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"John Davenport (April 9, 1597 - March 15, 1670) was a puritan clergyman and
co-founder of the American colony of
New Haven.
Born in Coventry, Warwickshire, England to a wealthy family (his father
was mayor of Coventry), Davenport was educated at Oxford University. After
serving as the chaplain of Hilton Castle he became the minister of St.
Stephen Coleman Street in London. In 1625 he returned to Oxford for further
studies.
Following a disagreement over the inclusion of the destitute in church
congregations, in 1633 he resigned from the established church and moved to
Holland. In 1637 he acquired the patent for a colony in
Massachusetts
and sailed with much of his congregation for Boston. In March of 1638 he
co-founded the Colony of New Haven along with his classmate, Theophilus
Eaton, a wealthy merchant from London who became the colony's first
governor. He was a large proponent of education in his colony and is often
credited with the co-founding of Hopkins School.
As a burgess, he was an important figure in the colony up until his
departure to Boston in 1669. He died in Boston of apoplexy in 1670 and was
buried in the same tomb as John Cotton.
Yale University's Davenport College is named in his honor.
It is a possibility that many of the so-called "self portraits" that
Rembrandt did of himself, were in fact portraits of Davenport since
Rembrandt was sometimes known to associate with those who ministered to the
destitute, and known pictures of John Davenport bear a striking resemblance
to Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. The portrait that accompanies this
article purports to have been done during Davenport's lifetime, although it
is dated to 1670 when he died.
Recently, DNA evidence has proven that his grandfather, Edward Davenport
of Coventry, was descended from the Davenports of Henbury. In addition, the
DNA evidence has established his descent from Ormus de Davenport, of
Cheshire, and also his relationship to the present day Lord Bromley
Davenport."
Content courtesy of
Wikipedia with
relevant CelebrateBoston internal links added. Distributed under the
GNU Free Documentation License. This page will not be indexed by search
engines. w200701
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