 1692."
Five years after the first accusations of witchcraft, on 14 January 1697, the General Court ordered a day of fasting and soul-searching for the tragedy at Salem. Judge Samuel Sewall publicly confesses error and guilt. By 1702 the General Court of Massachusetts declared that the 1692 trials were unlawful. Finally in 1711 the colony passed a legislative bill restoring the rights and good names of those accused of witchcraft and granted 600 pounds in restitution to their heirs. In 1752 the village of Salem was renamed Danvers. The port city of Salem is now known as the Witch City with a museum dedicated to the Witch Trials.
Interestingly a woman named Mehitable [Hitty] Stevens Danforth from New Hampshire was accused in 1774, nearly 80 years after the Salem Witch Trial, of being a witch. She was the wife of Moses Danforth one of the first settlers of Sanbornton, New Hampshire Colony. Moses Danforth was not a descendant of Nicholas Danforth but of William Danforth, the only other Danforth family known to have come to Massachusetts in the 17th Century and may have been a distant relative of Nicholas.
Accusation of witchcraft was from a certain occasion when a teamster was bringing half a barrel of rum to town with an ox-team. Mrs. Danforth, he alleged, “wished him to stop and tap the rum at her house; and upon his declining to do so, bewitched one of his oxen.” There is no record of a trial. Her husband Moses served in the Revolutionary war, and when he died circa 1821 the “stealing of his remains,” by certain vicious young medical students, immediately after his burial, occasioned great excitement through all this [Sanborne] community.”
THE KING WILLIAM'S WAR ENDS
The King William War continued for several years after Witch trials and Jonathan evidently was still Captain of The Billerica Militia. Jonathan Danforth’s youngest son Nicholas Danforth died 8 March 1694 in Billerica. He was a young man only about 23 years old. He was not married and there are no records to indicate what cut his life short. The inscription on his tombstone simply reads, “Nicolas Danforth Aged 23 Dyed March 8 1693/ 4”Captain Jonathan Danforth was the subject of a rebuke in a report by Lt. Col Joseph Lyne. He wrote: 25 August 1695 We left 500 bread in the hands of Captain Danforth who was not so prudent in the disposal of some of what was spent as, in my way home, I was informed, he should have been. I directed him at my coming to preserve what was left until further order. Lt Col Joseph Lynde" Evidently bread left for the militia spoiled or was discarded under the care of Jonathan.
On 11 September 1697 a peace treaty between France and England was agreed on but on 22 September 1697 Indians attacked Lancaster and among those killed was Rev. John Whiting the son of Rev. Samuel of Bilelrica . He shot and scalped about noon "by the Indians". The war officially ended in 1701 with the Treaty of Ryswick, which left the boundaries and outposts of New France, New England, and New York substantially unchanged.
Also in 1697 it was noted in town records that Billerica bought an hour glass from Jonathan Danforth. Perhaps used to time official meetings.
Captain Danforth oldest child, Mary Danforth who had married John Parker, died 14 April in 1699 at Chelmsford at the age of 43 years old. She was the mother of nine children. Jonathan’s brother Judge Thomas Danforth also died in 1699 on November 5th. He was a wealthy man owning 10,000 acres at Farmingham known as Danforth’s farms. He lived however in Cambridge on Kirkland Street. His will stated that he owned a “Negro Man” who was to serve a Mr. Foxcroft for four years then set free and given £10 and 40 acres at Danforth Farm. Judge Danforth left no male heirs all of his sons dying young and with out issue. The Danforth name was only passed on through the sons of Jonathan and Rev. Samuel Danforth.
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Only two of Nicholas Danforth the emigrant children were alive at the beginning of the 18th Century, Jonathan Danforth and his sister Anna Bridges. Jonathan was still active in community affairs in Billerica and Anna Bridges lived in Lexington with her husband Mathew who would die at the end of the year 1700.
While many of Capt. Jonathan's survey records that have survived are from the 1660's, Jonathan Danforth’s last known survey plan is dated March 1702 when he was then 74 years old. This shows that he still had a keen mind and was physically active at that age. According to John Joseph May's "Danforth Family History", from 1656 until 1696, Jonathan Danforth surveyed every land grant in Billerica and laid out the early farms and high ways of the adjoining towns, even some of those outside of Middlesex County, Massachusetts. May stated, "his description fills two hundred pages in his clear handsome writing in the Billerica volume of land grants.” His work often came before the General Court for confirmation and he was employed more often than any other surveyor in locating grants. He is mentioned in colonial records of the villages of Havenhill, Dracut, Dunstable, Groton, and Townsend as an excellent surveyor. “Captain Danforth's work is also found as far north as Amherst and Litchfield in the Colony of New Hampshire".
Captain Jonathan Danforth was also considered the best educated man in the town of Billerica and he was frequently called upon in legal matters by his neighbors. Like his brother, Judge Thomas Danforth, Jonathan served as a magistrate in the General Court of Massachusetts where he was a representative from the village of Billerica for 21 years.
Known as "Father of Billerica", Captain Jonathan Danforth had extensive land holdings and showed an interest in every need of the town. "Jonathan had the courage of a strong and independent nature", and historians refer to him as "the wise and good Jonathan Danforth", Billerica's "leading citizen of his generation", and "the most noted surveyor of his time in the colony." They write of his "energy and wisdom", his "eminent ability and unaffected piety".
In August 1703 when Jonathan 76 years and still known as Captain Danforth, town officials took “an inventory of ammunition in the hands of Capt. Danforth” at his garrison house, as that the Queen Anne’s War had recently broken out between the French and English. The Queen Anne's War as the North American theater of the War of the Spanish Succession was known in the British colonies, was the second in a series of French and Indian Wars fought between France and Great Britain, in North America for control of the continent. Queen Anne was another daughter of James II. The town selectmen found enough barrels of gun powder stored in his home to blow the village up. As that many residents were short on gunpowder it decided to redistributed the gun powder among many families instead of having it stored in one place.
The following year. in 1704, Jonathan Danforth’s last remaining sibling, who had made the arduous voyage across the Atlantic with him and his last remaining link to Suffolk County, England died. His sister Anna Bridges, who most likely cared for Jonathan when he was a child crossing over in the ship Griffin, died 9 December 1704 at Lexington at the age of 82 years.
THE DEATH of CAPTAIN JONATHAN DANFORTH
Captain Jonathan Danforth’s eldest son and name sake died 17 January 1711 in Billerica, Middlesex, Massachusetts. Known as "Ensign Jonathan Danforth" he was buried in the Billerica common burial grounds. His tombstone inscription reads “Memento Mori Fugit Hora Here Lyes ye Body of Ensn. Jonathan Danforth age 52 years who died 17 January 1710/11. A year and a half later Captain Jonathan Danforth died. He was said to have lived a long useful life well connected with influential men of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
On the 7 September 1712, Captain Jonathan Danforth, the last surviving child of Nicholas Danforth the Emigrant, died at the age of 85 years, "distinguished in his mathematical knowledge and extensive usefulness to Billerica." He was buried next to his first wife in the old burying grounds of Billerica. His weathered slate gravestone can still be located. Jonathan’s tombstone inscription reads “Memento Mori Fugit Hora Here Lyes ye Body of Capt. Jonathan Danforth aged 85 years who deceased September 7th 1712”.
His second wife and companion Esther died nearly 7 months later after Captain Danforth. Esther Danforth’s tombstone inscription was similar to her husbands, “Memento Mori Fugit Hora Here Lyes ye Body of Mrs. Esther Danforth wife of Capt. Jonathan Danforth aged 80 years Died April ye 5th 1713.
In the inventory of his estate filed in the probate records of Massachusetts, he is referred to as "Captain Jonathan Danforth, gentleman." This last word was used more sparingly in the older days and had a greater meaning than is used presently.
He had crossed the Atlantic as a child and was a young man when King Charles I was beheaded. He was the first Danforth to live in a Commonwealth without a king. He saw the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 when the son of Charles I was restored to the throne. He lived long enough to see the old Puritan Commonwealth of Massachusetts Bay Colony become the Royal Colony of Massachusetts and he lived to see the deposing of another son of Charles I, King James II in 1688.
POSTERITY
Captain Jonathan Danforth and Elizabeth Poulter were the parents of eleven children and grandparents of at least 52 children making Jonathan Danforth's posterity the line from which most of Nicholas Danforth's posterity descends. All of Captain Jonathan Danforth's children were born between 1657 and 1676 according to the birth records of Billerica. Three sons however died in infancy and the youngest son Nicholas Danforth died at the age of 23 in 1693 without issue. Interestingly Captain Jonathan Danforth lived long enough to know the birth of all his grandchildren except the three youngest of his daughter Sarah French.
His grandchildren were Abigail Danforth, Benjamin Whiting, Dorcus Whiting, Ebenezer French, Eleazer Whiting, Elizabeth Parker, Elizabeth Hayward, Elizabeth Danforth, Elizabeth Danforth, Elizabeth French, Esther French, Anna/Hannah Parker, Hannah Danforth, Anna Whiting, Jacob Danforth, Jacob French, John Parker, John Danforth John Whiting, John Whiting, Jonathan Parker, Jonathan Hayward, Jonathan Danforth, Jonathan Danforth, Jonathan French, Joseph French, Josiah Parker, Lydia Parker, Lydia Wright, Lydia Danforth, Lydia French, Mary Parker, Mary Hayward, Mary Whitingm Mary French, Nicholas Danforth, Nicholas French, Oliver Whiting, Rebecca Danforth, Rachel Danforth, Samuel Parker, Samuel Danforth, Samuel Danforth Samuel Whiting Samuel French, Sarah Danforth, Sarah French, Simeon Hayward, Thomas Parker, Thomas Danforth, and William French.
Among Jonathan Danforth’s grandchildren five grandsons were named Jonathan. Five granddaughters were named Elizabeth for Elizabeth Poulter Danforth. Of these names only Oliver and William were not Biblical names. Only 13 grandchildren did not share a similar name with a cousin. The rest shared 11 names among them.
EULOGY
The Reverend Jonathan Danforth, pastor of Dorchester and a nephew of Captain Danforth, wrote a eulogy for his uncle as a tribute to his memory:
He rode the circuit, chain'd great towns and farms
To good behavior; and by well marked stations
He fixed their bounds for many generations
His art ne'er failed him, though the loadstone [compass] failed,
When oft by mines and streams it assailed.
All this charming, but there's something higher
Gave him lustre which we most admire.
HISTORICAL MARKER
In 1930 to commemorate the 300 hundred anniversary of the founding of Massachusetts, The Massachusetts Tri-Centennial Historical Committee placed a historical marker over the site of Jonathan’s homestead with the following inscription, the quoted part is from the writing of Jonathan Danforth's nephew, Reverend John Danforth.
CHILDREN of JONATHAN DANFORTH and ELIZABETH POULTER
Three sons of Captain Jonathan Danforth died in infancy. Two of the boys were named John Danforth, the first died 7 February 1661 at the age of three weeks and the second John Danforth died 4 June 1662 at the age of three months. A third son named Thomas Danforth died 31 July 1670 also three months old. A son named Nicholas Danforth was a young man of 22 years of age when he died 8 March 1694. The cause of his death was not recorded. He was unmarried however and left no issue.
MARY DANFORTH PARKER
Mary Danforth Parker was married twice when she died 15 May 1732 at the age of 72 years in Chelmsford, Middlesex, Massachusetts. She was united in marriage in Chelmsford on 4 Jun 1678 to Corporal John Parker the son of Abram Parker and Rose Whitlock. He was the nephew of Mary's step grandfather John Parker. They were active in the settling of Chelmsford and raised a family of nine children there. When John died in 1699 Mary Park was the administratrix of his estate. Mary Danforth Parker remarried Benjamin Adams on 18 December 1707 at Charlestown, Massachusetts.
John Parker and Mary Danforth had the following children: 1. Elizabeth Parker was born in Chelmsford, Middlesex, Massachusetts May 30, 1680. Elizabeth died July 10, 1758 at 78 years of age unmarried [spinster].
2. John Parker 1682-1742 husband of Rebecca Hays
3. Jonathan Parker was born January 7, 1683. Died 1723
4. Thomas Parker was born December 18, 1685. Died 1757 husband of Esther Fletcher
5. Samuel Parker was born March 10, 1687/88. Husband of Sarah
6. Mary Parker was born April 4, 1690. Mary died January 21, 1732/33 at 42 years of age. Wife of Samuel Woods
7. Anna [Hannah] Parker born 1692 died 1729 wife of Thomas Crosby
8. Lydia Parker was born April 13, 1694. Wife of Henry Blaisell.
9. Josiah Parker was born January 10, 1696/97. Died 1698
ELIZABETH DANFORTH HAYWARD
Elizabeth Danforth died 9 Dec 1739 in Westboro, Worcester County, Massachusetts, at the age 81. She married Simeon Hayward of Concord on 7 March 1686 [1687] at Billerica, at the age of 19. Simeon Hayward 7 March 1687 at Billerica, Middlesex, Massachusetts. Simon Hayward was the son of George and Mary Hayward of Concord. His death is sometimes given in error as 19 July 1696 when actually that is the death date of a baby nephew of his. As there are no more records in Concord after the 1696 birth of their daughter it is logical to assume they moved west probably to Marlborough where Elizabeth grown sons Jonathan and Simeon Hayward married cousins from the Rice Family in the 1720’s. Later they moved to Westborough in Worcester County were Elizabeth died. She was probably living with her grown children as she was 81 years old. Some members of the family started using the name Howard a corruption of Hayward. There Children were
1. Elizabeth Hayward born 28 February 1688/9 Concord, Massachusetts.
2. Jonathan Hayward born 16 November 1690 died circa 1726 husband of Martha Rice daughter of Edward Rice and Lydia Fairbanks,
3. Simeon Hayward born 24 April 1693 married Rebecca Forbush, daughter of Thomas Forbush and Dorcas Rice, on 29 January 1719/20 at Marlborough.
4. Mary Hayward born 19 March 1696
ENSIGN JONATHAN DANFORTH
Ensign Jonathan Danforth died 17 Jan 1711 at the age of 51 years in Billerica, Middlesex, Massachusetts. He married Rebecca Parker daughter of Jacob and Sarah Parker 27 June 1682 in Chelmsford. Rebecca was first cousin to his sister Mary's husband John Parker. Jonathan’s family occupied a residence east of Long street opposite his father's house. All of his nine children were born in Billerica and all survived. On 30 December 1710 he gave his personal property to his wife and a little more than two weeks later he died. His wife and his son Thomas Danforth administered the estate and his other children asked their uncles Samuel Danforth and Oliver Whiting to appraise and divide the property. His widow married Joseph Foster as his third wife.
Their children were
1. Rebecca Danforth 1683 -1708 wife of Thomas Parker, son of Jacob Parker and Joanna Call
2. Lt. Jonathan Danforth, 1686-1762 husband of Elizabeth Manning Fassett
3. Thomas Danforth, 1689-1742 husband of Rebecca Simonds
4. Elizabeth Danforth 1690-1776 wife of Christopher Osgood,
5. Samuel Danforth, 1692-1749 husband of Dorothy Shed
6. Nicholas Danforth, 1695-1749
7. Jacob Danforth, 1698-1754 husband of Rebecca Patton
8. Sarah Danforth 1700-1786 wife of Solomon Keyes
9. John Danforth. 1703-1735
LYDIA DANFORTH WRIGHT
Lydia Danforth died 4 November 1758 Concord, Massachusetts at the age of 94 years. She married - Edward Wright although the marriage was not recorded at Billerica. Edward Wright was the son Edward Wright and Elizabeth Mellows. He married Lydia Danforth perhaps in Concord, Massachusetts. They were the parents of only one known child: “Lydiah” Wright born 15 Feb 1695. Edward Wright died 22 June 1725 at Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts . Concord deaths records state: “Edward Wright Husband to Lidia his wife died June ye 22d day 1725 [in his 69th yr. G.S.] His tombstone inscription reads: Here Lyes Buried The Body of Mr. Edward Wright Who Departed This Life June ye 22nd Anno Domini 1725 in YE 69th Year of His Age. Lydia lived 33 years longer than her husband and out lived her daughter. Concord town death records simply states Widow Wright age 92 years died 4 November 1758. She doesn’t appear to have had a tombstone that survived. She out lived all her siblings.
1. Lydiah” Wright born 15 Feb 1695 Died: 13 Mar 1752, at age 58 wife of Captain Josiah Heywood son of Deacon John Heywood.
SAMUEL DANFORTH
1. Elizabeth Danforth wife of Timothy Thornton,
2. Hannah Danforth, wife of David Abbott
3. Samuel Danforth husband of Elizabeth Hosley [Horseley]
4. Rachel Danforth wife of Thomas Kidder,
5. Lydia Danforth wife of Benjamin Barnard,
6. Abigail Danforth, wife of Peter Hill
7. Jonathan Danfort husband of Sarah Manning
ANNA DANFORTH WHITING
Anna Danforth died 13 August 1737 age 69 years Billerica, Middlesex, Massachusetts. She married Oliver Whiting on 22 December 1689. He was the son of Rev. Samuel Whiting and Dorcus Chester. Oliver Whiting was a representative to the General Court from Billerica, a town clerk, a town selectman and Justice of the Peace. He was called “an active and useful citizen. Oliver died 22 December 1736 and his widow Anna Whiting died the following year on 13 August 1737. Oliver was buried in the Old South Burying Ground in Billerica. His tombstone inscription reads: Inscription: Here lyes Buried ye Body of Oliver Whiting Esqr Who Departed this life Decembr 22 Anno Domni 1736 Aged 71 Years. Anna Danforth inscription says: Inscription: Here lyes Buried ye Body of Mrs. Anna Whiting Wife to Oliver Whiting Who Died Aug 13th Anno Domi 1737 Aged 69 Years. Seven children were the issue of this marriage. Oliver Whiting, husband of Elizabeth Brown
Dorcus Whiting wife of Joshua Abbot,
Mary Whiting, died 6 years old
John Whiting, died 1 month old
John Whiting, husband of Sarah Hunt and Anne Frye
Deacon Samuel Whiting husband of Deborah Hill, and Elizabeth Winchester
Anna Whiting wife of William Stickney,
Eleazer Whiting, husband Dorothy Crosby
Benjamin Whiting.
SARAH DANFORTH FRENCH
Sarah Danforth died 15 October 1751 Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts. She married Deacon William French in 22 May 1695. He was the son of Sergeant Jacob and Mary (Champney) French. He was the nephew of Sarah’s step mother Esther. Deacon William French died September 30, 1723. He died intestate and his estate was inventoried on Oct. 31, 1723. His gravestone appears to say Sept. 30, 1725. Widow Sarah French married second, June 10, 1729 Ebenezer Davis Sr. of Concord, as his second wife. Ebenezer Davis was the son of Lieutenant Simon and Mary (Blood) Davis. Sarah died intestate on October 15, 1751, aged seventy four years. She is buried in the South Burying Place, Concord, Massachusetts. Her inscription: Here Lies ye Body of Mrs Sarah Davis Who Departed This Life Octobr ye 15th 1751 Aged 74 yrs & 10 M. She was the Late Wife of Mr Ebenezer Davis of Concord. Her son William French was allowed administration of her estate. Her sons Jacob, Ebenezer, and Samuel French and son-in-law Benjamin Manning agreed to the final disbursements. Ebenezer Davis Sr. died Mar. 31, 1753 at Harvard, Massachusetts.
Nine children were the issue of this marriage. Jacob French, husband of Elizabeth Davis, Sarah Brown, and Mrs. Mary Curtis
Joseph French, died 1 month old
Sarah French wife of Nathaniel Whittmore,
William French, husband of Joanna Hill
Jonathan French,
Elizabeth French wife of Josiah Crosby,
Ebenezer French,husband of Elizabeth Hill
Mary French wife of married Benjamin Manning,
Nicholas French,
Lydia French,
Esther French,
Samuel French husband of Elizabeth Barron
This is a masterpiece! Thanks...I live in Carlisle MA--not far from Billerica...I had no idea! Thank you!
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