Samuel Danforth (1626-1674) was a Puritan minister, preacher, poet, and astronomer, and an associate of the Rev. John Eliot of Roxbury, Massachusetts, known as the "Apostle to the Indians." He was born October 17, 1626, in Framlingham, Suffolk, England, the sixth of seven children of Nicholas Danforth (1589-1639) and Elizabeth Symmes Danforth (c.1596-1629). After their father died in 1639, Samuel lived with Thomas Shepard, pastor of the church in Cambridge, and later attended Harvard College, where he graduated in 1643 and remained as a tutor until 1650. His studies included astronomy, and during this time he published three almanacs (for 1647, 1648, and 1649), which are the earliest surviving American examples of the form. Read more