Rev. John Davenport

John Davenport 1669–1730/31

Brief Biography

From The Stamford Historic Society

• “He was not over careful of pleasing Men,
• but ever fearful of displeasing God.”
• Samuel Cooke 1730/31

John Davenport, born in Boston in 1669, was baptized by his grandfather, John Davenport, founder of New Haven Colony. He graduated from Harvard College in 1687 and began preaching in 1690. Three years later he was called to the Stamford church as an assistant to the ageing minister, John Bishop. His terms of call included seventy pounds a year while Bishop lived, then to be raised to one hundred pounds thereafter. He was also to receive an allotment of firewood and various other considerations once he was married and raising a family.

Following his ordination in 1694, John married Martha Gould Selleck, widow of John Selleck, in 1695. Together they had seven children. When Martha died in 1712, her death was greatly lamented by the community by whom she was held in great affection. Davenport then married Elizabeth Morris Maltby. They had two sons, Abraham and James.

Despite his low salary, Davenport was able to accumulate property and land during his tenure such that when he died he left an estate worth 10,000 pounds and over 5,000 acres of land. Clearly, his position as spiritual leader of the community, with a great deal of secular power as well, afforded him the opportunity to acquire great wealth. Davenport was a traditionalist, and his tenure was one during which there was little change in the community of Stamford. Between 1701 and 1727 only 20 people were formally admitted as new inhabitants. While Davenport participated in a number of significant occurrences, including the forging of the Saybrook Platform, in Stamford he sought to maintain the status quo. His tenure can be seen as a period of stasis, during which burgeoning forces of dissent and opposition were temporarily held at bay. While Stamford’s economy was diversifying with the construction of sawmills, fulling mills, and ships, as well as the development of lively craft industries, its spiritual life was conservative. The power Davenport wielded was partially owing to his status as scion of one of the more important colonial families. The respect people had for him permitted him to maintain a hard line. The force of his authority is illustrated by the rapid changes that followed almost immediately upon his death.

It was Davenport who led the successful removal of the College from Saybrook to New Haven. For twenty-four years he was a member of the corporation of Yale College At the first commencement at New Haven, in September of 1718, he made an oration in Latin at Yale College, extolling the generosity of Elihu Yale for whom the institution had been named.

Towards the end of his life he became very concerned regarding “that Crime in particular … Intemperance in Drink, and what is the Fore-runner and Concomitant of it, Tavern Haunting.”

John Davenport died in February 1730/31 and was interred in the old burying ground near the center of downtown Stamford. Greatly esteemed by his church, community and throughout the Colony of Connecticut, the loss of this man was widely observed. In the sermon delivered by the Reverend Samuel Cooke of Stratfield at his funeral it was stated that “It was many Years since lookt upon by the serious and judicious as a special Favour of Divine Providence, that a Person of such Distinction …. was seated so near the Western Limits of New England, as a Bulwark against any Irruptions of corrupt Doctrines and Manners.”

notes

• 'A history and genealogy of the Davenport family, in England and America, from A. D. 1086 to 1850 .. (1851)
• http://www.archive.org/details/historygenealogy51dave
• http://www.archive.org/stream/historygenealogy51dave#page/77/mode/1up
  • SEVENTEENTH GENERATION.
• Issue of John Davenport, (No. 67.)
• http://www.archive.org/stream/historygenealogy51dave#page/81/mode/1up
• (68.) I. John Davenport, eldest son of John, and grandson of Henry, was born in the city of Coventry, in the year 1597, and in grammatical learning there educated. He entered Merton College with his brother Christopher, . . . .
• http://www.archive.org/stream/historygenealogy51dave#page/82/mode/1up
• . . . . a decided non-conformist, he resigned his charge at St. Stephen's, in 1633, went into Holland, and after some time returned to England, and sailed for America.
• http://www.archive.org/stream/historygenealogy51dave#page/102/mode/1up
• . . . . They arrived at Boston in the Hector and another ship, on the 26 th of June, 1637.
• http://www.archive.org/stream/historygenealogy51dave#page/186/mode/1up
• EIGHTEENTH GENERATION.
• Issue of Rev. John. Davenport, (No. 68.)
  • (70.) I. John Davenport of New Haven, was born during the residence of his father in London, and was an only child. He accompanied his parents to America, in the year 1637. During his father's abode in New Haven, he does not appear to have been much engaged in public affairs, although Dr. Stiles, in his History of the Regicides, in speaking of the Courts of New Haven, about the year 1661, mentions him as one of the judges. He was not admitted a freeman at New Haven, till 15th of May, 1657. He was married, November 27, 1663, to Abigail, daughter of the Rev. Abraham Pierson of Branford, Conn., who was a sister of Rev. Abraham Pierson, the first Rector of Yale College.
  • http://www.archive.org/stream/historygenealogy51dave#page/188/mode/1up
  • NINETEENTH GENERATION.
  • Issue of John Davenport, (No. 70.)
    • (71.) I. John Davenport, born at New Haven, June 7, 1665, and died August 31, aged eleven weeks.
    • (72.) II. Elizabeth. Davenport, born at New Haven, October 7, 1666, who married Warham Mather in 1700.
    • ' (73.) III. Rev. John Davenport of Stamford, who was born in Boston, and baptized by his grandfather, on the 28th of February, 1669. He graduated at Harvard College, in 1687, and commenced preaching in 1690. In 1691, he was invited to become an assistant to the Rev. Mr. James of East Hampton, Long Island*
    • http://www.archive.org/stream/historygenealogy51dave#page/192/mode/1up
    • ' In 1694, Mr. Davenport was ordained as pastor of the church in Stamford, and on the 18th of April, 1695, he was married to Martha,
    • http://www.archive.org/stream/historygenealogy51dave#page/193/mode/1up
    • 'widow of John Selleck, formerly a Miss Gould, by whom he had seven children.
    • ' The following is the minute of her death, copied from the records of the town:
    • ' "That Eminently pious and very virtuous Matron, Mrs. Martha Davenport, late wife to the Rev. John Davenport, Pastor of ye Church of Christ in Stamford, Laid down or Exchanged Her Mortall or Temporall Life, to putt on Immortality, and Doubtless was Crowned with immortal glory, on the first day of December, 1712." She was buried at New Haven.
    • ' The following extracts are given from " A Sermon preached at the Funeral of the Rev. John Davenport, late Pastor of the Church in Stamford, who died Friday, Feb. 5, 1731, in the 62d year of his age, and 36th of his ministry: And was decently interred on Monday following: By the Rev. Samuel Cooke, pastor of the Church in Stratfield [now Bridgeport].
    • http://www.archive.org/stream/historygenealogy51dave#page/196/mode/1up
    • ' Mr. Davenport for some time previous to commencing his labors in Stamford, taught the Hopkins' Grammar School in New Haven. He was a member of the Corporation of Yale College from 1707 till his death in 1731.
    • ' His second "wife was Mrs. Elizabeth Maltby, daughter of John Morris, by whom he had two children. The following is the record of her death. " The ancient Madam, Mrs. Elizabeth Davenport, widow and relict of ye late Rev. Mr. John Davenport, died January 11, 1758."
    • (74.) IV. Abraham Davenport, baptized March 5, 1671, and died young.
    • (75.) V. Abigail Davenport, born in Boston, and baptized Sept 15, 1672, was married to the Rev. James Pierpont, of New Haven, (successor of Rev. John Davenport,) on the 27th of October, 1691. She died, Feb. 3, 1692. Her grave is under the First Church.
    • http://www.archive.org/stream/historygenealogy51dave#page/201/mode/1up
    • (76.) VI. Mary Davenport, born in Boston, and baptized the 17th of September, 1676. She was first married to Nathaniel Weed, of New Haven, who is spoken of as a practitioner of physic, and second to a Mr. Wade ; of the same place.*
    • http://www.archive.org/stream/historygenealogy51dave#page/202/mode/1up
    • TWENTIETH GENERATION.
    • ' Issue of Rev. John Davenport, (No. 73.)
      • (77.) I. Abigail Davenport, born July 14, 1696, and married to the Rev. Stephen Williams, D.D.,
      • http://www.archive.org/stream/historygenealogy51dave#page/203/mode/1up
      • of Springfield, Mass., July 3, 1718, by whom she had eight children, three of whom were ministers, the aggregate period of whose ministry was over a hundred and fifty years. Of these children, some further account will be given, under their appropriate head, in the next generation. She died August 26, 1766. The following account of Mr. "Williams is principally drawn from Allen's Biographical Dictionary, and "The Williams Family History."
      • http://www.archive.org/stream/historygenealogy51dave#page/205/mode/1up
      • (78.) II. John Davenport, born in Stamford, January 21, 1698, and was married by his father to Sarah Bishop,* September 6, 1722.
        • * Supposed to be a granddaughter of Rev. John Bishop, who was Mr. Davenport's predecessor.
      • http://www.archive.org/stream/historygenealogy51dave#page/206/mode/1up
      • He removed to what is now the North Society of Stamford, and was one of the original twenty-four members who were organized into a Congregational Church in New Canaan, on the 20th of June, 1733.* He deceased November 17, 1742, leaving fourteen children, the oldest of whom had not reached the age of nineteen when their father died, aged 44 years.
      • (79.) III. Martha Davenport, born February 10, 1700, was married to the Rev. Thomas Goodsell of Branford, October 6, 1731, by whom she had one child, Sarah, who married
      • http://www.archive.org/stream/historygenealogy51dave#page/207/mode/1up
      • about 1760, Jeremiah Wolcott of Windsor, whose eldest daughter, Martha Davenport Wolcott, married Hezekiah Reynolds in 1778, who was the father of John Davenport Reynolds of Wallingford, and also of William Augustus Reynolds, who now owns, and resides upon the old Davenport place in Elm Street, New Haven.* Mrs. Goodsell died in 1796.
      • (80.) IV. Sarah Davenport, born July, 1702, and was married, first, to Captain William Maltby of New Haven, by whom she had three children — a son and two daughters. The son, Rev. John Maltby, graduated at Yale College in 1747, and for a number of years was the much loved pastor of a church in Bermuda, West Indies. He afterwards removed to Charleston, South Carolina, till, from impaired health, he removed to Hanover, N H.,
      • http://www.archive.org/stream/historygenealogy51dave#page/208/mode/1up
      • where he died in 1771. His monument is by the side of that of his step-father, Dr. Wheelock. One of the daughters died in youth, an example of patience and piety, and the other, Elizabeth, was married May 15, 1754, to Dr. Thaddeus Betts, a highly respected physician of Norwalk, Ct., who was the father of Judge William Maltby Betts, and the grandfather of Hon. Thaddeus Betts, Lieutenant-Governor of Connecticut, who represented his native state in the Senate of the United States, and who died at Washington in 1840, aged 52 years.
      • After the death of Captain Maltby, his widow married, in 1735, the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, of Lebanon, Ct.
      • [Dr. "Wheelock was born in 1711, and graduated at Yale College in 1733. He was settled at Lebanon, Ct, in 1735, where his labors were productive of much good. He was one of the most eloquent and successful ministers in New England. Dr. Trumbull describes him as "of a comely figure, of a mild and winning aspect; his voice smooth and harmonious, the best by far I ever heard. He had the entire command of it. His gestures were natural, and not redundant. His preaching and addresses were close and pungent, yet winning
      • http://www.archive.org/stream/historygenealogy51dave#page/209/mode/1up
      • beyond all comparison ; so that his audience would be melted into tears, even before they were aware of it." He became the founder of "Moor's Charity School for Christianizing the Indians ;" which he afterwards removed to Hanover, N. H., where he became the founder of Dartmouth College, of which he was the first President, in 1770. After being at the head of the college for about nine years, he died in Christian peace, April 24, 1779.]
      • "Mrs. Sarah Wheelock was a woman of a meek and quiet spirit, active in duty, patient in trial, given to hospitality. So endeared was she to her husband by her natural and moral qualities, that her grave-stone bears the inscription, that her character was too estimable for an epitaph."* — Memoir of her daughter, Mrs. Patten.
      • (81.) V. Theodora Davenport, born Nov. 2, 1703, and died Feb. 15, 1712.
      • http://www.archive.org/stream/historygenealogy51dave#page/210/mode/1up
      • (82.) VI. Dea. Deodate Davenport, of East Haven, born in Stamford, Oct. 23, 1706. He was married in 1730 to Lydia Woodward, daughter of the Rev. John Woodward* He died Dec. 3, 1761.
      • (83.) VII. Elizabeth Davenport, born in Stamford, August 28, 1708, and was married to the Rev. William Gaylord, of Wilton, by whom she had two children, one of whom Martha, was married to Seth Taylor, of Norwalk, (now Westport.) Mrs. Gaylord died July 6, 1747, aged 38 years and 10 months.f
      • (84.) VIII Hon. Abraham Davenport, of Stamford, born in 1715, and graduated at Yale College in 1732. He was married in Windham, Connecticut, by the Rev. Stephen White, on the 16th of November 1750, to Miss Elizabeth
      • http://www.archive.org/stream/historygenealogy51dave#page/211/mode/1up
      • Huntington, whose mother was a daughter of Rev. Timothy Edwards, of East "Windsor, and the sister of Pres. Jonathan Edwards.
      • His first wife died December 17, 1773. He was re-married in Stamford, by the Rev. Dr. Wells, August 8, 1776, to Mrs. Martha Fitch.
      • http://www.archive.org/stream/historygenealogy51dave#page/215/mode/1up
      • (85.) IX. Rev. James Davenport, born in Stamford, 1716. He was educated at Yale College, where he graduated in 1732. He settled at Southold, Long Island, in 1738.
      • http://www.archive.org/stream/historygenealogy51dave#page/224/mode/1up
      • Mr. Davenport was formally dismissed from Southold, L. I. in 1746, and afterwards settled at Hopewell, N. J., where he usefully labored for some years, and died in 1755.
• __________________________
• 'The Stamford Historical Society Presents
• Portrait of a Family: Stamford through the Legacy of the Davenports
• http://www.stamfordhistory.org/dav_john2.htm
• 'John Davenport 1669–1730/31
  • “He was not over careful of pleasing Men,
  • but ever fearful of displeasing God.”
  • Samuel Cooke 1730/31
• ' John Davenport, born in Boston in 1669, was baptized by his grandfather, John Davenport, founder of New Haven Colony. He graduated from Harvard College in 1687 and began preaching in 1690. Three years later he was called to the Stamford church as an assistant to the ageing minister, John Bishop. His terms of call included seventy pounds a year while Bishop lived, then to be raised to one hundred pounds thereafter. He was also to receive an allotment of firewood and various other considerations once he was married and raising a family.
• ' Following his ordination in 1694, John married Martha Gould Selleck, widow of John Selleck, in 1695. Together they had seven children. When Martha died in 1712, her death was greatly lamented by the community by whom she was held in great affection. Davenport then married Elizabeth Morris Maltby. **'They had two sons, Abraham and James.
• ' Davenport’s training and background in the ministry especially qualified him for his work in Stamford and his position in the community was renowned for wisdom and discretion. As his congregation grew, the church was enlarged and then rebuilt.
• ' In 1699 a pair of Quakers visited Stamford and began to preach despite reservations on the part of the town constable and first selectman. They then traveled to Fairfield where a number of the county’s clergy were meeting, including John Davenport. Attempting to speak after services, Davenport called for authorities to remove them. Afterwards they met with the clergy, where they held a somewhat heated debate. During this deliberation Davenport was reported to have “changed colours, grew very red, though naturally pale.” Eventually their discussions ended civilly, with one of the Quakers remembering that they took “them kindly by the hands, and they with us.”
• ' Davenport was commended in 1703 by the General Assembly of Connecticut for the opportunity to preach the election sermon, a singular honor given to clergy well into the nineteenth century. In the early 18th century, numerous quarrels between ministers and their congregations elevated to a point where the need was clear for the formation of an association that could act as an arbitrator, enabling decisions through a set of rules. In 1708, at the direction of the General Assembly, a Synod consisting of twelve ministers and four laymen convened at Saybrook. Highly regarded as a scholar of biblical languages, John Davenport made significant contributions towards the preparation of the famous Saybrook Platform. In 1710 the results of their deliberations were published in a work titled: A Confession Of Faith: Owned and Consented to by the Elders and Messengers Of the Churches In the Colony of Connecticut in New-England, the first book to be published in Connecticut. Approved by the General Assembly, this work resulted in unifying official procedures within the church; a directive that continued to be utilized well into the next century.
• ' It was Davenport who led the successful removal of the College from Saybrook to New Haven. For twenty-four years he was a member of the corporation of Yale College At the first commencement at New Haven, in September of 1718, he made an oration in Latin at Yale College, extolling the generosity of Elihu Yale for whom the institution had been named.
• ' He continued to zealously preach in Stamford. Towards the end of his life he became very concerned regarding “that Crime in particular … Intemperance in Drink, and what is the Fore-runner and Concomitant of it, Tavern Haunting.”
• ' John Davenport died in February 1730/31 and was interred in the old burying ground near the center of downtown Stamford. Greatly esteemed by his church, community and throughout the Colony of Connecticut, the loss of this man was widely observed. In the sermon delivered by the Reverend Samuel Cooke of Stratfield at his funeral it was stated that “It was many Years since lookt upon by the serious and judicious as a special Favour of Divine Providence, that a Person of such Distinction …. was seated so near the Western Limits of New England, as a Bulwark against any Irruptions of corrupt Doctrines and Manners.”
• On display in the exhibit:
• ' Necessarius : the continuance of an able and Godly minister very needful to a people : a sermon preached at the funeral of the Reverend Mr. John Davenport, late Pastor of the church in Stamford : who died on Fryday, Febr. 5, 1730-1, in the 62 year of his age, and 36 of his ministry : and was decently interred on Munday following.
• Samuel Cooke
• 1731, Evans
• ' “The Person whose Exit now calls for our deep Lamentation and Mourning, was both our Crown and our Bulwark, our Glory and our Defence. Our Crown is fallen from our Heads, and our Defence is departed. We have our Chariot and our Horsemen taken away. Wo unto us that we have sinned. It was many Years since lookt upon by the serious and judicious as a special Favour of divine Providence, that a Person of such Distinction as we have now lost, was seated so near to the Western Limits of New-England, as a Bulwark against any Irruptions of corrupt Doctrines and Manners. Wo to us, our Hedge and Wall in that Respect is broken down.” Samuel Cooke
• ' From the seventeenth century well into the twentieth, when a noted member of the community died, it was customary for the minister to deliver a funeral sermon. Often the deceased’s family printed and distributed them as mementos. Prior to the establishment of a press in Stamford in 1829, anything that needed to be printed was taken to Boston, New Haven or New York. The funeral sermon for the Rev. John Davenport was produced from the press of John Peter Zenger of New York. Zenger’s press is noteworthy, because in 1735, the Colony of New York brought Zenger to trial for criminal libel. Acquitted by a jury, this was the first primary triumph for freedom of the press in the American colonies.
• Courtesy The New Haven Colony Historical Society
• ___________________________

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• graduated from Harvard in 1687
• began preaching in 1690
• became pastor of the church of Stamford CT in 1694 ... where he remained

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• graduated from Harvard in 1687
• began preaching in 1690
• became pastor of the church of Stamford CT in 1694 ... where he remained

  ---

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Dec 21 2019, 18:25:25 UTC
• Residence: Feb 5 1731 - Stamford, Fairfield, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America
  • Reference: FamilySearch Family Tree - SmartCopy: Dec 8 2020, 2:15:16 UTC