John Denne D.D. (1693–1767) was an English churchman and antiquarian,

Archdeacon of Rochester The archdeacon of Rochester is a senior office-holder in the Diocese of Rochester, a division of the Church of England Province of Canterbury. Like other archdeacons, they are administrators in the diocese at large (having oversight of parishes in ...

from 1728.

Life

Born at Littlebourne,

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, on 25 May 1693, he was the eldest son of John Denne, woodreeve to the

see of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop was Augustine of C ...

. He was educated at Sandwich grammar school,

King's School, Canterbury The King's School is a public school in Canterbury, Kent, England. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and the Eton Group. It is Britain's oldest public school and is considered to be the oldest continuously op ...

, and

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Corpus Christi College (full name: "The College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary", often shortened to "Corpus") is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. From the late 14th c ...

, where he graduated B.A. 1712, M.A. 1716, D.D. 1728. He was tutor and fellow of his college. Denne was ordained in 1716, and was presented to the perpetual curacy of St Benedict's Church, Cambridge. He became rector of Norton-by-Daventry,

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

, in 1721, exchanging the living in 1723 for the vicarage of

St Leonard's, Shoreditch St Leonard's, Shoreditch, is the old parish church of Shoreditch, often known simply as Shoreditch Church. It is located at the intersection of Shoreditch High Street with Hackney Road, within the London Borough of Hackney in East London. The c ...

. While he was vicar St. Leonard's was rebuilt. From 1725 to 1728 he delivered the

Boyle lectures The Boyle Lectures are named after Robert Boyle, a prominent natural philosopher of the 17th century and son of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork. Under the terms of his Will, Robert Boyle endowed a series of lectures or sermons (originally eight ...

. In 1728 he became archdeacon and prebendary of Rochester. He also held the vicarage of St Margaret's Church, Rochester. In 1731 Denne resigned his Rochester parish for the rectory of St. Mary's Church, 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 August 1767, and was buried in

Rochester Cathedral Rochester Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, is in Rochester, Kent, England. The cathedral is the mother church of the Anglican Diocese of Rochester and seat (''cathedra'') of the Bishop of Rocheste ...

Works

Denne was a scholar of English ecclesiastical history. He published: * ''Articles of Enquiry for a Parochial Visitation'', 1732. * ''The State of Bromley College in Kent'', 1735. * ''Register of Benefactors to the Parish of St. Leonard, Shoreditch'', London, 1777 (posthumous). * Fifteen sermons (published separately), including ''Want of Universality no just Objection to the Truth of the Christian Religion'', London, 1730, and ''The Blessing of a Protestant King and Royal Family to the Nation'', 1737. Denne also contributed materials to

John Lewis John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American civil rights activist and politician who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashville ...

's ''Life of Wickliffe''. He arranged and bound up the archives of Rochester Cathedral and the Acts of the Courts of the Bishop and Archdeacon. He also made some collections for the history of the cathedral, and collated Thomas Hearne's edition of the ''

Textus Roffensis The (Latin for "The Tome of Rochester Cathedral, Rochester"), fully titled the ''Textus de Ecclesia Roffensi per Ernulphum episcopum'' ("The Tome of the Rochester Cathedral, Church of Rochester up to Ernulf, Bishop Ernulf") and sometimes also ...

'' with the original at Rochester.

Family

Denne married in 1724 Susannah, youngest daughter of Samuel Bradford, bishop of Rochester, to whom he was for many years domestic chaplain. He had three children, John (d. 1800), chaplain of Maidstone gaol;

Samuel Samuel is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the biblical judges to the United Kingdom of Israel under Saul, and again in the monarchy's transition from Saul to David. He is venera ...

, the antiquarian; and Susannah.

Notes

Attribution

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Denne, John 1693 births 1767 deaths 18th-century English Anglican priests Archdeacons of Rochester English antiquarians Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge People from Littlebourne Burials at Rochester Cathedral 17th-century Anglican theologians 18th-century Anglican theologians