Richard Denton, lll, Reverend - The Origins of Reverend Richard Denton

I also did a search on FindMyPast for wills and probates for Elizabeth Duerden (d.1652) and Edmund Durden (d.1648) but found nothing.

I like the point that perhaps it was Rev Denton's wife's legacy.

What is the source that they returned to Essex?

The original source appears to be Rev. Heywood in "The Rev. Oliver Heywood, B.A., 1630-1702; his autobiography, diaries, anecdote and event books..." Horsefall Turner, ed. (1882), p. 11:

"But he had little comfort there, because he was not altogether of their principles as to church discipline; therefore he was unsettled; tost into several parts, till at last he returned into Old England about the year 1659; lived awhile in Essex, and there died*."

"*In this, the account which Mr. Heywood gives differs from that which we find in Mather’s ‘Magnalia,’ where it is said that Mr. Denton died in New England."

https://archive.org/details/revoliverheywoo00heywgoog

I should add that it appears to me that the passage above about the return to England and Essex was written by Horesefall Turner rather than Rev. Heywood. The passage is part of the first section of the book called the "Coley Curates" and appears to be Turner's summary of the Coley Curates before concentrating on Heywood's diaries, etc.

The only earlier reference of a return to Essex was in "The History of Long Island from the Discovery to the Present Time," Benjamin F. Thomson (1843), p. 19:

"He returned to England (says the Rev. Mr. Heywood, his successor at Halifax) in 1659, and spent the remainder of his life at Essex..."

https://archive.org/details/historylongisla01thomgoog

It seems Turner was restating in 1882 what Thomson had written in 1843. But Thomson was wrong about several things, such as Rev. Denton being born in 1586.

Nevertheless, if the claim of a return to Essex is right, Maria Durden may be the reason.

Heywood is the most reliable witness. I notice he didn't say "returned to Essex." In fact I had first read the passage thinking the Rev must have obtained a situation in Essex after collecting the legacy.

True.

Which is easier than trying to find Durdens and Denton's in Essex.:)

Researchers had thought that Daniel Denton's trip to England in 1670 could have involved settling their estate, but no trace found. But I wonder if it's not worthwhile tracking him a little more, he spent over a year there & published his book recruiting for the land of milk & honey in New Jersey

We can give it a try. Maybe we'll get lucky. I took a look at some of the trails of links from his Geni page but the problem is trying to find where he was and what he was doing between 1670 and 1672. Certainly we know he was recruiting immigrants and writing a pamphlet. I noticed his pamphlet was published in London. But how to find out what else he did and where?

When you have seen other mid-1600's probate documents from England, have you noticed how long it was between the date of death and the settlement of the estate? 1670 seems fairly remote from the dates of death we might expect.

I've seen land transactions settling a hundred years later.

A little history of Denton's pamphlet here

https://books.google.com/books?id=vfYpAQAAMAAJ&lpg=PR6&ots=...

That is amazing. Must have been some disappointed beneficiaries.

It's an English thing about property and entails and so on. Very Dawnton Abbey.

I did see a Colonial New England record that didn't quite close probate for 40 years, tracking down the grand children and getting a decision on the property. But I think that was unusual.

Here is another event that took place between 1670 and 1672:

1671 Aug 30 - a Maria Denton was buried in Huddersfield

Could Daniel's mother have been sick and he returned to be with her? Depending on how sick she was and for how long, the timing could be simply coincidental... Or not. And, why Huddersfield?

So many unanswered questions...

So many unanswered questions...

Why did he need to be in England for over a year to promote Long Island? Why would he jeopardize his family at home by staying so long? Why did he need to go to London to publish his pamphlet?

So many questions...

Who was paying for this trip and to support his family in his absence?

So many questions...

Did Daniel turn a family necessity into an opportunity because he had to stay longer than anticipated?

Well, this is certainly an intriguing record

1671 Aug 30 - a Maria Denton was buried in Huddersfield

The note was that diverse friends had urged him to write and publish. It sounds like it was a project that grew out of his storytelling perhaps. London would have been the prestige publishing location and a subscription taken up? He was a man of prestige in America, holding public office, and wheeling and dealing property in new settlement areas. He had to have had connections in England, and he doesn't seem to have been a churchly man. Also, he was apparently decently educated and literate - how and where and by whom.

In other words, he must have came to England on business, and not just personal. And stayed way too long.

https://archive.org/stream/abriefdescripti01dentgoog#page/n47/mode/2up

He came looking to recruit for the New Jersey settlement. So the other investors in the tract could have helped fund the trip to England. There was also the hint about the fur trade (beaver - the Dutch making a mint). But if he was looking to become a merchant adventurer it didn't happen, his next gig was schoolmaster, which has never paid well. :). But speaks again to being well educated in a time and place that was pretty skimpy on schools.

Presbyterian churches of Long Island

http://longislandgenealogy.com/Presbyterian.pdf

I'm still puzzled by this:

"    Christ First Presbyterian Church today adjoins Denton Green, named in honor of the Rev. Richard Denton. This was the pastor who led his congregation of English settlers across the Atlantic Ocean, carved new homes out of the wilderness in Massachusetts and Connecticut, but failed to find religious liberty until they reached a haven on Long Island. ...."

http://longislandgenealogy.com/HeirTo.html

What congregation in England??? From Coley Chapel? We're getting pretty good at the local names, I dont know of any of his English parishioners in America? What am I missing?

The history of the First Congregational Church of Stamford on the FFC web site describes the move of 28 "non-Congregationalist" families from Wethersfield to Stamford in 1641, including Rev. Denton. The web site says that history was adapted from The Historical Sketch and Manual No. 4, published by the First Congregational Church, Stamford, in October 1915 and written by the Manual Committee. http://www.fccstamford.org/history

Perhaps people have confused and conflated the mass move from Wethersfield to Stamford by assuming those same families also migrated together from England.

The following is the way Walter Krumm described Daniel's trip to England in "Descendants of the Rev. Richard Denton," NYGBR, 1989 at p. 94:

"At the end of the decade [the 1660's] unspecified business took Daniel back to England. It may have been civic affairs or something personal —- settling his parents’ estate perhaps. While there he published a book (which survives) entitled A Brief Description of New York, formerly called New-Netherlands (21 pages)..."

"By late 1670, Daniel was back on Long Island, where on 5 December his signature appeared for the first time on the Jamaica records as Daniel Denton, Senior (JTR 1:45 8: 134-). But his absence from home cost him his marriage; he discovered that Abigail was pregnant."

Based on his 5 December 1670 signature on a document in Jamaica, Daniel Denton did not remain in England until August 1671 when Maria Denton was buried in Huddersfield.

While Krumm says "unspecified business took Daniel back to England," your sources indicate there was serious promotional business planned. But Krumm also speculates the trip may have involved "his parents' estate." We have seen no evidence of his parents' estate, so I am inclined to believe Daniel's trip was just promotional, which included publishing his pamphlet. If his mother was still alive or if he knew of other relatives, perhaps he made some visits.

That is an interesting description of the development of the various churches on Long Island. I got the sense that what we might describe as Presbyterian today was not the same in the 1600's. I was also struck by the statement that "Services [at Hempstead] were non-denominational following the usual early settlement pattern."

"The Story of Long Island Presbytery and Churches" Nicholson (1956), p. 6 re Hempstead
http://longislandgenealogy.com/Presbyterian.pdf

Having been down the road of chasing ghosts in Essex :), I am not inclined to spend more time right now continuing that chase. But if new evidence arises or if someone has an epiphany, then I might be up for the chase again.

Nevertheless, I think we have one more clue. The phrase "... his wife...will not go without him..." suggests they were considering the option that Rev. Denton's wife would travel alone to England to deal with the "legacy." Logically, that suggests the legacy was for her.

I just looked through http://longislandgenealogy.com/firstPresHempstead/July1922.htm -again:

-----
For seven years thereafter he was the settled minister of Coley Chapel in Halifax. His inability to conform to the requirements of king and bishop drove him with thousands of other conscientious men to the shores of New England. At first he was settled at Watertown, Mass., as a teacher of the Church there. He was in Watertown in 1634. But, the firmness of his convictions-his democratic or Presbyterian opposition to the oligarchic rule of the New England Divines-again led him, in the year 1635, to depart from Watertown for the purpose of establishing a new settlement at Wethersfield in Connecticut. In this move he was joined by several of the Watertown planters. The names of six of the Watertown Church members are preserved in the Colonial records, four of whom are on the list of the Original Proprietors of Hempstead in 1647. The plantation of Wethersfield, of which Mr. Denton was the leader, as well as the minister of the Church, was prosperous, and its numbers greatly increased. But, in 1641, another conflict for democratic rule caused some twenty-five families, led by Mr. Denton, to make another move. This brought them to Stamford, within the boundaries of the Colony of New Haven. Of the twenty-five families who came with Denton to Stamford, the names of eighteen are found later in the Hempstead list of 1647. ...

   During the sixty years which constituted the first period of the history of Hempstead's Church, there were three ministers duly chosen and resident in the town. The first of these, the Rev. Richard Denton, who brought the people here, and exercised a large influence in the formative years of the settlement, remained with them until 1658, when he resigned. The last mention of Mr. Denton's name upon the Town books is on March 4, 1658, when a rate was made for the payment of his salary, at the rate of f174os. per quarter. Shortly afterwards he returned to England where he died in the year 1662.
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I see no claim he brought anyone from England with him. In fact rather a suggestion of a somewhat clandestine departure, and that's consistent with the ambiguity of the Coley Chapel records and Heywood's "about 7 years" (meaning, I think, there's no record Heywood saw of his termination, otherwise he would have been precise, yes?)