John Davenport (1597–1670)

Puritan preacher and pioneer, born in Coventry, England, in 1597. He was educated at Oxford and ordained to the Anglican priesthood. He preached in London, and became famous for his learning and faithfulness to his duties. He was suspected of Puritan principles, and summoned before Archbishop Laud to answer the charges. About this time, his friend John Cotton having left the Established Church, Davenport was persuaded to do the same. He spent two years in pastoral work in Holland and then returned to England. In 1637 he sailed for Massachusetts, where he was welcomed cordially by the people of Boston. He afterward became one of the founders of the New Haven colony, one of the “seven pillars” of government, and was pastor of the First Church in Boston at the time of his death, which occurred on the 15th of March 1670. See also “The Sinful Keeping of Christmas.”