Dana family

The Dana family is a Boston Brahmin family that arrived in Cambridge, Massachusetts from England during the later end of the Puritan migration to New England (1620–1640).

Richard Dana, immigrant

The patriarch, Richard Dana (c.1620—1690) was said to have been born in France. A Huguenot, he would have fled to England as a result of the Edict of Restitution of 1629, and subsequently emigrated to New England, settling in Cambridge, Massachusetts by 1640.[1][2][3] However there is no evidence that any Dana was among the Huguenots that fled to England, and there was a Richard Dana born in Manchester, England in 1617 who is the right age and disappears from English records before Richard Dana arrives in Cambridge.[4]

In Cambridge, he served numerous posts in the local government, including selectman, constable, tythingman, and grand juror.[5] He married Ann Bullard about 1648.[6] The couple had fourteen children, all born in Cambridge:[7]

• John (1649–1650)
• Hannah (1651–1728), baptized as Anne, married Samuel Oldham
• Samuel (1653–1653)
• Jacob (1654–1698), married Patience Sabin
• Joseph (1656–1700), married Mary Gobell. Abiah's twin brother.
• Abiah (1656–1668), Joseph's twin brother.
• Benjamin (1660–1738), married Mary Buckminster.
• Elizabeth (1662–1702), married Daniel Woodward. Unlike her siblings, she moved to Connecticut.
• Daniel (1663–1749), married Naomi Croswell. Most of the famous Danas of Massachusetts come from Daniel Dana.
• Deliverance (1667–1741), married Samuel Hyde.
• Sarah (1669–1669)

Notable Danas descended from Richard Dana

• Charles A. Dana (philanthropist) (1881–1975): businessman, politician, philanthropist, founder of the Dana Foundation and Dana Holding Corporation
• Charles Anderson Dana (1819–1897): journalist, author, assistant Secretary of War (1864-1866)
• Charles Loomis Dana (1852–1935): neurologist at Cornell Medical College
• Charles R. Dana (1802–1868): Mormon leader and politician
• Charles S. Dana (1862–1939): Speaker of the Vermont House of Representatives
• Daniel Dana (1771–1859): president of Dartmouth College
• Edmund Trowbridge Dana (1818–1869): jurist
• Edward Salisbury Dana (1849–1935): mineralogist, physicist
• Francis Dana (1743–1811): member of the Continental Congress, signer of the Articles of Confederation
• Henry Dana (1820-1852): established the Native Police Corps of the Port Phillip District (later Victoria )
• James Dana (clergyman) (1735–1812): pastor of the First Church in New Haven
• James Dana (mayor) (1811–1890): mayor of Charlestown, Massachusetts
• James Dwight Dana (1813–1895): geologist, mineralogist, zoologist, volcanologist
• John Cotton Dana (1856–1929): librarian and museum director
• John W. Dana (1808–1867): Governor of Maine
• Joseph Dana (1742–1827): clergyman
• Judah Dana (1772–1845): US Senator
• Lowell Dana (1891–1937): college football coach
• Napoleon J.T. Dana (1822–1905): American general during the Civil War and the Mexican–American War
• Olive E. Dana (1859–?): author
• Paul Dana (journalist) (1852–1930): journalist
• Richard Dana (lawyer) (1699–1772): colonial Boston politician, a founder of the Sons of Liberty
• Richard Henry Dana, Sr. (1787–1879): lawyer, poet, critic
• Richard Henry Dana, Jr. (1815–1882): lawyer, politician, author (Two Years Before the Mast)
• Richard Henry Dana III (1851–1931): lawyer, civil service reformer, husband of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's daughter
• Samuel Dana (1767–1835): US Representative
• Samuel Dana (clergyman) (1739–1798): clergyman, judge, politician
• Samuel Luther Dana (1795–1868): chemist
• Samuel W. Dana (1760–1830): US Senator and US Representative

Other notable descendants:

• Charles Dana Gibson (1867–1944): graphic artist, created the "Gibson Girl"
• Samuel Dana Bell (1798–1868): politician and judge
• Samuel Newell Bell (1829–1889): US Representative
• William Dana Ewart (1851-1908): Inventor of the Link Belt and founder of the Link-Belt Construction Equipment Company

See also

• Boston Brahmin
• Dana

References

1. Samuel Atkins Eliot (1913). A History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1913. Cambridge Tribune. p. 189.
2. Hannah Winthrop Chapter (1907). An Historic Guide to Cambridge. p. 165.
3. Sprague, W. B. (1866). The Life of Daniel Dana. Boston, MA: J. E. Tilton. pp. 269-273. dana family.
4. Dana, Elizabeth Ellery (1956). The Dana Family in America. Wright & Potter Printing Company, 32 Derne Street, Boston. pp. 9–37.
5. Dana, Elizabeth Ellery (1956). The Dana Family in America. Wright & Potter Printing Company, 32 Derne Street, Boston. pp. 44–46.
6. Clarence Almon Torrey; Elizabeth Petty Bentley (1 January 1985). New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Genealogical Publishing Com. p. 202. ISBN 978-0-8063-1102-9.
7. Dana, Elizabeth Ellery (1956). The Dana Family in America. Wright & Potter Printing Company, 32 Derne Street, Boston. pp. 48–52.