Alice

Family/Spouse: Nicholas Dernford. Nicholas (son of Paul Dernford and Katherine) died between 12 Nov 1585 and 17 Feb 1586 in Framlingham, Suffolk, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Thomas married Jane Sudbury on 24 Jan 1585 in Framlingham, Suffolk, England. Jane (daughter of Thomas Sudbury and Alice) died before 21 Mar 1601; was buried on 21 Mar 1601 in Framlingham, Suffolk, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Before his emigration, he was a churchwarden in Framlingham, and served on the local leet jury.

He arrived in 1635 and settled at Cambridge. He was an innkeeper, and evidently an educated man. Deputy to the Massachusetts Bay general court several times between 8 Sep 1636 and 26 Sep 1637. Cambridge selectman on several occasions.

Cotton Mather, in his biographical sketch about Nicholas Danforth's son the Rev. Samuel Danforth in Magnalia Christi Americana, said of Nicholas Danforth that he was "a Gentleman of such Estate and Repute in the World, that it cost him a Considerable Sum to escape the Knighthood, which King Charles I imposed on all of so much Per Annum; and of such Figure and Esteem in the Church, that he procured that Famous Lecture at Framlingham in Suffolk, where he had a fine Mannour; which Lecture was kept by Mr. Burroughs, and many other Noted Ministers in their Turns; to whom, and especially to Mr. Shepard, he prov'd a Gaius, and then especially when the Laudian Fury scorched them."

Nicholas married Elizabeth Barber on 11 Feb 1618 in Aspall, Suffolk, England. Elizabeth died before 22 Feb 1629; was buried on 22 Feb 1629 in Framlingham, Suffolk, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 2 Dec 1704

Anne married Matthew Bridge before 1645. Matthew (son of John Bridge and (Unknown first wife of John Bridge)) was born about 1618; died on 28 Dec 1700. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He is often called Governor of Maine; of course, Maine was part of Massachusetts until 1820 and had no governors as such prior to that. He was "president in the district of Maine" in the 1680s. He was also Deputy Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1679 to 1686, and again from 1689 to 1692. He was politically and religiously conservative by inclination, but he was opposed to the Salem witch hysteria, particularly the decision by judge William Stoughton to unconditionally accept "spectral evidence". A letter by Thomas Brattle, dated 8 Oct 1692, includes Danforth in a list of "several about the Bay, men for understanding, judgement and piety...that do utterly condemn the said proceedings, and do freely deliver their judgment." After Bay Colony royal governor William Phips ordered Stoughton to disallow spectral evidence, Danforth sat alongside Stoughton and others on the final Superior Court convened to address the witchcraft accusations, and Danforth appears to have been by and large a force for moderation, even relocating some of the accused individuals to lands he owned west of Boston. Given all this, it seems a bit unfair of Arthur Miller to have, in his play The Crucible (1953), combined the various judges involved in the trials into a single domineering and prosecutorial judge named Danforth. The 1957 film adaptation, whose screenplay was written by Jean-Paul Sartre, made the same decision.

Thomas married Mary Withington on 23 Feb 1644. Mary (daughter of Henry Withington and Elizabeth Smith) was born about 1623; died on 26 Mar 1697 in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Bef 17 Oct 1626

Notes:

From Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Volume I, by John Langdon Sibley (citation details below):

Rev. Samuel Danforth, M. A., of Roxbury, second son of Nicholas Danforth, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, was born in Framlingham, in the County of Suffolk, in England, in September, 1626, and was "by the Desire of his Mother [Elizabeth], who died Three Years after his Birth, earnestly Dedicated unto the Schools of the Prophets. His Father brought him to New-England in the Year 1634. and at his Death, about four Years after his Arrival here, he committed this Hopeful Son of many Cares and Prayers, unto the Paternal Oversight of Mr. Shepard," of Cambridge, to whose church he belonged, and to whom he had "prov'd a Gaius, and then especially when the Laudian fury scorched them."

Cotton Mather says: "His Early Piety, answered the pious Education bestowed upon him; and there was One Instance of it somewhat singularly circumstanced : when he was reciting to his Tutor, out of the Heathen Poets, he still made some Ingenious Addition and Correction, upon those Passages, which ascribed those Things unto the False Gods of the Gentiles, that could not without Blasphemy be ascribed unto any, but the Holy One of Israel: His Tutor gave him a sharp Reprehension for this, as for a meer Impertinency; but this Conscientious Child reply'd, Sir, I can't in Conscience recite the Blasphemies of these Wretches, without Washing my Mouth upon it! Nevertheless, a fresh Occasion occurring, his Tutor gave him another sharp Reprehension, for his doing once again as he had formerly done; but the Tutor to the Amazement of them all, was terribly and suddenly siezed with a Violent Convulsion-Fit; out of which when he at last recovered, he acknowledg'd it as an Hand of God upon him, for his Harshness to his Pupil, whose Conscientiousness he now applauded.

"His Learning with his Virtue, e're long brought Him into the Station of a Tutor," or Fellow of the College, an office which he appears to have held till about the time of his ordination. The disbursement to him as "Read^r and ffellow 6 yeares" was £56 13s. 8d. In 1647 he was made freeman, and the name appears again in 1648. He is the second of the Fellows named in the College charter, dated 30 May, 1650. In 1656 he is credited with a donation of £1 4s. to the College.

"The Watchfulness, Tenderness and Conscientiousness of Aged Christianity accompanied him, while he was yet but Young in Years. His Manner was to Rise before the Sun, for the Exercises which Isaac attended in the Evening; and in the Evening likewise he withdrew, not only from the Conversation then usually maintained, which he thought hurtful to his Mind by its Infectious Levity, but from Supper it self also, for the like Exercises of Devotion.... The Sin of Unfruitfulness gave as much Perplexity to him, as more Scandalous and Immoral Practices do to other Men."

After the return of the Reverend Thomas Welde to England, Danforth was invited to assist the Reverend John Eliot, "whose Evangelical Employments abroad among the Indians, made a Collegue at Home to be necessary"; and he was ordained at Roxbury, 24 September, 1650. Neither "the Incompetency of the Salary" nor "the Provocation, which unworthy Men in the Neighbourhood sometimes tried him withal, could perswade him...to remove unto more Comfortable Settlements."

He was particularly watchful over his flock, very attentive to the sick, a faithful instructor of the convalescent, and a peacemaker "in rising Differences; being of the Opinion, That usually they have little Peace of Conscience, who do not make much Conscience of Peace."

He exerted his influence to have only such persons keep houses of public entertainment "as would keep Good Orders and Manners" in them. And when from his study window "he saw any Town-Dwellers tipling there, he would go over and chide them away."

His sermons "were Elaborate and Substantial; He was a Notable Text-Man, and one who had more than Forty or Fifty Scriptures distinctly quoted in One Discourse; but he much recommended himself by keeping close to his Main Text," and by such depth of feeling "that he rarely, if ever ended a Sermon without Weeping. On the Lord's Days in the Forenoons, he expounded the Old-Testament; in the Afternoons, he discoursed on the Body of Divinity, and many Occasional Subjects, and some Chapters in the Epistle to the Romans, until the Year 1661; and then he began to handle the Harmony of the Four Evangelists," and proceeded as far as Luke xiv. 14: "Thou shalt be recompenced at the Resurrection of the just: On which, having preached his Last Sermon, it proved indeed his Last." He never ventured "upon any Extemporaneous Performances," but wrote "his Sermons twice over...in a fair long Hand." "His Utterance was free, clear, and giving much in a little time; his Memory very tenacious, and never known to fail him, though he allowed no Assistances."

Danforth's ministry continued twenty-four years. "And when he then came to Dye, spending one whole Sleepless Night, in a Survey of his past Life, he said, He could find no remarkable Miscarriage (through the Grace of Christ) in all this time, to charge himself withal, but that with Hezekiah, he had served the Lord with a perfect Heart all his Days." "As his End approached he had strong Apprehensions of its Approach; and the very Night before he fell sick, he told his Wife, He had been much concerned, how she with her Children would subsist, if he should be removed; but now he had got over it, and firmly believed...that they should be...as well provided for, as they could be, if he were alive....Immediately after this, he fell sick of a putred Fever, occasioned by a Damp, Cold, Nocturnal Air, on a Journey; and in the Space of six Days, passed from Natural Health, to Eternal Peace, Nov. 19. 1674," in so happy a state that his venerable colleague, Eliot, would say, "My Brother Danforth made the most glorious End, that ever I saw!" His remains were laid in the Governor Dudley tomb. Welde wrote a poem upon him. Cotton Mather, alluding to his studies, wrote:

"Non dubium est, quin ed iverit, quo? Stellæ eunt, DANFORTHUS, qui Stellis semper se associavit."

After Danforth's "Contraction, according to the Old Usage of New-England, unto the Virtuous Daughter of [the Reverend] Mr. Wilson [of Boston] (whereat Mr. Colton preached the Sermon) he was married," 5 November, 1651. They had twelve children, of whom the first, Samuel, born 14 January, 1653, "at nine o'clock at night," baptized at Boston two days after by his grandfather, died at the age of six months; and the next three being attacked by the "Malady of Bladders in the Windpipe [Acute Laryngitis?]" in December, 1659, "it pleased God to take them all away at once, even in one fortnight's time." John, born in 1660, and Samuel, born 18 December, 1666, graduated respectively in 1677 and in 1683. Danforth's widow married Joseph Rock, Rocke, or Ruck, of Boston, where she died, 13 September, 1713, in the eighty-first year of her age.

WORKS.

1. Danforth devoted considerable time, particularly in early life, to astronomical studies, and for several years published Almanacs. "Those from 1646 to 1649, inclusive," John Farmer says he has "seen, and some of them are valuable for the chronological tables at the end. These tables were consulted and cited by Mr. Prince [H. U. 1707] in his New-England Chronology."

2. An | Astronomical Description | of the late | Comet | Or Blazing Star, | As it appeared in New-England in the | 9th, 10th, 11th, and in the beginning | of the 12th Moneth, 1664. | Together | With a brief Theological Application | thereof. || By S. D. Cambridge. 1665. 16mo. PP. 122. M.

In this tract the author maintains that comets move according to mathematical laws, and are portentous.

3. A brief | Recognition | of | New-Englands | Errand | into the | Wilderness; | Made in the Audience of the General Assembly of the | Massachusets Colony, at Boston in N. E. on the | It of the third Moneth, 1670, being the | Day of Election | there. || Cambridge: Printed by S. G. and M. J. 1671. 410. pp. (4), 23. The Address to the "Christian Reader," pp. 4, is signed "Thomas Shepard." M, P.

4. The | Cry of Sodom | Enquired into; | Upon Occasion of | The Arraignment and Condemnation | of | Benjamin Goad, | For his Prodigious Villany. | Together with | A Solemn Exhortation to Tremble at Gods Judgements, | and to Abandon Youthful Lusts. | —— | By S. D. || Cambridge: Printed by Marmaduke Johnson. 1674. 4to. pp. (2), 25. The Address to the "Christian Reader," pp. 2, is signed "John Sherman, Urian Oakes, Thomas Shepard." P, W.

5. Several specimens of poetry are found in his Almanacs.

6. Ellis says, "That part of the diary of the Pastors which he wrote indicates the interest he took in astronomy, by its frequent descriptions of the appearances of various phenomena, and of the situations and movements of heavenly bodies....From 1664 to 1670, it is filled with descriptions of prodigies, earthquakes, comas, &tc."

Rev. married Mary Wilson on 5 Nov 1651. Mary (daughter of Rev. John Wilson and Elizabeth Mansfield) was born on 12 Sep 1633 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts; was christened on 15 Sep 1633 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts; died on 13 Sep 1713 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]