WORCESTER, MASS. PRESS OF CHAS. HAMILTON. 1886. HOW IT HAPPENED. My brother, Joseph A. Denny of Leicester, Mass., died early in the year of 1875. He had long manifested a deep interest in the history of his ancestors, and had from time to time, as he had opportunity, collected statistics of names, dates of birth, &c., of all the different branches of his father's family with whom he had intercourse. Mrs. Grace Denny's letters to her son Daniel, written from her home in England, which had come into his possession, induced him to pursue his investigations the ,other side of the Atlantic, and having ascertained that the name was ~tin known there, he visited England in the summer of 1874 for the purpose of obtaining all the information he could in regard to the Denny family. Previous to this time nothing was known in this country of the ancestry of Daniel Denny, who was the :firs~ to emigrate to America, except what was revealed in the letters of Mrs. Grace, above refelTed to. Re visited the old homestead in Combs, and found it still in the possession of the descendants of Denny, whose ancestors owned and occupied it more than four hundred years before. The result of this visit was the unearthing from old tin trunks and boxes, wills, deeds and other documents, that brought to light what was before unknown to any then living, the history of the family for four centuries. IV· HOW IT HAPPENED. He ,returned home in the autumn, feeling well paid by the success of the trip, and intending, no doubt, to arrange the information thus obtained in shape for publication, but before he had taken any steps in' that direction he was called from his earthly labors. After his death, in looking over his papers, I found in a drawer in his office many statistics which he had been gathering for years, names, dates of birth, marriages, deaths, &c., written on pieces of paper, on backs of letters, margins of old newspapers, or whatever he -happened to find in his pockets at the time of obtaining the i~formation. These were thrown in promiscl,lously, lying loose in the drawer in no order of classification. My first thought was that all the. labor of collecting and preserving this material would be lost, as there seemed to be no one to take up the work and continue it from where he left it. In order to save these valuable papers from' such a disastrous fate, I finally decided to try and complete the work, and with that end in view I have been for the last ten years' collecting facts, dates and items of interest relating to the family, and now conclude to put them in shape that I hope may be useful by giving to those interested a knowledge of their ancestors that otherwise they might never obtain. In doing this I have had many difficulties to encounter., Scattered, as the descendants were, all over the United State~, I have written to postmaster~ and town clerks, often without obtaining any clue to the subjects of my inquiry, and sometimes being successful where I least expected. If I ,could have foreseen the amount of 'labor and res.earch it required I should never have undertaken it. I am aware that the record is still very imperfect, and HOW IT HAPPENED. v doubtless many errors may be found, but such as it is I dedicate it to the Kith and Kin in England and America. I hereby tender my sincere thanks to all those who have aided me by furnishing material for the different branches of th~ family, as well as in other ways, and especially am I indebted to my son, Parkman T. Denny, for his valuable services and aid, in preparing these pages for the press. If th~ knowledge of ancestry herein contained should prove useful to those who may read it, I shall feel that my labor' has not been wholly in vain. c. c. DENNY. SEPTEMBER, 1886. THE DENNY FAMILY. THE DENNY FAMILY. AN ACCOUNT OF THE DENNY FAMILY OF COMBS, COUNTY OF SUFFOLK, ENGLAND. Condensed from an account compiled from documents in the pos­ session of Thomas Reeve Denny, Cedar House, Lavender Hill, Wands­ worth, Surrey, England. A great part of the account by Thomas R. Denny (written in 1874), is a repetition of what will appear in its proper place in this book, and is therefore omitted here. Some addi­ tions are made from Washburn's History of Leicester. THE earliest record at present to be found is a document dated May 28, 1450 (28th Henry VI.) , whereby John Denny gives to William Denny, his son, a tenement and land and appurtenances in Combs, which were "lately held by the gift, grant, and charter of confirmation of Thomas Rygge and Andrew Cooke as by the charter thereof to me," &0., dated at Combs, on the " Tuesday next after the feast of the Blessed Trinity" in the 17th year of King Henry VI., 1439. * 1473. In this year the holding in the parish was increased by the purchase of two tenements, one piece of pasture, and one piece of land of Rauff J urdon and Katherine his wife. by Robert Denny, of Little Stoneham, Suffolk, for the sum of fifty pounds. This land, not being described by name, or the boundaries given, has not at present been recognized, hut it seems to be all the holding of Rauff and Katherine in the town of Combs, as they make over all their other lands, tenements, &c., free land and copy land, * For copies of various Deeds, Letters, and Wills the reader is referred to . subsequent pages of this work. 2 10 THE DENNY FAMILY. lying in the said town. Unless this Robert ·Denny rented more land in the neighborhood he would probably con­ sume in his own family nearly the whole of the produce of this holding, leaving him perhaps small quantities of cheese, butter, eggs, poultry, &c., to sell at the neighbor­ ing town of Stowmarket. That he and the family at that time did not progress ,very rapidly we may believe from the absence of any land purchases for a long period after this date. The document from which these particulars have been taken, besides being one of the oldest, is one of the most interesting in the collection, both from its beauti­ ful preservation, and the splendid specimen it affords of old English penmanship. It should set at rest any question of the spelling of the surname in any of the subsequent documents, for it is here written several times and very distinctly, DENNY, but the parish name is spelled COMBES. 1553. A document dated this year admits Martin Bushehowas tenant of the Manor of Combs Hall, in place of Robert Sowgate. As the lands mentioned afterwards came into the Denny family, and the names are recognizable at the present day, it makes the document interesting. In it occurs for the first time the name of Sowgate (now Southgate), which was for centuries afterwards mixed up with the Dennys, the latter having on several occasions bought real estate of the former. The writings confirming the purchase of the above lands are not forthcoming, nor is there anything to show that the family for very many years increased their possessions in the parish. 1590. In this year Edmund Denny bought land of William Brooke, but no price is mentioned in the deed. Brooke obtained the land of Robert Snellinge, of" Gipwico" (Ipswich). It appears to have been copy-hold land, and was an odd bit lying in the midst of land held by Edmund Denny. 1601. On the second day of May, Mr. Edmund Denny, of Wattysham, yeoman, giv,es to his son Edmund Denny, HISTORIOAL SKETOH. 11 Jr., on his marriage with Agnes Castard, of Battysford, a tenement and lands in Combs. Edmund Denny, Sr., must have removed from Wattysham to Combs soon after, as he died there in 1607, and left the remainder of his land in Combs to the above named son Edmund. 1607, April 10. On this date we have the will of the above named Edmund Denny, Sr., who in the beginning of the document wills that his "body shall be buried in the churchyard of Combes," and on the day of his burial that " 6 shillings 8 pence shall be given to the poor of the parish" as his executors may direct. Also to his brother Robert £10, and to Robert's daughters 408.; to Mary 26/8 ; to his son John £10; to the children of his daughter Johan, viz. : Thomas Wade, Ann Wade, and Mary Wade, 208. each. To his nephews Samuel Nickols and George Nickols, £4 each; to his wife J ohan, all his moyable goods whatsoever and wheresoever, both within and without the house. To Edmund, his son, all his land and tenements, both free and bond, he to be his sole executor, and Johan his wife and William Sparrow, of Wattysham, to be his executors in case Edmund should not act. 1623, May 13. On a succeeding page of this work will be found a copy of a document bearing this date. It is noticed because the land afterwards came into the family, which accounts as in other cases for the documents being found with these. 1627, August 23, Edmund Denny, of Combs, charged his estate with the sum of £6 per annum in favor of Dorothee Moore, daughter of John Moore, of Rattlesden, Suffolk, whom he is about to marry, the money to be paid after his decease, yearly.