Daniel DENISON

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: John Dennison
• Death: 30 Jul 1689, Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts, USA

Notes:

See Note under his father John Denison.

John married Elizabeth GIDDINGS about 1694. Elizabeth (daughter of John GIDDINGS and Sarah ?) died on 15 Sep 1725 in Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

It has been brought to my attention from an e-mail dtd 6-5-09 from Sarah Sully, there seems to be 2 different Denisons lines. I previously had John Denison as the son of William Denison and Margaret Chandler. I have removed him and started a new Denison line. Here is what she had to say:

Because of errors in a couple of Denison Genealogy books which were then repeated in the books about other families, two distinct and unrelated Denison families have been shuffled together like a deck of cards. Ruth Denison's ancestry is correct in this article from the NEHGR, (see below) but it didn't get as much exposure as the compiled genealogy books did. So it's the bad info that went viral on the 'Net while the correct info is being ignored.

As far as anyone can prove, these Denisons and the ones from Bishops Stortford are not related. General Daniel Denison wrote an autobiography (finished in 1672) that was published in NEHGR, 1892; Vol. 46, in which he talks about all sorts of cousins, living and dead, but he never mentioned the Denison family that lived in Ipswich at the same time. Apparently, they weren't related.

Elizabeth Saltonstall did marry a John Denison, about 1688, and he died 14 September 1689 in Cambridge, Mass. She then married Rev. Roland Cotton, and was having children with him in Sandwich from 15 July 1693 (when John and Ruth were still having children in Ipswich) until 1721. All Cotton births are in the Sandwich VR. Rev. Cotton died 22 March 1721/22, and Elizabeth Saltonstall died in Boston, 8 July 1726. Elizabeth Saltonstall's obituary is below.

Interestingly enough, Elizabeth, widow of John Denison, the weaver, died only a year earlier, in Ipswich Sept. 15, 1725. She was the mother of sons George and Daniel. (See the Vital Records attached below.)

If you can correct your Denison line, you'll be part of the solution! And maybe you can keep some other poor researcher from spending nine years (like I did) trying to untangle these two Denison families!

Thanks,
Sarah

Transcription of New England Historical Genealogy Record, Vol. 56, p. 207.

1902 Notes and Queries 207

Denison. --- As a different ancestry has been given in the Denison Genealogy (1881), page 330, for Ruth and Hannah Denison, the wives of Joseph and Nathaniel Kingsbury, I give the following abstracts of wills and deeds from the Essex Co. Registries of Wills and Deeds, showing their correct line of descent.

I. John1 Denison, of Ipswich, was a weaver by trade, a subscriber to the Major Denison fund, 1648, commoner, 1664, voter in town affairs, 1679; he had six acres of marsh next Goodman How, granted Feb. 7, 1647. He died in 1683, leaving a widow, Priscilla, who died Feb. 15, 1692, a son John2, and daughters, Ruth, Sarah, wife of Tobijah Perkins, Priscilla, wife of Thomas Persons, and a grandchild, Sary Pritchett, daughter of John Pritchett.

II. John2 Denison, of Ipswich, married Ruth, daughter of Cornet Peter and Hannah (Allen) Ayer, of Haverhill; he received the covenant of the church, January 25, 1673-4. His wife, Ruth, died February 2, 1694-5, and he married a second wife, Elizabeth. His will, dated July 24, 1725, proved January 22, 1726-7, mentions wife Elizabeth, son John, son George, son Daniel, daughters Ruth Kingsbury and Hannah Kingsbury, and aged sister Smith, to be supported with a comfortable subsistence during her natural life, and a "Decent buriall at her Death, out of my estate." Essex County Probate Records. His children were: 1. Ruth,3 born Aug. 9, 1684; died Aug. 15, 1685. 2. Ruth, born June 7, 1685; married Joseph Kingsbury. 3. John, died July 30, 1688. 4. Hannah, born 1689; married Nathaniel Kingsbury. 5. George, of Ipswich. 6. Daniel, removed to Windham, Conn. 7. John, born, April 28, 1692. 8. Priscilla, born January 14, 1694-5; died January 30, 1694-5.

III. John3 Denison, of Ipswich, weaver, mentions in his will, niece Rebeckah Manning, "who lives with me," also her sisters, Elizabeth, Mary, and Anna; "my sister, Ruth Kingsbury," of Norwich; "all my land at Harwich that arrived to me by my Grand Father Ayer to my two cousins, Daniel Kingsbury and Denison Kingsbury in equal halfs": all the residue of the estate "to my two sisters, Ruth Kingsbury and Hannah Kingsbury, and my cousin, Daniel Dennison"; Cousin John Perkins, of Topsfield; cousin Eliza Fitts; Joseph Kingsbury, of Norwich, and Nathll Kingsbury, of Coventry, Executors; dated January 18, 1754; proved June 1, 1761. Adminsitration granted to Ephriam Kingsbury, of Norwich, and Nathl Kingsbury, of Tollon, in Conn. Essex Probate Records.

John Denison, of Ipswich, Junr, weaver, and Joseph Kingsbury and Ruth Kingsbury, and Nathaniel Kingsbury and Hannah Kingsbury, of Norwich, in Connecticut, convey to Samuel Ayer, of Haverhill, land in Haverhill, known by the name of World's End land, which was formerly Peter Ayer's land; Oct. 30, 1714. Essex County Deeds.

Name:
John, vicar at Standon, Hertfordshire; at the time of the family's remove to New England he was married with a good portion, a minister and lived about Pelham, not far from Stratford where we were born.

John married Priscilla ? before 1648 in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Priscilla died on 15 Feb 1692. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

John married Sarah ?. Sarah died in 1711. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Birth: 03 Feb 1570, Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, England
• Immigration: 1631, Came to America in the "Lion"

Notes:

Excerpt taken from "Rev. John Eliot's Record of Church Members, Roxbury, Mass.": William Dennison, he brought 3 children to N.E. all sons: Daniel Edward & George: Daniel married at Newtowne, & was joyned to the church there he afterwards removed to the church at Ipswich."

Excerpts from "Major-General Daniel Denison" from NEHG: As to the origin of the family, there is much uncertainty. The name, variously spelt Denison, Dennison, Denyson, Dennistown, is unquestionably ancient and probably of Norman extraction. In the "Patronymia Britannica", is the following notice: "The Dennistowns" of the ilk" have an extraordinary way of accounting for their surmane. One Danziel, or Daniel (say they), probably of Norman extraction, settled in Renfrewshire, and calling the estate Danzielstown assumed therefrom his surname. The family are unquestionably ancient, the name appearing in a charter of King Malcolm 1st, who died in 1165, but the Norman Danziel is probably a genealogical figment. The English Denisons are said to have sprung from a cadet of this "ancient house, who went from Scotland, temp. Charles I., who fought at Marston Moor."
We have been unable to determine with any degree of accuracy from what county of England came the Denisons who emigrated to this country. Neither is the exact period of their coming out by any means certain. There is little doubt, however, that Mr savage, is correct when he states that William Denison, with his wife Margaret, and his three sons, Daniel, Edward and George, probably came in the ship Lion, with Winthrop's wife and son, John and the Apostle Eliot, in 1631. This may be inferred from the fact that the name of William Denison stands third in the records of Eliot's church in Roxbury, it being highly probable that he would follow the fortunes of a man with whose noble character he must have become intimately acquainted during the tedious trans-atlantic voyage; even if he had not recognized him as his spiritual adviser before leaving the shores of the old world.
From the few records which exist relating to Mr. william Denison, we learn that, having settled in Roxbnury, he soon enjoyed the esteem of his fellow-townsmen. With seven others he took the oath of freeman July 3, 1632. "At a court holden at Boston March 4, 1633-34 Mr. Will Dennison is chosen constable of Rocksbury.: and, under the same date, the colony records give his name among those who have "gyven and pmised towareds the sea fort." Chosen deputy in 1634, he was called upon th serve on important committees, among which was the boarding of vessels for the regulation of trade. Taking part in that unhappy religious controversy, which shook the plantation to its very centre, and which nearly terminated its existence, at its commencement, he, together with his son Edward, was "disarmed" November 20, 1637.
In 1645, Mr Denison was one of the original donors of the "Roxbury Free Schoole," and for many years was an appraiser of wills. That he was a man of substance, may be inferred from the fact that his name appears on a loose leaf in the oldest record of the town, entitled "a note of y estates and persons of y inhabitants of Roxbury." in which he is represented as the possessor of considerable property.

Of his wife, Margaret, we know nothing beyond these brief records of the church: "Margaret Dennison, the wife of William Dennison. It pleased God to work upon her heart and change it in her ancient years after she came to this land and joyned to the church in the year 1632."
"1645 Month 12, day 3, Old Mother Dennison dyed."
He died January 25, 1653.

William married Margaret CHANDLER on 07 Nov 1603 in Bishop's Stortford, Hertsfordshire, England. Margaret was born in England; died on 23 Feb 1645 in Roxbury, Suffolk, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

George married Jane LAWRENCE. Jane died in Mar 1680. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]