Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 14.djvu/373

 . He also made some collections for the history of the cathedral, and collated Hearne's edition of the ‘Textus Roffensis’ with the original at Rochester. In 1731 he resigned his Rochester parish for the rectory of St. Mary's, Lambeth. He was for some time prolocutor of the lower house of convocation. From about 1759 he suffered from ill-health. He died on 5 Aug. 1767, and was buried in Rochester Cathedral. He married in 1724 Susannah, youngest daughter of Samuel Bradford [q. v.], bishop of Rochester, to whom he was for many years domestic chaplain. He had three children, John (d. 1800), chaplain of Maidstone gaol; Samuel, the antiquary [q. v.]; and Susannah. Denne was especially learned in English ecclesiastical history. He published: 1. ‘Articles of Enquiry for a Parochial Visitation,’ 1732. 2. ‘The State of Bromley College in Kent,’ 1735. 3. ‘Register of Benefactors to the Parish of St. Leonard, Shoreditch,’ London, 1777, 4to (posthumous). 4. Fifteen sermons (published separately), including ‘Want of Universality no just Objection to the Truth of the Christian Religion,’ London, 1730, 4to, and ‘The Blessing of a Protestant King and Royal Family to the Nation,’ 1737. He also contributed materials to Lewis's ‘Life of Wickliffe.’

[Nichols's Lit. Anecd. i. 590, 694, iii. 213, 524–528, 531, vi. 388, 454, viii. 218, ix. 297; Nichols's Lit. Illust. iv. 610–18, vi. 782–9; Gent. Mag. xxxvii. (1767) 430, lxix. (2) (1799) 723; Masters's Hist. of Corpus Christi Coll.; Ellis's Hist. of St. Leonard, Shoreditch; Chalmers's Biog. Dict.; Sidebotham's Memorials of the King's School, Canterbury, pp. 55, 56; Brit. Mus. Cat.]  DENNE, SAMUEL (1730–1799), antiquary, the second of the two sons of Archdeacon John Denne, the antiquary [q. v.], was born at the deanery, Westminster, on 13 Jan. 1730. He was educated at Streatham and at the King's School, Canterbury, and was admitted of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 1748, graduating B.A. 1753, M.A. 1756. In 1754 he was presented to the vicarage of Lamberhurst in Kent, but he resigned it in 1767 on becoming vicar of Wilmington and also of Darenth, both near Dartford, Kent. He died at Wilmington, where he had long lived quietly, on 3 Aug. 1799, of a bilious complaint from which he had suffered for forty years. He was buried near his father in Rochester Cathedral. ‘An affectionate son he was, and true lover of the spot appointed for his resting-place.’ ‘For his character the poor and needy of his parishes … will afford the best testimonial’ (Gent. Mag.). Denne became a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1783. His voluminous correspondence with Richard Gough, published in vol. vi. (p. 609 ff.) of Nichols's ‘Literary Illustrations,’ evidences the keen interest which he took in all classes of English antiquities. He published: 1. ‘A Letter to Sir R. Ladbroke’ (showing the good effects which would result ‘from the confinement of criminals in separate apartments’), 1771, 8vo. 2. ‘Historical Particulars of Lambeth Parish and Lambeth Palace,’ 1795, 4to. 3. ‘The History and Antiquities of Rochester and its Environs’ [in conjunction with W. Shrubsole], 1772, 8vo, also 1817, 8vo, and 1833, 12mo. Denne contributed to Thorpe's ‘Custumale Roffense;’ to Gough's ‘Sepulchral Monuments;’ to the ‘Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica;’ to the ‘Illustrations of the Manners and Expences of Antient Times in England,’ 1797; and to an edition of Atterbury's ‘Correspondence.’ He also assisted Ellis in his history of Shoreditch, and contributed articles to the ‘Archæologia’ in vols. vi.–xiii. He frequently wrote for the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ from the publication of vol. xli. till his death: his articles were signed ‘W. & D.’ (i.e. Wilmington and Darenth, his vicarages). Denne was unmarried.

[Gent. Mag. vol. lxix. pt. 2 (1799), pp. 722, 723; Nichols's Lit. Illust. numerous references (especially to vol. vi.) in index in vol. viii.; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. iii. 522, 525, 526, 528–31, 675, vi. 393, viii. 15, ix. 72, 159, 196, 217, 549; Chalmers's Biog. Dict.; Sidebotham's Memorials of the King's School, Canterbury, p. 69; Brit. Mus. Cat.]  DENNETT, JOHN (1790–1852), inventor and antiquary, of Newport, Isle of Wight, was born in 1790. In 1832 (according to Encyclop. Brit. about 1826) he invented the life-saving rocket apparatus (known as ‘Dennett's’) for conveying a rope from the shore to a shipwrecked crew. Manby had previously employed for this purpose a grappling shot fired from a mortar. Dennett's apparatus ‘resembled the old skyrocket,’ but had ‘an iron case instead of a paper one, and a pole eight feet long instead of a mere stick;’ it weighed 23 lbs., was propelled by 9 lbs. of composition, and had a range of 250 yards. Dennett subsequently increased the range to 400 yards by placing two rockets side by side on the same stick. But the action of these parallel rockets was unsatisfactory. A ship's crew off Bembridge, in the Isle of Wight, having been saved by means of Dennett's rocket, the board of customs had the apparatus supplied in 1834 to several coast-