17th-century Massachusetts Bay Colony magistrate and politician
Thomas Danforth
Deputy Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony
In office 1679–1686
Preceded by
Simon Bradstreet
Succeeded by
William Stoughton (as deputy president of the Dominion of New England)
In office 1689–1692
Preceded by
Francis Nicholson (as lieutenant governor of the Dominion of New England)
Succeeded by
William Stoughton (as lieutenant governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay)
Personal details
Born
bapt. November 20, 1623 Framlingham, Suffolk, England
Died
November 5, 1699 (aged 76) Province of Massachusetts Bay
Profession
Magistrate
Signature
Thomas Danforth (baptized November 20, 1623 – November 5, 1699) was a politician, magistrate, and landowner in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. A conservative Puritan, he served for many years as one of the colony's councilors and magistrates, generally leading opposition to attempts by the English kings to assert control over the colony.
He accumulated land in the central part of the colony that eventually became a portion of Framingham, Massachusetts. His government roles included administration of territory in present-day Maine that was purchased by the colony.
Danforth was a magistrate and leading figure in the colony at the time of the Salem witch trials, but did not sit on the Court of Oyer and Terminer. Despite this, he is inaccurately depicted in Arthur Miller's 1953 play The Crucible and its movie adaptations as doing so. He is presented as a harsh and domineering governor, apparently conflated with William Stoughton,[original research?] who does not appear in Miller's play (although he and Samuel Sewall are mentioned briefly by Danforth in Act 3, Scene 1). In reality, Danforth is recorded as being critical of the conduct of the trials, and played a role in bringing them to an end.[1]
^Burr, George Lincoln Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, 1648-1706, p. 184, at Google Books
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nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. For his role as ThomasDanforth in the film adaptation of The Crucible (1996) he received the BAFTA...
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joined in this task by officials from Boston, including Deputy Governor ThomasDanforth. Hathorne's questioning of a number of individuals was characterized...
sidewalk commemorating the neighborhood's notable events. In 1680, when ThomasDanforth was Deputy Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the street was...
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practice there. He became a legislative assistant to U.S. Senator John Danforth in 1979, and was made Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S....
out to be the last governor under its original charter. His deputy, ThomasDanforth was from the commonwealth faction. During his tenure, crown agent Edward...
Danforth Collegiate and Technical Institute (known as Danforth CTI, DCTI, or Danforth), formerly Danforth Technical School and Riverdale Branch Technical...
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