Nielsen Hayden genealogy
Thomas Danforth
Bef 1623 - 1699 (> 75 years)
Generation: 1
Generation: 2
1. Thomas Danforth was born before 20 Nov 1623; was christened on 20 Nov 1623 in Framlingham, Suffolk, England; died on 5 Nov 1699 in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts. 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]
Children:
- 2. Sarah Danforth
was born on 11 Nov 1646 in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts; died after 20 Jan 1681.
- 2. Sarah Danforth
Generation: 2
2. Sarah Danforth (1.Thomas1) was born on 11 Nov 1646 in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts; died after 20 Jan 1681. Other Events and Attributes:
- Alternate death: Between 1681 and 1683
Sarah married Rev. Joseph Whiting about 1673. Joseph (son of Rev. Samuel Whiting and Elizabeth St. John) was born on 6 Apr 1641 in Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts; died on 7 Apr 1723 in Southampton, Suffolk, Long Island, New York; was buried in Old South End Burying Grounds, Southampton, Suffolk, Long Island, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]