Denton

Mercy Denton Sackett

Eighth Great Grandmother

Mercy Denton became a Whitehead in 1672. Mercy married Thomas Betts on Apr. 3, 1683 in New York. She married Joseph Sackett in 1711.

The Family Record [Newburgh] Jan. 1897. Web.
CAPT. JOSEPH SACKETT, of Newtown, Long Island, N. Y., married, about 1678, Elizabeth, dau. of Capt. Richard Betts. ... For his third wife he married Mercy, widow of Capt. Thomas Betts

The Family Record [Newburgh] Feb. 1897. Web.
Mrs. Mercy Whitehead Betts, who became the third wife of Capt. Joseph Sackett, was the daughter of Major Daniel Whitehead, of Jamaica, and Abigail, daughter of Thomas Stephenson. Major Whitehead served several years in the magistracy of Queens County and was a member of the Colonial Assembly of the province from 1691 until his death in 1704.
When in 1711 Capt. Joseph Sackett and widow Mercy Betts were married, the former was 55 years of age and had eleven children, while the latter was about 48 and had nine children, making an even score. Each had a daughter Abigail, each had a son Richard, and each had a daughter Elizabeth. Sixteen of the number married and had children, and nearly all the sons, as well as the husbands of the daughters, became men of prominence in their day and generation; while among their descendants have been Governors of States, Cabinet Officers, Bishops, Judges, Generals and Ministers of the United States to the principal Courts of Europe.

Daniel Denton

Ninth Great Grandfather

Daniel Denton was born in Yorkshire, England. Daniel married Abigail Stevenson and divorced in 1672. He married Hannah Leonard on Apr. 24, 1676 in Springfield, Massachusetts. He passed away in 1703 in New York.

Royster, Paul. Daniel Denton. Lincoln: U of Nebraska, 1984. 1-5. Web.
Daniel Denton, son of the first Presbyterian minister in America, wrote a promotional tract in 1670 to encourage English settlement of territories lately seized from the Dutch. Denton’s A Brief Description of New‐York gives an account of the geographical features and general economy of the country surrounding New York, relates some customs of the native inhabitants, and offers incentives and advice to prospective settlers.
Denton was born around 1626 in Yorkshire, England, son of Helen Windlblank and the Reverend Richard Denton. In the 1640s he accompanied his father to Massachusetts, Connecticut, and eventually Long Island. In 1650 he was made town clerk of Hempstead, where his father was pastor, and in 1656 he held the same position in the town of Jamaica. When his father removed to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Denton remained on Long Island, and in 1664 he became one of the grantees of a patent at Elizabethtown, New Jersey. In 1665 and 1666 he served as justice of the peace in New York. Around 1659, Denton married Abigail Stevenson, who bore three children, and from whom he was divorced in 1672. The two elder children, Daniel and Abigail, remained with their father, while the infant daughter, Mercy, accompanied her mother, who subsequently remarried. Denton left New York for England in 1670 (which may have occasioned his divorce), and there he evidently participated in settlement enterprises and possibly in the newly acquired (by the English) fur trade.
A Brief Description of New‐York: Formerly Called New‐Netherlands is a twenty‐five‐page pamphlet describing the topography, climate, soil, fauna and flora, settlements, crops, products, trades and occupations of the area between the Hudson and Delaware rivers, including Manhattan Island, Staten Island, and Long Island. Denton also included in his pamphlet some anecdotal relations of Indian customs and society. Quite understandably, he did not describe the Indians as a threatening presence, noting that “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.” Likewise, Denton gave little attention to the Dutch inhabitants of New York, other than to remark how much more effective British force would be in controlling the Indians.
The recurrent theme of Denton’s tract is the New World’s availability of land, and it lays its greatest stress on the material advantages and opportunities of colonial life: “here any one may furnish himself with land, and live rent‐free, yea, with such a quantity of land, that he may weary himself with walking over his fields of Corn, and all sorts of Grain.” The pamphlet’s strongest appeal is to “those which Fortune hath frowned upon in England, to deny them an inheritance amongst their Brethren, . . . [who] may procure here inheritances of land and possessions, stock themselves with all sorts of Cattel, enjoy the benefit of them whilst they live, and leave them to the benefit of their children when they die.” Denton identified America (specifically New York) with this particular trajectory of success, and his tract represents an early prototype of the myth of American soil as the “land of opportunity”: “How many poor people in the world would think themselves happy, had they an Acre or two of Land, whilst here is hundreds, nay thousands of Acres, that would invite inhabitants.”
Denton’s pamphlet reflects other characteristic colonial attitudes as well—most notably a sense of the self‐reliant egalitarian flavor of American society, “where a Waggon or Cart gives as good content as a Coach, and a piece of their home‐made Cloth, better than the finest Lawns or richest Silks,” and a typically Puritan reference to America as the new Promised Land: “I must needs say, that if there be any terrestrial Canaan, ‘tis surely here, where the Land floweth with milk and honey.” Denton was anxious in this last passage to be understood in a literal as well as typological sense, and indeed the secular note dominates throughout the tract. Denton’s early vision of the westward expansion of English culture and his mode of representing the American wilderness as an agrarian frontier were well on their way to becoming conventional tropes in a formalized rhetoric of the New World. Denton’s book exemplifies the migration of ideas from New England southward and westward across the continent, and also the capacity of those ideas to adapt and develop in response to local circumstances.
After A Brief Description of New‐York, Denton published nothing more. He returned to America in 1673, settling in Piscataway in East Jersey, where he was appointed magistrate. The next year, however, he removed to Springfield, Massachusetts, where he taught school and served as the town recorder. In 1676 he married Hannah Leonard by whom he had six children—Hannah, Samuel, Sarah, Elizabeth, Thomas, and Alice. He returned to Jamaica, New York, in 1684, became county clerk of Queens County in 1689, and died intestate in 1703.

Abigail Stevenson Whitehead

Ninth Great Grandmother

Abigail Stevenson married Daniel Denton and divorced in 1672. Abigail married Daniel Whitehead in 1672 in Jamaica, Long Island, New York. She was buried on Oct. 15, 1717 in Jamaica.

"Abstracts of Wills." Collections of the New-York Historical Society. Vol. XXV. 1893. 396-99. Web.
In the name of God, Amen. I, Daniel Whitehead, of Jamaica, in Queens County. I leave to my son, Jonathan Whitehead, besides what I have formerly given him by deed, all my lands, tenements, and appurtenances in Jamaica, between the mill and Wellins path, lying westward of the mill, to John Okeys land, and southwest so far as my land runs. And also all my land on Cow neck in the Town of Hempstead. And all that my ¼ part of the mill standing on Gildersleve Creek, in said neck. And also all my meadow on the Old Town neck, in Jamaica, except that meadow I purchased of Mr. Anthony Waters, deceased, with all the hereditaments, To him my son Jonathan and his heirs, and in default of issue, then to my son Thomas Whitehead and his heirs. I also give to my son Jonathan, my negro man Joe. I leave to my loving wife, Abigail, my dwelling house I now live in, with the land adjoining, bounded on the south by the road to the ferry, on the west by Thomas Smith, north by Anthony Waters, And so much of my meadow as she shall have occasion for, during her life, and after her decease to my son Thomas and his heirs, and in default of such, then to my son Jonathan. I leave to my wife, my negro woman Mary, for life, and then to my daughter Deborah, wife of Thomas Hicks. I leave also to my son Thomas, all that my lot of land lying in the town of Jamaica, by the land of Colonel Henry Filkin; Also all my land on Stewards neck and Quarelsome neck, in Jamaica; Also the lot of land Thomas Chambers now lives on, and my other three lots of land lying by the same, within the bounds of the Township of Flushing; Also all that my lot of land lying as well within as without the Long neck fence in Jamaica; As also all my meadow in Long neck, And all my land and meadow in Hewtree neck, in the bounds of Jamaica, with all the privileges, etc., And also my Indian boy named Cupid. I leave to my grand son, Whitehead Hicks, the second son of my son in law, Thomas Hicks, the husband of my daughter Deborah, all that my land and meadow lying and being within the bounds and Township of Flushing, except the four 20 acre lots given to my son Thomas, To him and his heirs, and in default of such heirs, then to my daughter Deborah and her heirs. I leave to my son in law, Anthony Waters, the present husband of my daughter Elizabeth, all that land now in the possession of my brother, Daniel Whitehead, lying on the east side of the Plain run, joining to Hempstead bounds, That is to say, after the death of my said brother; And also all that my meadow lying in Old Town neck in Jamaica, which I bought of his father, Mr. Anthony Waters, deceased; And also all that my lot of land on the Hills in Jamaica, which was formerly Joseph Thurstons, deceased, To him and his heirs. I leave to my daughter Mary, widow of Thomas Burroughs, all my land at a place called Quaspack, in Orange County, up Hudson river, with all the privileges, during her life, and then to her daughter, Mary Burroughs, and to her heirs. I leave to my son in law, Jacob Doughty, the husband of my daughter Amy, £50. I leave to my wife Abigail, one third of all goods and chattels and the rest to my children above mentioned and to Mercy, wife of Thomas Betts. I leave to my friend, John Hubbard, all that my ⅓ of meadow lying at Oldfields Island, which I bought with my brother, Thomas Oakley, and John Bayley, with all the rights thereto belonging, during the time of his continuance in the work of the ministry in this town of Jamaica, and if he continue in the ministry here till his death, then to his heirs, but if not then to my son Jonathan. I give to the town of Jamaica the sum of £20, towards the maintenance of a Grammar School, for the education of youths within the said town; to be paid in three years after my decease, if there be such a school erected in said town. If not, then it is to be put at interest for three years longer, but if the school is not then established, then to go to my heirs. I leave to my brother, David Whitehead, £20. To Jonathan, son of Jonathan Stevenson, of Norwalk, Connecticut, deceased, £20. I give the £30 which is due to me from the estate of my son in law Daniel Denton, unto his children, and to Gabriel Loffe; "begotten upon the body of Deborah Loffe, the present wife of Gabriel Loffe;" viz., to Daniel Denton, Abigail Denton and Deborah Denton, and to Abigail and Mary Stebbins daughters of Benjamin and Abigail Stebbins, my son and daughter in law. I leave to Catharine, daughter of my brother, David Whitehead, two cows. All the rest of my lands, whether in Queens County or in Nissequogue [Smithtown] in Suffolk County, or elsewhere, are to be sold by my executors. I appoint my wife and son Jonathan executors, and I leave to my loving friends, Thomas Stevenson and Lieutenant Thomas Smith, each £5, and make them overseers.
Dated November 13, 1703. Witnesses, Andrew Gibb, J. Lenoir, S. Clowes.
Codicil. I also give to my daughter Mary, widow of Thomas Burroughs, all that my certain lot of land in Jamaica town, next to the house and lot of Colonel Filkin, containing 2 acres, to her and her heirs and assigns. I also give to my daughter Amy, wife of Jacob Doughty, all that my certain house and lot in Jamaica now in tenure of Samuel Resau. I leave to Mercy, wife of Thomas Betts, £50.
Dated December 9, 1703. Witnesses, John Foreman, S. Clowes, David Waters. Proved in Jamaica, October 30, 1704.
[Note.—The land at Quaspeck is now Rockland Lake in Rockland Co. Mary Burroughs married Brinley Sylvester.—W. S. P.]

Wolfe, Janet Chevalley, and Robert Wolfe. "Notes for Daniel Whitehead and Abigail Stevenson." U of Michigan. Web.
Daniel Denton returned to New York to find that his wife Abigail was pregnant. She admitted infidelity, naming Daniel Whitehead of Jamaica (son of Daniel) as the father. At the Court of Sessions in June 1672, she stood "accused for her incontinency, and committing Adultery in ye absence of her Husband, then about his Occasions in Europe." The lower court sent the case up to Governor Francis Lovelace and his Council, from whom Daniel obtained a bill of absolute divorce on 16 June 1672. On the first Wednesday of October (5 October 1672), Mrs. Denton petitioned the New York General Court of Assizes concerning remarriage. Expressing a great sense of grief and sorrow for her miscarriage against her "late" husband, she had undergone the censure of the law. But she pointed out that since the divorce he was at liberty to remarry. Citing the temptations of a single life, and the need of support for herself and three children on five shillings a week plus what she could earn, she pleaded that in a short time she would become a charge of the town. For that reason she asked permission to remarry. The court acceded, and that same month Abigail married Daniel Whitehead

Richard Denton

Tenth Great Grandfather

Richard Denton was born in Yorkshire, England.

Davis, John A. "The Beginning of the American Presbyterian Church." The Presbyterian and Reformed Review. Vol. VII. Philadelphia, 1896. 68. Web.
Rev. Richard Denton was born in Yorkshire, England, 1586, of good and honored parents. He graduated from Cambridge, 1623, and for at least seven years after was pastor of the Presbyterian chapel (Coley) at Halifax, Yorkshire, England.