Family
Three of Danforth’s children died in infancy—Samuel (aged 7 months) in 1653, Thomas (aged 10 days) in 1672, and Elizabeth (aged 2 weeks) in 1673). Three others—Mary (aged 5 years), Elizabeth (aged 3), and Sarah (aged 1)—died in December 1659. His funeral remarks on this occasion were reprinted by Cotton Mather in his Magnalia. Two more children—Elizabeth (aged 7) and Sarah (aged 2)—died in October 1672. His son John (1660–1730) graduated from Harvard College in 1677 and was minister at Dorchester from 1682 until his death. The other surviving son, Samuel (1666–1727), graduated from Harvard College in 1683, and served as the minister at Taunton from 1687 until his death. Daughter Mary (1663–1734) married Edward Bromfield (1649–1734) in 1683. Daughter Abiel, born two months after her father’s death, married Thomas Fitch in 1694, and, after his death, John Osborn in 1741; she died in or before 1745.
His widow Mary was married in 1682 to Joseph Rock of Boston, who died the next year.
His older brother Thomas Danforth (1623–1699) was treasurer of Harvard College, deputy governor, and justice of the colony’s superior court. His younger brother Jonathan was a resident and founder of Billerica, Massachusetts. Sister Elizabeth married Andrew Belcher (1639–1673) of Cambridge; sister Anna married Matthew Bridge (1615–1700) of Lexington; sister Lydia married William Beamont (1608–1698) of Saybrook, Connecticut; and sister Mary Danforth, who also came over to the Americas with Samuel, married John Parish. (More complete genealogical information is online at http://members.aol.com/BBova2332/danforth.html )
For further biographical information, see Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana, v.2; Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, v. 1; Dictionary of Literary Biography, v.24, pp. 83–85; and C. K. Dillaway, History of the Grammar School (Roxbury, 1860), pp. 127–130.
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