From Buryan to Bondi The Dennis Family of West Penwith, Cornwall and some Australian Descendants The Dennis family has been recorded in the beautiful Land's End to Penzance region of Cornwall for nearly 450 years, since the middle of the sixteenth century. This quiet fishing, farming and mining region is saturated in history extending back to Celtic times. Its spectacular wild coastline, swept by Atlantic storms, has seen many shipwrecks and has harboured many teams of smugglers. In this place so full of romantic imagery, the Dennis family can be tracked with some confidence from the time when three brothers named Sampson, Richard and George Dennis turned up in Saint Buryan parish records just after the 1664 Hearth Tax return. They were literate, owned property and two were Quakers. This book follows the fortunes of George Dennis and his descendants through several centuries of their lives in Cornwall, as times grew progressively tougher. Appendices refer to other parts of the family. In 1822 was born George Dennis, a g-g-g-grandson of the original George. Ten children were born before George Dennis died in 1866, leaving his young family to struggle through harsh economic times. In 1874 his widow Susan Dennis, her five sons and two surviving daughters arrived in Sydney Harbour. They came as assisted migrants on two different ships, ready to start a new and better life in Australia. They joined Susan's other daughter Jane and her miner husband William Williams, who had left Cornwall in 1866. Like so many immigrants from Cornwall, the older Dennis boys brought with them their mining skills. Susan's younger children, still of school age in 1874, enjoyed the benefit of some formal education and became teachers. Living first at mining settlements at Currawang near Goulburn, and Cow Flat near Bathurst, the Dennis family eventually settled in various parts ofNew South Wales. The greatest contrast in lifestyles between their new and old homeland was achieved by Susan's son James Dennis, who learned to read back in Cornw all by the light of a miner's lamp. Within thirty years of arriving in Australia as a thirteen-year-old labourer, he was a headmaster, a Master of Arts from Sydney University and then Inspector of Schools for NSW. His two sons were amongst Australia's first lifesavers, at Bondi Beach, but he never forgot his links to Buryan. Corrections Page 93 - James Dennis Angove lived with his father and his paternal grandmother at Treen in 1861. Pages 127-131 - Descendant Narelle West has kindly provided additional details and several corrections about her forebear Jane Williams. The most important correction applies to page 130 - Jane's son George married Elizabeth Ann Cannon at Newcastle West on 6 September 1906. For an updated version of Jane's story, pages 127-131, please refer to http://dennisfamilyhistory.blogspot.com Cornish Association of Victoria, Inc, Newsletter No 88, November 2008, Review byLindsay Chapman - This very professionally produced publication is the result of many years of painstaking research by the author who in tracing her own Cornish background has provided a wealth of information for many other related families both in Cornwall and here in Australia. The format is A5, soft cover and of 386 pages. The biography is most comprehensive, well structured and the text is supported by a number of ascendancy charts, early family photographs and present day images of West Cornwall. Louise lists and acknowledges all who have assisted in gathering detail and provides a full listing of sources chapter by chapter and this in itself is a most useful reference for others seeking their own Cornish heritage. Whilst a reader who does not have any family connection may be overwhelmed by the amount of personal data given for the numerous descendants they will find all of the supportive information very interesting. One example of this was the naval career of Cleon Dennis during WW1, he served on HMAS Sydney at the time of the battle with the German cruiser Emden in 1914. You should read the book yourself to follow the accounts of other members of this and the many related families who settled in Australia. Although this is a large volume, with chapters and charts being devoted to specific families and a comprehensive index, it is easy to select the family line or event that relates to your own interest. If you have any connection with a Dennis family in Cornwall or Australia this is your gold mine. Mike Angove, UK - 'Well, there go all the household chores I was going to do at the weekend! Just when you think you're catching up, a book of fascinations appears through the post. A quick scan shows plenty to interest me. There is new information in the book, for example I never found the death/burial of Elizabeth Dennis (nee Chirgwin) in Pendeen in 1887. I had seen the death entry on GRO, age 83 in 1887 and thought a good possibility, but had never gone further. She lived in Trewellard, and I had lunch there 2 weeks ago as well! You have made me think again about my line.' Sue Walther, Norfolk, UK - 'The book arrived safely. Thank you very very much. Enjoying it hugely. What an enormous amount of info you have collected. Love all the background stuff.' Sarah Dennis, NSW - 'Finally have got round to thanking you for our family history Thoroughly enjoyed it. Was overawed by how much work you must have put in to discover which Sampson, which George (how many of those were there ??!!), which Sarah, which Mary etc. belonged where. Loved to discover that the bridge ("the Dennis bridge" over the Hastings River) - which I cross on a regular basis on our way to visit Grant's family in Grafton (just near Ulmarra) is my great Uncle Spenser's bridge design. I've been saying for the past 15 years, here's my bridge and guess what, it is!!!! The other amazing coincidence is that Grant did his first practicum at Ulmarra Public School where my Dad's namesake and my Grandfather was born (admittedly not the same building - still amazing just the same). I loved reading the stories of James Dennis, the teacher and laugh at how little, really has changed, except, thankfully the class sizes. Well done. I have relished telling anyone who will listen all about those little moments of fame (Charles Kingsford Smith etc.) and will continue to bore all and sundry. Thanks again.' Frank Dennis, NSW - I found your book easy to read and full of fascinating facts -so much detail -about the Dennis family. It was a moving emotional experience while reading to relive the telling of some of the things mentioned in your book that were spoken about, by Gran in particular, around the table in the dining room at Farndale. Memories came flooding back -Golliwogs and Humpty Dumptys and all - but also many things that I was only very vaguely aware of or not at all, especially the Cornish history and the family connections. My eldest, Nick, was an avid reader and was very enthusiastically recounting things to me about the family from your book when I saw him at Christmas.
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