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

I wonder if the license and certificate of good conduct were issued for entire families with family member names. Even if they were issued only for Reverend Denton, they would still indicate the timing of his voyage.

I do understand that some things are not provable. But when researching history like this I might be more like a dog with a bone. Difficult to give up that bone. But you are right that we are learning a great deal about the Reverend and his times. Actually, that is always my goal -- to find the stories. Drawing the familial lines is just the necessary step to find those stories.

It is of course the biggest frustration to find the maiden names of wives, you can chalk that up to patriarchy. ship passenger lists sometimes have the given name, sometimes not. The best are when in a party: Rev, his wife, her brother (his name). :).

But we already know a few things about her. She was "sickly" and desired to return to England. And the legacy was from a friend, which could (outside stretch) be a relative of hers; I vote for a Presbyterian on that one, though.

So we have marriage records and the likelihood she was also from Yorkshire, and conceivably mention downtree in her children's property.

I don't think I've seen a good conduct (etc) for New England. I have for Maryland, and it was separate for the wife

What do you know about typical voyage times from England to Boston? My quick look indicates a quick trip would be 6 weeks, which would mean 3 months round trip. If that were the case, how could the James in 1635 depart England April 6, May 23 and in July?

I would say they're not the ships. 6 weeks sounds right for the trip, but you should look up the Angel Gabriel. They departed at the same time & the James arrived ahead.

From England to Massachusetts in a fleet of five ships, the Angel Gabriel joined the James, the Elizabeth (Bess), the Mary and the Diligence. As they approached New England, an unusually powerful early season hurricane struck, known as the "Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635", and the James and the Angel Gabriel were forced to ride it out just off the coast of modern-day Hampton, New Hampshire. According to the ship's log and the journal of Increase Mather, whose father Richard Mather and family were on the James, the following was recorded:

"And I must confess, I have peculiar reason to commemorate that solemn providence, inasmuch an my father and mother and four of my brethren wore then in a vessel upon the east of New-England, being at anchor amongst the rocks at the Isles of Shoals when the storm began; but their cables broke, and the ship was driving directly upon a mighty rock, so that all their lives were given up for lost; but then in an instant of time, God turned the wind about, which carried them from the rock of death before their eyes."[1]
All one hundred-plus passengers aboard the James managed to make it to Boston Harbor two days later.

The Angel Gabriel was wrecked off the coast of Maine, but the smaller, faster ships, the Mary, the Bess, and the Diligence outran the storm, and landed in Newfoundland on August 15, 1635.[2]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_Gabriel_(ship)_

The ship James left King's Road in Bristol on May 23, 1635 with master John Taylor at the helm. From England to Massachusetts in a fleet of five ships, the Angel Gabriel, the Elizabeth and Ann (Bess), the Mary and the Diligence.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_(ship)_

So - the James that perhaps Rev Denton & family were on left in May 1635 and arrived in August. Big boat, more passengers (plus animals), horrible voyage.

The April & July James' could be the same ship & less likely to have been the Rev Denton's.

At first I could not understand how a single ship named James could have made the round trips departing in April, May and July. Then I entertained the thought that the April departure from London and the May departure from Bristol were the same ship with masters changed in Bristol because of the delays -- postulating the ship had just made a stop in Bristol to pick up a few additional passengers. But Banks apparently indicates the James from London arrived in Boston on June 3, 1635.

So, the first "James of London," departed on April 6, 1635 and arrived June 3, 1635. The James from Bristol departed May 23, 1635 and arrived August 17, 1635.

But in “The History of Ancient Wethersfield, Connecticut,” Vol. 1, (1904) at p. 21 Henry Stiles said that Richard Denton was among the "Watertowne men" who went to Wethersfield on May 29, 1635. Either (1) Banks is wrong about the June 3rd arrival date of the James of London or (2) Stiles was wrong when he included Rev. Denton among the Watertown men who went to Wethersfield on May 29, 1635 or (3) Rev. Denton was not on the James. Perhaps Stiles simply assumed, without evidence, that Rev. Denton "must have been there." (https://archive.org/stream/historyofancient11adam#page/n5/mode/2up)

Just an interesting side note. In "The Life and Death of ... Mr. Richard Mather..." by Increase Mather (1670) he interestingly described Richard Mather's surreptitious journey to Bristol beginning in April 1635 at p. 69:

"This Journey was begun in April 1635. when he travelled to Bristol in order to take Ship there. In this Journey he was forced (as sometime Brentius was) to change his outward Habit that he might travel incognito, because Pursevants Avere designed to Apprehend him; but by this means he escaped them. From Bristol he set Sail for New-England May 23, 1635"

I would also note that in his journal Richard Mather said there were 100 passengers on the ship but the only people he named were his travelling companions as named on the Packrat list for the voyage. http://www.packrat-pro.com/ships/james3.htm

Does that indicate that our only source for a passenger list of the James from Bristol was Rev Richard Mather?

And if Rev Richard was being sought by authorities, yet managed to get out of town & onto the ship without being apprehended, it says something about the nature of ship Master Taylor, and probably the other passengers. It is fitting.

I am inclined to stay with the theory that Rev Mather & Rev Denton were on the same ship; that it wasn't the "James of London,"; and that Rev Denton's removal to Wethersfield was at a later date; as you've been thinking.

The Wikipedia page on the various James' may help narrow down which physical vessel it was. I would think the hurricane trip of 1635 was her last outing. Also looking up Master Taylor.

Whoa. Didn't you notice this?

http://www.packrat-pro.com/ships/james3.htm

Maude, Daniel Rev. from Halifax, York, bound for Boston & Dover. Ref: Banks Mss. 36 pg 186

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Halifax??? This is "not" a coincidence.

"one hundred passengers, honest people of Yorkshire ..."

Oh, come on. If Rev Denton wasn't on this ship it's because he missed the boat. These are his people.

Boom. Another Cambridge grad. And another mixup in James arrival dates, I suspect.

https://books.google.com/books?id=j34WAAAAIAAJ&lpg=RA1-PA3&...

Catalogue of the Boston Public Latin School, Established in 1635: With an ...
By Boston Latin School (Mass.), Henry Fitch Jenks

Rev. Daniel Maude arrived from England with Richard Mather in the "James," on the 3d of June, 1635, a little after the school had been opened. He had been educated at Emanuel College, Cambridge, and was a student there while John Wilson and Ezekiel Rogers were at Christ's. Wilson took his first degree the year before Maude, and they two are the oldest Cambridge graduates who came to New England. At the time he became our Head Master he was about fifty years old. He was admitted to the First Church, Oct. 25,1635, — and admitted freeman May 25,1636. Mr. Savage is mistaken in thinking that the customary token of respect is omitted in the record: for he appears as "Mr. Danicll Maude." It has been suggested that he sympathized with Wheelwright. But he was not one of the signers of the "Remonstrance," — and, when, in 1642, the Church in Dover, N. II., needed a minister, and sent to tho Boston Elders to desire their help, these elders named Mr. Maude, who went there in 1643, and ministered to that congregation, till he died in 1655. He left no children. Mather says he had been a minister in England: Hubbard, that he was "a good man, of a serious spirit and of a peaceable and quiet disposition." His salary at Dover was forty pounds a year.

I'm trying to find the family connection between Rev. Maude & Rev Mather, he is listed as "father in law" to Mrs Mather - step father? This Mrs Mather? Catherine Mather )

Meanwhile found this about the state of records:

From Freeman Genealogy By Daniel Freeman. Page 30

https://books.google.com/books?id=HH5MAAAAMAAJ&lpg=PA30&ots...

The records of the ships that sailed from England for America between A. D. 1600 and 1700 are very incomplete. In 1637 Thomas Maybew was appointed, for a term of twenty-one years, to keep a record of all those persons who left England "to passe into forraigne partes," but of Mayhew's lists nothing is to be found but the fragment commencing at page 287, and that continues but for a few months. In 1874 John Camden Hotten made a search among the State Papers in the Public Record Office in England for the names of "those who went from Great Britain to America between 1600 and 1700,* and published the result. In the introduction to his book he says: "It lj1ust not be imagined that the following pages furnish a complete list of the early settlers in America." Then, after referring to Mayhew's list, he says, "It cannot be doubted but that other lists were made, but they are either lost, or among the mass of papers still uncatalogued at the Record Office. We learn incidentally that ships left England daily for America, but no records of them, or of their passengers remain. We know that many ships sailed from Bristol, among others The Angel Gabriel and the James, conveying the Rev. Richard Mather, and the Rev. Daniel Maude, but no records of departures from that port remain. Where are the lists, of The Arabella, and other ships in which John Winthrop, and the founders of Massachusetts embarked? These are but a few instances to show how very imperfect are our records of the early settlers."

http://venn.lib.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search-2016B.pl?sur=Maude&sur...

Daniel MAUDE
Adm. sizar at EMMANUEL, 23 Apr., 1603.
S. of Edward (1564), Master of Wakefield School, Yorkshire . Bapt. at Halifax, 09 Oct., 1586.
Scholar; B.A. 1606/7 ; M.A. 1610 .
In 1635 emigrated, with Richard Mather, to New England [cu] USA [/cu]. Appointed second master of Boston Latin School, 12 Aug., 1636.
Pastor of the Church at Dover, N. Hampshire , 1643 .
Died 1655 .
Brother of Barnabas ( 1595-6 ), Ambrose and Edward (1603). (J. G. Bartlett.)

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His father was

Edward MAUDE
Matric. pens. from ST JOHN'S, Michs. 1564.
Of Yorkshire . Probably s. of John, of Trimmingham, Halifax. B.A. 1567/8 ; M.A. 1571 .
Fellow, 1570 .
'Preacher of the Word' at Northowram, Halifax, 1582-8 ; and Master at Halifax School. C. of Wakefield, c 1589 ; V. 1593-8 .
Taught a school which became Wakefield Grammar School, 1591 .
First Head Master, 1591-8 .
Died 1598 .
Father of the next, of Daniel (1603), Barnabas ( 1595-6 ) and Ambrose. (M. H. Peacock.)

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I notice Edward Maude is a schoolmaster, and is mentioned in the record for

Thomas MATHER
Adm. pens. (age 17) at CAIUS, 03 Feb., 1585/6.
B. at Seacroft, Leeds, Yorkshire . Schools, Leeds (Mr Hargrave) and Halifax (Mr Maude).
Thomas MATHER
Approx. lifespan: 1568–1666
Adm. pens. (age 17) at Gonville & Caius College 1585/6:02:03
b. at Seacroft Leeds, Yorkshire
Schools, Leeds ( Mr – HARGRAVE ) and Halifax ( Mr – MAUDE )

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Dates / locations do not match for this Thomas Mather

The source of the "one hundred passengers, honest people of Yorkshire..." statement appears to be "The History and Antiquities of Boston," Samuel G. Drake (1856), p. 185. But you will note even he placed that statement in quotes but did not indicate a source for that quote. https://archive.org/details/historyantiquiti00dra. The following is the quote from Drake:

"The ship James, of Bristol, Captain Taylor, had a most narrow escape at the Isle of Shoals. After losing three anchors, she was saved by a momentary veering of the wind. She had on board “ one hundred passengers, honest people of Yorkshire,” among whom was Mr. Richard Mather,§ the ancestor of the noted divines of that name, with his family, long famous in Boston; also Mr. Matthew Mitchell, Mr. Daniel Maud, Nathaniel Wales, Bar nabas Fower, Thomas Armitage, and George Kenrick. At the same time sailed from Bristol the Angel Gabriel, which, in the same storm, was driven from her anchors at Pemaquid and lost. "

From Packrat.com lists: As you noted, the "fleet" included the James, the Elizabeth, the Mary, the Diligence and the Angel Gabriel.

Interestingly the Elizabeth is shown as leaving London (maybe Ipswitch) in April, 1635 like the "James of London." But then, the Elizabeth is also shown as leaving Bristol on May 23, 1635. The Mary and the Diligence are only shown as departing Bristol on May 23, 1635 but neither shows a passenger list. The Angel Gabriel is only shown as departing Bristol on May 23, 1635.

If the Elizabeth started in London and then stopped in Bristol, could it be that the James did the same and that Banks was is error about the June 3rd arrival?

We will likely need to be mindful when using the description of "Halifax." The following link is to a FamilySearch list of churches in "Halifax" which includes a couple of dozen. Some of them undoubtedly were organized after the 17th century and some of them such as Coley have dates that are misleading. And note that "St. John the Baptist" was used as a name for the Halifax church as well as the separate Coley church.

https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/A_Complete_List_of_Halifax%27s_Cha...

At the time I saw that note about "one hundred passengers, honest people of Yorkshire" I was looking at it compared to the April 6 departure from London which had numerous passengers from Wiltshire. That list is the one that shows Rev. Denton at the end. Those passengers were bound for numerous destinations including Boston, Salem, etc. (See this list: http://www.packrat-pro.com/ships/james1.htm. I was skeptical that a list that could not identify the passengers could characterize the origin of the passengers compared to the prior list for the April 6th sailing from London which noted the origins in Wiltshire. Now, it is difficult to reconcile, but I certainly see the Cambridge connection.

If Richard Mather was travelling incognito, I would assume he was travelling without a license or certificate of good conduct, or he had the right connections to get them. If Rev. Denton was with that crowd, his story might have been the same, i.e. no paper trail.

I would note that Packrat indicates the passenger list for the July sailing of the James out of London was from:

"The roll was transcribed by James Savage in the 19 century from records found in London at the Augmentation Office, Rolls Court, Westminster."

Perhaps May sailing would be there as well or perhaps there is a separate "Rolls Court" in Bristol.

http://www.packrat-pro.com/ships/james1.htm

NOT DONE:: Banks also lists for one of the James:

Denton, Richard Rev. from North Owram, York, bound for Wethersfield, and Stamford, CT. Ref: NEGR 11/241 36 pg 189

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I don't see a problem, Denton was listed by Banks (on his Yorkshire page) for ONE of the James, he didn't have information beyond that.

My opinion is now formed.

- If Denton & family arrived in 1635, it was on the James from Bristol.
- we know that at least one passenger (Rev Mather) was leaving England surreptitiously, and in fact it is by his listing that we know "any" of the passengers.
- Rev Mather was a Lancaster man but seems to have had family ties / education ties to Yorkshire.
- The 100 passengers are characterized as of Yorkshire.
- We have a non conformist school master / preacher by name of Edward Maude "of North Owthrom" educating Cambridge divines.

If there isn't a connection between Rev Maude & Rev Denton I'd be surprised. There is.

Well, okay, then. Off to the Bristol Rolls Court or wherever its records went.

Found the name of the wife of Rev Daniel Maud, it was Marjorie. I believe he wrote a will.

http://www.dover.nh.gov/government/city-operations/library/history/...

Rev. Daniel Maud and his wife Marjorie were commissioned to conduct a school in their home on Captain’s Hill.  This was Dover’s first schoolhouse and continued until 1655 when Mr. Maud passed away. 

Pope has Rev Maud's wife as Mary (Marie) Bonner, and that he came in the ship James, from Bristol, Eng, in May, 1639 [SIC: typo for 1635]

https://archive.org/stream/pioneersofmassac00pope#page/307/mode/1up

Marie Bonner was servant to Mr. John Cotton, was admitted to the church in Boston (looks like 1634?] Married to Daniel Maud by 1644. So now I can add him to the Mather tree.

https://archive.org/stream/pioneersofmassac00pope#page/58/mode/2up

Rev. Daniel Maude

Pipe Rolls

In case anyone is interested, the Pipe Rolls, in simple terms, are English financial records dating back to the 12th century. They are called "pipe rolls" because they are the rolled parchments on which records were kept. Many of them have not yet been transcribed or published. I suspect migrants in the 1630's were charged fees for their licenses to migrate and, therefore, their names appeared in the Pipe rolls. For more, see the Wikipedia article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipe_rolls.

The Pipe rolls were sufficiently important that they were placed in the care of the Master of the Rolls. Over time, that Master of the Rolls became essentially the head of the English judicial system and the second most senior judge in the country. See the Wikipedia article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_of_the_Rolls. Many years ago I had lunch with the Master of the Rolls, then Lord Denning, at Lincoln's Inn. If only I had known then what I know now, I would have asked him where to find the Bristol rolls for the 1630's. Parents, teach your family history to your children. You never know who they may meet.

If anyone is interested in the mechanics of the licenses and certificates of good conduct, Richard Mather's description is useful:

"This day [May 23, 1635] there came aboard the ship 2 of the searchers, and viewed a list of all our names, ministered the oath of allegiance to all at full age, viewed our certificates from the ministers in the parishes from whence wee came, approved well thereof, and gave us tickets, that is, Licenses under their handes and scales, to passe the seas, and cleared the ship, and so departed."

"Journal of Richard Mather 1635," pub. 1850, p. 6 https://archive.org/details/journalrichardm02mathgoog