 Thomas Danforth was born in Framlingham , Suffolk , England , and baptized on November 20 , 1623 . He was the eldest son of Nicholas Danforth ( 1589 – 1638 ) and Elizabeth Symmes ( 1596 – 1629 ) . Danforth immigrated with his father , brothers Samuel and Jonathan , and sisters Anna , Elizabeth , and Lydia to New England in 1634 , probably aboard the Griffin . The family , along with the 200 or so other passengers aboard , left England to escape persecution for their Puritan beliefs . William Laud had become archbishop of the Church of England in 1633 and begun a crackdown on Nonconformist religious practices ( such as those practiced by the more Calvinist Puritans ) that prompted a wave of migration to the New World . 
