DENTON, Richard, clergyman, born in Yorkshire, England, in 1586; died in Essex, England, in 1662. He was graduated at Cambridge in 1602, and was for seven years Presbyterian minister of Coley chapel, parish of Halifax, in the north of England. The act of uniformity compelled him to relinquish his charge and to immigrate to America, where he arrived in 1630, in company with John Winthrop and Sir Richard Saltonstall. He first went to Watertown, Massachusetts; then in 1635 he began the settlement of Wethersfield. In 1641 his name appears among the early settlers of Stamford, and in 1644 he is recorded as one of the original proprietors of Hempstead, L. I., where he established a Presbyterian Church in 1644. In 1659 he returned to England, where he remained until his death. He wrote "Soliloquia Sacra," which was much praised by his contemporaries.

His son, Daniel, wrote "A Brief Description of New York" (London, 1670), which was republished in New York in 1845, with notes by Gabriel Furman. This book is supposed to be the first, printed description in English of New York and New Jersey der Hamilton, on the centennial of the formation of the New York State constitution, on the life and character of Garfield, on the unveiling of the Bartholdi statue of Liberty, and on the 32d anniversary of the Young Men's Christian association. Yale gave him the degree of LL.D. in 1887.