Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/103

Rh gaged in the naval fight on James river in 1861, in the battle of Roanoke Island, at Newbern, and was senior officer in command of the sounds of North Carolina in 1862-4, during which time he was in several battles and expeditious in these waters, covering the flanks of the army. He became com- mander in July, 1862, and from 1864 till 1866 served in the Pacific squadron, commanding the " Lancaster " and " Powhatan." In 1868 he was promoted captain, and, after being engaged in navigation duty in Washington navy-yard during 1867-'70, was given command of the " Congress," of the European squadron.

DAVENPORT, John, clergyman, b. in Coven- try, England, in 1597; d. in Boston, Mass., 15 March, 1670. His father had been mayor of the city. lie was edu- cated at Oxford, and became chap- lain in Hilton cas- tle, near Durham. Subsequently he ]ireached in Lon- don, and later became minister of St. Stephen's church in Cole- man street. Here he became cele- brated not only for his high ac- complishments as a preacher, but for very faithful discharge of his pastoral duties. In 1625 he returned to Oxford and passed his examinations for the B. D. and M. A. degrees. During the following year, in conjunction with Drs. Richard Sibbs and William Gouge, the lord-mayor of London, and others, he devised a plan to purchase " lay impro- priations," from the profits of which a number of ministers should be maintained over destitute con- gregations. But Archbishop Laud regarded it as favorable to the cause of non-conformity, and pro- cured its condemnation, with the confiscation of the money to the king's use. A few years later Davenport was summoned before the archbishop and subjected to considerable trouble and expense on account of his puritan principles. About this time John Cotton had resigned his charge, with a view of escaping to America, and Davenport, after an interview with him, became convinced of the desirability of withdrawing from the Established church. He then resigned from St. Stephen's, and near the end of 1633 removed to Holland, where he became the colleague of Rev. John Paget, pas- tor of the English church in Amsterdam; but, as he objected to the promiscuous baptism of infants, he relinquished his pastoral work and conducted private classes until 1635. when he returned to England. Meanwhile he had been actively con- cerned in obtaining the patent of the Massachusetts colony, and had contributed both money and time in its aid. A favorable account of the success of the colony having reached him, he sailed on the " Hector," reaching Boston on 26 June, 1637. He was heartily welcomed, and was regarded as an im- portant aid in sustaining the interests of religion. During August of the same year he sat with the famous synod of Cambridge. In March, 1638, with many of the families that had accompanied him from England, he sailed from Boston to Quini- piac, which they afterward named New Haven. The party reached their new Iiome on 14 April, and on the following day, which was the Sabbath. Mr. Davenport preached under the branches of a large oak on "The Temptations of the Wilder- ness." In June of the following year "all the free planters " met in a barn for the purpose of holding a constitutional assembly. It was re- solved that only church members should be bur- gesses, and Davenport was choseji one of the "seven pillars'' to support the civil government. His carefulness in regard to the admission of mem- bers to the church gave him also the keys of po- litical power. When the regicides, William GofEe and Edward Whalley, were flying in 1660, he con- cealed them in his own house for more than a month, and delivered a sermon, for the purpose of enlisting sympathy in their behalf, from the text " Make thy shadow as the night in the midst of noonday, hide the outcasts, bewray not him that wandereth." He continued in New Haven until 1667. when, on the death of John Wilson, he was invited to succeed him as pastor of the first church in Boston. This call he accepted, and was in- stalled on 9 Dec, 1668. The " half-way covenant," which had been adopted by the synod held in Bos- ton in 1662, provided that all persons who had been baptized in their infancy, and who, on arriv- ing at years of discretion, would recognize their covenant obligations, should be allowed to bring their children for baptism. This Mr. Davenport was unwilling to accept, and he vigorously opposed its execution; consequently some of the members withdrew from the first church, and were organ- ized into the " Old South church." The contro- versy continued between the two churches for many years, but Mr. Davenport died of apoplexy soon after it began, and was buried in the tomb of his friend, John Cotton. He published many ser- mons, theological tracts, and controversial pam- phlets, and also " Instructions to Elders of the English Church " (1634); " Catechism containing the Chief Heads of Christian Religion" (1659); and "A Discourse about Civil Government in a New Plantation "(1673). — His son, John, b. in England in 1635; d. in Boston, Mass., 21 March, 1677, ap- pears to have remained in England " in care of kind friends" until 1639, when he came to New Haven in one of the only two ships that ever ar- rived at that port from England. In May, 1657, he was admitted a freeman in New Haven, and later appears to have been one of the judges in the courts of New Haven. He removed to Bos- ton in 1668, and was register of probate in 1675-'6, and also a merchant. — His son, John, clergyman, b. in Boston, 22 Feb., 1668; d. in Stamford, Conn., 5 Feb., 1731, was graduated at Harvard in 1687, and began preaching in 1690. Early in the following year he was invited to the church in Eastharapton, L. I., but declined the ofi'er, and in 1694 was ordained jiastor of the church in Stamford, where he remained until his death. Prior to his settling in Stamford he appears to have taught the Hopkins grammar-school in New Haven, and he was a member of the corporation of Yale college from 1707 till 1731.— His son, Abraham, lawyer, b. in Stamford, Conn., in 1715; d. th ^re, 20 Nov., 1789, was graduated at Yale in 1732, and practised law in his native town. Dur- ing the Revolution he was a staunch patriot, and served on the state committee of safety. He was a man of stern integrity and generous beneficence, and in times of scarcity and high prices sold the product of his farm to the poor at less than the current value. For some time he was a member of the executive council of Connecticut, for twenty-