Public service
Soon after his arrival in the Massachusetts Bay Colony Nicholas Danforth acquired property in Cambridge, becoming one of the town's leading citizens and a member of the colony's general court (as its assembly was known).In 1643 Danforth was admitted a freeman of the colony, which conferred on him the right to vote and to participate in the colony's political affairs.
He was appointed Treasurer of Harvard College in its charter of 1650, and served as a steward of the college from 1669 to 1682. From 1659 he sat on the colony's council of assistants, and was elected deputy governor in 1679. In 1665 Danforth was member of a commission that oversaw the extension of Massachusetts colonial authority over the territories of what is now southern Maine, which colonial surveyors had determined to fall within its borders.
Danforth's politics and religion were relatively conservative, with one historian describing him as "the Pym of Massachusetts politics". In 1661 the colony was rebuked by King Charles II for its mistreatment of Quakers; the colonial government had banned Quakers from its territory under threat of death, and four of them had recently been hanged after repeatedly violating the ban. The king in his letter demanded that the colony allow Quakers and others freedom of religious expression.
Danforth was one member of a committee that was established to formulate a response. The document the committee drafted was a conservative declaration that the colonial government was essentially sovereign except where its laws conflicted with English law. (By the time the king's letter arrived the colonial government had already lessened the harsh punishments for violating bans.) Two committee members, magistrate Simon Bradstreet and minister John Norton, were sent to England to argue the colony's case.
When King Philip's War broke out in 1675 (pitting many Native American tribes of southern New England against English colonists), Danforth was involved in some of the events of the war. Many colonists distrusted the Praying Indians (Christianized Indians living peacefully in communities on the outskirts of English towns), some of whom were attacked by mobs of English settlers seeking revenge for attacks on their communities. Danforth, along with Daniel Gookin and the Indian missionary Reverend John Eliot, was a vocal supporter of the Praying Indians, and worked to prevent some of these excesses, at some personal risk. In one notable instance Danforth was aboard a small boat with other colonial officials in Boston Harbor en route to Long Island to inspect facilities for Praying Indians who had been relocated there "for their own safety" when a nearby ship apparently intentionally rammed the smaller vessel. No one was injured in the incident, but all of the older officials were dunked in the cold waters of the harbor.
In 1680 Danforth was chosen president in the District of Maine by the Massachusetts assembly. The colony had previously governed this territory (roughly the land between the Piscataqua and Kennebec Rivers in what is now southwestern Maine), but its right to do so had been stripped by King Charles after protests by the heirs of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who had long-standing claims to the area. Agents for Massachusetts then purchased the territory from the Gorges heirs, and Danforth was appointed to administer it. The territory had been devastated and many properties abandoned during King Philip's War, and Danforth acted in effect as a Lord Proprietor, making land grants and reestablishing towns such as Falmouth and North Yarmouth. Danforth was rewarded by the colony with a grant of an island in Casco Bay for this work, which he oversaw until 1686.
Throughout the 1670s, the Massachusetts leadership steadfastly refused to make changes to its administration that were demanded by King Charles. At the instigation of agent Edward Randolph, Charles made increasingly specific demands concerning freedom of religion and adherence to colonial trade regulations known as the Navigation Acts, and prepared to issue a quo warranto writ to demand the return of the colonial charter. Danforth was one of the leading opponents to making any accommodation to the king's demands.
The issue reached a peak in the 1684 election, in which Danforth stood for election as governor representing the hardline party. He was narrowly defeated by the more conciliatory Simon Bradstreet, but retained the post of deputy governor. The colony's attempts at moderation were in vain—the charter was formally annulled on June 18, 1684.
In 1686 King James II established the Dominion of New England as a new colonial entity to govern all of New England. He appointed Massachusetts native Joseph Dudley as its first governor; he was replaced later that year by Sir Edmund Andros. Both Dudley and Andros excluded Danforth from their councils, given his opposition to crown authority. The dominion reign, which did not include an elected assembly, was extremely unpopular in Massachusetts for a variety of reasons. When the Glorious Revolution deposed James, Massachusetts Puritan leaders orchestrated an uprising and arrested Andros, Dudley, and other dominion officials. In the period between the dominion's collapse and the establishment of the Province of Massachusetts Bay in 1692, the old colonial government was temporarily reestablished, and Danforth resumed his offices.
