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

Is this the same date Rev Denton was ordained, same place?

"Rev. Henry Smith was ordained 8 Jun 1623 Peterborough England"

I also notice "Henry married second Dorothy Cotton (?), sister of Rev. John Cotton ..."

We have recently seen Rev Cotton in Marie (Bonner) Maud, wife of Rev Daniel Mawd of Yorkshire & Dover, and her the former maid servant to Rev Cotton, traveling with his family to Dorchester in (I think) 1633

Church of England records show Rev. Denton was ordained a deacon 3 Sept 1622 and as a priest 6 Aug 1623. I checked the Church of England records for Henry Smith but could not identify a Henry Smith ordained in June 1623. There were 7 Henry Smith's in the records between 1620 and 1640.

Those records can be searched at CCEd Clergy of the Church of England Database http://db.theclergydatabase.org.uk/jsp/search/index.jsp

Correction after looking again. "Henricus Smith" was ordained 7/8/1623 as a Rector at Donyett. But there were two other Henricus or Henry Smiths also ordained in 1622 and 1624. The identifying information is pretty sparse, making it difficult to say which might be the Wethersfield Henry Smith.

The "Yorkshire Deeds" summary above includes:

(6) Grant (1552-53) from Edward Denton of Hellewell Grene in the township of Staynland, to his son Leonard Denton. Lands in Staynland and Eland occupied by Edward Denton junior, younger brother of Leonard. Mentions Richard, Leonard's elder brother.

In my memo I noted that the father of the Richard Denton baptized in Fishlake, Yorkshire in 1599 was Edward Denton also baptized in Fishlake on 26 September 1568. In the record above we have an Edward Denton with sons Richard, Leonard and Edward junior all living in 1552. Perhaps this is a naming pattern that was repeated for a few generations.

I would make "spin off trees" if I were you, same as I did for George "the Chandler" Denton & his wife. You can do that by making a brother to George (I'll send you a request to add yourself as manager) and then disconnecting from parents. Then you add any additional profiles to the new family group. If they prove out to be related they are then merged or added to other families.

I have revised and re-posted my memo about the origins of Rev. Denton in the Geni Sources. The revisions start on page 5.

Under marriages, I added 2 more 1625 marriages in Yorkshire to Richard Dentons. One is Maria Duerden in Halifax and the other is Editha Oatly in Wragby.

Under Helen Windebank, I added 3 competing marriages to Richard Dentons from 1612 to 1618.

On pages 6 and 7 I revised the Coley and Emigration sections and added a Return to England section, all to more succinctly reflect our discussions above.

I also added the new marriages to the records at the end of the document.

I have also created a spreadsheet containing all of the Denton baptisms in Yorkshire between 1510 and 1610 plus Richard Denton marriages. The file includes over 450 individual Denton records. It is in CSV format so that it can be imported into various spreadsheet programs. As a spreadsheet you can sort the file by various data points, such as city, date, name, etc. For example, you can sort the data so that you can see all Dentons born in Elland in a single group or all Richard Dentons in a single group. The CSV file can be downloaded by clicking the link below.

http://www.analent.com/Denton/DentonBaptismsYorkshire1510-1610.csv

If you download the CSV file noted above, it will be easiest to point at the link, right click and then select "Save as."

I have organized the spreadsheet of Denton baptisms in Yorkshire (mentioned above) into family groupings based on villages/towns, dates and best guess. A few of them need further analysis, and more connections need to be made. I am not sure when I may do any further work on it, but I am posting it here in case anyone might find it useful.

http://www.analent.com/Denton/DentonBaptismsYorkshire1510-1610Tree.csv

The Parish of Halifax was served by the mother church in Halifax plus two chapels in Elland and Heptonstall. Of the 24 townships in Halifax, ten were attached to the main church in Halifax (Halifax, Hipperholme, Midgley, Northowram, Ovenden, Shelf, Skircoal, Southowram, Sowerby and Warley) nine were attached to Elland (Barkisland, Elland, Fixby, Greetland, Norland, Rastrick, Rishworth, Soyland and Stainland) and five were attached to Heptonstall (Erringden, Heptonstall, Langfield, Stansfield and Wadsworth). In addition there were free churches or district chapels in Coley, Illingworth Lightchffe, Luddenden, Southowram, Sowerby and Sowerby Bridge. The Preface to Crossley's Parish Registers has a good description of the Halifax records. The Parish Registers of Halifax Co. York, Vol. 1 Baptisms 1538-1593, E.W. Crossley, 1910, Preface, p. iii

After searching for baptism records for the several potential wives of Rev. Denton, I revised the memo at page 5 as follows:

"While the Adel Parish Registers say Susanna Coates was "of this parish," there are also records for two Susanna/Susan Coates born in England around that time. A Susanna Coates was born December 30, 1593 in Fulborn, Cambridgeshire to Christofer Coates and a Susan Coates was born August 19, 1604 in Petworth, Sussex to Radulphj Coates.

A second marriage record indicates that a Richardi Denton married an Editha Oatly on June 29, 1625 in Wragby, Yorkshire, but I could find no record of her birth. A third record indicates that a Richard Denton married Margaret Patterson in Costessey, Norfolk in July, 1626. A Margaret Patterson was born October 11, 1601 in Gressenhall, Norfolk to Jon Patterson. A fourth marriage record indicates that a “Richus” (an abbreviated Latinization of Richard) Denton married a Maria Duerden (of Hallife) in Halifax, Yorkshire on January 21, 1625. A Mary Duerden was born June 8, 1585 in Lancashire to Richard Duerden."

You can view or download "The Origins of Reverend Richard Denton" memo from the Sources tab or you can download it by clicking the following link:

http://www.analent.com/Denton/OriginsOfRichardDenton.pdf

This is the one that grabs me:

"“Richus” (an abbreviated Latinization of Richard) Denton married a Maria Duerden (of Hallife) in Halifax, Yorkshire on January 21, 1625. A Mary Duerden was born June 8, 1585 in Lancashire to Richard Duerden."

Sorry for the delayed response -- internet problems.

Is it the possible Lancashire connection that grabs you? I still have difficulty with a marriage to a wife at 40 and then starting a family. And, if he were of similar age, I have difficulty understanding the late start at Cambridge.

It was the Halifax location that interested me, didn't even realize her birth date. Are you sure that's her brith record? A 40 year old women in England would have been a widow. Also she's "of Halifax."

If it's her birth record, you could be seeing a 2nd marriage for his father / uncle etc.

I'm not at all sure they are the same person. The marriage record was for Maria but the birth record was for Mary. But the birth record for Mary was the only one for a Duerden that was even close for that given name. Matching birth records for these potential wives is definitely problematic.

Alternate spellings for Duerden on page 531

https://archive.org/stream/registersofparis37clay#page/530/mode/2up

Very good. Thanks. I'll check out those alternate names.

I did find a baptism record for a Maria "Durden" in Heptonstall, about 5 miles west of Halifax, on 14 Oct 1604. Her father was Thome (or Thomae). (From FindMyPast.com, Borthwick Institute for Archives.)

Another Maria Durden was baptised in Essex on 7 Dec 1600.

And four different Mary Deurdens were baptised in Rochdale, Lancashire in 1603, 1600, 1594 and 1586.

Again, thanks for the alternative spellings.

We like Hepstonstall. Hasn't that location come up before?

I, too, recall Heptonstall. I'll check that.

The Essex connection just occurred to me. Many have said that Rev. Denton returned with his sickly wife to Essex around 1658. One of the Maria Durdens noted above was baptized in Essex on 7 Dec 1600. Her father's name was Henerici Durden. That might explain a return to Essex. But how would the Yorkshire native attending Cambridge have met an Essex (east of London) woman?

Roland noted on 5/22 that Richard Belden was from Heptonstall. And, Heptonstall was one of the two "subsidiary" churches to the mother church in Halifax. (Of course, there were many other smaller churches and chapels throughout the Halifax Parish. See my note on 6/2 above.)

I checked the spreadsheet of all Dentons baptized between 1510 and 1610 but none of the baptisms were noted as being in Heptonstall. But that list is not conclusive since not all baptisms included a place.

It seemed the "return to Essex" was in order to take up a position, wasn't it? As I recall it:

- a legacy "from friends" to be claimed in person only [my interpretation: a more distant relative & too convoluted a relationship / claim to explain succinctly]
- "my wife is sickly" [but does she have known relatives & is that relevant]
- the claimed Essex burial place was not in fact his known burial place

The most obvious person for a minister to marry is a minister's daughter or sister; your Susanna Coates serving in a minister's household fits this.

The second most obvious is local in Halifax area.

Another point to keep in mind is the Rev's finances, which are a bit of a puzzlement to me. We have contradictory notes.

- he was a sizar (scholarship student)
- he was "of some means"
- part of his moving around was to find a position that actually paid enough to support him & his family
- he had a legacy

So this suggests he was "related to" people of substance, and that his wife was not bringing an income to the household.

Here's proposed family of origin for Richard Beldon of Wethersfield, who was part of the "Rowley Group" with Rev Rogers

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Baldon-18

The only reasons given for the return to England were to collect the 400 pound inheritance and his "sickly" wife. But neither of those reasons was associated with a place in England. And, while the place of return has been stated in the 19th and early 20th century histories as Essex, I have never seen any evidence or reason supporting that assertion.

Your observations are to the point. In modern parlance, the description of the headstone in Essex with a lengthy poem appears to be a hoax. I do like your observation that an obvious choice for a spouse would be a woman already associated with a church. That does make sense.

The article used to source the Wikitree is on this page, along with parish record extracts

English Origin of the Beldens of Wethersfield
by Donald E. Poste, Buffalo, NY
The American Genealogist, Vol., 45, pp. 135-138

http://www.smlawsonkinnexions.com/smlsource/baildon.htm

Minister's spouses did better if bred to the task. :). I would also venture she could read (needed for reading Bible aloud) and likely could write (more advanced Puritan ideals of educating women, not to mention educating children in remote, pre schoolhouse locations). There's a good reason you don't find too many "nobility" in Colonial New England; there wasnt a support infrastructure. But minister's wives learned how to pioneer, to build community, and serve the Lord, as well as their families. The Rev may not have intended to emigrate originally but surely his wife was willing & able, or it wouldn't have happened.

Very good points about a minister's wife. I can't help but think back to my childhood minister's wife, appropriately named Evangeline after the Longfellow poem. She and her husband were descendants of the early Pilgrims, and she exhibited some of the qualities you describe. And, thanks for the Belden references.

Church of England Ordination Requirements

A Parliamentary statute enacted in 1571 (13 Eliz. I, c. 12) stated that:

"...no man could be ordained before reaching the age of 24 or admitted to a benefice unless he were a deacon and at least 23 years old; prohibited men from being admitted to ecclesiastical benefices unless they held the BD degree or were specially admitted as a preacher by the diocesan bishop..."

That quote is from "The Oxford History of the Laws of England, Vol. 1, The Canon Law and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction from 597 to the 1640s," R. H. Helmholz (2004), p. 274. This statute remained in effect into the 1630's.

I interpret this to mean you could be ordained a deacon before turning 23. And you could be ordained as a priest at the age of 23 if you had already been ordained a deacon. Otherwise, you needed to be 24 to be ordained a priest.

An article on FamilySearch titled "Clergy of the Church of England," says:

"The person who originally founded, built or endowed the church had the right as its patron to make presentation to the bishop of a suitable person to be its incumbent. This right [is] called the advowson..."

"The person presented, who might well be a relative of the patron, had usually already been ordained by his local bishop as a deacon or priest in order to celebrate mass and hear confession. He was supposed to be over 21 and of legitimate birth. It is said that the usual age at ordination was 23 years and six months."

From https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/Clergy_of_Church_of_England_(in_En...

I interpret both of the above quotes taken together to mean that you needed to be at least 21 to become a deacon but the usual age was 23 years and six months. Then, if you had already been ordained a deacon, you could become a priest at the age of 23. Otherwise, you needed to be 24 to become priest.

According to the Church of England records, Rev. Richard Denton was ordained a deacon on 3 September 1622 and was ordained a priest on 6 August 1623. Therefore his latest birth date would have been in 1600.

The FamilySearch article ("Clergy of the Church of England") gives some good background about the clergy, their history in the 17th century, how they were financed (often by a local patron) and how curates were essentially assistant priests. The Wikipedia article about Curates might also be helpful. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curate

Below is a more extensive and informative quote from "The Oxford History of the Laws of England, Vol. 1," "Content of the Statutes," p. 273

"Within this framework. the legislators of the Elizabethan and early Stuart Parliaments found considerable room for manoeuvre. Elisabeth and the first two Stuart kings would not permit Parliament tn intrude too far into the affairs of the church. but just where the line was to he drawn no one could say for sure. And the Henrician precedents encouraged efforts to bring the law into accord with the needs of the time and the customs at the English people. at least as these needs and customs were perceived by members at Parliament..."

p. 274
"… Second. some of the parliamentary statutes amended or clarifed parts of the traditional canon law. Failure of the proposed Reformatio legum ecclesiasticarum meant that there would be no substitution of a new set of laws, but it did not mean there would be no alterations at all. Henrician and Edwardian statutes had made changes. quite apart from extinguishing papal powers. There was good reason to expect that there would be more. And there were other changes to come, although none of those that went through Parliament and received the royal assent could be called revolutionary from the perspective of legal practice. A statute on the qualifications requisite in the ordination of clergy enacted in 1571 (13 Eliz. I, c. 12) provides a representative example. It had four major goals. The act required assent by the clergy to the Thirty-Nine Articles enacted by Convocation; stated that no man could be ordained before reaching the age of 24 or admitted to a benefice unless he were a deacon and at least 23 years old; prohibited men from being admitted to ecclesiastical benefices unless they held the BD degree or were specially admitted as a preacher by the diocesan bishop; and provided that title to present to any benefice should not be lost to the patron by deprivation of an incumbent until six months had passed after notice of the vacancy had been given to the patron."

"How did the provisions square with the existing canon law? In some respects, they re-enacted it. The provision about the age required for ordination and conferral of a benefice with cure of souls was the same as the rule given in the applicable papal decretal (X 1.6.7). A second decretal had stated that the attainment of the age of 14 was enough (X 1.14.3), but the communis opinio among the medieval jurists had treated the latter decretal as a special concession for a special situation, holding that the former properly stated the common law of the church. The English statute in effect adopted this communis opinio, attempting to end any surviving argument and, at least by implication, foreclosing the possibility of dispensation in favour of infants."

The Oxford History of the Laws of England, Vol. 1, The Canon Law and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction from 597 to the 1640s, R. H. Helmholz (2004)

https://books.google.com/books?id=enU0FHy5OeAC&pg=PA274&lpg...

Going with "the usual practice" is a better operating assumption, I agree. It appears there were exceptions but there is not a reason to assume one here. Is a 1603 birth date valid then?

The Church of England's records say he was ordained a priest on 6 August 1623. Therefore, he must have been born before August 6, 1600.

I would add that in one of the citations mentioned above, it was noted that the ordinand needed to provide some evidence of his age as a prerequisite to being ordained.