James Dennis - Sarah Pitman Family Group
| Parents | Parents | |||||
| James Dennis. Sr. | Mary Charles | Mark Pitman | Sarah (perhaps Shapleigh) | |||
| b. 1636 in Marblehead | b. 1628 in Marblehead | b. | b. 1627 | |||
| d. Sep 1730 in Marblehead | d. 1671 in Marblehead | d. 25 Aug 1676 at Bloody Brook, Massachusetts | d. 1713 in Marblehead | |||
| HUSBAND | WIFE | |||||
| James Dennis, Jr. | Sarah Pittman | |||||
| b. 29 Jan 1663 in Marblehead | b. abt. 1664 in Marblehead | |||||
| d. | d. 1701 in Marblehead | |||||
| Relationship Events | ||||||
| Marriage | 25 Mar 1682 | James Dennis Jr. to Sarah Pitman in Marblehead, Essex, Massachusetts | ||||
| Children (All locations were in Marblehead unless otherwise stated) | ||||||
 |
Jonas Dennis bp. 18 Nov 1688 in Marblehead; m. 29 Oct 1706 Susannah Devereux (b. 1688, d. abt. 1751); eight children: James, Susanna, Sarah, Jonas, Devereux, John, Hannah, and Elizabeth Dennis; d. 1751 in Marblehead, Essex, Massachusetts | |||||
| Sarah Dennis bp. 18 Nov 1688; m. William Girdler 11 Dec 1712; seven children: Thomas, John, William, Elizabeth, James, Thomas, and George Girdler | ||||||
| Mary Dennis bp. 18 Nov 1688; m. George Chinn 11 Nov 1703; three children: Samuel, Mary, and John Chinn | ||||||
| Benjamin Dennis bp. 18 Nov 1688; m. Mary Girdler 28 Nov 1712; six children: Mary, Elizabeth, Charles, Anne, John, and William Dennis | ||||||
| Amy Dennis bp. 18 Nov 1688; m. William Felton 2 Dec 1714; no further records | ||||||
| Thomas Dennis bp. 15 Feb 1690/91; m. Sarah Lane 9 Dec 1717; eight children: Lane, Joanna, Thomas, John, Jonas, Sarah, Abigail, and James Dennis | ||||||
| Samuel Dennis bp. 14 May 1693; m. Rebecca Tucker 15 Dec 1715; nine children: Samuel, Elizabeth, Andrew, Mary, Edward, Rebecca, Charity, Rebecca, and James Dennis | ||||||
| Elizabeth Dennis bp. 17 Feb 1694/5; m. John Doake 7 Nov 1717; seven children: John, John, Rebecca, Elizabeth, Mary, Michael, and Benjamin Doake | ||||||
| William Dennis bp. 21 Mar 1696; m. Rebecca Lewis 5 Nov 1718 in Eastham; seven children: William, Rebecca, Sarah, Thomas, Lewis, Benjamin, and James Dennis | ||||||
| Charles Dennis bp. 9 Oct 1696; m. Sarah Libby; no records of children (see comment about Charles below) | ||||||
| Hannah Dennis bp. 27 Apr 1701; no further records | ||||||
What We Know About This Family
An Overview of Their Lives
Vital statistics records of births and marriages exist for this family, but surprisingly for a family of this size, very little else to corroborate the relationships.
James, the son of James, Sr. married Sarah Pitman whose father, Mark, was killed by Indians at the Battle of Bloody Brook a few years before her marriage. James made his living as both a ship builder and a blacksmith. Together, James Jr, and Sarah had at least 55 grandchildren. Several of their children married the children or grandchildren of some of our other direct ancestors. Marblehead in their time had fewer than 100 families, so it is not surprising that we would see many of these early names in the various family trees.
- Their son Jonas married Susannah Devereux, daughter of John and Susannah Hartshorn Devereux.
- Their son, Benjamin, married Mary Girdler. Francis Girdler, the original Marblehead Girdler, was one of our direct ancestors, so I attempted to determine how this Mary may have been related to him. There is no birth record for a Mary Girdler close to the time when Benjamin was born, and I know the marriage histories of the other Mary Girdlers born. Date-wise, she could possibly be the daughter of our ancestor, John Girdler (son of Francis), and his first wife Mary Ingalls, but there is no record of a child born to this couple during the three years they were married before Mary Ingalls died. John Girdler's second wife was Margaret Greenfield, half sister to John Devereux, Jr.
- Benjamin's sister, Sarah Dennis, married William Girdler, son of George Girdler (son of Francis) and Mary Gale (daughter of our direct ancestors Ambrose and Mary Ward Gale).
- Charles Dennis married Sarah Libby, the brother of Joseph Libby who was captured by pirates and hanged with them in Rhode Island. Sarah and Joseph Libby were the children of Daniel Libby and his wife Mary Ashton, who was the daughter of our direct ancestors, John and Susannah Foxwell Ashton. It's possible Sarah Libby died and Charles married for a second time Sarah Cruff, who had two children; however, he had a nephew with the same name who could be the one who married Sarah Cruff.
Proof of Relationship
The vital records are our proof of relationship for the direct ancestors in this family.What Else We Need to Learn
The goal of this project is to trace every line of ancestry to the arrival of its first immigrant to America. The basic information of each couple is considered complete when we know the dates of birth, marriage, and death for both spouses. their parents' names (or whether they were the immigrant), and the child or children in our ancestry line.
The research on this family is basically complete. The Dennises were a prolific family with several duplicate names such as James, Jonas, Charles, and even Devereux. The lack of death records and probate make identification difficult in some instances. I believe the direct ancestry is correct, but information on some of the siblings might come to light in the future.
