Michael Aislabie Denham (1801''1841 England Census'', ''1851 England Census'' – 10 September 1859) was an English merchant and collector of folklore.

Life

A native of Gainford, County Durham, Denham was in business at Kingston-upon-Hull in the early part of his life. Ultimately he settled as a general merchant at

Piercebridge Piercebridge is a village and civil parish in the borough of Darlington and the ceremonial county of Durham, England. The population of the civil parish as of the 2011 census was 113. It is situated a few miles west of the town of Darlington. It ...

, near Gainford, where he died on 10 September 1859.

Works

Denham collected local lore. His works were: * ''A Collection of Proverbs and Popular Sayings relating to the Seasons, the Weather, and Agricultural Pursuits, gathered chiefly from oral tradition'', London, 1846, printed by the

Percy Society The Percy Society was a British text publication society. It was founded in 1840 and collapsed in 1852. The Society was a scholarly collective, aimed at publishing limited-edition books of rare poems and songs. The president was Lady Braybrooke, a ...

. * ''The Slogans, and War and Gathering Cries of the North of England'', 1850, and with additions, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1851. * ''A Collection of Bishoprick Rhymes, Proverbs, and Sayings'', to which he afterwards added four tracts of the same kind, completing the last about 1858. * ''Cumberland Rhymes, Proverbs, and Sayings'', in four parts, the last of which appeared in 1854. * A similar work relating to

Westmorland Westmorland (, formerly also spelt ''Westmoreland'';R. Wilkinson The British Isles, Sheet The British IslesVision of Britain/ref> is a historic county in North West England spanning the southern Lake District and the northern Dales. It had an ...

, in two parts, 1858. * ''Roman Imperial Gold Coin'', a description of a coin of the

Emperor Maximus Magnus Maximus (; cy, Macsen Wledig ; died 8 August 388) was Roman emperor of the Western Roman Empire from 383 to 388. He usurped the throne from emperor Gratian in 383 through negotiation with emperor Theodosius I. He was made emperor in B ...

urham (?) 1856 under the pseudonym "Archæus". * ''Folklore of the North'', in six parts, the last appearing in 1856. * ''Folklore, or a Collection of Local Rhymes, Proverbs, Sayings, Prophecies, Slogans, &c., relating to Northumberland, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and Berwick-on-Tweed''; Richmond, Yorkshire, 1858. Limited to fifty copies. * '' Minor Tracts on Folklore'', to the number of twenty, starting about 1849 and ending about 1854. * ''A Classified Catalogue of the Antiquarian Tomes, Tracts, and Trifles'', referring to the works Denham had edited himself, 1859.

References

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Denham, Michael Aislabie 1800s births Date of birth missing 1859 deaths English merchants English folklorists People from Gainford, County Durham 19th-century English businesspeople