Newspaper Cutting (Worcester [Massachusetts] Spy) 22/8/1873: 'Reminiscences Of Leicester No. 6. About three-fourths of a mile south of the east district school-house, on the Auburn road, was the farm of Capt. Daniel DENNY, containing 352 acres, situated on what was originally known as Nurse's hill, but which has since been called Denny hill. He was one of the original fifty proprietors of the town, and lot No. 46 fell to his share. He built his house on the east side of the road, on the very summit of the hill, and it remained there until about fifty years ago. A barn now stands on the same spot, which may be seen from most of the neighboring towns. The site is one of the most extensive and beautiful the town affords. Capt. DENNY was born in Combs, Suffolk county, England, in 1694, and in 1715 came to this country, and settled in Leicester in 1717. Though at no time in his life a man of large property, he was a pretty extensive landholder, having, besides his home farm on the hill, a large tract on Peter's hill, and another on Moose hill, both in the northwest part of the town, and he at one time owned 164 acres of land in the centre village, on the south side of the great road, embracing all the front from the present hotel to the Mount Pleasant farm, nearly a mile in length. He married Rebeckah JONES, daughter of Capt. Nathaniel JONES of Worcester. She was a woman of uncommon intellect and great energy. They had two sons and three daughters who lived to be married. One son died in infancy, by an accident, the account of which we extract from the Boston Gazette or Weekly Journal of Nov. 23, 1742, as illustrative of some of the customs of those times: "Last Wednesday evening a most terrible accident happened in the family of Capt. Daniel Denny of Leicester, viz.: A large kettle of boiling water (or wort) being over the fire, and the trammel stick happened to be burnt, the kettle fell down and spilt the liquor over four children who sat or lay upon the hearth (some of them were asleep), which scalded them in so grievous a manner that one died immediately after and another life is despaired of, but the other two, though much scalded, 'tis hop'd may recover." His children were well educated, although they had no advantages excepting at home and at the little district school house described in the last number. Captain DENNY was a man of decision and of great executive ability. He was active in his efforts, not only in subduing the wilderness around him, and apportioning out its territory, but in organising society and shaping the civil polity of the community among which he was to live. He was a leading man in all the various departments of public service being useful to the original land proprietors during most of their early organisation, and in subsequent years was distinguished for his sound judgment, and upright and active business life. He held many town offices, and several times represented the town in the provincial legislature. He was a man much respected by all, and had great influence in all matters pertaining to both church and town affairs. He died in 1760, having lived a widower for nearly twenty years. In his last will he left a small sum for the purchase of a burial ground a little west of the centre village, where he was among the first to be buried, and also a legacy of five hundred feet of boards at Watson's mill to "the late sufferers by fire in Boston." He had an older brother Samuel, who came to this country about two years after his arrival, and settled on an island near the mouth of the Kennebec river, where he was largely engaged in the fisheries. He was chief justice of the court of common please for Lincoln county, at the time of his death. His sister Deborah came over about the same time, and after keeping house for her brother Daniel for about two years, married Rev. Thomas PRINCE, the celebrated New England chronologist, and pastor of the Old South church in Boston. Thomas DENNY the eldest son of Daniel and Rebeckah DENNY was born in 1724 and inherited a portion of the homestead farm on Denny hill, where he lived and died. He married in 1752 Tabitha CUTLER of Grafton, and in 1757 Mary STORRS of Pomfret, Ct., by whom he had one son and two daughters. This son Thomas settled in Leicester and of whom we shall speak hereafter. His daughter Mary married Joseph SARGENT, the father of Colonel Henry and Joseph D. SARGENT. Their other daughter, Tamison, married Peter WEBB of Windham, Conn., and was the mother of Mrs Isaac SOUTHGATE, late of this town. He held the office of Colonel of the regiment of militia, in the limits of which he resided, which was then an honorable mark of distinction. Colonel DENNY was so prominent as to be honorably noticed in history, and we shall quote from Gov. WASHBURN: "He must have been a man of more than ordinary ability, and of an education superior to most of his contemporaries, who were brought up, as he was, in a country town. He held many places of responsibility and trust in the town and county, and early engaged in the controversy with the mother country. Some of the spirited and statesmanlike resolutions and instructions adopted by the town at that time were from his pen. He was, too, in correspondence with the leading public men in Boston and its vicinity, and was regarded by them as a wise and patriotic counsellor. For five years in succession next previous to his death, he represented the town in the general court, and was a member of the provincial congress in 1774. This covered a most eventful and trying period of our history. The congress met in October, 1774. Soon after its convening, Col. DENNY was obliged to return home on account of sickness, which terminated his life October 23d, at the age of forty-nine. He seems to have been a ready and popular debater as well as writer; and his death was a public loss, and lamented as such. From his qualifications for public life, and his experience and familiar acquaintance with the affairs of the Province, there is every reason to believe, that, had he lived, he would have filled an important part in that drama of which he saw only the opening scene." Samuel DENNY, his younger brother, was born in 1731. He married for his first wife Elizabeth, daughter of Colonel William HENSHAW (sic), and they had ten children. He received from his father a deed of the Moose hill farm of two hundred acres in the northwest part of the town, on which he had already built a house and barn, and on this farm he lived and died. He was a leading man in the revolutionary war. He was lieutenant colonel of a company of minute men who marched upon the Lexington alarm, and was elected colonel of the first regiment in the county of Worcester, in February, 1776. He was stationed, the ensuing winter, with the army at Tarrytown, and also commanded a regiment in the northern army in 1777. He represented the town in the general court in 1778, and was a member of the convention which was called to act upon the ratification of the constitution of the United States in January of the same year. He died in 1817, at the age of 88, leaving behind the character of an honest and upright man, a good citizen and a consistent Christian. His wife was a woman of superior accomplishments, of ardent piety, and great moral worth. She was a devoted mother to her children and an affectionate wife, and showed her patriotism to her country by taking charge of her husband's large farm and a family of ten children, the youngest of whom was an infant, while he was camping out in the cold regions of the north in defence of his country. She died in 1787 at the age of fifty, and he was twice married afterwards. >From this family all who have any claim to the name of DENNY in this commonwealth are descended, and all the descendants of Thomas DENNY, who still hold the family name, are residents of the city of New York. D.' Notes to the above: I believe it not to be correct that Colonel Samuel DENNY (1731 - 1817) 'married for his first wife Elizabeth, daughter of Colonel William HENSHAW': I am as sure as I can be that Elizabeth Bass HENSHW (1737 - 1787) was the sister of Colonel William HENSHAW (1735 - 1820). The author 'D.' was Joseph Addison DENNY (1804 - 1874), and he was obviously very proud of the Denny family - with considerable justification! Geoffrey Woollard in Cambridgeshire, England.