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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jenison, Robert (1649-1688)

​JENISON, ROBERT, the younger (1649–1688), witness to the Popish plot, born in 1649, grand-nephew of the preceding, was second son of John Jenison of High Walworth, Durham, and Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Pierson. He spent some time at the jesuit college at Douay, after which he was on 17 June 1676 admitted to Gray's Inn (Foster, Register of Gray's Inn). Emulating the example of Titus Oates, Jenison and his cousin, John Smith, who had previously been confessor to the Jenison family at Walworth, concocted narratives in support of the alleged Popish plot. These statements Jenison presented to the king and council at Hampton Court on 7 Aug. 1679, and to the House of Commons on 9 Nov. 1680. Both Jenison and Smith pretended that the falsity of the dying confession of William Ireland [q. v.], one of the first victims in 1679 of Oates's revelations, had so appalled them as to convert them to protestantism. Jenison published his ‘Informations’ in 1680, and revealed ‘the names of the four ruffians that were to murther the king at Windsor,’ one of whom (Kearney) was arrested, but he was not tried until June 1682, at which date neither Jenison nor Oates ventured to appear against him, and he was consequently released (Luttrell, Brief Relation, vols. i. ii. and iii.) Jenison also published ‘Depositions, with other material Evidences, plainly proving that William Ireland was in London on 19 Aug. 1678, notwithstanding his denial thereof both at his trial and execution.’ He gave evidence against Lord Stafford on the first day of his trial, 30 Nov. 1680, and incidentally denounced his elder brother, Thomas Jenison, a jesuit, who had been educated at St. Omers, and had died in Newgate on 25 Sept. 1679.
Robert succeeded to High Walworth upon the death of his father in 1680, but he sold the property almost immediately to Sir Ralph Jenison (1613–1700) of Elswick, near Newcastle, deputy lieutenant for the county of Northumberland, and died unmarried in December 1688. Sir Ralph, the purchaser of Walworth, was great-uncle of Francis Jenison, who sold the property in 1772 and emigrated to Germany, where he became chamberlain to the elector palatine and a count of the holy Roman empire, leaving numerous children, one of whom, Francis, count Jenison Walworth, is separately noticed.
[Ambrose Barnes's Memoirs, p. 498 (Surtees Soc.); Surtees's Hist. of Durham, iii. 316–20; Burnet's Hist. of his own Time, ii. 187–9; The Impartial Protestant Mercury, 1681 passim; The Informations of Robert Jennison of Graye's Inn, Introduction; Smith's Narrative, containing a further Discovery of the Popish Plot; Foley's Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, v. 632 sq., where a full account of Thomas Jenison and other members of the family who were jesuits is given.]
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jenkes, Henry

​JENKES, HENRY (d. 1697), Gresham professor of rhetoric, descended from a Prussian family, was a native of England, and received his early education at King's College, Aberdeen, where he was admitted in 1642, and graduated M.A. in 1646 (Fasti Aberdonenses, Spalding Club, pp. 466, 512). On 21 March 1646 he was admitted a member of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and in 1649 he was incorporated M.A. in that university. He was elected a fellow of Caius College, Cambridge, in the time of the civil war. On the occasion of the opening of the Sheldonian Theatre he was incorporated M.A. at Oxford, 13 July 1669. He was elected professor of rhetoric in Gresham College, London, on 21 Oct. 1670, in succession to Dr. William Croone [q. v.] He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society on 30 Nov. 1674, and he resigned his professorship on 2 Oct. 1676. After this he resided wholly at Cambridge, living by his fellowship at Caius College. Dying there at the end of August 1697, he was buried on 1 Sept. in the church of St. Michael, in which parish the college is situated. He corresponded with several learned men in Holland.
His works are: 1. ‘The Christian Tutor, or a Free and Rational Discourse of the Sovereign Good and Happiness of Man,’ London, 1683, 8vo. 2. ‘De Natura et Constitutione Ethicæ, præsertim Christianæ, ejusque Usu et Studio,’ prefixed to ‘Stephani Curcellæi Synopsis ethices,’ London, 1684; Cambridge, 1702. 3. ‘The Christian Dial.’ 4. ‘Rationale Biblicum,’ manuscript left ready for the press at the time of his death.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jenison, Robert (1590-1656)

​JENISON, ROBERT (1590–1656), jesuit, born in 1590, was the eldest son of William Jenison, esq., of Walworth Castle in the county of Durham, by Jane, daughter of Barnabas Scurlock, esq., of Ireland, and grandson to Thomas Jenison [q. v.], auditor-general of Ireland (Surtees, Hist. of Durham, iii. 320). He was admitted a student of Gray's Inn on 9 March 1615, was subsequently educated in the English jesuit college at St. Omer, and joined the society in 1617 or 1619. His name appears in Gee's list of priests and jesuits in and about London in 1623. His ordinary alias was Frevil, but he is also mentioned under the assumed name of Beaumont among the jesuits seized by the pursuivants at Clerkenwell in March 1628. In 1645 he became rector of the house of probation at Ghent, and in 1649 missioner in the Hampshire district, where he probably died on 10 or 13 Oct. 1656.
He was a man of erudition, and to him has been erroneously attributed the authorship of two works by Father John Floyd [see under Floyd, John 1572–1649, works numbered 1 and 14], published under the initials ‘J. R.’
[Dodd's Church Hist. ii. 414; Foley's Records, vols. v. and vii.; Gillow's Bibl. Dict. ii. 303, iii. 610; More's Hist. Missionis Anglic. Soc. Jesu, p. 425; Oliver's Jesuit Collections, p. 122; Lysons's Environs of London, vol. iii; Southwell's Bibl. Scriptorum Soc. Jesu, p. 724.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jenison, Thomas

​JENISON, THOMAS (1525?–1587), auditor-general of Ireland, was the eldest son of Robert Jenison of Yokeflete, Yorkshire, and Agnes, daughter of William Wren of the Isle of Ely. He was appointed auditor-general of Ireland on 10 Feb. 1550, but being charged with defalcations in his accounts he was in 1553 suspended for a time from his office. On 25 Nov. 1560 he was appointed controller of the works and keeper of the stores at Berwick. In 1564 he again found employment in Ireland, though still retaining his office at Berwick. In 1568 he was appointed to audit the accounts of Sir William Fitzwilliam for the ten years ending midsummer 1569, and in 1573 he was employed ‘to make an exact book of the gift of the country.’ He was attacked by gout in 1580, and obtained some relief from the prescription of a poor Irish priest. He himself incurred the charge of being a papist, and was greatly afflicted by the conversion to Roman catholicism of his eldest son, whom he thereupon disinherited. In June 1584 he was appointed a commissioner to survey the forfeited lands in Munster, but was prevented by ill-health from attending to the business. On 20 Oct. 1587 he surrendered his office to Christopher Payton and died almost immediately afterwards, 17 Nov. He was a capable and diligent official, and, notwithstanding the charges of corruption preferred against him, he was an honest servant of the crown, though, according to Sir John Perrot, he ‘lived like a hog and died like a dog.’ His letters throw much light on the state of Ireland in Elizabeth's reign, and reveal very clearly the chief difficulties with which the Irish government had to contend. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Birch of Sandon in Bedfordshire, groom-porter to Henry VIII, and by her had five sons and a daughter. He bought the property of Walworth in Durham from the Ayscough family, and rebuilt the castle. It was here that on 14 April 1603 his widow, who survived till 1605, entertained James I on his first journey into England. His grandson, Robert Jenison, jesuit, is separately noticed.
[Liber Hiberniæ, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 53; Surtees's Durham, iii. 320; Nichols's Progresses of James I, i. 75; Morrin's Cal. of Patent Rolls, Eliz.; Cal. State Papers, Ireland, ed. Hamilton, vols. i. ii. iii.; Cal. Carew MSS. vols. i. ii.; Cal. Foreign Correspondence, vols. iii–ix.]
R. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jenkin, Henrietta Camilla

​JENKIN, HENRIETTA CAMILLA (1807?–1885), novelist, only daughter of Robert Jackson, custos rotulorum of Kingston, Jamaica, and of Susan Campbell, a Scotchwoman, was born in Jamaica about 1807, and married in 1832 Charles Jenkin, midshipman (afterwards commander) R.N. Their son, Henry Charles Fleeming Jenkin, is separately noticed. An accomplished and personally attractive woman, Mrs. Jenkin was long a favourite in society. Without having natural literary tastes, she began to write under pressure of poverty. Her first novel, ‘Violet Bank and its Inmates,’ 1858, had little success; but she acquired a reputation by ‘Cousin Stella,’ 1859, a West Indian novel showing both power and cleverness, and ‘Who Breaks, Pays,’ 1861, a skilful delineation of an English coquette. Her later novels were: 1. ‘Skirmishing,’ 1862. 2. ‘Once and Again,’ 1865. 3. ‘Two French Marriages,’ 1868 (republished in New York as ‘A Psyche of To-day,’ 1868, and ‘Madame de Beauprés,’ 1869). 4. ‘Within an Ace,’ 1869. 5. ‘Jupiter's Daughters,’ 1874. She ​lived in Paris in 1847–8, and from 1848 till 1851 in Genoa. At Genoa she was intimate with the Ruffinis and leading liberals, and supported enthusiastically all liberal movements. After 1868, when her son was appointed to an Edinburgh professorship, she lived in Edinburgh. Her health began to fail in 1875. She died on 8 Feb. 1885, three days after her husband. An attractive portrait of Mrs. Jenkin, by her son, taken at Genoa, is given in Mr. Stevenson's ‘Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin.’
[Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin, by R. L. Stevenson.]
G. T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lowick, Robert

​LOWICK, ROBERT (d. 1696), conspirator, was born of Roman catholic parentage in Yorkshire. In August 1689 he was serving for James II as lieutenant in colonel John Parker's regiment of horse at Drogheda. During the campaign against William III he distinguished himself by his bravery and humanity, and rose to be major. After the capitulation of Limerick he lived obscurely in London (D'Alton, King James's Irish Army List, 2nd ed. i. 246, 255). Sir George Barclay [q. v.], enlisted him as one of his ‘janissaries’ for the Assassination Plot. On the discovery of the conspiracy Lowick was arrested, brought to trial on 22 April 1696, found guilty, and executed on 29 April. He was unmarried.
[Howell's State Trials, xiii. 267; Luttrell's Brief Relation, vol. iv.; Macaulay's Hist. of England.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lower, Richard (1782-1865)

​LOWER, RICHARD (1782–1865), Sussex poet, born at Alfriston, Sussex, 19 Sept. 1782, was son of John Lower, who owned the barge ‘The Good Intent,’ and was the first person to navigate the little river Cuckmere from the sea to Longbridge. Richard, finding that he was physically too weak to adopt his father's calling, and having received a fair education, opened a school about 1803 in the parish of Chiddingley, where he resided till within a few months of his death. He likewise carried on the business of land surveyor, and was factotum in most of the parochial offices. From his childhood he was addicted to rhyming, much to his mother's displeasure. His best-known production is ‘Tom Cladpole's Jurney to Lunnon, told by himself, and written in pure Sussex doggerel by his Uncle Tim,’ and printed in 1830 as a sixpenny pamphlet. Of this upwards of twenty thousand copies were sold, chiefly among the cottagers in East Sussex, who, however, resented Lower's sarcasms at their expense. It was followed in 1844 by ‘Jan Cladpole's Trip to Merricur, written all in rhyme by his Father, Tim Cladpole,’ which was principally directed against the evils of slavery. In 1862 he published ‘Stray Leaves from an Old Tree, Selections from the Scribblings of an Octogenarian,’ some portions of which show that he was a true poet. He died at the residence of his third son, Joseph Richard Lower, surveyor, High Street, Tonbridge, Kent, 29 Sept. 1865. His second son, Mark Anthony Lower, F.S.A. [q. v.], is separately noticed. His eldest daughter, Mrs. Quaife, was well known as a nurse in America in the federal army.
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lowe, Richard Thomas

​LOWE, RICHARD THOMAS (1802–1874), naturalist, was born 4 Dec. 1802, and in 1825 graduated B.A. from Christ's College, Cambridge, as senior optime; he took holy orders in the same year, and obtaining a travelling bachelorship he visited Madeira in 1828 in order to improve his health. In 1832 he became English chaplain in the island, where he remained till 1854. In 1830 he published his accurate ‘Primitiæ Faunæ et Floræ Maderæ et Portus Sancti’ in the ‘Cambridge Philosophical Transactions,’ and issued in various periodicals at later dates other scientific papers, of which his ‘Novitiæ Floræ Maderensis’ (1838) is perhaps the most valuable.
On his return to England he accepted the living of Lea in Lincolnshire, and set to work upon ‘A Manual Flora of Madeira.’ ​The first part appeared in 1857, and the fifth, completing the first volume, in 1868. Lowe paid repeated visits to Madeira and the neighbouring islands, in order to complete the work, but he did not publish more than the first part of the second volume, which was issued in 1872. In April 1874 he set out for another visit to Madeira on board the Liberia, but the ship foundered with all hands off the Scilly Isles about the 13th of the month. The Rosaceous genus Lowea of Dr. Lindley is now absorbed in Hulthemia.
[Journ. Bot. 1874, pp. 192, 287; Cat. Sc. Papers, iv. 98, 99.]
B. D. J.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Denne, John

​DENNE, JOHN, D.D. (1693–1767), antiquary, born at Littlebourne, Kent, on 25 May 1693, was the eldest son of John Denne, woodreve to the see of Canterbury. He was educated at the grammar school, Sandwich, the King's School, Canterbury, and at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. 1712, M.A. 1716, D.D. 1728. He was tutor and fellow of his college. He 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, in 1721, exchanging the living in 1723 for the vicarage of St. Leonard's, Shoreditch. While he was vicar St. Leonard's was rebuilt. From 1725 to 1728 he delivered (but did not publish) the Boyle lectures. In 1728 he became archdeacon and prebendary of Rochester. He also held the vicarage of St. Margaret's, Rochester. Denne 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 Hearne's edition of the ‘Textus Roffensis’ with the original at Rochester. In 1731 he resigned his Rochester parish for the rectory of St. Mary's, 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 Aug. 1767, and was buried in Rochester Cathedral. He married in 1724 Susannah, youngest daughter of Samuel Bradford [q. v.], bishop of Rochester, to whom he was for many years domestic chaplain. He had three children, John (d. 1800), chaplain of Maidstone gaol; Samuel, the antiquary [q. v.]; and Susannah. Denne was especially learned in English ecclesiastical history. He published: 1. ‘Articles of Enquiry for a Parochial Visitation,’ 1732. 2. ‘The State of Bromley College in Kent,’ 1735. 3. ‘Register of Benefactors to the Parish of St. Leonard, Shoreditch,’ London, 1777, 4to (posthumous). 4. Fifteen sermons (published separately), including ‘Want of Universality no just Objection to the Truth of the Christian Religion,’ London, 1730, 4to, and ‘The Blessing of a Protestant King and Royal Family to the Nation,’ 1737. He also contributed materials to Lewis's ‘Life of Wickliffe.’
W. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Denison, William Joseph

​DENISON, WILLIAM JOSEPH (1770–1849), millionaire, was the only son of Joseph Denison (1726?–1806), a native of the west part of Yorkshire, who came up to London at an early age, and by continuous working and scraping amassed an enormous fortune. ​The son was born in Princes Street, Lothbury, in May 1770. He successfully engaged in mercantile pursuits, and became finally senior partner of Denison, Heywood, & Kennard, bankers, in Lombard Street. He sat as a whig for Camelford 1796–1802, was elected for Kingston-upon-Hull 1806, and was member for Surrey from 1818 till his death, which took place in Pall Mall on 2 Aug. 1849.
Denison very much increased his father's large fortune. He had extensive landed estates in Surrey and Yorkshire, as well as great investments in the funds. He was worth, it is computed, 2,300,000l. Dying unmarried he left his wealth (except 500l. given in charity and some legacies) to his nephew, Lord Albert Conyngham, on condition that he took the name of Denison only [see Denison, Albert, first Baron Londesborough].
Denison wrote a patriotic poem of some merit on Napoleon's threatened invasion of 1803.
F. W-t.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Denison, John (d.1629)

​DENISON, JOHN, D.D. (d. 1629), divine, became a student in Balliol College, Oxford, in 1590, and graduated in arts and subsequently in divinity. He was highly esteemed as a preacher and was appointed chaplain to George, duke of Buckingham, and to James I. After holding the headmastership of the free school of Reading, Berkshire, he was successively vicar of the three churches in that town, being instituted to St. Laurence's 7 Jan. 1603–4, to St. Giles's 9 July 1612, and to St. Mary's 31 March 1614. On 29 Nov. 1610 he was instituted, on the presentation of the lord chancellor, to the rectory of Woodmansterne, Surrey (Manning and Bray, Surrey, ii. 466). He died in January 1628–9, and was buried on 1 Feb. in the church of St. Mary at Reading.
In addition to several detached sermons he published:
* ‘A Three-fold Resolvtion, verie necessarie to Saluation. Describing Earths Vanitie. Hels Horror. Heavens Felicitie,’ London, 1608, 12mo, pp. 580; 4th edit. London, 1616, 8vo; 5th edit. London, 1630, 8vo. Dedicated to Sir William Willoughby.
* ‘The Heauenly Banquet. Or the Doctrine of the Lords Supper, set forth in seuen Sermons. With two Prayers before and after the receiuing. And a Iustification of Kneeling in the act of Receiuing,’ London, 1619 and 1631, 8vo.
* ‘On the two Sacraments, Baptism and the Lords Supper,’ London, 1621, 4to.
* ‘De Confessionis Auricularis Vanitate adversus Cardinalis Bellarmini Sophismata, et de Sigilli Confessionis Impietate, contra Scholasticorum et Neoticorum quorundam dogmata Disputatio,’ Oxford, 1621, 4to. Dedicated to James I.
There is an engraving which purports to be a portrait of him, but it has been said that it is in reality a print of Martin Luther altered (Bromley, Cat. of Engraved Portraits, p. 86).
In a letter from Sir Thomas Bodley to Dr. King, vice-chancellor of the university of Oxford, read in convocation on 8 July 1629, Denison is stated to have presented some ‘very special good bookes’ to the public library.
He was the brother or near kinsman of Stephen Denison, D.D., minister of St. Katharine Cree, London, who died in 1649, and who published several sermons.
[Coates's Reading, p. 336; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), ii. 439; Hearne's Johan. Glastoniensis, p. 632; Notes and Queries, 4th ser. vii. 162; Granger's Biog. Hist. of England (1824), ii. 65; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Denne, Samuel

​DENNE, SAMUEL (1730–1799), antiquary, the second of the two sons of Archdeacon John Denne, the antiquary [q. v.], was born at the deanery, Westminster, on 13 Jan. 1730. He was educated at Streatham and at the King's School, Canterbury, and was admitted of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 1748, graduating B.A. 1753, M.A. 1756. In 1754 he was presented to the vicarage of Lamberhurst in Kent, but he resigned it in 1767 on becoming vicar of Wilmington and also of Darenth, both near Dartford, Kent. He died at Wilmington, where he had long lived quietly, on 3 Aug. 1799, of a bilious complaint from which he had suffered for forty years. He was buried near his father in Rochester Cathedral. ‘An affectionate son he was, and true lover of the spot appointed for his resting-place.’ ‘For his character the poor and needy of his parishes … will afford the best testimonial’ (Gent. Mag.). Denne became a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1783. His voluminous correspondence with Richard Gough, published in vol. vi. (p. 609 ff.) of Nichols's ‘Literary Illustrations,’ evidences the keen interest which he took in all classes of English antiquities. He published: 1. ‘A Letter to Sir R. Ladbroke’ (showing the good effects which would result ‘from the confinement of criminals in separate apartments’), 1771, 8vo. 2. ‘Historical Particulars of Lambeth Parish and Lambeth Palace,’ 1795, 4to. 3. ‘The History and Antiquities of Rochester and its Environs’ [in conjunction with W. Shrubsole], 1772, 8vo, also 1817, 8vo, and 1833, 12mo. Denne contributed to Thorpe's ‘Custumale Roffense;’ to Gough's ‘Sepulchral Monuments;’ to the ‘Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica;’ to the ‘Illustrations of the Manners and Expences of Antient Times in England,’ 1797; and to an edition of Atterbury's ‘Correspondence.’ He also assisted Ellis in his history of Shoreditch, and contributed articles to the ‘Archæologia’ in vols. vi.–xiii. He frequently wrote for the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ from the publication of vol. xli. till his death: his articles were signed ‘W. & D.’ (i.e. Wilmington and Darenth, his vicarages). Denne was unmarried.
W. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dennett, John

​DENNETT, JOHN (1790–1852), inventor and antiquary, of Newport, Isle of Wight, was born in 1790. In 1832 (according to Encyclop. Brit. about 1826) he invented the life-saving rocket apparatus (known as ‘Dennett's’) for conveying a rope from the shore to a shipwrecked crew. Manby had previously employed for this purpose a grappling shot fired from a mortar. Dennett's apparatus ‘resembled the old skyrocket,’ but had ‘an iron case instead of a paper one, and a pole eight feet long instead of a mere stick;’ it weighed 23 lbs., was propelled by 9 lbs. of composition, and had a range of 250 yards. Dennett subsequently increased the range to 400 yards by placing two rockets side by side on the same stick. But the action of these parallel rockets was unsatisfactory. A ship's crew off Bembridge, in the Isle of Wight, having been saved by means of Dennett's rocket, the board of customs had the apparatus supplied in 1834 to several coast​guard stations. It was superseded in official use by the adoption of Boxer's rocket in 1865. Dennett's rockets are said to have been sent to all parts of the world, and to have won for their inventor several honours from foreign sovereigns. A short time before his death, Dennett was appointed (apparently as some recognition of his services as an inventor) custodian of Carisbrooke Castle. He had a practical knowledge of antiquities, and was a corresponding member of the British Archæological Association. He contributed to its journal (vols. i.–v.) short accounts of various antiquities found in England, and read a paper on the barrows of the Isle of Wight at the Winchester congress of the association in 1845. He died on 10 July 1852.
W. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lee, Lord

​LEE, Lord (d. 1674), Scottish judge. [See Lockhart, Sir James.]