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

Kendell and Archibald grandmother is Phoebe Plumlee (Denton)

https://www.geni.com/path/Brandon-Smith+is+related+to+Rev-Richard-D...

I used pushpins

https://help.geni.com/hc/en-us/articles/229703047-How-To-Find-Other...

Proposed simple changes to the Overview

If nothing else, in order to make the Rev. Denton Overview a bit more accurate and helpful to Geni users, I would suggest adding Rev. Denton's other 3 children to the list of children. In addition, I would replace the "proposed timeline in England" with the more complete timeline below.

Additional Children

• 1637 Jan 6 - Peter baptised at Coley/Hipperholme (Gregorian date). Peter died at Coley 5 June 1638.
• 1638 June 21 - Mary baptised at Hipperholme (near Coley)
• c.1640 - Richard Denton, Jr., no baptism records found in England. Likely born in Wethersfield, Connecticut.

Timeline for Reverend Richard Denton

• 1601 April 19 - Richard Denton baptised at Warley, Halifax
• 1604 Aug 14 - Maria Durden baptised in Heptonstall (near Halifax)
• c.1606-c.1620 - Probably at Heath Grammar School with Henry Priestley and Richard Duerden (bp. 1602) of Sowerby
• 1621 - Became sizar at St Catharine's College, Cambridge
• 1623 March 9 (Gregorian) - Ordained deacon at Peterborough Cathederal
• 1624 January (Gregorian) - BA degree from Cambridge
• 1624 April 19 - Turned 23 and then one year after being ordained deacon
• 1624 June 8 - Ordained a priest at Peterborough (erroneously reported as 1623)
• 1624 June through 1625 - Teaching at Cambridge for his Master's degree
• 1626 January 21 (Gregorian) - Married Maria Duerden in Halifax
• 1626 - Curate at Turton Chapel, living in Bolton, Lancashire. Chapel says 1627; church records say 7 Mar 1629 (Gregorian). Gilbert Astley, prior Turton priest, buried 27 January 1626.
• 1627 July 23 - Tymothie baptised at St. Peter in Bolton. Baptism record confirms Rev. Denton was a preacher at Turton, Lancashire in 1627.
• 1629 Mar 9 (Gregorian) - Nathaniel baptised at St Peter in Bolton, Lancashire
• 1631 - Became Curate at Coley (near Halifax). Stayed at Priestley Green owned by Henry Priestley or the Sunderland family. Edward Sunderland was a local Curate in 1605.
• 1631 May 29 - Samuel baptised at Coley. Evidence Rev. Denton was at Coley/Halifax in 1631.
• 1631 Jul 28 - Tymothie buried at Coley
• 1632 Jul 10 - Daniel baptised at Coley
• 1634 Sep 29 - Phoebe baptised at Coley. Krumm found no later evidence of her existence.
• 1637 Jan 6 - Peter baptised at Coley [Gregorian].
• 1637 June 5 - Peter buried at Hipperholme/Coley.
• 1638 Apr 12 - Richard Marsh appointed Vicar of Halifax to restore pre-Reformation liturgical practices. Likely substantial contributing cause for migrating to New England.
• 1638 June 21 - Mary, baptised at Hipperholme/Coley
• 1638 - John of London and fleet of 8 to 11 ships sailed from Hull, Yorkshire to New England. No evidence when or on what ship Rev. Denton sailed.
• 1638 - Denton family emigrated to Wethersfield, CT. 1640 Apr 10 deed to 15 acres in Weathersfield is first written evidence of Rev. Denton in America.
• c.1640 - Richard, Jr., born probably at Wethersfield
• 1641 - Denton family moved to Stamford, CT
• 1644 - Denton family moved to Hempstead, Long Island
• 1647 - Original settlers of Hempstead created a written record of their original 1644 allotments of land. The list included Rev. Denton and his sons Nathaniel, Daniel and Samuel and Richard, Jr. This list was the first written evidence of Richard, Junior's existence.
• 1656 - Nathaniel (b.1628/9) and Daniel (b.1632) purchased Jamaica, Long Island with others
• 1658 or 1659 - Rev. Richard Denton and Maria returned to England to collect an inheritance
• 1658 September 3 - Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth, died
• 1660 May 29 - Charles II restored to the throne
• 1662 Aug 24 - Deadline to comply with Act of Uniformity and use new Book of Common Prayer. 2,500 priests ejected from church in "Great Ejection." Rev. Denton not listed as among those ejected.
• 1685 - Samuel (b.1631) owned 240 acres and Richard, Jr. (b.c.1640) owned 50 acres in Hempstead.

I would also add the following to the timeline above:

--Add:
• 1572 - an Agnes Denton married a Robert Durden in Halifax

--Change 1604 Aug 14 to read:
• 1604 Aug 14- Maria Durden baptised in Heptonstall (near Halifax) to father Thomas Duerden. A Thomas Duerden was a Curate in Rochdale in 1592, about 15 miles from Heptonstall.

Add:
• 1624-26 - a Richard Duerden was a Governor of Heath Grammar School, previously attended by Rev. Denton

• 1638 - Denton family emigrated to Wethersfield, CT. 1640 Apr 10 deed to 15 acres in Weathersfield is first written evidence of Rev. Denton in America.

That timeline entry should have been two entries as follows:

• 1638 - Denton family emigrated to Wethersfield, CT.
• 1640 Apr 10 - Deed to 15 acres in Weathersfield is first written evidence of Rev. Denton in America.

Rev Denton Overview/About
ERRORS

In case I get side-tracked and for anyone new to Rev. Denton's genealogy, the following are examples of common errors about Rev. Denton and his family. Paragraph references are to the current About section.

2nd Paragraph:
--Rev. Denton did not emigrate before June 1638 because he was still having children in Yorkshire.
--There is no evidence of a memorial to him in Essex or anywhere else.

3rd Para.
--There is little evidence to support the claim he was the first Presbyterian minister in America. He was an Anglican priest in Yorkshire until at least mid-1638, but he may have been influenced by presbyterianism across the nearby Scottish border.
--No evidence he was on the ship James c.1633 or on any other date.

5th Para.
--No evidence of any tombstone for Rev. Denton anywhere. No evidence of where he died or was buried. Certainly, no evidence the quote was inscribed on a tombstone for him.

"proposed list [of children] - revised"
--Missing 3 additional children: Peter (b.1637 Jan 6), Mary (b.1638 June 2) and Richard Jr. (b.c.1639-1641 likely in Wethersfield)

"proposed list [of children] - original"
--Did not have a daughter Sarah. He was still a student at Cambridge in 1623-4.
--Did not have a son John. This John was born in Normanton on 1 Jan 1636/7 to a different Richard Denton. Rev. Denton's son Peter was baptised at Coley on 6 Jan 1636/7.
--Other children have incorrect birth dates and order is wrong

"disputed origins"
--The 1603 birth date does not appear in Cambridge University records. There were no St Catherine's College records at Cambridge for the period he was there.
--He was not ordained a priest in 1622-3. He was ordained a deacon in 1623 and then ordained a priest in 1624. One year was required after ordination as a deacon before ordination as a priest.
--There is no record of any Richard Denton born in Yorkshire in 1586.

"Biographical Summary"
--He graduated from Cambridge in 1624, not 1623.
--He did not come to New England in 1635. It was after the summer of 1638 when his daughter Mary was baptised at Hipperholme/Coley.

"notes and footnotes"
--Birth dates of Rev. Denton's children are indeed ascertainable. Copies of original parish baptism records are on the Sources tab.
--There are no records from St. Catherine's College Cambridge for the time Rev. Denton attended.
--Rev. Denton did not graduate from Cambridge and also get ordained a deacon and a priest all between March and June 1622/3. Impossible! He did not graduate from Cambridge only 1 or 2 years after he started in 1621; it usually took at least 3 years. He was not ordained both a deacon and a priest in only 3 months. He was required to wait one year after being ordained a deacon before he could be ordained a priest. He needed to be 23 to be ordained a priest.
--He was not born in 1586.
--He did not migrate to America in 1635 -- he was still having children in Yorkshire.

Footnotes
[1] He was not on the James 1630 passenger list.
[4] There is no evidence of his date or place of death and burial.

... The rest simply repeats the errors noted above.

One more error. Footnote 5 says that Rev. Denton worked with Cotton Mather (1663-1728). Cotton Mather was not even born when Rev. Denton was likely already dead.

The death of Revered Denton is discussed further in the discussion called "Maria Durden - Overview" at this link Maria Durden

Thanks Ray! I will get there with the updated overview (computer issues).

Sometimes computer issues are more difficult to figure out than Rev. Denton's life. :) Good luck!

Thanks to Erica, the errors I noted above (on 1/8/2020 at 12:37 PM) no longer exist on the About tab. But they continue to exist many other places on the internet. So, be forewarned.

Thanks Erica!!!!!

Looks like you have to remove his find a grave

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/44625567/richard-denton has some valid references but looks quite incorect on identifying parents and wife, which unfortunately is not unusual.

From

The name of the wife of Rev Richard Denton, minister in Hempstead, New York, is not known. She was not the daughter of Sir Thomas Windebank of Hougham and Frances (Dymoke) Windebank - their daughter Ellyn Windebank died as a child.

Was she Maria Durden ?

Maria Durden

As Erica said before on 7/10/2017 at 10:28 PM: "findagrave needs to correct findagrave information."
https://www.geni.com/discussions/167758?msg=1158941

I would also note that Walter Krumm, who published his initial work in 1989, would likely have been aware of any prior credible identifications of Rev. Denton's wife. But Krumm characterized Rev. Denton's wife as "unidentified."

"He and his wife (unidentified) were the parents of at least these children..." Krumm's list of children does not include Sarah or John.
Descendants of the Rev. Richard Denton, Walter Krumm, New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, 120 [1989], p. 12.

Unfortunately, Krumm did not have the internet in 1989 to help him find new and additional resources, such as the baptisms of Peter (1637) and Mary (1638). While there was a nascent internet in the late 1980's, it had nowhere near the amount of information available today. Back then you were lucky to find a library card catalog; forget about finding an entire book.

Soliloquia Sacra

Cotton Mather wrote in 1702 that Rev. Denton's "Soliloquia Sacra" was by then "lost" but "[t]hat Judicious Persons, who have seen it, very much lament the Churches being so much deprived of it." Magnalia Christi Americana, Cotton Mather (1702), Book III, Chapter 9, p. 96.

Mather's statement that "Judicious Persons" had seen it and they lamented its loss raises the question of who saw it and where and when. It also raises the questions of whether those "Judicious Persons" told their lament directly to Mather or whether they wrote about it and Mather read their laments. Also, does the term "lost" mean destroyed for eternity or does it mean simply that no one has been able to find it?

If "Soliloquia Sacra" still exists what might it tell us about Rev. Denton and what might it tell us about the religious environment at the time he wrote it?

Searching for "Soliloquia Sacra" might be like searching for the Dead Sea Scrolls. But many of those scrolls were found a millennia later. Like the Dead Sea Scrolls, Rev. Denton's work may still exist on parchment rolls hidden away in some English repository, such as the Cambridge Divinity Library or the St. Catharine's College Library or even the British Library.

If some "Judicious Persons" wrote about it, might those texts tell us something about Rev. Denton or his religious beliefs?

Perhaps some religious scholar in the future will answer some of these questions.

Genesis of the tomb in Essex

Benjamin Thompson published his original first edition of "The History of Long Island" in 1843. Thompson died in 1861. A self-described "Revised and Greatly Expanded with Additions" third edition was published in 1918 by Charles Werner. That third edition was indeed greatly revised, expanded and reorganized, including new materials not included in Thompson's first edition written 75 years earlier. It was only in this new third edition that the new author, Charles Werner, alleged the existence of a tomb with lengthy inscription. But Werner gave no source substantiating the existence of that tomb, nor did he give any other corroborating information. (See 3rd edition, p. 497. Links to 1st and 3rd editions appear below.)

In addition, both Thompson and Werner made the usual errors about Rev. Denton's life, such as birth in 1586 and migration to Watertown with the Winthrop fleet in 1630. Both say Rev. Denton died in Essex in 1662, but neither provided any supporting evidence.

While Thompson said that Rev. Denton was educated at Cambridge, as we know he was, Werner said he was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford. Both say he graduated in 1623 but neither mentions that B.A. degrees like Rev. Denton's were customarily awarded in January. January 1623 was the Julian date; the Gregorian date was January, 1624. In addition, if the B.A. degree was awarded in a month other than January, it was called an "A.B." degree. Thompson and Werner should be used only with caution.

*************

Werner's unsupported statement about the tomb and the inscription (p. 497), follow:

On the tomb erected to his memory in that place is a Latin inscription, of which the following is a free translation:

“Here sleeps the dust of RICHARD DENTON;
O'er his low peaceful grave bends
The perennial cypress, fit emblem
Of his unfading fame.
On Earth
His bright example, religious light/
Shone forth o'er multitudes.
In Heaven
His pure rob’d spirit shines
Like an effulgent star.”

If the above purported tomb inscription was not included in Thompson's 1843 first edition, it must have been discovered later by Werner for his 1918 third edition. If he discovered it, why didn't Werner recite the town in Essex where he found it or the date of death inscribed on the tomb? If someone else discovered it, why didn't Werner reveal his source?

*************

1st Edition
The History of Long Island from the Discovery to the Present Time, Benjamin F. Thomson (1843), Vol II, p. 19.
https://archive.org/details/historyoflongisl02thom/page/n8/mode/2up

3rd Edition
The History of Long Island from the Discovery to the Present Time, Benjamin F. Thomson, Third Edition, "Revised and Greatly Expanded with Additions, Charles J. Werner (1918), Vol II, pp. 496-498
https://archive.org/details/historyoflongisl002thom/page/n8/mode/2up

That’s an awfully long inscription for a tombstone. Reads more like a published epitaph, or a memorial plaque.

The Tomb Inscription was really an Epitaph

The inscription on the supposed tomb for Rev. Denton is indeed an epitaph. Charles Werner who created the third edition (in 1918) of Thompson's 1843 "The History of Long Island" simply copied the epitaph from Gideon Hiram Hollister's "The History of Connecticut," Vol. 1, 2nd Edition (1858), p.506.

Charles Werner in 1918 then relabeled the "epitaph" as a "tomb inscription" without attributing the epitaph to Hollister. Below is Hollister's original 1858 statement:

"It has generally been stated that Mr. Denton died in Hampstead. This is a mistake. He returned to England in 1658, and spent the remainder of his life in Essex. His epitaph is in Latin, of which the following is a free translation:

Here sleeps the dust of Richard Denton:
Over his low peaceful grave bends
The perennial cypress, fit emblem
Of his unfading fame.
On Earth — His bright example, religious light,
Shone forth over multitudes.
In Heaven — His pure-robed spirit shines
Like an effulgent star."

"The History of Connecticut: From the First Settlement of the Colony," Vol. 1, Gideon Hiram Hollister, (1858, 2nd ed.), p. 506.
https://books.google.com/books?id=QCQWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA506&lpg...

Erica Howton, I revised the entire "Return to England" section to address the non-existent Essex tomb and relabeled it "Return to England and Death." To be consistent, I also revised the "No Proof/Some Avoidable Errors" paragraph about the non-existent Essex tomb. Both revisions appear below.

The best way to make these corrections would be to copy and paste the entire "About Reverend Richard Denton" page from my profile. I made a number of other minor corrections on that page which would then also be included.

***************

No Proof/Some Avoidable Errors

• Do not search for a tomb in Essex. That tomb is a fiction created in the 18th century from an epitaph for Rev. Denton. See the "Return to England and Death" section below.

**************

Return to England and Death

Reverend Denton likely returned to England with his wife about 1658 or 1659. Two men who knew Rev. Denton in New Amsterdam (Reverends Johannes Megapolensis and Samuel Drisius) wrote in October 1657 that Rev. Denton intended to return to England with his “sickly wife” to collect an inheritance of 400 pounds from a “friend.” In addition, Reverend Heywood who succeeded Rev. Denton at Coley in about 1651 wrote that Rev. Denton "returned to Old England about 1659, and lived and died in Essex." Ecclesiastical Records, State of New York, Vol I, 1901, p. 407. Memoirs of the Rev. Oliver Heywood, B.A., Rev. Richard Slate (1827) , p. 20.

The 1657 Megapolensis and Drisius letter and Rev. Heywood's Memoirs are the only substantially contemporaneous sources concerning the timing of Rev. Denton's return to England. None of the very few available ship lists for returns to England during the late 1650's show any Dentons as passengers.

Rev. Heywood also stated that Rev. Denton went to Essex where he lived and died. But Rev. Heywood did not state the timing of Rev. Denton's death. Later histories and genealogies appear to simply repeat what Megapolensis, Drisius and Heywood wrote contemporaneously. Dates of death given by those later histories and genealogies appear only to be best guesses based on the meager evidence available.

The legend of a non-existent tomb in Essex arose from an epitaph for Rev. Denton. That epitaph first appeared in 1858 in "The History of Connecticut: From the First Settlement of the Colony," Gideon Hollister, Vol. 1, (1858, 2nd ed.), p. 506. Hollister's lead-in to the epitaph said: "His epitaph is in Latin, of which the following is a free translation..."

That epitaph cited by Hollister in 1858 was then converted into a non-existent Essex tomb by J.A. Davis in his 1896 article "The Beginning of the American Presbyterian Church," The Presbyterian and Reformed Review, Vol. 7, (1896) p. 66, 69. Davis's lead-in to the epitaph said: "On his tomb, in Essex, is a Latin inscription, of which the following is a free translation..."

Both of the above sources then went on to recite the same poem. Of course, the phrases "...in Latin [Latin inscription] of which the following is a free translation" are verbatim the same in each lead-in statement.

The tomb legend created by Davis in 1896 was then repeated by Charles Werner in his 1918 revised third edition of Benjamin Thompson's "The History of Long Island," (1918, 3rd Ed.), Vol II, pp. 496-498. Neither the epitaph nor the poem were recited in Thompson's 1843 1st edition of "The History of Long Island." Id. (1843, 1st Ed.), Vol II, p. 19.

Reverends Megapolensis and Drisius's October 1657 letter described Rev. Denton as anxious to return to England. Therefore, it seems likely that he and his wife made that return by the spring 1658. Epidemics of malaria and influenza were prevalent in England from 1657 to 1659, so much so that one author said "the country was 'one vast hospital'." In fact, malaria and/or influenza epidemics may have contributed to the death of Oliver Cromwell in September of 1658. Given the seeming total absence of any documentation of Rev. Denton's existence in England after his return, he and/or his wife may have been victims of an epidemic in 1658 or 1659. Of course, without further evidence, we may never know.

************

"The Beginning of the American Presbyterian Church," J.A. Davis, The Presbyterian and Reformed Review, Vol. 7, (1896) p. 66, 69.
https://books.google.com/books?id=r0U9AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA69&lpg=...

The History of Long Island from the Discovery to the Present Time, Benjamin F. Thomson (1843, 1st Ed.), Vol II, p. 19.
https://archive.org/details/historyoflongisl02thom/page/n8/mode/2up

The History of Long Island from the Discovery to the Present Time, Benjamin F. Thomson, (1918, 3rd Ed. by Werner), Vol II, pp. 496-498;
https://archive.org/details/historyoflongisl002thom/page/n8/mode/2up

The History of Connecticut: From the First Settlement of the Colony, Gideon Hiram Hollister, Vol 1, (1858, 2nd ed.), p. 506.
https://books.google.com/books?id=QCQWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA506&lpg...

A History of Epidemics in Britain, Charles Creighton, Vol. II (1894), p.304.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/43671/43671-h/43671-h.htm

A Brief History of Epidemic and Pestilential Diseases, Noah Webster, (1799), pp. 191, 193.
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=evans;cc=evans;rgn...

Historical thoughts on influenza viral ecosystems, Morens and Taubenberger (2010), PMC, National Institutes of Health
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3180823/

Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Cromwell#Death_and_posthumous_...

R Riegel The update is done. Great detective work & writing.

Erica Howton. thanks very much and thanks for the help. :)

Seeing the refrigerator trucks outside of New York City hospitals is a sad and stark reminder of how devastating a pandemic can get. When I postulated around February 1st that Rev. Denton and/or his wife may have died during influenza and malaria epidemics in England in 1658 and 1659, the Covid-19 epidemic was in its early stages of becoming a pandemic. But now, it is tragically easier to understand how frightening a pandemic can be and how it can quickly overwhelm society's ability to even keep track of the individuals who succumb.

While today's terrible pandemic is not evidence of what befell Rev. Denton and his wife (or Jeffrey Ferris's first wife c.1658 in Stamford), it does perhaps inform our judgments. [Jeffrey Ferris, of Greenwich]

I hope all of you and your families remain safe.

Please stay safe. I’m a lifelong New Yorker, and this is the first time I don’t regret moving.

And yes, we as genealogists have been under estimating the impact of epidemics and pandemics.

I have great grands who lost 7 children in a diphtheria epidemic for instance. I’m sure that shaped family dynamics and resonates through the generations.

Burial Records in Essex
"Minister Denton" in Great Burstead on 6 Dec. 1658
"Widdow Denton" in Barking on 6 Nov. 1660

Perhaps appropriate for these times, it appears we may have found the final resting places for Rev. Denton and his wife. Copies of the original burial records have been posted on the Geni Sources tab.

The original record for "Mynister Denton" in the entries for December 1658 at St Mary Magdalene Church in Great Burstead, Essex reads "M[?} Denton the Mynister buried the 6 day." The "M" in the original is followed by a letter that looks like a superscript capital "E" but that I interpret as "r" as we would use now for the abbreviation for Mister. Searches in digitized databases show this entry as either having no first name or as being for "Mrs" Denton. But obviously since this Denton was a minister, he was a male and the honorific would have been Mr.

The original record for "Widdow Denton" in the entries for November 1660 at St Margarets Church in Barking, Essex reads simply "The Widdow Denton." St Margaret's Church was on land that was part of an abbey until the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII in the mid 16th century (see BHO excerpts below). While Barking was part of Essex in 1660, it has now become part of Greater London. Great Burstead is about 15 miles east of Barking.

If Rev. Denton had a position at St Mary Magdelene in Great Burstead, that position would not have shown in the Church of England Database and he would not have held it long if he both arrived and died within a few months in 1658.

As I said in a post on 7/22/2017, there were only two Denton burials in Essex between 1658 and 1663 (FindMyPast and FreeReg).

**************

British History Online: The ancient parish of Barking: Abbeys and churches founded before 1830
https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/essex/vol5/pp222-231#anchorn70

"In the early 17th century Puritanism was strong in the parish... During the civil war Barking formed part of the Presbyterian classis of Becontree and Havering... In 1654, after Bowles's resignation, All Souls presented Benjamin Way, who remained vicar until 1660. (fn. 75) During the civil war and Interregnum various attempts, described below, were made to provide additional facilities for worship in the Ilford ward of the parish.

In 1660 Thomas Cartwright was presented to the vicarage by the Crown 'by lapse'. In petitioning for the living he claimed that he had been invited by the parishioners. (fn. 76) He continued to hold Barking after his appointment, in 1686, as Bishop of Chester."

I would note that the burial record entry for Mr. Denton at St. Mary Magdalene describes him as "the" Minister; he was not just any minister. This suggests that he was the minister at St. Mary Magdalene at the time of his death.

Great Burstead and a nearby town called Billericay played a role in the Mayflower's 1620 journey. A meeting of the Pilgrim Fathers who sailed on the Mayflower is said to have taken place in Billericay and Christopher Martin, a churchwarden at St Mary Magdalene in Great Burstead was a signer of the Mayflower Compact. This suggests that Great Burstead was an area sympathetic to dissenters. While these earlier Mayflower events are not connected to Rev. Denton, they at least demonstrate that the area could have been supportive for his ministry.

Wikipedia re Billericay https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billericay

"A meeting of the Pilgrim Fathers prior to their sailing in the Mayflower is said to have taken place in Billericay..."

Wikipedia re Great Burstead https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Burstead

Born in the area and later churchwarden at St Mary Magdalene was Christopher Martin who was one of the Pilgrims and a signer of the Mayflower Compact.

Could the London epidemics of 1657-1659 have spread to Great Burstead?

Great Burstead is about 25 miles east of London. Another epidemic, called the Great Plague, hit London in 1665-1666, about 6 or 7 years later.

The Great Plague was remarkable enough in Great Burstead that an entry in the register of burials in November 1665 said "there dyed none in this parish for the space of 12 weeks together." Apparently there had been more than the normal number of deaths over the summer of 1665. Essex Archives Online, (Burials 1653-1678), Reference: D/P 139/1/1
https://www.essexarchivesonline.co.uk/Result_Details.aspx?ID=42414

**********

From Wikipedia: Great Plague of London [1665-66]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Plague_of_London

The Great Plague, lasting from 1665 to 1666, was the last major epidemic of the bubonic plague to occur in England... The Great Plague killed an estimated 100,000 people—almost a quarter of London's population—in 18 months...

Outside the city walls, suburbs had sprung up providing homes for the craftsmen and tradespeople who flocked to the already overcrowded city. These were shanty towns with wooden shacks and no sanitation...

By July 1665, plague was rampant in the City of London. The rich ran away, including King Charles II of England, his family and his court, who left the city for Salisbury, moving on to Oxford in September when some cases of plague occurred in Salisbury...

The poorer people were also alarmed by the contagion and some left the city, but it was not easy for them to abandon their accommodation and livelihoods for an uncertain future elsewhere. Before exiting through the city gates, they were required to possess a certificate of good health signed by the Lord Mayor and these became increasingly difficult to obtain. As time went by and the numbers of plague victims rose, people living in the villages outside London began to resent this exodus and were no longer prepared to accept townsfolk from London, with or without a certificate. The refugees were turned back, were not allowed to pass through towns and had to travel across country, and were forced to live rough on what they could steal or scavenge from the fields. Many died in wretched circumstances of starvation and thirst in the hot summer that was to follow.

Were there any other Denton Ministers or Priests in 1658 England?

A search of the Church of England Database for another Denton who may have been a minister anywhere in England around 1658 came up empty. While there were a number of Dentons in the database all but one of them were either alive after 1658 or were shown with appointments in the 1500's. A William Denton was ordained as a priest in 1618. He is then shown as the Rector at Langton in North Yorkshire in 1622 and 1632.
https://theclergydatabase.org.uk/jsp/persons/CreatePersonFrames.jsp...

The Alumni Cantabrigienses listing of Dentons also showed no Dentons who were either alive around 1658 or were in the clergy.
https://archive.org/details/alumnicantabrigipt1vol2univiala/page/34...

Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714 listings shown at British History Online (BHO) for Dentons only showed a couple of Dentons who were in the clergy and likely or possibly alive in 1658 but they were rectors in North Yorkshire. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/alumni-oxon/1500-1714/pp366-405

Denton, John B.A. from Clare Coll., Cambridge, 1647; incorp. as M.A. 12 July, 1653, perhaps rector of Oswaldkirk, Yorks, 1658.

Denton, William B.A. from Queen's Coll. 28 June, 1617; perhaps rector of Langton, Yorks, 1619.

The Dictionary of National Biography likewise listed no Denton clergy or Dentons who would have been alive in 1658.
https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofnati14stepuoft/page/378/mod...