Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/159

 DAVENPORT

DAVENPORT

and preached in London where he became minis- ter of St. Stephen's in Coleman street. He resigned about 1683, withdrew from the estab- lished church and joined the Rev. John Paget of the English church in Amsterdam, Holland, as colleague. Differing with his superior on the subject of infant baptism, he returned to Eng- land in 1635, and having been informed of the success of the Massachusetts colony, he sailed on the Hei-tor, reaching Boston June 26, 1637. In August, 1637, he was a member of the synod that met at Cambridge and in March, 1638, with many of the families that had come with him from England, sailed for Quinnipiack, reaching the place April 14, 1638. They afterward named the place New Haven. In June, 1639, "all the free planters " met in constitutional assembly and resolved that only church members should be burgesses and he was elected one of the " seven pillars '■ to maintain civil government. He con- tinued to preach and govern in New Haven vmtil 1667, when the death of the Rev. John Wilson of the first church in Boston determined that society to call him as their pastor. He was installed Dec. 9, 1668, but on account of his not being willing to accept the " half-way covenant "' respecting baptism, as adopted by the synod of 1662, he withdrew from the first cliurch with some of the members and organized the " Old South Church." He died soon after and was buried in the tomb of his old friend, the Rev. John Cotton. Oxford gave him the degrees B.D. and M.A. in 162o. Besides tracts, sermons and controversial pamphlets, he published: In- structions to Elders of the English Church (1634) ; Catechism Containing the Chief Heads of Christian Beligion (1659) ; and Discourse About Civil Govern- ment in a Xeic Plantation (1673). He died in Boston, Mass., March 15, 1670.

DAVENPORT, John, representative, was born in Stamford, Conn., Jan. 16, 1752; son of Judge Abraham Davenport, grandson of the Rev. John and Martha (Gould) Selleck Davenport; great- grandson of John and Abigail (Pierson) Daven- port, and great 2 grandson of the Rev. John Davenport, the Puritan. He was graduated at Yale in 1770 and became a lawyer in Stamford. He was major in the commissary department in the Revolutionary war and represented Connecti- cut as a Federalist in the 6th-14th congresses, 1799-1817. He was married. May 7, 1780, to Mary Silverton, daughter of the Rev. Noah Wells, D.d'. He died in Stamford, Conn., Nov. 28, 1830.

DAVENPORT, Samuel Arza, representative, was born near AVatkins, Schuyler county, N.Y., Jan. 15, 1834; son of William and Phylance (Tracy) Davenport; grandson of Roswell and Esther (Heminway) Davenport, and a descend- ant of the Rev. John Davenport, who with

Theophilus Eaton and others, in April, 1638, settled at Quinnipiack, afterward known as New Haven, Conn. He attended the academy in Erie, Pa., and was graduated from Harvard law school in 1855. In 1860 he was elected district attorney in Erie county. Pa., and thereafter practised in the courts of the state and of the United States. He was a delegate to the Republican national convention at Chicago in 1888 and at Minneapolis in 1892. He was a Republican representative from the state of Pennsylvania at large in the 55th and 56th congresses, 1897-1901.

DAVENPORT, Thomas, representative, was born in Cumberland county, Va. He became a lawyer at Meadsville, Va., and was a representa- tive in the 19th, 20th, 21st, 22d, and 23d con- gresses, 1825-35. He died near Meadsville, Hali- fax county, Va., Nov. 18. 1838.

DAVENPORT, Thomas, inventor, was born in Williamstown, Vt.. July 9, 1802; son of Daniel and Hannah (Rice) Davenport. His father died in 1812, and in 1816 Thomas was apprenticed to a blacksmith with whom he continued until 1823. He acquired his education by committing to memory the contents of a few books as he worked at the forge. He began business for himself in Brandon, Vt., in 1823 and in 1827 he was married to Emily Goss.a great- granddaughter of Jonathan Carver, the celebrated American traveller. In 1833 his attention was drawn

to the subject of •— >• ^

electro-magnetism by ^p%(fyf^ '^W'V^^^*^ witnessing an exhi-

bition of the power of one of Professor Henry's electro-magnets, at the Pen field iron works. Crown Point, N.Y. He purchased the magnet and on his return home began experiment- ing. With his one magnet as a model he con- structed a number of others, and in a few months, by laboriously working out the princi- ple, common to every successful electric-motor, of repeated changes of magnetic poles, he suc- ceeded in moving a wheel about seven inches in diameter at the rate of thirty revolutions per minvite. He improved his invention until he produced a much larger machine which ran with great rapidity, and which he exhibited in 1835 at the Rensselaer institute in Troy, and at the Franklin institute in Philadelphia. Soon after- ward he built a small circular railway, the first electric railway on record, which he exhibited "in several cities. In 1837 his invention was