Thomas Danforth & The Salem Witch Trials

Immigrant

Tenth Great-Grandfather

1. Thomas Danforth

+ Mary Withington

2. Sarah Danforth

+ Rev. Joseph Whiting

3. Samuel Whiting

+ unknown wife

4. Benjamin Whiting

+ Rebecca Parmelee

5. Benjamin Whiting

+ Esther Merriman

6. Esther Whiting

+ Captain John Nash

7. Nancy Nash

+ Stephen Munson

8. John Nash Munson

+ Mary J Warner

9. George Willard Munson

+ Eleanor A Parsons

10. Joseph Willard Munson

+ Ida E Hotchkiss

11. George Willard Munson

+ Ruth Koerner

12. Edward (Ned) Deck Munson

+ Debra Florence Dahlquist

13. Scott Edward Munson

Thomas Danforth was born in Framingham, Suffolk, England in November 1622. He was the fourth child of Nicholas and Elizabeth (Symmes) Danforth, members of a wealthy family who sympathized with the separatist puritans. His mother died when he was only seven, and his father decided to sell his estate and head to the New World when King Charles I decided to impose a heavy annual tax on wealthy people for a title which Nicholas did not want.

Nicholas and his six children, including Thomas, joined his brother-in-law, Zechariah Symmes, on board the ship Griffin which arrived in Massachusetts in 1634. In the first of two connections to Thomas Hooker, this is the same ship which carried Rev. Hooker across the Atlantic a year before. The second connection takes place in 1636 when Nicholas purchases land from Thomas Hooker in Cambridge when Hooker leaves for Hartford, Connecticut. Nicholas died in April of 1638 in Cambridge, Massachusetts where the family had settled.

As the oldest son, Thomas would have inherited a considerable portion of his father's wealth. He may have helped raising his younger siblings and was admitted to the Dorchester church in 1741 at the age of 19 - a big deal at the time. On February 23, 1643/4 he married Mary Withington, the daughter of Henry Wilthington who was the first ruling elder of that church. Together Thomas and Mary had twelve children, but only three daughters survived him, including my Ninth Great-Grandmother Sarah who married Rev. Joseph Whiting. Six of the Danforth's children died before the age of two.

In 1645, at the age of 26, he was appointed selectman and Town Clerk of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Actor Paul Scofield played Judge Thomas Danforth in

the movie version of the Crucible. Not a guy you'd want

to see on the bench when you show up for court!

Even though Thomas never attended college, he was appointed treasurer of Harvard college in 1650, a position he would hold for nineteen years. After that, he served another 13 years as it's steward. His father had given considerable funds to start the college and his younger brother, Samuel, was a member of the second class to graduate from Harvard in 1643. Josiah Quincy, one of the first Presidents of Harvard, called Thomas Danforth "the earliest, most steadfast and faithful of it's friends."

He was elected Cambridge's representative to the General Court in 1657 and was appointed deputy Governor under Governor Simon Bradstreet in 1679. He may have been elected Governor if the very popular Bradstreet had not lived so long.

During King Philip's War, a Native American uprising in New England which lasted several years starting in 1675, Thomas Danforth was particularly concerned for those Native Americans who had converted to Christianity. They were called "praying Indians" and they remained loyal to the English. He did not want to see them get caught up in the fury of war just because they looked like the enemy. He continued to speak out for them even after being threatened by those who disagreed with him for defending them.

In 1677, Massachusetts purchased the province of Maine and decided to set up a provincial government. Thomas Danforth, while serving deputy-governor of Massachusetts, was appointed the first President of the District of Maine. He traveled to Casco Bay in the summer of 1680 and began the first government there. He spent most of his time in Cambridge but traveled to Maine as necessary, allowing a deputy-president to serve in his absence. By all accounts he was a wise, judicious and kind leader who brought a sense of law and order to the wilds of colonial Maine. Part of his legacy was to lay out Fore Street, Middle Street and Congress Street in Portland, Maine.

Congress Street in Portland, Maine today. I used to live

a block from where this picture was taken!

In 1686, the new King, James II, appointed Sir Edmund Andros to serve as his Royal Governor over all of New England, ending Thomas Danforth's offices and severely limiting government by the people. Many spoke out against this, at their own peril, including Thomas Danforth who wrote: if our ability to rule ourselves is "dissolved by his Majesty, against this people's will and without their fault, what other bond remain to oblige them to him as subjects!" These were treasonous words for that time, and it is probably fortunate for him that the king was across the ocean and that his reign only lasted until 1688.

When word reached New England that William and Mary had replaced James II on the throne of England in the Glorious Revolution, Andros was arrested and Thomas Danforth was returned to his positions as deputy-governor of Massachusetts and President of Maine.

One of the duty's of the deputy-governor was to serve on the Superiour Court. It was in that capacity that Thomas Danforth became entangled in the Salem Witch Trials, which were brought before it in 1692. In Arthur Miller's play and movie "The Crucible" which fictionalize the events of these trials, Thomas Danforth is portrayed as a pompous bureaucrat who oversees the proceedings and allows the letter of the law to over-rule common sense. It's a GREAT movie and I highly recommend seeing it, but don't take away this portrayal of our ancestor as absolute fact. I recommend the following website after seeing the movie:

http://www.17thc.us/docs/fact-fiction.shtml

The truth is that Thomas Danforth only served as a judge on occasion but worked behind the scenes to see the trials come to an end. 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." It was Governor Phipps who finally put and end to the insanity, possibly under the counsel of Thomas Danforth and others.

On March 26, 1697, his wife, Mary, died. He died on November 5, 1699 at the age of 77. His burial is unknown. Since all his sons had proceeded him in death, he left the bulk of his considerable estate to his son-in-law Joseph Whiting, the pastor of the church at South Hampton on Long Island and my Ninth Great-Grandfather.

I wish I knew what ever happened to it!