Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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Davenport, John, 1597-1670

Colonist; born in Coventry, England, in 1597. Educated at Oxford, he entered the ministry of the Established Church. He finally became a Non-conformist, was persecuted, and retired to Holland, where he engaged in secular teaching in a private school. He returned to London and came to America in June, 1637, where he was received with great respect. The next year he assisted in founding the New Haven colony, and was one of the chosen “seven pillars” (see New Haven). He concealed Goffe and Whalley, two of the “regicides,” in his house, and by his preaching induced the people to protect them from the King's commissioners sent over to arrest them (regicides). In 1668 he was ordained minister of the first church in Boston, and left New Haven. He was the author of several controversial pamphlets, and of A discourse about Civil government in a New plantation. He died in Boston, March 15, 1670.