September 2001 ver. 2
The Dennis Family –
The Descendants of Thomas Dennis of Ipswich, Mass,
Little is known about the origins of
Thomas Dennis (abt. 1638-1706). Based
upon his age at death (tombstone) he was born in 1638, although some evidence indicates
that he was born in 1628 or 1630. He
may have been born in Portsmouth, N.H. of immigrant parents. Some records in the archives of the Church
of Latter Day Saints in Salt Lake City suggest
that he was the eighth child of William and Jane Dennis of Portsmouth,
N.H., later Plymouth, Mass., and was
born there in 1628, but no reliable information is known that confirms this. He lived in Portsmouth prior to moving to
Ipswich in 1667/68, and served as constable in 1665. He bought land of William Searles in Ipswich in 1663, and was
constable and collector there in 1685-92. He became a partner with Searles as a
joiner (furniture maker). Searles had lived in Devon prior to coming to
America, and on Searle's death in 1667, Dennis married his widow, Grace, who
was the daughter of Richard and Grace Cole and was baptized in Ottery-St.-Mary,
Devon on 22 Nov 1636. Thomas and Grace had three children – Thomas (1669/70),
John (1672/3) and Elizabeth (1675); Elizabeth married Ebenezer Hovey of
Ipswich. Some sources indicate that
there were two or three additional children – Thomas, who died while an infant,
Ruth, born 1684, died young, and Ruth, born 1686 – however, these names occur
in neither the vital records of Ipswich nor in cemetery records. Thomas served in King Philip’s War in
1676. On the death of Grace in 1680,
Dennis married Sarah ____. Following
Thomas’s death in 1706, Sarah married Capt. John How of Topsfield.
Furniture and other items made by Dennis and
Searle are available in several museums, including the Henry Francis DuPont
Winterthur Museum in Maryland and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. A 6-part series of articles by Irving P.
Lyon in Antiques magazine (Vol
32:230, 298; Vol. 33: 73, 198, 322; Vol. 34: 79) describes some of these
pieces. Homer E. Keyes, in a subsequent
article (Antiques 34:296), suggested
that many of these were made by joiners with similar styles; Keyes considered
only those that remained in the family to be authentic.
Some of Dennis’s descendants are
developing this webpage to record the comings and goings of our Dennis
forebears. We now have a database of
approximately 1500 descendants, including
children of Dennis females but not of their grandchildren. The family spread from Massachusetts to New
Hampshire, Maine, New York, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and the West
Coast and we have contacts with descendants in many of these states. However, there are still many missing pages
in the Dennis book. Several books or
manuscripts are available concerning the family (see below). J. L. Ordway published a brief history,
emphasizing the descendants of Moses4 Dennis Jr. Thomas Little of Hartford, Conn. emphasized
the life of Rev. Rodney Gove Dennis of Topsfield, Mass., and Mildred Cull
Kimmel wrote a more comprehensive history, incorporating material from several
previous publications.
Several
other Dennis families have roots in New England. Among these the family of Robert Dennis of Portsmouth, R.I., is
well-documented, and the descendants of another Thomas Dennis are described by
Mary Wright Dennis. At this time we do
not know whether or not these families have forebears in common.
We hope that this website will
encourage other descendants of Thomas to help us fill in the gaps in the record
by providing more information. If you
find errors, please call them to our attention, as we want the data to be as
accurate as possible.
References
Anonymous. 1895.
History of Litchfield and an Account of its Centennial Celebration. Kennebec Journal Printers, Augusta, Me. (Family of John5 Dennis Jr.)
Anonymous. Vital Records of Ipswich,
Massachusetts. Vols. I and II.
Dennis, Mary
Wright. 1985. Thomas Dennis and Some of His Descendants. Vol. 1-5, with supplements. Private Printing. Allen County Library, Fort Wayne, Ind. (another Thomas)
Drake, Leora
Wilson. Genealogical notes. Steuben County Clerk’s Office, Bath,
NY. (Notes kept by Canisteo Town
Historian on Dennis families in Steuben County and their ancestors.)
Family Sheets. Ipswich Public Library, Ipswich, Mass. (Genealogical records for Ipswich families.)
Hayward, Wm.
Willis. 1889. The History of Hancock, New Hampshire 1764-1889. Vol. 1.
O. Eaton, J. S. Lakin, and J. P. Hills, Town History Committee. (Family of Moses4 Dennis)
Humphrey, Otis
M. 1895. Descendants of Robert Dennis of Portsmouth, R. I. New England Hist. and Gen. Reg. 49:441-444.
(no known relationship to Thomas Dennis of Ipswich)
Kimmel, Mildred
Cull. 1968. The Descendants of Thomas and Grace Dennis of Ipswich,
Massachusetts. (Manuscript). Wayne County Historian’s Office, Lyons, N.Y.
Little, Thomas. 1911.
A Genealogy of Rev. Rodney Gove Dennis, His Forebearers (sic) and
Descendants. (Manuscript) Connecticut State Library, Hartford.
Little, Thomas,
compiler. 1921. Descendants of Rev.
John Dennis. Connecticut State Library,
Hartford.
Ordway, J. L.
1890. The Dennis Family. Press of R. C. Park, Woodhull, N.Y. (Moses4
Dennis and descendants)
Williams, Demorris
Boyd. Notes on genealogy of Dennis
Family. Wayne County Historian’s Office, Lyons, N.Y.
Young, Elaine
Dennis. 1957. Some Descendants of Robert Dennis of Portsmouth, Rhode
Island. Published by the author,
Norwalk, Ohio. (No known relationship
to Thomas Dennis of Ipswich)