Daniel Denton
Daniel Denton was a seventeenth-century figure instrumental in promoting English settlement on Long Island, New York. He is primarily known for authoring *A Brief Description of New York, Formerly Called New Netherlands* in 1670, a pamphlet aimed at prospective settlers that outlines the physical and cultural landscape of the colony. Born in Yorkshire, England, Denton moved to America with his father, Reverend Richard Denton, and settled on Long Island after living in Massachusetts and Connecticut. His pamphlet serves as a historical document, detailing the effects of European settlement on the native populations, particularly their decline due to conflict and disease.
Denton held various roles, including town clerk of Hempstead and clerk of Jamaica, while also engaging in investment opportunities in New Jersey. His writing reflects not only the allure of land and resources in the New World but also the tragic consequences faced by Indigenous peoples, as he noted the often devastating impact of colonization. He married twice, first to Abigail Stevenson, with whom he had three children, and later to Hannah Leonard, with whom he had six more children. Denton's contributions to both literature and the settlement discourse provide valuable insights into the early colonial period and its complexities. He passed away in 1703 in Jamaica, New York.
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Daniel Denton
Government Official
- Born: c. 1626
- Birthplace: Yorkshire, England
- Died: 1703
- Place of death: Jamaica, Long Island, New York colony
Biography
Daniel Denton was a seventeenth century promoter of English settlement on Long Island, in New York. His sole contribution to American literature, A Brief Description of New York, Formerly Called New Netherlands (1670), is a twenty-page pamphlet that describes the physical and cultural conditions of the colony, which the British had purchased in 1664, to potential settlers and other curious Britons. Aside from its utility in promoting contemporary settlement, Denton’s work is historically notable for its documentation of changes upon the North American continent in the wake of European settlement, particularly the rapid decline of native populations as a result of conflict and disease.
Daniel Denton was born in Yorkshire, England, but he traveled as a young man to the American colonies with his father, Reverend Richard Denton, who was the first Presbyterian minister in America. The family lived for a time in both Massachusetts and Connecticut but eventually settled on Long Island. Daniel Denton was appointed town clerk of Hempstead in 1650, and in 1656 he was appointed clerk of Jamaica, also on Long Island. He became involved as an investor in and promoter of settlement schemes in New Jersey. These business dealings took him to England in 1670, where he encountered so much curiosity about life in New York that he wrote his pamphlet.
Denton married Abigail Stevenson sometime before 1660, but they divorced upon his return from England in 1672 (she was accused of infidelity in his absence). Denton and Stevenson had three children together, and in 1676 Denton married Hannah Leonard, by whom he had six more children. Denton’s A Brief Description of New York, Formerly Called New Netherlands related to his readers the availability of land and opportunity in North America and offered detailed descriptions of the landscape, plants and animals of Staten Island, Manhattan,and Long Island. He described the state of relations between colonists and local Indian tribes, and famously noted, “it hath been generally observed, that where the English come to settle, a Divine Hand makes way for them; by removing or cutting off the Indians, either by Wars one with the other, or by some raging mortal Disease.” Denton’s early account of the decimation of Indian populations has been often cited by historians, and his account gave testimony of other tragedies resulting from the European settlement: Among the bounties he described as available to settlers are the now- extinct passenger pigeons. After the publication of his pamphlet and his return to America, Denton served in various government offices in New Jersey and Massachusetts, but he ultimately returned to the town of Jamaica, where he died in 1703.