52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week #39. Should Be a Movie
There should be a movie of the colorful life Captain George Denison. Adventurer, soldier in Cromwell’s army, public official, soldier in King Phillip’s War, founder of Stonington, and my 9th g.grandfather. His is a story of heartbreak, war, love and success. The life and genealogy of George Denison is told in many articles and books; the most up-to-date and fully documented sketch is found in the New England Historic and Genealogical Society online database: Early New England Families, 1641-1700 [1]. There are many fanciful stories of Captain George Denison and many claim Capt. Dension as an ancestor.
George Denison was born in Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, England, 10 December 1620 to William Dension and Margaret (Chandler) Monk (or Monck), about the same time the Pilgrim’s were settling into Plymouth for that first hard winter.
He left England in 1631 with his brothers and parents and settled in Roxbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony where he married his first wife Bridget Thompson about 1640. They had one two children (Sarah and Hannah) before Bridget died in 1643 of “feaver & consumption.” That he was deeply in love with Bridget is attested to by a poem allegedly written by George during their courtship and recorded in the Denison genealogy.
Upon his wife’s death in 1643, a distraught George Denison left New England and his two daughters and returned to England.
He enlisted in in Oliver Cromwell’s army and fought at the Battle of Marston Moor (or Battle of York) where he was taken prisoner and escaped. His service in Cromwell’s army was verified by his brother Daniel Denison, but other stories have Capt. Denison also at the Battle of Naseby a year later.
The story is told that he was wounded at Naseby and was in the care of a wealthy Irish leather merchant then living in England, John Borodell and his beautiful daughter, Ann Borodell, who was nursing George. George fell in love with Ann. There are many stories about this courtship of Ann (some have him making his way to Cork, Ireland, where John Borodell had property; some have him remain in England) and returned to New England in 1645 with his new wife. That Ann Borodell was well-born is undeniable as she had a considerable dowry and property in Dublin. The stories certainly would be fodder for a movie as embellishment of his life.
George and his wife Ann lived in Roxbury for a while until he had a run-in with the local church and in 1647, the Rev. Eliot of Roxbury wrote: “This winter we had a gracious p’vidence of God befell two brothers Edward & Georg Dennison, who had been proude incendiarys of some troble among us, & full of distempr, and disaffection. But the Lord left them to open and shamefull drunkennesse at Boston: especy edward.”
That got George excommunicated, but was taken in again. In 1647 the young men of Roxbury wanted to choose George Denison “a young soldier come lately out of the wars in England.” However, the elders wanted someone else, noting that George was not a Freeman and was tainted by his service in Cromwell’s army.
Apparently George had enough of Roxbury and left to settle in New London in 1651, where he served as Deputy to the General Court. He also served on the War Commission for New London.
He was granted land in Mystic in 1652 and in Stonington in 1654. He was later granted land in what was Pequot territory in 1660, where he built his manor at Pequotsepos. The original house is gone, but the Denison homestead from 1717 exists on the same plot and is a museum operated by the Denison Society. He is listed as one of the founders of the town of Stonington, Connecticut, where he again served as Deputy to the General Court at various times between 1671 and 1694.
George Denison, having been rebuked for the military by the elders in Roxbury, was selected as a Captain in the King Phillp’s War in 1676 in command of New London County troops against the Pequot. He fought at the “great swamp fight” in Rhode Island in 1675 and as Provost Marshall was responsible for raising forces against Narragansett and Wampanaug Indians. He was credited with the capture the Chief Canonchet, the Narragansett chief in April 1676.
George and his wife Ann Borodell were “both remarkable for magnificent personal appearance, and for force of mind and character. She was always called ‘Lady Ann’....He has been described as ‘the Miles Standish of the settlement’ [Stonington]; but he was a greater and more brilliant soldier than Miles Standish. He had no equal in any of the colonies, for conducting a war against the Indians, except perhaps Capt. John Mason.”
[1] Alicia Crane Williams, Early New England Families Project, 1641-1700. Database and sketch of George Denison online at https://www.americanancestors.org/browse/publications/ongoing-study-projects/Early-New-England-Families,-1641--1700.
Some References
John Denison Baldwin and William Clift. A Record of the Descendants of Capt. George Denison of Stonington, Conn. (Worcester: Tyler & Seagrave, 1881).
E. Glenn Denison, Josephine Middleton Peck, and Donald L. Jacobus. Denison Genealogy: Ancestors and descendants of Captain George Denison (Stonington, Pequot Press, 1963). A revision of the 1881 work by Baldwin.
Katherine Dimancescu, Denizens: A Narrative of Captain George Denison and his New England Contemporaries (Katherine Dimancescu, 2017).
“The Will of George Denison, 1683.” New England Historic and Genealogical Register, 13, (1859), 73-77.
Daniel Denison, “Autobiography of Major-General Daniel Denison,” New England Historic and Genealogical Register, 46, (1892) 127-133. This letter from George Denison’s brother provides a detailed first hand account of the life of George Denison and his brothers and parents.
The Denison Homestead, The Denison Society, Mystic, Connecticut. https://www.denisonhomestead.org/
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