John Dennis, Sr. ca (1725 – 1797)

John Dennis, Sr. was born in about 1725 in Gloucester County, New Jersey. He was a son of Samuel Dennis, Sr. and Ruth (Tindall) Dennis (1278). Samuel Dennis immigrated to the Provence of New Jersey from Ireland; Ruth Tindall was born in New Jersey. The Dennis family were members of the Society of Friends, the Quakers.

On 6 Jul 1742, John Dennis and Mary Slater married in a meeting of the Kennett Monthly Meeting in Chester County, Pennsylvania (1321). The parents of John Dennis, Samuel Dennis and Ruth (Tindall) Dennis were among witnesses.

Before 1752, John Dennis and his brother Samuel Dennis, Jr. migrated from New Jersey to Orange County, North Carolina. John and Samuel Dennis appear on a transcription of a 1752–1753 Orange County, North Carolina tax list (294), and subsequently, John Dennis appeared on a a 1755 Orange County tax list (1322).

On 11 Mar 1755, the Orange County Court granted John Dennis a license to keep an Ordinary (293, Page 15), and on 7 Apr 1755, in room of Isaac Jackson, the court appointed John Dennis Overseer of Roads (293, Page 23).

During the Mar 1758 session of Orange County, North Carolina Court, “John Dennis, a Quaker, claims that a horse delivered by John Frohawk to Thomas Capper—was the property of said Thomas Capper and supposed to be taken away by the Indians some time ago.” (293, Page 42).

On 27 Feb 1759, John Dennis was issued a patent for 507 acres of land on Buck Quarter Creek in Orange County, North Carolina (1049), and on 2 Oct 1761, John was issued a patent for an additional 375 acres of land in Orange County, North Carolina (1050).

In court convened at Childsburg in Orange County, North Carolina on 7 Aug 1764, the court “Ordered that Naomi Fisher an Orphan, Base born Daughter of Samuel Sell, be bound to John Dennis until she arrives to the age of 18 years—she being now 8 years and 3 months old” (293, Page 104).

By May 1765, Abraham Dennis, a younger brother to John Dennis, was also in Orange County, North Carolina, where in county court, in May 1765, James Young and Company as well as John Meherg brought a claims against Abraham Dennis and John Dennis for debt (293, Page 128).

On 1 Sep 1767, Quakers living in Orange County, North Carolina petitioned the Governor and Council of Georgia to make land available for Quaker settlement. The Governor and Council created a reserve of 12,000 acres, and on 18 Feb 1768, Quaker settlers informed Governor Wright that 10 families from North Carolina had arrived in the Georgia Province to settle on part of the reserve along the Little River.

In Dec 1768, Joseph Maddock and Jonathan Sell notified the governor that 70 families had by then settled on the reserve and requested a larger tract for further settlement and that “their lands be laid out, grants passed, and a road run.” Joseph Maddock was the husband of Rachel Dennis, a sister of John Dennis. The settlement in the Georgia Territory was known as Wrightsborough (907).

In Jul 1769, 100 acres of land were reserved for each unmarried man of the Wrightsborough colony, including Jacob Dennis, a brother to John Dennis, Sr. On that date, land was also granted to heads of families, including Abraham Dennis and John Dennis. On 4 Jul 1769, John Dennis was issued a warrant to survey 200 acres of land in the Wrightsborough Township of the Georgia Colony (829). But in 1774, Creek Indians threatened the Quaker settlement at Wrightsborough, and many Quakers sought safety in the Carolinas and elsewhere.

John Dennis may have remained on his original land grant, or otherwise, remained in Georgia. On 28 Jan 1789, he signed a petition to the Speaker and House of Assembly from the inhabitants of Rockey Comfort and the upper part of Burke County seeking a more convenient place to pay taxes (875).

John Dennis appears on a 1794 tax list for Gray’s District of Warren County, Georgia (876).

John Dennis died before 20 Jul 1797 when “Mary, a widow of John Dennis, renounced her role as administrator of the estate of John Dennis.”