Editing Thomas Danforth (section)

==Public service==
[[Image:HarvardCollegeCharter.jpeg|thumb|left|The original charter of [[Harvard College]]]]
Soon after his arrival in the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] Nicholas Danforth acquired property in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]], becoming one of the town's leading citizens and a member of the colony's general court (as its assembly was known). He died in 1638, leaving his lands and the care of his younger children to Thomas.  In 1643 Danforth was admitted a [[freeman (Colonial)|freeman]] of the colony, which conferred on him the right to vote and to participate in the colony's political affairs.<ref name=PS30/>

He was appointed [[Treasurer]] of [[Harvard College]] in its charter of 1650, and served as a steward of the college from 1669 to 1682.<ref name=May18/> From 1659 he sat on the colony's council of assistants, and was elected deputy governor in 1679.<ref name=PS30/>  In 1665 Danforth was member of a commission that oversaw the extension of Massachusetts colonial authority over the territories of what is now southern [[Maine]],<ref>Martin, p. 16</ref> which colonial surveyors had determined to fall within its borders.<ref>Mayo, pp. 225–226</ref>

Danforth's politics and religion were relatively conservative, with one historian describing him as "the [[John Pym|Pym]] of Massachusetts politics".<ref name=Doyle134>Doyle, p. 134</ref>  In 1661 the colony was rebuked by [[Charles II of England|King Charles II]] for its mistreatment of [[Quakers]]; the colonial government had banned Quakers from its territory under threat of death, and [[Boston martyrs|four of them]] had recently been hanged after repeatedly violating the ban.  The king in his letter demanded that the colony allow Quakers and others freedom of religious expression.<ref>Doyle, pp. 108–109, 134</ref> 

Danforth was one member of a committee that was established to formulate a response.  The document the committee drafted was a conservative declaration that the colonial government was essentially sovereign except where its laws conflicted with English law.  (By the time the king's letter arrived the colonial government had already lessened the harsh punishments for violating bans.)<ref>Doyle, pp. 134–135</ref>  Two committee members, magistrate [[Simon Bradstreet]] and minister [[John Norton (Puritan divine)|John Norton]], were sent to England to argue the colony's case.<ref>Doyle, p. 136</ref>

When [[King Philip's War]] broke out in 1675 (pitting many Native American tribes of southern New England against English colonists), Danforth was involved in some of the events of the war.  Many colonists distrusted the [[Praying Indian]]s (Christianized Indians living peacefully in communities on the outskirts of English towns), some of whom were attacked by mobs of English settlers seeking revenge for attacks on their communities.  Danforth, along with [[Daniel Gookin]] and the Indian missionary Reverend [[John Eliot (missionary)|John Eliot]], was a vocal supporter of the Praying Indians, and worked to prevent some of these excesses, at some personal risk.<ref>Pulsipher, pp. 147–149</ref>  In one notable instance Danforth was aboard a small boat with other colonial officials in [[Boston Harbor]] en route to [[Long Island (Massachusetts)|Long Island]] to inspect facilities for Praying Indians who had been relocated there "for their own safety" when a nearby ship apparently intentionally rammed the smaller vessel.  No one was injured in the incident, but all of the older officials were dunked in the cold waters of the harbor.<ref>Pulsipher, pp. 147, 154–155</ref>

In 1680 Danforth was chosen president in the District of Maine by the Massachusetts assembly. The colony had previously governed this territory (roughly the land between the [[Piscataqua River|Piscataqua]] and [[Kennebec River|Kennebec]] Rivers in what is now southwestern Maine), but its right to do so had been stripped by King Charles after protests by the heirs of Sir [[Ferdinando Gorges]], who had long-standing claims to the area.  Agents for Massachusetts then purchased the territory from the Gorges heirs, and Danforth was appointed to administer it.<ref>''York Deeds'', p. 9</ref>  The territory had been devastated and many properties abandoned during King Philip's War, and Danforth acted in effect as a [[Lord Proprietor]], making land grants and reestablishing towns such as [[Falmouth, Maine|Falmouth]] and [[North Yarmouth, Maine|North Yarmouth]].  Danforth was rewarded by the colony with a grant of an island in [[Casco Bay]] for this work, which he oversaw until 1686.<ref>Martin, p. 17</ref>

Throughout the 1670s, the Massachusetts leadership steadfastly refused to make changes to its administration that were demanded by King Charles.<ref>Adams (2001), pp. 377–386</ref>  At the instigation of agent [[Edward Randolph (colonial administrator)|Edward Randolph]], Charles made increasingly specific demands concerning freedom of religion and adherence to colonial trade regulations known as the [[Navigation Acts]], and prepared to issue a ''[[quo warranto]]'' writ to demand the return of the colonial charter. Danforth was one of the leading opponents to making any accommodation to the king's demands.<ref>Adams (2001), pp. 391–394</ref>  

The issue reached a peak in the 1684 election, in which Danforth stood for election as governor representing the hardline party.  He was narrowly defeated by the more conciliatory Simon Bradstreet, but retained the post of deputy governor.<ref>Doyle, p. 222</ref><ref name=Harris316/>  The colony's attempts at moderation were in vain&mdash;the charter was formally annulled on June 18, 1684.<ref>Adams (1886), p. 212</ref>

In 1686 King [[James II of England|James II]] established the [[Dominion of New England]] as a new colonial entity to govern all of [[New England]].  He appointed Massachusetts native [[Joseph Dudley]] as its first governor; he was replaced later that year by Sir [[Edmund Andros]]. Both Dudley and Andros excluded Danforth from their councils, given his opposition to crown authority. The dominion reign, which did not include an elected assembly, was extremely unpopular in Massachusetts for a variety of reasons. When the [[Glorious Revolution]] deposed James, Massachusetts Puritan leaders orchestrated [[1689 Boston revolt|an uprising]] and arrested Andros, Dudley, and other dominion officials. In the period between the dominion's collapse and the establishment of the [[Province of Massachusetts Bay]] in 1692, the old colonial government was temporarily reestablished, and Danforth resumed his offices.<ref name=Harris316>Harris, p. 316</ref>

===Salem trials===
{{main|Salem witch trials}}
In 1692, Danforth was acting governor during the early months of the witch hysteria in [[Salem, Massachusetts|Salem]] and his name appears once in the Salem court records as part of a council which observed the proceedings on April 11.<ref>Woodward, ''Records of Salem Witchcraft'', Copied from the Original Documents, 1864</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2014}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=Rn0PAAAAYAAJ|title=Records of Salem Witchcraft: Copied from the Original Documents ...|date=December 25, 1864|publisher=Priv. print. for W.E. Woodward|via=Google Books}}</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2014}}{{full citation needed|date=July 2014}} but his involvement ended in May upon the arrival of Sir [[William Phips]], the first royal governor under the new charter of the [[Province of Massachusetts Bay]].<ref>Burr, George Lincoln {{Google books|Rm2VLpGmhqQC|Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, 1648-1706}}<!-- Introduction to Phips Letters --></ref>{{page needed|date=July 2014}} Danforth was not assigned to the special [[Court of Oyer and Terminer]] that Phips established shortly thereafter, and he was opposed to the manner in which magistrate [[William Stoughton (Massachusetts)|William Stoughton]] conducted the witch trials, which unconditionally accepted [[spectral evidence]] in its proceedings and vigorously presumed the guilt of the accused. In a letter by Thomas Brattle on October 8, 1692, Danforth is described as among a select group of "several about the Bay, men for understanding, judgement and piety... that do utterly condemn the said proceedings, and do freely deliver their judgment..."<ref>Burr, George Lincoln {{Google books|Rm2VLpGmhqQC|Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, 1648-1706|page=184}}</ref>

After the Court of Oyer and Terminer stopped sitting, a new [[Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature|Superior Court]] was created, and, in December 1692, Stoughton was elected by the governor's council to head the court, defeating Danforth by three votes. 

In the beginning of 1693, Danforth participated in Superior Court sessions overseen by Stoughton, which heard witchcraft cases. However, these sessions no longer considered spectral evidence as valid. When Stoughton temporarily removed himself to protest Governor Phips' ban on spectral evidence and other related reforms, Danforth sometimes presided over the court.

Danforth was known to be sympathetic to the plight of individuals accused, relocating some of them to his lands west of Boston in Framingham.<ref>Parr and Swope, p. 38</ref>

[[Sarah Cloyce]], a woman accused during the Salem witch trials, relocated with her husband to a property owned by Danforth and settled into a house on Salem End Road constructed in 1693.<ref>{{cite news |title=House tied to Salem witch trials rises from near-ruin |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/352290532/ |access-date=18 March 2024 |work=Lancaster Eagle-Gazette |date=31 Oct 2017}}</ref> In 1992, The [[Boston Globe]] published a historian's suggestion that Danforth might have facilitated Cloyce's escape from Ipswich jail and subsequently concealed her family on his property.<ref>{{cite news |title=Family retraces Salem connection |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/440124002/ |access-date=18 March 2024 |work=The Boston Globe |date=13 December 1992}}</ref>