On November 2nd, 1650, Samuel Dennis was born in Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, England. He was baptized on January fifth.
His father was Benjamin Dennis, who was born there as well in 1624.
Samuel's birth was just after the the English Civil War, while Oliver Cromwell was Lord Protector of the English Common wealth. By 1660 when Samuel was ten years old, Cromwell had died, the Commonwealth collapsed, and the monarchy was restored under Charles the Second.
Samuel and his father Benjamin were bricklayers, possibly his grandfather as well. So by this age Samuel was probably learning the trade.
Samuel Dennis was a "Quaker". a member of the Society of Friends. In 1675 he left England to join the Quaker settlement at Shrewsbury, East Jersey.
He arrived in New York on October 27th 1675, and boarded at the home of Restore Lippincott on Rumson Neck, now Rumson New Jersey. Restore was the brother of his future wife, Increase. In 1676 he sent back to England for a letter from the Men's Monthly Meeting at Stansted Mountfitchet, which stated he was of good character and "clear of engagements" to marry.
His marriage to Increase Lippincott took place in Shrewsbury on April first 1680, when Samuel was about thirty years of age. By 1685 he is listed as paying quit rent on 120 acres of land at Shrewsbury. His home was on the same spot that my mother grew up in, now Sycamore Avenue and Sunnybank Lane, Little Silver, New Jersey.
Samuel and Increase had their children beginning in 1682 when their first daughter Abigail, named for her grandmother Abigail Lippincott was born. Samuel Jr was born in 1689, Jacob in 1691, and daughter Zipheah in 1693. Their youngest child Rachel was born before 1695, when Increase died on September 29 at the age of thirty eight.
Samuels daughter Abigail was about thirteen years old at the time of her mothers death, so presumably she helped care for her younger siblings from that time on.
Besides farming, Samuel was active in public affairs, being elected to represent Shrewsbury at the General Assembly of East Jersey at Perth Amboy in 1692. 1693 and 1694 . His name also appears as a surveyor, an active buyer and seller of property, and a Justice of the Peace from 1704 - 1723.
In December of 1702, the family converted to the Episcopal church, when a large number of Quakers were converted by a traveling minister, George Keith, himself a former Quaker.
Samuel Dennis passed away at Shrewsbury on June 7th, 1723. His gravestone can be found at Christ Church in Shrewsbury.
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