04/06/2023

GGF7 – Edward Denton (1623-1681)

Forward to GGF6 – William Denton (1670- ) – Forward to Nineteenth Century Index
Back to Prescot, Lancashire – Back to Denton Family Bible

It was my 7th GGF Edward who first took the Dentons to Prescot and we stayed there or thereabouts for the next five generations. (That is in my lineage of course. Other Dentons have lived there right up until today). Was he lured there by work, by marriage or inheritance? Frustratingly I have failed to establish his occupation or his motivation or much about his life – not even his spouse’s name, just his birth and death dates and his parents and lineage.

Edward moved to Prescot from Hertfordshire. His family was living in Haddenham, Cambridgeshire close to the Isle of Ely, his parents having been born and buried there. However, he and several of his siblings were born fifty-four miles south (down today’s M11) in Hunsdon, Hertfordshire and christened in St Dunstan’s Church that sits at the back doorstep of Henry VIII’s hunting lodge, Hunsdon House.

St Dunstan’s and Hunsdon House (britainfromabove.co.uk)

The parish claims that it was therefore the first church in England to hold a service of worship under the auspices of the Church of England. It must have been very confusing in those earlier times as Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I worshipped there, each presumably bringing their views on Catholicism and Protestantism with them. But this happened a century before Edward was christened there.

I can find four Denton christenings at St Dunstan’s (Edward and three brothers) plus two Dentons buried there (William (1620-1675), a brother to Edward, and his wife Frances who died in 1664). Of course, Edward died and was buried in Prescot.

Note on shorthand acronyms being used in the DFB:
GGF1 / GGM1 – means first great-grandfather /mother;
GU11 / GA11 – means eleventh great-uncle / great-aunt;
1C3 – means first cousin three times removed

Forward to GGF6 – William Denton (1670- ) – Forward to Nineteenth Century Index
Back to Prescot, Lancashire – Back to Denton Family Bible

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