He settled on Long Island, and was Town Clerk of Hempstead in 1650. Upon the organization of the town of Jamaica, he became its first clerk in 1656, and was re-elected in 1657 and 1661. The next year he was appointed one of its magistrates. He was one of the company that secured a deed, October 28, 1664, for the land at and about Elizabeth town, New Jersey, known as the ' Elizabethtown Grant,' or patent. He was appointed a Justice of the Peace by Governor Nichols, March 16, 1665, and again in 1666.³

As the Flemish breed of horses introduced by the Dutch had greatly deteriorated, large herds of undersized animals running wild on Long Island and the upper part of Manhattan, it was fostered to have annual race-meetings at Hempstead. They were not designed so much 'for the divertisement of the youth alone' as for the encouragement of the bettering the breed of horses' which had suffered such neglect. At the time of these races in the month of May, it was ordered, the annual muster of all the militia of Long Island should be held at Hempstead. Here, toward the middle of the island, says the first separate account of the province in the English tongue, written by Daniel Denton and published at London in 1670, . . .' lieth a plain sixteen miles long and four broad upon which plain grows fine grass that makes exceeding good hay and is very good pasture for sheep and other cattle; where you shall find neither stick nor stone to hinder the horse-heels or endanger them in their races, and once a year the best horses in the island are brought hither to try their swiftness, and the swiftest rewarded with a silver cup, two being annually procured for that purpose.' The little book, published at London in 1670, in which Daniel Denton spoke of the horse-races on Long Island was the first English publication relating wholly to the Dutch province. It is fully described on its own title-page: 'A Brief Description of NEW YORK: Formerly Called New Netherlands. With the Places thereunto Adjoining. Together with the Manner of its Situation, Fertility of the Soyle, Healthfulness of the Climate, and the Commodities thence produced. Also Some Directions and Advice to such as shall go thither: An Account of what Commodities they shall take with them; The Profit and Pleasure that may accrue to them thereby. Likewise A Brief RELATION of the Customs of the Indians there.' Daniel Denton, a son of Richard Denton a Presbyterian minister who had been one of the original patentees of Hempstead, was during the Dutch period town clerk of Hempstead and of Jamaica. In 1665 he was one of the deputies from Jamaica to the Hempstead meeting and one of the first justices appointed by Governor Nicolls. His book tells that it was published to attract settlers to a province which until recently had been 'new or unknown to the English.' Certainly this was true, for the edition of 1667 of Heylin's Cosmography ignores the fact that the province then belonged to England and says that it contained few people and 'only one village.' Denton's over-enthusiastic tone and the fact that, he does not speak in detail of any part of the province except Long Island suggest that he was writing as a land agent on his own or his friends' behalf, yet his specific statements seem truthful. Of the city he says: New York is built most of brick and stone and covered with red and black tile, and the land being high it gives at a distance a pleasing aspect to the spectators. The inhabitants consist most of English and Dutch and have considerable trade with the Indians for beaver, otter, raccoon skins, with other furs; and also for bear, deer, and elk skins; and are supplied with venison and fowl in the winter and fish in the summer by the Indians, which they buy at an easy rate.... On Long Island corn and cattle were the chief sources of livelihood. 'Store of flax' was grown, for 'every one' made 'their own linen' as well as woollen cloth and linsey-woolsey 'for their own wearing.' Had there been more artisans in the province it would soon have been able 'to live without the help of any other country' in the matter of clothing. All artisans lived 'happily' and persons who had no trade betook themselves to husbandry, got lands of their own, and lived 'exceeding well.' Along the southern shore of Long Island 'an innumerable multitude of seals,' which made 'an excellent oil,' lay all winter upon the 'broken marshes and beaches or bars of sand,' but the people had not yet learned how to hunt them although in small boats they captured the whales and 'crampasses' that numerously frequented the same coast. Wild fruits of many kinds were abundant - strawberries so plentiful that in June when the 'fields and woods' were I dyed red' with them the country people, says Denton, ... instantly arm themselves with bottles of wine, cream, and sugar and instead of a coat of mail every one takes a female upon his horse behind him, and so rushing violently into the fields, never leave until they have disrobed them of their red colors and turned them into the old habit. Only one more passage need be quoted from Denton's laudations. He has not the land agent's accent when he says, in words that are pleasant to remember as an epitaph upon the forefathers of New York: Were it not to avoid prolixity I could say a great deal more, and yet say too little, how free are those parts of the world from that pride and oppression with their miserable effects, which many, nay, almost all parts of the world are troubled with, being ignorant of the pomp and bravery which aspiring humours are servants to, and striving after almost everywhere: where a wagon or cart gives as good content as a coach, and a piece of their home made cloth better than the finest lawns or richest silks; and though their low-roofed houses may seem to shut their doors against pride and luxury, yet how do they stand wide open to let charity in and out, whether to assist each other or relieve a stranger... After Denton's book no other was published relating specifically to Long Island until Wood's Sketch of the First Settlement of Long Island and Furman's Antiquities of Long Island appeared in 1824.

(He) settled in Piscataway, in East Jersey, where he was appointed a Magistrate August 25, 1673. The next year he sold out his landed interest at Piscataway and removed to Springfield, Massachusetts. Here he taught school and was for a time Town Recorder. At a town meeting held in Jamaica, Long Island, on June 12, 1684, it was ordered that 'Daniel Denton shall have liberty to come and settle himself and family in Jamaica. ' ' Here he was once more selected Town Clerk. On December 20, 1689, he was commissioned as County Clerk of Queen's County, Long Island.⁷