John Davenport
Born:
Coventry, England; 1597
Died: Boston, Massachusetts;
March 1669/1670
John
Davenport, Congregational clergyman and founder of New Haven,
attended Merton and Magdalen Colleges, Oxford, and began preaching
at a private chapel in 1615. He was appointed lecturer and
curate
of St. Lawrence Jewry Church in London in 1619 and five years
later was chosen vicar of St. Stephen's. Doubts about his religious
orthodoxy almost prevented Davenport from serving in this post,
but the intervention of powerful friends and his own declaration
that he was not a Puritan satisfied the London authorities.
By
1629, however, Davenport clearly identified with the Puritan
cause and contributed ₤50 to the Massachusetts Bay Company.
Three years later he thought seriously about emigrating, and
in 1633
when William Laud, archenemy of the Puritans, became Archbishop
of Canterbury, Davenport resigned his position and fled to
Holland.
In 1637, with the encouragement of John Cotton in Massachusetts
and his friend Theophilus Eaton (1590-1657/58), a prosperous
London
merchant, Davenport decided to sail to America. Eaton joined
him, as did a number of families from St. Stephen's parish.
Although
the members of the Davenport-Eaton company hoped to prosper economically
in the New World, religious considerations were paramount among
these strict and doctrinaire Puritans who hoped to establish
a
biblical commonwealth in New England.
The
company arrived in Massachusetts in June 1637. Davenport and Eaton
quickly became dissatisfied with the land offered them and discouraged
by the Anne Hutchinson Antinomian controversy. They decided, therefore,
to establish an independent colony at Quinnipiac, the site of
a good harbor. Davenport and Eaton removed to the site of New
Haven in April 1638. Eaton became governor of the new colony,
and Davenport was installed as minister of the New Haven church.
The colony grew to include the towns of Milford, Guilford, Branford,
Stamford, and Southold, Long Island, but never prospered as its
founders intended. The restoration of Charles II to the English
throne put the tiny commonwealth that lacked any legal foundation
in imminent danger. New Haven's cause was scarcely aided by the
sanctuary it gave to regicides Edward Whalley and John Goffe,
reputedly secreted for a time in Davenport's own home. Davenport
unsuccessfully opposed the absorption of New Haven into Connecticut--as
prescribed by the Charter of 1662. With the battle lost, Davenport
felt that his life's work had failed, and in 1667 he accepted
the pastorate of the First Church in Boston. The New Haven church
opposed his dismission, and he was only installed in Boston a
few months before his death in March 1669/70.
John
Davenport was an eminent scholar and theologian justly acclaimed
for his crucial role in the founding and early history of New
Haven.
For
Further Reading
Andrews,
Charles M. The Rise and Fall of the New Haven Colony. New
Haven, Connecticut, 1936. Tercentenary Pamphlet XLVIII.
Calder,
Isabel, ed. The Letters of John Davenport, Puritan Divine.
New Haven, Connecticut, 1937.
*
Entry under revision.
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