[1] Danvers is thought to have attended Trinity College, Cambridge and like his father supported Parliament when the First English Civil War began in August 1642.

While the details of his military service are unclear, in 1647 he was appointed to the Committee for Staffordshire, one of the Parliamentary bodies set up to administer local government during the civil war.

During the 1650 to 1651 Anglo-Scottish War, he was commended by the English Council of State for raising troops to oppose the Scottish invasion which ended at the Battle of Worcester in September 1651.

[3] Originally a religious Independent, during his time in Stafford Danvers became a General Baptist, a sect whose members included many radicals within the New Model Army and the Levellers.

In 1657, when he held the rank of major, Danvers, with Harrison, Vice-admiral Lawson, Colonel Rich, and other Baptists, was placed under arrest on suspicion of being concerned in a conspiracy against Oliver Cromwell's life.

[7] In December 1684 he published a seditious libel alleging the supposed suicide of Arthur Capell, 1st Earl of Essex was in fact state-sponsored murder and the government offered a reward for his apprehension.

[3] When the Catholic James II succeeded his brother Charles in February 1685, Danvers attended private meetings where William Disney briefed him and John Wildman on the planning for Monmouth's Rebellion.