Bradford, to whom he had been many years domestic chaplain, and whose daughter, Susannah, he mar

and by that means rendered the management of the affairs of the Dean and Chapter easy to his contemporaries and their successors. He is well known to have been very conversant in our ecclesiastical history; and this employment afforded him an opportunity of increasing his knowledge in it, and of gratifying his inclination to other antiquarian researches. The indefatigable and judicious author of British Topography (vol. II. p. 373.) acknowledges that his passion for the pursuits of antiquity was fostered within the walls of Bene't College, and observes that other Antiquaries have obligation to the same seminary. In which number Dr. Denne may be classed: for, whilst a Fellow of that Society he transmitted to Mr. Lewis, from MSS in the libraries of the University of Cambridge, many useful materials for his Life of Wicliff; and when that learned Divine was afterwards engaged in drawing up his History of the Isle of Tenet, he applied to Mr. Denne for all the pertinent information that could be collected from the MSS. bequeathed to his college by Archbishop Parker. The care and diligence of Dr. Denne in collating the Textus Roffensis, and in subjoining to his copy of Hearne's edition such additions and remarks as would elucidate it, have been commended by Mr. Pegge (Bibl. Top. Brit. No. XV.)

"In examining the archives of the church, no grant, lease, or chartulary, seems to have escaped his notice. Almost all of them were endorsed by him, and from a great many of them he made extracts. His enquiries were not however confined to the muniments of the Dean and Chapter. The registers in the office of the Bishop of the diocese, their consistorial acts, and the minutes of the Archdeacon's Court, were likewise closely inspected. The late Dr. Thorpe saved him the trouble of searching many of the wills, by obliging him with the perusal of the transcripts he had from them. The acts of the courts of the Bishops and Archdeacons, which lay loose and dispersed in the office, were arranged by him and bound up in volumes, And in the opinion of Bishop Gibson, who was apprized of many of the contents, there are few registries of our Ecclesiastical Courts, that can furnish a more satisfactory report of proceedings in them previous to the Reformation.

"Dr. Denne, in his enquiries, had doubtless his first view to the discovering and ascertaining of the revenues, rights, privileges, and usages of the body corporate of which he was a member, and of the judicial office which he held in this diocese. But it was his further intention to make collections for a History of the Church of Rochester, concerning which very little was generally known in his time. With the same purpose he noted references to whatever printed books he had of his own in which that church was named, and copied largely from other books and manuscripts that accidentally fell in his way. That he often had it in his

thoughts

ried in 1724; vicar of St. Margaret, Rochester, 1729; resigned for the rectory of Lambeth, 1731; and Prolocutor of the Lower House of Convocation. "Whether we consider him," says the Historian of

thoughts to write such a history is evident; but for many years the duties of his station, to the discharge of which he always paid the most assiduous regard, and a multiplicity of other affairs of importance, prevented his engaging fully in this work. It is highly probable he entertained a hope that when the busy scene of life was past, he might find leisure for such an employment, and a pleasing one it would have been to him. But, long before his decease, he suffered from a want of health; and his quick and active mind, owing to an almost unremitting exertion of it, was so much impaired, that after Rochester became his constant place of residence, which was in the summer of 1759, writing of every kind was a burden to him.

"A part of what it is conceived was his design has been pursued in the preceding pages. Every hint suggested by him, it may be well supposed, has had its full weight, and not been dissented from without assigning a reason. The writer has differed from what seems to have been Dr. Denne's opinion respecting the choirs being in ruins for near half a century, in consequence of a fire which he also imagined to have happened not in 1179, but two years earlier; nor have I concurred in his idea of his stalls near the communion-table having been used for a confessionary. His copious and accurate extracts were, however, of the utmost use; and indeed without them I could not have presumed, in my present situation, attempting any thing like a history of the fabric.

"It is a fortunate circumstance when collectors have it in their power to compleat their own plan; and it is in a great measure from a want of this ability that so many books upon subjects of antiquity are complained of as being erroneous and defective. Between Dr. Thorpe and Dr. Denne there was a frequent and unreserved communication of their respective enquiries into the History and Antiquities of the church and diocese of Rochester; and it is to be regretted that time and other circumstances would not admit of their uniting in a production of the matured fruits of their researches. The editor of Registrum Roffense, and of the supplemental volume, has not withheld either trouble or expence in endeavouring to perpetuate the valuable deposit with which he was entrusted, and to have many of the remains of antiquity to which the MSS. refer illustrated by suitable engravings. And I acknowledge myself to be greatly obliged to him for accepting me as a coadjutor in a branch of his labours. One motive must have had an equal influence with us. We would have the work considered as a respectful tribute to the memories of the compilers of the materials from which it originated. May it, as the object of their wishes and intentions, meet with the more favourable reception from the publick! S. DENNE."

his College, p. 278, "as the minister of a parish, or as a Governor in the Church, he has never failed, in an uncommon degree of application, to acquit himself with credit in each station. His abilities as a scholar and divine may be judged of from his printed Sermons, amounting to 15; a Concio ad Clerum Londinensem, 1745; articles of enquiry for a parochial visitation, 1732; and the state of Bromley College, 1735 but, as to his skill in biography and the History of the United Kingdoms, particularly the ecclesiastical part of it, I dare venture to affirm, he has few equals."

The Archdeacon died August 5, 1767, in the seventy-fifth year of his age, and was buried in the South transept of his Cathedral. Mrs. Susanna Denne, his widow, survived him upwards of thirteen years. She had just completed her seventy-seventh year, being born November 27, 1703, and deceasing December 3, 1780; to whom, but not to her family, friends, domestics, and the poor, the day of death was better than the day of her birth. By this lady the Archdeacon left two sons, John and Samuel, who were educated, first, at a private school at Streatham; then at the King's School, Canterbury; whence they were both admitted at Bene't College; and one daughter, Susannah, who kept the younger brother's house, and was living in 1799..

JOHN DENNE, the eldest son, born at Bromley, July 21, 1726, was elected Fellow of Bene't College March 2, 1749; and proceeded M. A. 1751; perpetual curate of Maidstone, by presentation of Archbishop Herring, and chaplain to the gaol there, Feb. 13, 1752-3; and rector of Copford, Essex, 1754, in the gift of the Crown.

He published one Sermon, on the Election of a Mayor, 1753, from 1 Tim. ii. 2, 4to.

In the desperate riot in Maidstone gaol, Aug. 7, 1765, when several persons and two prisoners were killed by the fire of the towns-people in

their own defence, two desperate Italians, under sentence of death, having stabbed the gaoler to the heart, seized his arms, and sallied forth, firing on all who opposed them, and marched to Sevenoaks, where the two ruffians abovementioned, their ringleaders, were shot dead. Mr. Denne, who was attending the malefactors officially previous to their execution, had so narrow an escape with his life, that the fright brought on what his brother properly styled an intermitting fever of the mind, in which state he continued the last 35 years of his life.

He died, in his 74th year, at the Palace at Maidstone, in March 1800. His wife Mary, second daughter of George Lynch, M.D. of Canterbury, died before him, Dec. 5, 1797; and her remains were interred, on the 12th, in the family-grave at Rochester Cathedral.

SAMUEL DENNE, the Archdeacon's youngest son, was born at the Deanry at Westminster, Jan. 13, 1730; admitted of Bene't College, 1748, where he proceeded B. A. 1753, M. A. 1756; and was elected F. A. S. 1783. He was presented in 1754, by the Dean and Chapter of Rochester, to the vicarage of Lamberhurst, in Kent; and in 1767 to that of Wilmington, near Dartford; and, the same year, to the vicarage of Darent, having resigned Lamberhurst.

Worn out and nearly exhausted from his disorder, a bilious complaint (which at length fixed, after having tormented him forty years), he was for nearly the two last months of his life confined to the chair in the library; which unassisted he could never quit, aud in which he was supported by a pillow, frequently sinking under an oppressive languor. But in this situation his mind was not clouded, nor his expression much confused; continuing almost to the last to write, and to write connectedly and pleasantly to his friends. The very last letter received

by

by the late Mr. Gough, from the friendly hand which had afforded so much instruction and plea sure, ends thus: "Perhaps I have scribbled quant. suff.; perhaps more than sufficient; for, though I am well able to subscribe myself your faithful and obliged servant, yet in the spirit of weakness is added the signature of S. DENNE."

On Saturday Aug. 3, 1799, early in the morning, seated in his chair, without having kept his bed a single day, at the age of 70, he breathed his last; and on the next Saturday was deposited, near his father, in the South transept of the Cathedral of Rochester.

An affectionate son he was; and true lover of the spot appointed for his resting-place, and has done much for its illustration. For his character, the poor and needy of his parishes of Wilmington and Darent will afford the best testimonial in one respect; the literary world has sufficient in another.

In 1771 he published "A Letter to Sir Robert Ladbroke, Knt. senior Alderman and one of the Representatives of the City of London; with an Attempt to shew the good Effects which may reasonably be expected from the Confinement of Criminals in separate Apartments," 8vo.

Of the History and Antiquities of Rochester," published by T. Fisher in 1772, he was avowedly the compiler; and was author of an anonymous pamphlet, signed RUSTICUS, relative to the hardships experienced by the families of Clergymen who happen to die just before the time of harvest; and, under the same name, wrote a letter on the Curates Act, in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. LXVII. p. 747.

In 1795 he published "Historical Particulars of Lambeth Parish and Lambeth Palace, in addition to the Histories of Dr. Ducarel, in the Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica."

In Mr. Thorpe's "Custumale Roffense," p. 153 -242, are "Memorials of the Cathedral Church of Rochester; by the Rev. Samuel Denne, M. A. and F. S. A. ;" the History of his parish of Darent, in a letter to Mr. Thorpe, ibid. p. 90-102; and various VOL. III. smaller

M M