NICHOLAS DANFORTH
According to John Fiske's book Beginnings of New England, every one of the old forty counties of England was represented in the great Puritan Exodus in the 1630's from England. However the East Anglia counties of Norfolk and Suffolk contributed more than all the rest wherefore Fiske estimated that two-thirds of all Americans who can trace their ancestry back to New England can also follow it back to those counties. However as far as generally known, Nicholas Danforth was the only adult immigrant who came to New England from Framlingham during the early Puritan exodus according to John M. Merriam, a former President of the Framingham, Massachusetts Historical Society.
TOWN of FRAMLINGHAM
Eighteen miles northeast from the port of Ipswich lay Framlingham, the parent of the Massachusetts town of similar name. As Framalingaham, the spot was a fortified stronghold in Saxon times, and after the Norman Conquest by William the Conqueror, a massive stone castle was built on a hill, which is now a picturesque, ivy-clad ruin, although the walls and towers are practically intact. The walls ofCastle Framlingham are nearly fifty feet high and eight feet thick, and extend between thirteen battlement towers, each nearly sixty feet high. The stronghold encloses an area of over an acre, and was surrounded by a moat.
For at least four generations, Nichlas Danforth's ancestors had lived within sight of Framlingham Castle which was the seat of the powerful Dukes of Norfolk. Castle Framlingham once the launching site for Queen Mary’s quest to claim the English throne but by 1590 the formidable fortress was in disrepair. By the time Nicholas was born the Howard family who had inherited the Dukedom were in decline as was the town of Framlingham itself in importance.
The main church in Framlingham was St. Michaels, a fine old church which is a large structure of mixed decorated and perpendicular work of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It has a lofty square tower nearly a hundred feet high, and is built of stone and black flint. In the interior are several magnificent monuments and tombs of the Howard family. In this parish churchyard is buried the prosperous yeoman family of Danforth, of whom Nicholas Danforth descended.
CHILDHOOD and YOUTH
Nicholas was born into an affluent and prominent ancient Suffolk family of English Commoners who were descended from knights and gentry land owners. By the time he was born, his father was a comfortable and respected yeoman farmer who lived near the market town of Framlingham, Suffolk, County. A yeoman as opposed to the gentry, farmed the land he owned while the gentry lived off the rents of lands he owned.
Nicholas Danforth was certainly born at his father's manor house probably in February because he was christened 1 March 1589 [1590] at the Church of St. Michael's in Framlingham. Infants were baptized sometimes within days of their birth but often within a week or two. The discrepancy of the year in which he was born was due to the fact that England still used the old Calendar system where the new year did not begin until March 25. He was born during the 32nd year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth who would be his sovereign until he was an adolescent of thirteen.
Nicholas was the second son of that name born to Thomas Danford and his wife the former Jane Sudbury. His older brother and name sake died not long before Nicholas’ birth and was only about 2 and a half years old. Thomas Danford wanted a son named for his own father Nicholas Derneford who died in 1586. Nicholas Danforth never knew his grandfather for whom he was named.
Nicholas Danforth grew up in his father’s manor home about a mile and a half from the center of Framlingham on the road leading to Saxstead. Here he learned to read and write and study the Bible, which his father had in his household. His father had servants at least two maids and probably male laborers.
Nicholas Danforth was only twelve years old when his mother Jane died in the Spring of 1602. Her death left his father with children all under the age of 12 years the youngest being an infant of 6 months. There are no records to indicate that his father ever remarried but he had two maids in the home who more than likely raised Nicholas and his younger siblings.
Nicholas Danforth’s grandmother Alice Dernford [Danforth] died the following year in 1603 and specifically left money to Thomas Danford's two maids perhaps because they were the caretakers of her grandchildren. She left legacies to Nicholas Danforth’s siblings but not to him. It may have been that as he was 13 years old and as the eldest son he was bound to inherit his father’s estates and she wanted to provide for her other grandchildren.
Some of the events that were happening as Nicholas was a youth and entering adulthood were the following. At age 17 in 1607 the London Company and Plymouth Company founded Jamestown, Virginia, as the first permanent English settlement in North America. Later at the age of 21 years of age in 1611, the “King James Bible" was printed from the result of the combined effort of about fifty scholars.
SEVENTEETH CENTURY FOOD and VITTLES
Certainly Nicholas would have worked on his father’s lands probably herding and shearing sheep. Wool was the main commodity for the many textile weavers of Suffolk County. Wheat, barley, and hay would have been grown for home use as well as for sale. The success of the wool trading industry decreased attention on agriculture, which unfortunately resulted in some starvation of the lower classes. A series of bad harvests in the 1590s caused widespread starvation and poverty in England but as that the Danforths were land owners they grew much of their own food stuff.
In the 16th century it was not safe to drink water unless from a private well so for ordinary people drinking ale or beer was essential. Beer was not just a drink it was also a food for it contained valuable nutrients. Housewives were expected to brew their own beer although it was also sold commercially. Young children drank milk but usually only the poorest people drank water. Ciders were a common drink in the 17th century cider making reached a peak. Wine was still the drink of the wealthy as it had to be imported so it is doubtful that the Danforths drank much wine except that made from local berries.
Bread was the staple of the Elizabethan diet, and people of different statuses ate bread of different qualities. Bread could be made with a variety of flours including wheat, barley, oat, rye, lentils, and dried peas. These cereals were eaten as bread, pies, porridge, and gruel by all members of society.
The Danforths meals probably included foods prepared with greens, vegetables and herbs grown in the kitchen garden. The main vegetables grown in these gardens were cabbages, peas, turnips, spinach, carrots, radishes, dandelion leaves, and sorrel. Orchards of fruit and nut trees, such as apples, plums, walnuts and almonds grown provided desserts such as pastries, tarts, cakes and jellies. Almonds were very popular as a thickener in soups, stews, and sauces, particularly as almond milk.
Common seasonings included cider and vinegar in combination with spices such as black pepper, saffron and ginger. These, along with the widespread use of honey, gave many dishes a sweet-sour flavor. Black pepper and salt was used extensively to preserve foods. Food preservation techniques was essential in the days of before refrigeration or the knowledge of canning. Meats and vegetables were preserved by drying, salting, smoking and pickling.
Roasted meats and sweet and savory pies and puddings were traditional menu items in 17th century England with rural people of this era most commonly eating a "pottage", similarly to a modern day stew, by combining vegetables and meat in a pot over the fire and thickening it with bread. Pottage could remain over the fire for several days, with additional foods added as its volume diminished. Poor and rich alike enjoyed pottage, with poorer people using inexpensive grains and vegetables like peas and lentils.
Beef was an expensive food item and thus the most prevalent protein probably found on the Danforth’s table would have been pork, chicken, and other domestic fowl. Being near the North Sea, Cod and herring would also have been mainstays also either dried, smoked or salted. Eels and oysters were also eaten. Most meats were either roasted or boiled. Eggs were also very common in the English diet. Lard from pork was the most common fat for cooking. Dairy products was also a source of protein as farmers also raised cows and goats for milk, cheeses, whey [a type of cottage cheese], cream, and butter.
NON CONFORMING PURITANS
Nicholas Danforth’s parents were non conformist Puritans as they worshiped at Saxtead outside the official Church of England at St. Michaels. Nicholas Danforth would have been raised a Non conformists also. The term was a catch all term for people of all religious views that did not accept the state’s authorized Church of England with the English monarch at its head.
The main groups of non conformists were the Presbyterians, the Puritans, and the Separatists. The Presbyterians followed the teachings of Rev. John Knox and believed that the church should be governed by elders not bishops. The Puritans wanted to stay within the Church of England but purify it of all its catholic vestiges. The Separatists were followers of Rev. Robert Browne who believed the Church of England was so corrupt that people needed to separate from it.
Coincidently another man named William Bradford was born within weeks if not days of Nicholas Danforth. Bradford who would cross the Atlantic in 1620 to become a governor of Plymouth Colony in New England was baptized on 19 March 1589 [1590] at Austerfield in Yorkshire about 170 miles to the north of Framlingham. Both these infants would grow up to emigrate from England to New England due to religious persecutions in their native country. However Bradford was a “separatist” follower of Rev. Robert Browne while Danforth was a Puritan.
In 1593, Queen Elizabeth ordered the removal of all non conformist ministers from the pulpits of the Church of England by an act of Parliament. It was probably about this time the Danforths removed themselves from active fellowship at St. Michaels and began to worship at the village of Saxstead with other like minded Puritans. The Danforths however still attended St. Michaels for official recordings in the parish register for christening, marriages, and burial of family members as prescribed by law.
Queen Elizabeth died in 1603 after ruling England for 45 years and the Tudor Dynasty was over. James I, King of Scotland was chosen to become the new king establishing the Stuart Dynasty that would last over a 100 years. The Puritans had great hopes for the new king as he was raised a non conformist Presbyterian in Scotland however eventually he would disappoint them.
MARRIAGE and FAMILY
Nicholas Danforth’s wife has for decades has been identified as the daughter of Rev. William Symmes . According to John Joseph May, historian for the Danforth Association, family tradition said that Nicholas Danforth's wife was the sister of Reverend Zachariah Symmes who was the son of Reverend William Symmes of Canterbury in Kent County, England. Other records in Suffolk County lists a Nicholas Danforth as marrying another women in 1618. Its entirely in the realm of possibility that Nicholas Danforth was married to two different women whom he outlived.
The Symmes family was from Canterbury which lies over 125 miles due south of Suffolk County and it does not seem very plausible that Nicholas Danforth would marry a girl from such a distant county. Especially when there are parish records for Aspall in Suffolk County showing a marriage between an Elizabeth Barber and Nicholas Damford just 10 miles away from Framingham.
When Nicholas Danforth was nearly 28 years old he married Elizabeth Barber the daughter of William Barber of Aspall village. Their marriage was recorded 11 February 1617 [1618] in the Aspell Parish records and not at St. Michael’s. The parish church, Our Lady of Grace, has a 15th-century tower. The hamlet of Aspall was about 10 miles west of Framlingham and 9 miles from Saxtead. In the parish register his name is recorded as “Damford”.
Elizabeth became pregnant by November 1618 and Nicholas and Elizabeth Barber Danforth’s first child was a girl named Elizabeth christened at St. Michael’s 3 August 1619. Elizabeth became pregnant the following September and another daughter named Marie [Mary] was christened 2 May 1621 also at St. Michael’s in Framlingham. Nicholas’ surname in the parish records was “Daneford”. Mary Danforth is said to have died in infancy.
Nicholas Danforth's father Thomas Danford, died in 1621. He made out his will 20 April 1621 and it was proved 7 Sep 1621. Nicholas Danforth is not mentioned in his father’s will other than being the executive. He was 31 years old when his father died and probably already received his father’s house and estate.
In February 1622 Elizabeth became pregnant again and on 3 September 1622 a daughter named Anna Danforth was christened at St. Michael’s with the notation “her father was church warden that year.” This notation indicated that while Nicholas Danforth was a Puritan he was still a member in good standing in the Church of England. In England, churchwardens had specific powers to enable them to keep the peace in churchyards with fines up to £200. Churchwardens in some parts of the Anglican Communion were legally responsible for all the property and movable goods belonging to a parish church. As that Nicholas Danforth was appointed to this position it indicated the esteem he held in Framlingham. As a churchwarden Nicholas was expected to lead the parishioners by setting a good example and encouraging unity and peace. His particular duty was to maintain order and peace in the church and churchyard at all times, and especially during services.
Elizabeth became pregnant again in March 1623 and the first son born to Nicholas and Elizabeth Danforth was christened 20 November 1623 at St. Michael’s and was named Thomas for his grandfather. Elizabeth was not pregnant again until August 1624. That is a nine month span between the birth of Thomas and the pregnancy with daughter Lydia. Lydia was christened 24 May 1625.
There is another long nine month period between the next pregnancy in February 1626. Samuel Danforth was christened 17 October 1626. Elizabeth’s last pregnancy came in June 1627 with Jonathan Danforth being christened 2 March 1627 [1628]. It appears that Elizabeth did not get pregnant while nursing her babies.
Elizabeth Danforth died in February 1629 with St. Michael’s records showing she was buried 22 February 1628 [1629] most likely about 29 years old. Rev. Cotton Mathers, a famous Puritan Minister and historian wrote that Nicholas Danforth's wife was "both virtuous and good, having taught her sons in the ways of School of the Prophets," but did not name her. Cotton Mathers was praising the mother of the sons of Nicholas Danforth with out ever knowing her. She could hardly had taught her three sons in the “ways of the School of the Prophets” as that they were 4 years and 3 months, 2 years and 4 months, and 11 months old at the time of her death.
Nicholas Danforth was 39 years old and the father of six children living children when his wife died. It is possible that he remarried as that his eldest child, Elizabeth, was only about 9 and 7 months old and the youngest not quite 1 year old. Or like his father before him, his maids may have raised his children as he was involved in his livelihood and his religion. It is possible that he remarried Elizabeth Symmes as that her brother Rev. Zacharias was immigrating on the same ship to America as was Nicholas. It is she who might have taught his three sons in the “ways of the School of the Prophets”
REIGN OF CHARLES I of GREAT BRITAIN
Nicholas Danforth was 35 years when Charles I became king of England on 27 March 1625 after the death of his father King James I. When Charles took the throne he almost immediately clashed with Parliament. Charles I believed in the political theory of the "divine right of kings." He believed as king he was only answerable to God and thought he could govern according to his own conscience.
King Charles I also had married a Roman Catholic woman and was very sympathetic to that religion. His marriage generated the mistrust of non conformists who thought his views were too Catholic. He supported high church ceremonies in the Church of England, like lighting candles and incense and the wearing of ceremonial vestments. His attempts to force the Church of Scotland to adopt these high Anglican practices led to the English and Scottish parliaments to revolt against raising taxes for the king.
To raise revenue without reconvening Parliament, King Charles resurrected an all-but-forgotten law called the "Distraint of Knighthood", which had been suspended for over a century. This law required any man who earned £40 or more from land each year to present himself at the king's coronation to be knighted. Relying on this old statute, Charles began to fine individuals who had failed to attend his coronation in 1626. The Puritans hated King Charles I and did not want to pledge fealty or obedience to him as required by knights in ceremony at King Charles court. The kings ministers were actively persecuting those of the Puritan faith and other non-conformists.
Rev. Cotton Mather wrote in the second volume his of his monumental Magnalia Christi Americana [Great American Christians] that Nicholas Danforth was "a gentleman of such estate and repute in the world that it cost him considerable sum to escape knighthood which King Charles I imposed on all of such per annum:" In other words Nicholas Danforth was wealthy enough to pay a fine to keep from being made a knight which was required of those of his income of £40 or more.
Although not of the gentry class Nicholas Danforth was considered moderately wealthy. As he was a "yeoman", a freeholder of land, he was a prominent man in his community. He was a respected man who had served as a trustee of the town’s church and its properties for several years. Rev. Cotton Mathers wrote that Nicholas Danforth, was "of such figure and esteem in the [Puritan] Church that he procured that famous lecture at Framlingham in Suffolk where he had a fine manor, which lecture was kept by Mr. Boroughs [Burrows] and other noted ministers in their time".
Evidently Nicholas Danforth managed to obtain an important sermon that was given at Framlingham in the 1620's and this sermon was so impressive that it was kept by other prominent Puritan ministers, most noted Reverend Borroughs [Burrows].
In 1629 at the age of 39 years Nicholas Danforth was a respected member of the Court Baron and served on the Borough Leet Jury at Framlingham. The Court Baron exercised certain jurisdictional rights over a manor’s tenants and bondsmen concerning the administration of a manor in the borough. Its duties were similar to a modern Justice of the Peace. However this court had no power to deal with criminal acts. Criminal jurisdiction was held the Borough’s Leet Jury on which Nicholas also served.
Leet Jurists generally were from the freehold tenants like Danforth who were of good character and an owner of considerable property in the county borough. The leet jury was a court of record and among its duties beside to register freemen’s pledges and oaths of peacekeeping and good practice in trade, they also provided jury trials and could punish all crimes committed within the jurisdiction except the most serious crimes which were committed to the King's Justices.
In 1629 the lower house of Parliament, the House of Commons, was controlled by a Puritan majority. The House of Commons opposed the levying of taxes without parliamentary consent, and perceived King Charles’ actions as those of a tyrannical absolute monarch. They even had the King's loyal prime minister beheaded as a warning to the king about the abuse of power. But this act only outraged the king even further who then shut down Parliament in 1629 and ruled for the next 11 years by Royal Prerogative. .
THE PURITAN MIGRATION
As early as 1628 some Puritans began to settle in British America at Salem just north of the Plymouth Bay Colony that a group of Separatists had settled in 1620. In 1629 King Charles I dissolved Parliament leading wealthy Puritans to formulate a plan to leave England. John Winthrope, a gentleman farmer from Groton in Suffolk County and others began to conceived of America as being a refuge for the persecuted "Saints". John Wintrope used his family and political connections to secure a charter for the Massachusetts Bay Colony financed by the Massachusetts Bay Company. In 1630 he led a migration across the Atlantic Ocean.
The Winthrop Fleet consisted of eleven ships sailing from Yarmouth, Isle of Wright to Salem. The Ambrose, Arbella, Hopewell, Talbot sailed April 8, arriving June 13, 1630 and the following days, the others, Charles, Jewel, Mayflower, Success, Trial, Whale, William and Francis arriving in July. The total count of passengers is believed to be about seven hundred.
John Winthrop wrote to his wife just before they set sail that there were seven hundred passengers. Six months after their arrival, Thomas Dudley wrote to Bridget Fiennes, Countess of Lincoln and mother of Lady Arbella and Charles Fiennes, that over two hundred passengers had died between their landing and the following December, 1630.
The Puritans saw the Great Migration as a religious exodus from England and before even setting foot on the soil of New England, John Winthrope offered a dedicatory prayer for his "Holy Experiment". He said that "the eyes of all people are upon us; so if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and by word through out the world. We shall open the mouths of our enemies to speak evil of the ways of God and all professors for God's sake. We shall shame the faces of many worthy servants and cause their prayers to turn to curses upon us till we are consumed out of the good land whither we are going."
THE LAUDIAN FURY
As many of his East Anglican neighbors sailed away to America, Nicholas Danforth tried to weather the storm in his ancestral home of Suffolk. He was a man of property and position in his community with six young children to provide for. His eldest daughter was only 11 years old when the Great Puritan migration began in 1630. He was able to buy off being made a knight but the persecution of Puritan religious practices was growing more intense.
King Charles desired to impose uniformity on the Church of England and he appointed William Laud as Archbishop of Canterbury. Charles used his position as head of the Church of England to order the Archbishop of Canterbury to rid the Anglican Church of all aspects of Puritanism. Laud was driven by a belief that this was his official duty, however his methods to achieve uniformity was ordering the ears and noses on non conformists "loped off, as well having them branded on the forehead and levying heavy fines along with imprisonment."
The archbishop made a point to visit all the parishes of England to discharge ministers not practicing and promoting strict Anglican rituals. He ordered close all plain and "unadorned" churches, those holding services without the pomp and ritual of the Anglican Church, like the Saxstead Church. A contemporary wrote that Archbishop Laud had, "presently become delighted with the blood which sprang out of the ears and shoulders of the punished." These harsh methods had the unintended consequence of garnering support for the opponents of King Charles’ authoritarianism.
Cotton Matthews wrote that Nicholas Danforth, during this time of increased persecution, harbored and protected Puritan Clergymen who were sought out by Archbishop Laud. Matthews noted that Nicholas, during these dangerous times, extended his hospitality and home to many Puritan ministers, who were forced to go into hiding to keep from having their ears and noses cut off. In particular he protected Reverend Thomas Shepherd. “In turn to whom especially Mr. Shepherd, he proved a Gaius, and especially when the Laudian fury scorched them." His reference to the Roman Gaius was that he was a protector of Octavius the future Caesar Augustus "whose name had become a byword for a wealthy, generous and enlightened patron.” The phrase “Laudian fury scorched them” indicated how hated William Laud was among the Puritans even when Cotton wrote this in 1702 seventy years after the event.
Reverend Thomas Shepard was a “zealous and fiery Puritan minister” who15 years younger than Nicholas Danforth. He was born 5 November 1605 at Towcester, a town eight miles south of the city of Northampton. The village is situated on “Watling Street”, the famous Roman road which starts at Dover in the south and runs through Canterbury, London, St. Albans, Towcester, Atherstone and so on west to near Shrewsbury.
Shepard graduated at Emmanuel College, at Cambridge, in 1623 and from 1627 to 1631 he was lecturer at Earls Colne, in Essex county, about 48 miles or a two day journey from Framlingham. He secured a large following in that vicinity but in 1631 having been silenced by Anglican Church officials he fled to various locations in Yorkshire. While Rev. Thomas Shepard was living and preaching at in Yorkshire, Thomas Brigham, Thomas Crosby, and the latter's son Simon Crosby, all of Holme-on-Spalding-Moor, Yorkshire, fell under Shepard’s influence, and followed him to Massachusetts, Cambridge. Nicholas Danforth and Simon Crosby would share great grandchildren by their grandchildren Samuel Danforth and Hannah Crosby of Billerica, Massachusetts.
Rev. Shepard was urged by his adherents to emigrate to New England and in June 1634 he went by ship from Newcastle to Ipswich in Suffolk. While in Suffolk he probably stayed with Nicholas Danforth. Rev. Thomas Shepard and his adherents formed the next company of settlers in Cambridge and once there he served as pastor until his death 28 Aug. 1649. He also became a mentor for Nicholas Danforth's children after the death of their father.
THE MIGRATION TO AMERICA
In this home in Framlingham, where his children were born and his wife died, Nicholas Danforth planned his emigration from England as Puritan persecution increased. As that he had harbored Puritan clergymen, he was also in danger of arrest and prosecution. Perhaps the time spent with Rev. Shepard helped convinced him that leaving England was the only choice for a man who wished to follow the dictates of his own conscience.
The persecution of Puritans in England was so severe that as historian John M. Merrian pointed out; “It is significant of that period of unrest in England, that this man …, with a motherless brood of little ones, should throw aside the comforts of the home country and cast his lot with the adventurers in a far distant and unknown land."
At the age of 44 years Nicholas Danforth made provisions to leave his ancestral home in Suffolk where for at least a thousand years his ancestors lived out their lives and were buried in English soil. His daughters Elizabeth, Anna and Lydia were 14, 13, and 9 years old and his sons Thomas, Samuel, and Jonathan were 11, 8, and 6 years old when the decision to leave for America was decided. He then had to sell off his property, household goods, and make arrangements for provisions for a 3 month ocean voyage. As well as providing food, clothing, shoes, and blankets which were needed as there would not be much in the land where they were going.
For his religious convictions, Nicholas Danforth bade farewell to his English kith and kin in 1634. He was leaving behind his brother who probably was too poor to afford to leave. Robert Danforth remained in Framlingham where he died in February 1640 leaving his widow Susan Baker Danforth and five children Robert Danforth, Nicholas Danforth, Jasper Danforth and his daughters Anne Danforth and Susan Danforth.
Nicholas Danforth is believed to have booked passage on the sThe Griffin, a London ship which weighed 300 tons and carried about one hundred passengers and crew along with cattle, horses, chickens, dogs, and cats. Fruit seedling trees and seeds were also on board the vessel for the plantations.
The Griffin was known to have sailed between England and Massachusetts at least twice. Several historical and genealogical references show the Griffin making such journeys in 1633 and 1634. The 1633 journey left at Downs, England and landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts on September 3. This 1633 journey carried religious dissidents, including Rev. Thomas Hooker, Rev. John Cotton, and others totaling nearly 200 people. The ship Griffin saw the birth of at least one child, Seaborn Cotton, during the 1633 voyage.
The Griffin with the Danforths on board left England 1 Aug 1634 and made good time crossing the northern Atlantic evidently without any bad weather as the ship arrived 18 September 1634, at Boston harbor. There is no ship manifest list of the 100 or more passengers for the voyage in 1634, however several prominent religious dissidents were known to be on board with Nicholas Danforth's family. They were the families of the Reverend Zachariah Symmes, the Reverend John Lathrope, and the family of William and Anne Hutchinson. With just these four families, the Danforths, Lathropes, Symmes, and Hutchinsons came twenty-four children.
Ann Hutchinson's religious convictions would eventually upset the Puritan fathers in Boston to such a degree that she and her family would eventually be banished from Massachusetts only to be massacred by Indians later in Rhode Island.
The ancestors of two United States presidents were aboard the Griffin. President Ulysses S. Grant was a descendant from Reverend John Lanthrope and President James Garfield was a descendant of Nicholas Danforth.
The Reverend Zechariah Symmes who later became minister of Charlestown, was known to have been on board the Griffen which may account for why Nicholas Danforth’s wife Elizabeth was thought by many to be his a sister.
Some suggest that Reverend Thomas Shepard came to America in 1635 but more likely he was on board the Griffin along with Nicholas Danforth and others of his followers. The early emigrants to New England did not generally come by randomness. They came as families, relatives, and friends under the leadership of their respective nonconforming ministers. They emigrated together and settled together in New England in large parties of people who had been acquainted and associated in England.
For instance, Rev. John Cotton from Boston, Suffolk County England, had a large following from that region and settled in Boston, Massachusetts. Rev. Ezekiel Rogers was head of a colony of sixty families from the vicinity of Rowley in Yorkshire who founded Rowley, Massachusetts. Rev. Thomas Hooker had a company of about fifty families from Essex and Hertfordshire counties in England known as the Braintree Company settled at Cambridge, Massachusetts most of whom removed with him to Hartford, Connecticut in 1635.
MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY
Because of Nicholas Danforth's former importance in his church and community at Saxstead and Framlingham, he was made a "Freeman" upon his arrival in the colony. The term "Freeman" meant that Nicholas Danforth was among only a few men in the colony who was eligible to vote and hold public office.
Nicholas Danforth spent a few months in Boston before moving to "Newtown" across the Charles River north of Boston in the Spring of 1635. Certainly Nicholas Danforth moved to Newtown because Reverend Thomas Shepard became the minister there. A company of about seventy families who were followers of Rev. Thomas Shepard, most of whom came about 1635, had bought up the homesteads in Newtown that had been established first by Reverend Hooker's company.
The site for Newtowne had been chosen in December 1630, because it was located safely upriver from Boston Harbor, which made it easily defensible from attacks by enemy ships. Located at the first convenient Charles River crossing west of Boston, Newtowne was one of a number of towns founded by the 700 original Puritan colonists of the Massachusetts Bay Colony under Governor John Winthrop. The original village site is in the heart of today's Harvard Square. The marketplace where farmers brought in crops from surrounding towns to sell survives today as the small park at the corner of John F. Kennedy and Winthrop Streets, then at the edge of a salt marsh, since filled.
Governor Thomas Dudley, his daughter Anne Bradstreet and her husband Simon, were among the first settlers of the town. The first houses were built in the spring of 1631 and the settlement was initially referred to as "the newe towne". Official Massachusetts records show the name capitalized as Newe Towne by 1632, and a single word, Newtowne, by 1638.
Nicholas Danforth purchased in 1635 a home lot in Newtowne that had previously been owned by Elder John White who had left with Reverend Thomas Hooker's congregation to establish a colony on the Connecticut River. Elder John White and Nicholas Danforth would share great-great-grandchildren nearly a 100 years later.
When Nicholas Danforth settled in Newtowne the place was a raw bustling frontier village surrounded by a stockade to protect the pioneers from hostile Native Americans. Nicholas Danforth prospered in his new home in Newtown improving the home he bought from Elder John White. Nicholas Danforth’s home and his barn and cow lot was approximately where Harvard University's main library is now situated.
On 1 February 1636 [1637], Nicholas Danforth was elected from Newtowne to be a representative to the Massachusetts General Court which made all the laws for the colony. One of the committees he was chosen to serve on, laid out the boundaries of the new settlement of Concord. He completed his task on 3 March 1636 [1737] and because his excellent skills as a surveyor were appreciated by the General Court, Nicholas Danforth was given the additional assignments to permanently fix the boundaries of Newtowne and Roxbury also. He must have schooled his youngest son Jonathan in this skill as that Jonathan grew up to be a famous surveyor, a highly in demand skill.
As a member of the General Court, Nicholas Danforth, along with others, unanimously elected John Winthrope as, governor of the colony in 1637. Winthrope was instrumental in the survival of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and is generally recognized as the "Father of New England."
Another major contribution which Nicholas Danforth made for the colony was in the area of education. In 1636, the "New College" was founded by the colony to train ministers at Newtowne. The town was chosen for the site of the new college by the General Court primarily, according Cotton Mather, to be near the highly respected, popular Puritan preacher Rev. Thomas Shepard.
Nicholas Danforth donated his property located on Cowyard Row to help start the ministerial school that was later renamed Harvard College after its major benefactor John Harvard. Nicholas Danforth also served on the first Board of Trustees for Harvard College from 20 November 1637 until his untimely death.
On 12 March 1637 [1638], the General Court of Massachusetts Bay repealed its prohibition against the sale of alcohol in the colony. However they sought to regulate this traffic in "wine and strong water" by entrusting the trade to only its "first citizens" meaning people of trust. Nicholas Danforth was one of only eleven men in Massachusetts Bay Colony authorized to keep a Tavern Inn where "wine and strong water made in the country and no other strong water should be sold." Nicholas Danforth’s tavern was built in Newtown and was inherited by his eldest daughter, Elizabeth at the time of her father’s death. She married Andrew Belcher and operated the tavern for the remainder of her life.
DEATH of NICHOLAS DANFORTH
On or about 2 April 1638, Nicholas Danforth died. The exact date of Nicholas Danforth's death however is unknown. Minutes of the May Session of the General Court dated 2 May 1638 stated "Mr. John Oliver appointed instead of Mr. Danforth who is dead." The nature of his death is unknown. Nicholas Danforth was described in other minutes of the General Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony as "a citizen of excellent qualities and efficiency".
Nicholas being on the governing council of Massachusetts Bay Colony, he would have had a basic Puritan funeral with a eulogy no doubt given by Reverend Thomas Shepard. Nicholas Danforth was interred in the Newtowne’s Old Burying Ground that 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 the village. 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. Less than a month after Nicholas’ death, the village of Newtown changed its name to Cambridge.
Nicholas being on the governing council of Massachusetts Bay Colony, he would have had a basic Puritan funeral with a eulogy no doubt given by Reverend Thomas Shepard. Nicholas Danforth was interred in the Newtowne’s Old Burying Ground that 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 the village. 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. Less than a month after Nicholas’ death, the village of Newtown changed its name to Cambridge.
Nicholas Danforth was 48 years old at the time of his death and he left six orphaned children behind in America without any known relatives to provide for them. According to Cotton Mathers, Nicholas at the time of his death committed his son Samuel Danforth "unto the paternal oversight of Mr. Shepherd [Shepard] who proved a kind patron unto him." It is unlikely that Thomas Shepard was the guardian of only Samuel but rather was guardian of all Nicholas’ children until they reached the age of majority.
The oldest girls probably kept house for their younger siblings while the Reverend Thomas Shepherd acted as a guardian over the affairs of the family as that he had been a close friend of Nicholas Danforth who sheltered him from Archbishop Laud.
Reverend Thomas Shepherd was the first pastor of Cambridge, Massachusetts which is the reason Nicholas Danforth settled in that community. Historian Samuel Elliott Morrison wrote of Thomas Shepherd, "His was not the greatest intellect in New England, but he was one of the best loved men." That these children were educated and became respected members of their communities even though they were orphans was due in no small part to Rev. Thomas Shepard’s care. He died in 1649 after all these Danforth children had reached majority.
In that May session of 1638 the name Newtown was changed to Cambridge in honor of the Cambridge, England probably influenced in part by Rev. Thomas Shepard, who was the minister of Newtown church and a Cambridge University alumnus in England.
Daughter ELIZABETH DANFORTH BELCHER
The oldest daughter of Nicholas Danforth was Elizabeth who was born 1619 at Framlingham, England. She arrived in America at the young age of 15 years and a year after the death of her father she married Andrew Belcher in Cambridge 1 October 1639.
Andrew Belcher gave his age in 1658, as 44 years [1614] He was a mariner, trader, vintner, and painter, who was at that time was a proprietor of a store in Sudbury. He . He removed in 1645 (at least he sold his house in Sudbury) and made his home in Cambridge. Here he kept the "Blue Anchor" tavern, which stood at the northeast corner of Brighton and Mt. Auburn streets. He was licensed by the General Court in June, 1654, to keep a house of "putblique" entertainment in Cambridge. It was afterward kept by his widow, and from her death by her son Andrew.
In the January 1658/9 survey of Cambridge church members, 'Andrew Belcher & Elizabeth (daughter of Mr. Nicholas Danforth) his wife, [are] both in full communion'." He was also a member of the Cambridge artillery company.
Andrew Belcher died in 1673 with the inventory of his estate being taken on December 25 of that year. Administration was granted to the widow Elizabeth. She died June 26, 1680, aged about 61. Her will was dated 10 June, and probated 8 July, 1680. She bequeathed a legacy to her daughters Elizabeth Blower, Martha Remington, and Hannah Ballard and to the daughters of her deceased daughter Jemimah Stll. She and gave the remainder to her son Andrew Belcher.
A grandson of Elizabeth Belcher was Jonathan Belcher who was Governor of Massachusetts in 1730 and later Governor of New Jersey where he died. Belchertown, New Jersey was named for him.
In the January 1658/9 survey of Cambridge church members, 'Andrew Belcher & Elizabeth (daughter of Mr. Nicholas Danforth) his wife, [are] both in full communion'." He was also a member of the Cambridge artillery company.
Andrew Belcher died in 1673 with the inventory of his estate being taken on December 25 of that year. Administration was granted to the widow Elizabeth. She died June 26, 1680, aged about 61. Her will was dated 10 June, and probated 8 July, 1680. She bequeathed a legacy to her daughters Elizabeth Blower, Martha Remington, and Hannah Ballard and to the daughters of her deceased daughter Jemimah Stll. She and gave the remainder to her son Andrew Belcher.
A grandson of Elizabeth Belcher was Jonathan Belcher who was Governor of Massachusetts in 1730 and later Governor of New Jersey where he died. Belchertown, New Jersey was named for him.
Another descendant of Elizabeth Danforth Belcher was a Boston lawyer named Thomas Blowers who along with John Adams defended the British soldiers charged with murder after the Boston Massacre.
During the Revolutionary War Thomas Blower was a Loyalist and later after the war resettled in Halifax, Nova Scotia where he became the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court there in Canada. It was Thomas Blower who decreed that the French Acadians were to be banished from Canada to New Orleans. The poet Longfellow wrote about this drama in his epic poem "Evangeline".
One of Elizabeth Belcher's other daughters married into the Dana family. From this line came Congressman Francis Dana and Richard Henry Dana Jr., author, who wrote the American Classic Two Years Before the Mast. Elizabeth Danforth Belcher died 26 June 1680 at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Daughter ANNA DANFORTH BRIDGES
Anna Danforth Bridge was the third daughter of Nicholas Danforth. She was born 1622 at Framlingham. Five years after the death of her father, Anna married Matthew Bridge, the son of Deacon John Bridge, a founding father of Cambridge and Lexington. Anna and her children are the most directly associated by way of actual residency with the town of Framingham, Massachusetts which was named for Nicholas Danforth's ancestral home in England. Anna Danforth Bridge died December 1704 at the age of 81 years in Framingham, Massachusetts
Her daughter Elizabeth Bridge married Captain Benjamin Garfield of Watertown and they were the ancestors of James Abram Garfield, President of the United States. Matthew Bridge III, a grandson of Anna Bridge was the second minister of the church at Framingham, Massachusetts who served that village from 1745 to 1775.
Son JUDGE THOMAS DANFORTH
When Nicholas Danforth died in 1638 he left his 15 year old son, Thomas Danforth as head of the family. Thomas Danforth was trained as a surveyor by his father and in 1747 at the age of 24 years old he was appointed by the General Court to be one of three commissioners to set out land in Cambridge. His ability was so highly prized like his father's that the court required of the three commissioners that "any two to act so as Thomas Danforth be one."
Thomas Danforth married Mary Withington 23 February 1643 at Boston at the age of 20 years and his contact with men of affairs through first his father, then Reverend Thomas Shepherd must have constituted his education.
In 1643, the year Thomas Danforth was married a great civil war was waging in England between King Charles I and the Puritans in Parliament. Because of the conflicts at home, the colonies in America were basically left to fend for themselves. Thus the colonies of New England formed a pact called the United Colonies of New England under a constitution for the purpose of securing a "firm and perpetual league of offense and defense, mutual advise and succor, both for preserving and propagating the truths and liberties of the Gospel, and for their mutual safety and welfare."
Each colony was represented by two commissioners who were chosen by the General Court. Thomas Danforth was chosen to serve Massachusetts as a commissioner from 1662 until 1682 with the exception of two years. During a portion of this time he was President of the commission for the United Colonies of New England. This federation has been referred to by historians as a fore runner of the United States by a hundred years.
In 1650, Harvard College which had been existing under the authority of a local Cambridge committee, organized as a corporation on the same basis as continues today and Thomas Danforth at age of 27 years was chosen as the first official treasurer. Josiah Quincy a former president and historian of Harvard University wrote of Thomas Danforth that he "was the earliest, most steadfast, and faithful of its friends."
In 1652, Thomas Danforth served as recorder of sales of lands and mortgages for the County of Middlesex. Thomas Danforth continued to complete many assignments for the General Court and by 1655 at the age of 32 years he was appointed to a judicial committee made up with Major Simon Willard, Ensign John Sherman, and Danforth, to have "full power and authority to hear and determine all the differences between all and any of the inhabitants of Sudbury; in reference to what is mentioned in their petition." Both Willard and Sherman were much older men then Danforth and were the foremost citizens of Concord and Watertown. The association of Thomas Danforth with them recognized his growing influence in the colony.
By 1657 at the age of 34 years Thomas Danforth became a deputy of the General Court of Massachusetts and held this position until 1679 when he was elected Deputy Governor of Massachusetts. He held this position until 1692 when King James II revoked Massachusetts original charter and made Massachusetts a royal colony of England. Royal governors were now appointed by the King of England and the days of elected magistrates were gone until the American Revolution.
Thomas Hutchinson, a royal governor of Massachusetts and historian of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, stated that Danforth, "had a great share in managing the public affairs in the most difficult time." This difficult time was when the king of England was determined to revoke the colonial charter and replace it with his royal authority.
The charter for the Massachusetts Bay Colony was brought to America by John Winthrope whom the Puritans held was an inviolate contract with King Charles I and his government. The Massachusetts charter, said the Puritans gave them powers that no later monarch could modify. King Charles I was in no position to argue battling the Puritan Parliament at home. The king eventually was arrested and beheaded for treason against the English people and the Puritan General Oliver Cromwell ruled England until 1660.
Under Cromwell, the American Puritans handled their own affairs much according to their own desires until the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The restoration of King Charles II of England occurred in May 1660 but the General Court of Massachusetts was slow to recognize the king as their sovereign until December of that year.
The Puritans fearful that King Charles II would revoke their religious liberties sent a document to England stating their "declarations of natural and chartered rights." As a member of the General Court, Thomas Danforth was obliged to take an oath of allegiance to King Charles II after the restoration of the monarchy. However before doing so he wrote a document declaring his reservations and the peoples' "liberties under God and their patent to be."
"Before I take the oath of allegiance to his Majesty which I am ready to do, I do declare, that I will be so understood, as not to infringe the liberty and privileges granted in his Majesty's royal charter to the colony of Massachusetts." Thomas Danforth. 26 March 1665
Danforth with the approval of the General Court wrote to the King that Massachusetts had the right to chose their own governors, deputy governor, and representatives; to admit freemen on terms to be proscribed at their own pleasure; to set up all sorts of officers superior and inferior, and point out their power and places to exercise by annually elected magistrates and deputies, all power and authority legislative, executive, and judicial, without appeal so long as the laws were not repugnant to the laws of England; to defend themselves by force of arms against every aggression; and to reject as an infringement of their rights, any Parliamentary or royal imposition prejudicial to the country and contrary to any just act of colonial legislation." To many historians this seemed to be an early draft of the Declaration of Independence.
As Deputy Governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Danforth was selected 11 May 1681 to review the conflicting claims of Sir Ferdinand Gorges and John Mason regarding the northern territories of Massachusetts. The colony without royal approval had bought the area known as Maine and assumed authority over this province. Thomas Danforth was selected to serve as the first President of Maine which position caused controversy with the native Indians, pioneers, and the Royal government in England. However he held this position by appointment from the General Court until the Massachusetts colonial charter was revoked.
The king sent as a special messenger, Sir Edward Randolph, to examine the loyalty of the Massachusetts Bay colonists. Randolph was particularly scathing of Thomas Danforth in his reports to the king. In 1682 Randolph sent a report to the king titled " Articles of High Misdemeanor Exhibited Against a Faction in the General Court sitting in Boston 15 February 1682, Namely Against Thomas Danforth and Daniel Gookin."
Other magistrates were also mentioned but Randolph hated Danforth so much that he wrote to the king, "I will readily pass the seas to attend White Hall (The King's court), especially if Danforth, Gookin, and Nowell magistrates and Cooke, Hutchinson, and Fisher, members of the General Court and great opposers of the honest Governor and Magistrates, be sent to appear before his Majesty." He further wrote about Thomas Danforth in particular, " by extraordinary feats and cozenage (flattering to decieve), Danforth has got great estates in land which might be forfieted by sufficient fines."
King Charles II was so annoyed by these reports of disloyal subjects that he sent a message to the Massachusetts governor requiring Thomas Danforth and others "to appear and answer the Articles of High Misdemeanor I have now exhibited against them so that it will make the whole faction tremble."
Thomas Danforth in 1683 wrote the King of England government a letter explaining his behavior writing: Our Civil government is as the cabinet to keep and preserve the precious jewel of religion, which is our life; therefore we cannot consent to part with it, what ever we may suffer; it is better to suffer than to sin and suffer too. But we hope that God will incline the heart of our gracious King to have pity and compassion upon us; ... if not, to give us courage, faith, and patience to suffer what God in His Holy Will shall bring upon us. Some wise men and faithful subjects in this land say that this charter is the principle bond and ligament where by this people are obliged to him the king and his successors as subjects; if the patent be once dissolved by his Majesty against this people's will and with out their fault, what other bond remain to oblige them to him as subjects?
Nevertheless, King Charles II revoked the Massachusetts Bay Colony's charter and Massachusetts became a royal colony in 1684. William Phipps became the first royal governor of Massachusetts and he appointed Thomas Danforth to the Superior Court of Massachusetts in 1692. As a Supreme Court Justice he served with others to review the Salem Witch Trials. Thomas Danforth was less influenced by the accusations of witchcraft then the earlier court of Justices and to his credit he "Had a chief hand in putting an end to troubles under which the country groaned."
Diarist Samuel Sewell wrote in his journal October 28, 1699- "visited Mr. Danforth who is very sick: his daughter Foxcroft tells me he is much troubled with the palsy. Was much indeposed the 22nd instant, which was the beginning of his sickness; yet would go to meeting (church), which did him hurt, especially going out in the afternoon. I wished him refreshing from God under his fainting sickness." Sewell wrote again on the 5th of November: "Thomas Danforth Esquire dies about 3 past meridian (3 O'clock p.m.) of a fever. Has been a magistrate forty years. Was a very good husband and a very good Christian, and a good councillor; was about 76 years old."
Thomas Danforth was the father of twelve children but only six survived childhood. He left no male posterity.
Daughter LYDIA DANFORTH BEAMON
The youngest daughter of Nicholas Danforth, Lydia Danforth was born 24 May 1625 at Framlingham in Suffolk County, England. She was not quite 13 years old when her father died leaving her an orphan. At the age of 18 Lydia married William Beamon on the 9th of December 1643 of Boston. William and Lydia Beamon left Massachusetts and became pioneer settlers of Saybrook, Connecticut. Their daughter Lydia Beamon was the first white child born in Saybrook. Beyond the fact that they had a son and six daughters no further information is known about this daughter of Nicholas Danforth.
Son REVERAND SAMUEL DANFORTH
Nicholas Danforth's son Samuel Danforth was born 1626 at Framlingham, England and was eleven and a half years old when orphaned. Thomas Shepherd made sure that Samuel Danforth was admitted to the new college of Harvard and was among the first pupils enrolled there. He was one of four graduates of Harvard's class of 1643 at the age of 18 years. The college was more of a high school then what we would consider a university today.
After finishing his schooling, Samuel Danforth taught school at Harvard until he obtained a position as an associate minister of the Church of Roxbury in 1650 at the age of 24years. He served under Reverend John Elliot who was called "the Apostle to the Indians" because of his evangelical work with the indigenous people of New England.
Samuel Danforth became a Minister himself and married Mary Wilson the daughter of Reverend John Wilson the first Pastor of the Church of Boston. He was a "man of letters" who wrote poetry and edited the first American Almanac. Samuel Danforth translated a sermon of Reverend Increase Mather into the Indian tongue and left a manuscript Indian dictionary formed from Reverend John Elliott's translation of the Bible with a scriptural reference under every word.
Of Samuel Danforth's poetry, Samuel Elliott Morrison wrote, " I will not say that he was the first graduate of an American College who ever wrote a poem, but I will venture to claim him as the first American college poet whose work has survived."
APRIL
That which hath neither tongue nor wings
This month how merrily it sing
so see such out for dead who lay
To cast their winding sheets away
Friends would you live, some pill then take
When head and stomache both do ache.
Samuel Danforth was also an amateur astronomer, publishing a scientific account of a comet in 1664. That Samuel Danforth could record the movements of the comet so accurately with the primitive equipment of his time is quite remarkable.
Two sons of Reverend Samuel Danforth also became ministers. John Danforth graduated from Harvard College in 1677 and became the pastor of the Church of Dorchester Massachusetts where he served for some forty-eight years. Biographers stated that Reverend John Danforth was a man "of great learning" and that he "understood Ye Mathematicks beyond most men of his function." He was also known as "exceedingly charitable and of a very peaceful nature."
Another son, Samuel Danforth Jr., graduated from Harvard College in 1683 and was ordained the pastor of the Church of Taunton Massachusetts where he served for almost 40 years. He served the village as not only its minister, but as its school teacher. Reverend Samuel Danforth Jr. practiced medicine also and "acted as a lawyer" in certain cases."
A grandson, Samuel Danforth III was a chemist and his laboratory was perhaps the best in the country during the colonial era. While Samuel Danforth III was a Loyalist in the Revolutionary War he was able to remain in Boston where he died in 1827 at the age of 80 years. When Loyalists were being evacuated from Boston Samuel Danforth III was treated harshly by the Patriots but "as Whigs could not do without physicians better than others, he was soon in full practice, and the confidence of his patients was nearly unlimited and their attachment almost without bound."
Reverend Samuel Danforth Jr.'s other son Thomas Danforth was a graduate of Harvard and the only lawyer in Charleston, Massachusetts. At the outbreak of the revolutionary war, Thomas Danforth like his brother Samuel Danforth III was loyal to King George III and he was Charleston's "only inhabitant who sought protection from the parent country." He was among the refugees evacuated from Boston by Lord Halifax in 1776 and he later moved to London, England where he died in 1825. He is the only known descendant of Nicholas Danforth the Emigrant to have returned to England.
New Hampshire records show that Jonathan Danforth was active as a surveyor as early as 1659. Most of his known surveys date from the 1660's, though his last known plan is dated March 1702 (he was then 74 years old). He gave bearings according to the 32-point compass (i.e. "South and by East, East North East", etc.) and distances in poles.
The late 1600's was also a period of heightened Indian raids in Massachusetts. Like most able bodied men on the frontier, Danforth trained with the local militia, becoming a captain. He also served his community as the town "recorder" (clerk) for more than 30 years.
Jonathan Danforth died at the age of 85 on September 7, 1712. His surveys on the New England frontier helped define accurately what were once remote parcels, but are now the very densely populated towns of Nashua, Hudson, Litchfield, Amherst and Milford in New Jersey, and portion of Massachusetts north and northwest of Boston.
Son CAPTAIN JONATHAN DANFORTH
One of the most influential surveyors in the Merrimack River Valley and its lower tributaries (in Massachusetts and New Hampshire) of the late 1600's and early 1700's was Captain Jonathan Danforth. Born in Framingham, Suffolk, England on February 29, 1627/28 to Nicolas and Elizabeth Danforth. Records in Boston indicate that he married an Elizabeth Powter in that city on November 22, 1654. Within five years, Jonathan and Elizabeth moved to Billerica, where they raised their eleven children. Elizabeth died there on October 7, 1689, and Jonathan married Mrs. Esther Champney of Cambridge, Massachusetts, on November 17 of the following year.New Hampshire records show that Jonathan Danforth was active as a surveyor as early as 1659. Most of his known surveys date from the 1660's, though his last known plan is dated March 1702 (he was then 74 years old). He gave bearings according to the 32-point compass (i.e. "South and by East, East North East", etc.) and distances in poles.
The late 1600's was also a period of heightened Indian raids in Massachusetts. Like most able bodied men on the frontier, Danforth trained with the local militia, becoming a captain. He also served his community as the town "recorder" (clerk) for more than 30 years.
Jonathan Danforth died at the age of 85 on September 7, 1712. His surveys on the New England frontier helped define accurately what were once remote parcels, but are now the very densely populated towns of Nashua, Hudson, Litchfield, Amherst and Milford in New Jersey, and portion of Massachusetts north and northwest of Boston.
NICHOLAS DANFORTH
Born 1590 Christened 1 March 1689 [1590] Framlingham, Suffolk, EnglandDied April 1638 Newtown [Cambridge] Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony
Married 11 February 1618 Aspall, Suffolk, England
ELIZABETH BARBER
Born circa 1600 Aspall, Suffolk, EnglandDied 1629 buried 22 February 1628 [1629] Framlingham, Suffolk, England
married Andrew Belcher
CHILDREN and GRANCHILDREN
ELIZABETH DANFORTH BELCHER
Born 1619 Christened 3 August 1619 Framlingham, Suffolk, EnglandDied 26 June 1680 age 60 at Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts Colony
married Andrew Belcher 1 October 1639 Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts
1. Elizabeth Belcher born 17 Aug. 1640 wife of Pyam Blowers;
2. Jemima Belcher born 5 Apr. 1642died circa 1675 wife of Captain Joseph Still
3. Martha Belcher born 26 July 1644 died 16 July 1711 wife of Jonathan Remington
4. Andrew Belcher Jr. born 1 Jan. 1647 died 1717 husband of Sarah Gilbert
5. Ann [Hannah] Belcher born 1 Jan. 1649 wife of Mr. Ballard
MARIE [MARY] DANFORTH
Died 1629 circa 7 or 8 years old Framlingham, Suffolk, England
ANNA DANFORTH BRIDGES
Born 1622 christened 3 September 1622 Died December 1704 about 81 yrs old Framingham, Middlesex, Massachusetts Colony
Married Mathew Bridges 1643 Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony
1. John Bridges born June 15, 1645 died September 1672
2. Hannah Bridges born March 29, 1646 died 28 Aug 1727 wife of Samuel Livermore and Oliver Wellington
3. Martha Bridges born 19 Jan 1648 died 15 Feb 1649
4. Matthew Bridges jr born 5 May 1650 died 29 May 1738 husband of Abigail Russell
4. Matthew Bridges jr born 5 May 1650 died 29 May 1738 husband of Abigail Russell
| 5. Samuel Bridges born February 17, 1652 died February 25, 1673 |
6. Thomas Bridges born 1 June 1656 died 28 March 1673
4. Elizabeth Bridges born August 17, 1659 died October 25, 1720 wife of Captain Benjamin Garfield and Daniel Harrington
JUDGE THOMAS DANFORTH
Born November 23, 1623 Framlingham, Suffolk, England Died 5 November 1699 Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts Colony
Married Mary Withington 23 February 1643 [1644] Boston, Massachusetts
1. Sarah Danforth born Nov 11, 1646 died Octr 10, 1684 wife of Rev. Joseph Whiting
2. Mary Danforth born July 28, 1650 died May 9, 1721 wife of Capt. Solomon Phipps and Major Thomas Browne
3. Joseph Danforth died 2 Oct 1663
4. Benjamin Danforth died 23 Aug 1663
| 5. Elizabeth Danforth 1659-1721 wife of Francis Foxcroft |
6. Jonathan Danforth. died without issue
7. Samuel Danforth died without issue
8. Thomas Danforth Jr. died without issue
|
LYDIA DANFORTH BEAMAN
Born 1625 christened 24 May 1625 Framlingham, Suffolk, EnglandDied 16 Aug 1686 Saybrook Connecticut
Married William Beamon 9 December 1643 Boston, Massachusetts
Lydia Beaman born 9 Mar 1645 died 30 Jul 1734 wife of Alexander Pygan
Mary Beaman born 12 Nov 1647 died 3 Jan 1672 wife of John Tully
Elizabeth Beaman born 9 Mar 1649 died 30 Oct 1694 wife of John Chapman
Deborah Beaman born 29 Nov 1652 died 16 May 1686 wife of Thomas Gilbert
Abigail Beaman born 20 Feb 1654 died 25 Sep 1683 wife of Obadiah Baldwin
Samuel Beaman born 28 Feb 1657 died 2 Mar 1748 husband of Hester Buckingham
Rebecca Beaman born 17 Sep 1659 died 3 Apr 1742 wife of John Clark
Sarah Beaman born 1663 died 11 Oct 1716 wife of Nathaniel Pratt.
Rev. SAMUEL DANFORTH
Born 1626 christened 17 October 1626 Framlingham, Suffolk, EnglandDied 19 November 1674 age 48 years Roxbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts
Married Mary Wilson 1651 Boston, Massachusetts
1. Samuel Danforth born 14 Jan 1652/53 died 22 Jul 1653 died infancy
2. Mary Danforth born 24 May 1654 died 7 Dec 1659 died 5 years
3. Elizabeth Danforth born 13 Jul 1656 died 15 Dec 1659 died 3 years
4. Sarah Danforth born 30 Oct 1658 died 5 Dec 1659 died infancy
5. Rev. John Danforth born 8 Nov 1660 died 26 May 1730 husband of Elizabeth Minot
6. Mary Danforth born 13 Mar 1662 wife of Edward Bromfield
7. Elizabeth Danforth born 9 Feb 1664 died 26 Oct 1672 died 8 years
8. Rev. Samuel Danforth born 18 Dec 1666 died 14 Nov 1727 husband of Hannah Allen
9. Sarah Danforth born 21 Feb 1669 died unknown
10. Thomas Danforth born 3 Apr 1672 13 Apr 1672 died infancy
11. Elizabeth Danforth born 16 Oct 1673 died 30 Oct 1673 died infancy
12. Abiel Danforth chr. 31 Jan 1675 wife of Thomas Fitch
Captain JONATHAN DANFORTH
Born 29 February 1628 christened 2 March 1627 [1628]Died 7 September 1712 age 84 years Billerica, Middlesex, Massachusetts Colony
Married Elizabeth Poulter 22 November 1654 Boston, Massachusett
Married Mrs. Esther Converse Champney 17 November 1690 Billerica, Massachusetts
1. Mary Danforth wife of John Parker
2. Elizabeth Danforth (1657-
3. Jonathan Danforth Jr. (1658-1710) husband of Rebeckah Parker
4. John Danforth (1660-1660) died infancy
5. John Danforth (1661-1662) died infancy
6. Lydia Danforth (1664-)
7. Samuel Danforth (1665-1742) husband of Hannah Crosby
8. Anna Danforth (1667-) wife of Oliver Whiting
9. Thomas Danforth (1670-1670)
10. Nicholas Danforth (1671-1693)
11. Sarah Danforth (1676-) wife of William French
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