Capt. Nicholas Danforth was baptized on 1 Mar 1589 in Framlingham, co. Suffolk, England. He took the oath of freeman on 3 Mar 1635/36. He died on 8 Apr 1638 in Cambridge, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts. 

NICHOLAS DANFORTH of Framlingham, Suffolk, England, was a man of position, with influence in civil and church affairs. Though a Puritan with religious convictions, there is nothing on record to indicate that he was persecuted because of them. He was a church warden and a generous tither. Cotton Mather said of him, "He was a gentleman of such estate and repute in the world, that it cost him a considerable sum to escape the knighthood which King Charles I imposed on all of so much per annum". He was the founder of the Framlingham Lecture in Suffolk "where he had a fine mannour".

The wife of Nicholas is believed to have been Elizabeth, daughter of William Symmes, a minister of Canterbury, and sister of Rev. Zachariah Symmes, the long-time minister of Charlestown, Ma. Together on the Griffin in 1634 coming to New England were Rev. Symmes, his wife and six children; Rev. John Lothrop and family, later minister at Scituate; and William and Anne Hutchinson and their family. Nicholas, now nearly fifty years of age, may have been influenced by them to leave his comfortable home in East Anglia where his wife Elizabeth had recently died, in 1629, and join them on the Griffin, bringing with him his six young children. The Griffin was a ship of some 300 tons carrying "about 100 passengers and cattle for the plantations", arriving in Boston September 18, 1634.

Although not sworn a freeman until March 3, 1636, Mr. Danforth was chosen a "townsman" (selectman) of New-Towne and re-elected in 1636 and 1637, serving until his death in April, 1638. In December, 1635, he and two others were appointed to build a bridge or causeway at the southerly end of present Dunster street "down to the low water mark" to accommodate the patrons of the ferry, and to set up a broad ladder on the farther side of the river for convenience in landing. He often served as surveyor for the town and colony, helping to "sett out the bounds" of Concord, of Roxbury in 1636, and in 1637 to establish the boundary between Dedham and Dorchester. He resided on what is now Bow street near Mount Auburn street, New Towne, and served as a deputy to the General Court, attending five sessions in 1636 and 1637. These sessions gave the town its present name of Cambridge and made the first recorded appropriation for public education in New England, œ400 for the establishment of Harvard College. He was selected as one of eleven men given the responsibility of selling at retail "strong water", an early effort to place the sale of liquor in the hands of leading citizens.

Historians have been generous in their praise of Nicholas Danforth and his noted sons. One wrote, "He was the progenitor of a family in New England ....... more than ordinarily distinguished in their day and generation, and whose name, honorable alike in Church and State (has been) the ornament and the oracle of each of the learned Professions in turn." Another called him the "founder of a veritable dynasty."

Danforth is a corruption of Dane's Ford, the combination of a personal name and a place, a shallow stream. The spelling Danford is also seen.


He was married to Elizabeth Symmes on 11 Feb 1618 in Aspall Parish, co. Suffolk, England.  

Elizabeth Symmes was born about 1595. She died on 20 Feb 1628/29 in Framlingham, co. Suffolk, England. She was buried on 22 Feb 1628/29 in Framlingham, co. Suffolk, England. Children were:

i. Elizabeth Danforth was born in 1619 in Framlingham, co. Suffolk, England. Savage lists birth date as 1618. She was baptized on 3 Aug 1619 in Framlingham, co. Suffolk, England. She died on 26 Jun 1680.
ii. Mary Danforth was baptized on 3 May 1621 in Framlingham, co. Suffolk, England.
iii. Hon. Thomas Danforth was born in 1622 in Framlingham, co. Suffolk, England. He was baptized on 20 Nov 1623 in Framlingham, co. Suffolk, England. He died on 5 Nov 1699 in Cambridge, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts.
iv. Anna Danforth was born about 1624 in Framlingham, co. Suffolk, England. She was baptized on 3 Sep 1622 in Framlingham, co. Suffolk, England. She died on 2 Dec 1704 in Lexington, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts.
v. Lydia Danforth was born about 1624 in Framlingham, co. Suffolk, England. She was baptized on 24 May 1625 in Framlingham, co. Suffolk, England. She died on 16 Aug 1686 in Old Saybrook, Middlesex Co., Connecticut.
vi. Samuel Danforth was born in 1626 in Framlingham, co. Suffolk, England. He was baptized on 17 Oct 1626 in Framlingham, co. Suffolk, England. He died on 19 Nov 1674 in Roxbury, Suffolk Co., Massachusetts.
vii. Capt. Jonathan Danforth Sr..
viii. Martha Danforth.