He was the eldest son of Stephen and Elizabeth (Gerrish) Greenleaf. He graduated from Harvard College in 1699. Daniel married Elizabeth Gooking November 18, 1701. He was ordained pastor of the Congregational church in Yarmouth, Massachusetts in 1708. In 1727 he resigned and moved to Boston where he opened an apothecary's shop.
And on Saturday night died here, in the 85th Year of his Age, after a long and painful indisposition, the Rev. Mr. DANIEL GREENLEAF, formerly a Minister at Yarmouth, in the County of Barnstable. (Providence Gazette (Providence, Rhode Island) September 3, 1763, p. 4)