Born Framlingham, Suffolk, England, 17 October 1626
Died Roxbury, Massachusetts, USA, 19 November 1674
An English-born American Congregationalist (Puritan) minister, Samuel Danforth is the author of some early colonial almanacs as well as of a detailed account on the comet of 1665 (C/1664 W1), one of the very earliest pieces of astronomical literature published in America.
Son of Nicholas Danforth (1589–1639) and Elizabeth Symmes Danforth (born circa1596), Samuel Danforth and his five surviving siblings emigrated with their father to Massachusetts in 1634, their mother having died in 1629. The Danforths soon began to form matrimonial and other fruitful associations with the local colonial elite. Thus Thomas Danforth (1623–1699), Samuel’s elder brother, was for a time Treasurer of Harvard College, Deputy Governor of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, and Justice of its Superior Court. As such, in 1691–1693, he was involved in the Salem trials, taking a moderate stance.
Upon his father’s...
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Danforth, Samuel. Paul Royster, Editor and Transcriber. An Astronomical Description of the Late Comet or Blazing Star; As it appeared in New-England in the 9th, 10th, 11th, and in the beginning of the 12th Moneth, 1664. Together with a Brief Theological Application thereof. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Samuel Green, 1665.[Online edition, by Royster, Faculty Publications, UNL Libraries.]
Danforth, Samuel. Paul Royster, Editor and Transcriber. “Samuel Danforth’s Almanack Poems and Chronological Tables 1647–1649” (1649). [Online Edition, by Royster, Faculty Publications, UNL Libraries. Paper 36.]
May, John Joseph, Compiler (1902). DanforthGenealogy. Boston, Massachusetts: Charles H. Pope.
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Bellemare, P.M. (2014). Danforth, Samuel. In: Hockey, T., et al. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_9252
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