Daniel Denton (c. 1626 – 1703) was an early American colonist. Denton led an expedition into the interior of northern
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
. He was one of the purchasers of what is known as the
Elizabethtown Tract in 1664, in the area of (and surrounding) present day
Elizabeth, New Jersey. In 1670 he wrote the first
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
-language description of the area.
Biography
Denton was born around 1626 in
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. He was the son of the Reverend Richard Denton, one of America's earliest Presbyterian ministers. Many Denton family genealogies claim Daniel's mother was Helen Windebank. In the 1640s he accompanied his father to Massachusetts, Connecticut, and eventually
Long Island. In 1650 he was made town clerk of
Hempstead, where his father was a pastor, and in 1656 he held the same position in the town of
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
. When his father relocated to
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348 ...
(or Halifax, Yorks, England), Denton remained on Long Island, and in 1664 he became one of the grantees of a patent at
Elizabethtown, New Jersey Elizabeth Township, also called Elizabethtown, was a township that existed in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, from 1664 until 1855.
The area was initially part of the Elizabethtown Tract, purchased from the Lenape on October 28, 16 ...
. In 1665 and 1666 he served as
justice of the peace in New York. Around 1659, Denton married Abigail Stevenson, who bore three children, and from whom he was divorced in 1672. The two elder children, Daniel and Abigail, remained with their father, while the infant daughter, Mercy, accompanied her mother, who subsequently remarried. Denton left
New York for England in 1670 (which may have occasioned his divorce), and there he evidently participated in settlement enterprises and possibly in the newly acquired (by the English) fur trade.
Denton Green, in
Hempstead, NY
The Town of Hempstead (also known historically as South Hempstead) is the largest of the three towns in Nassau County (alongside North Hempstead and Oyster Bay) in the U.S. state of New York. It occupies the southwestern part of the county, on ...
is named for Reverend Richard Denton, Daniel Denton's father.
Working
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Writing History
Denton wrote and published '' A Brief Description of New-York: Formerly Called New-Netherlands'' in London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
in 1670. The work was a promotional tract designed to encourage English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
settlement of territories recently seized from the Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
. It is one of the earliest English accounts of the geography, climate, economy, and native inhabitants of the region that includes present-day New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, Long Island, Staten Island, and New Jersey. The tract is perhaps most famous for its early statement of Manifest Destiny: how "a Divine Hand makes way for them he English settlersby removing or cutting off the Indians, either by Wars one with the other, or by some raging mortal Disease." Denton had emigrated to America in the 1640s and was involved in land speculation in the region. The linked article (below) gives a brief account of his life and career, and discusses his vision for the westward expansion of English culture and his representation of the American wilderness as an agrarian frontier.
Though other explanations have been offered, some researchers would later conclude that it was Denton who lent his name to the naming of Denville, New Jersey
Denville Township is a township in Morris County, New Jersey, located west of Manhattan. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the township's population was 16,635, reflecting an increase of 811 (+5.1%) from the 15,824 counted in the 2000 census.
...
.
See also
*Province of New Jersey
The Province of New Jersey was one of the Middle Colonies of Colonial America and became the U.S. state of New Jersey in 1783. The province had originally been settled by Europeans as part of New Netherland but came under English rule after t ...
*Colonial history of New Jersey
European colonization of New Jersey started soon after the 1609 exploration of its coast and bays by Sir Henry Hudson. Dutch and Swedish colonists settled parts of the present-day state as New Netherland and New Sweden. In 1664 the entire area, ...
References
External links
Full text of ''A Brief Description of New-York: Formerly Called New-Netherlands'' (1670) (pdf format) is online here.
A biographical article is online here.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Denton, Daniel
People of colonial New Jersey
People from Hempstead (village), New York
1626 births
1703 deaths
English emigrants