Ann Boorman Denman (1772-1842)

My four greats grandmother was Ann Boorman Denman. She was born in Staplehurst, Kent, England on 9 Aug 1772¹. She married my 4 great grandfather, William Denman, on 24 Jun² or 24 Dec 1790, in Headcorn, Kent, England.

The date of their marriage is one of the questions I have about this couple. The date on the previously-cited family group sheet says 24 Jun. As I started to try to find documentation for the “facts” I had collected for the Denman-Boorman family, I contacted the parish council for Headcorn. The family group sheet said that was where and when William Denman and Ann Boorman had married and I wanted verification. What I hoped for was a copy of a register page showing their marriage. This was about 3-4 years ago, and at that time I couldn’t find anything in the usual places online (like the Ancestry or familysearch sites) that showed a source. My contact with the parish netted me the following statement: “Regarding your enquiry, Brian Ledger (our Server in Headcorn Church) has given me the following information from the Marriage Register to pass onto you. No.1099 24th December 1790. Denman, William bachelor of Hythe married Boorman, Ann spinster of Headcorn Witnesses – Benjamin Martin and William Ashdown.” Just recently I asked the question of an English Boorman cousin and he looked on a Kent Family History Society CD of records³ to tell me that he “can confirm that the information you were given by Brian Ledger is all correct apart from the date which is 24 Jun 1790 as we thought. The only other item missing from Brian is that the wedding was by licence rather than banns.” That would seem to settle that.

After they were married the young Denmans lived in Hythe, where their first three (at least) children were born. Hythe is a small coastal market town, and I have no information about what William worked at there although there is a lot of farm land and he may have farmed. As the map above shows, Headcorn (where Ann was living) and Hythe (where William had lived before their marriage) and Staplehurst (where Ann was born) are not very far apart (a maximum of about 33 miles).

In 1795 William and Ann and their three children sailed for the U.S. and arrived in New York City. The family story is that William left Ann and the children in New York and continued up the Hudson River to look at the 200 acres he had bought in Neversink sight unseen. While he was away, their daughter Elizabeth died in August. Ann and the two boys went north to join William. I have written in the past about climbing Denman Mountain and seeing the remains of the homestead that William and Ann built in that wilderness. I saw with my own eyes how difficult it must have been to hack a path and haul possessions to the top (and I was walking through new growth not the Forest Primeval).

The first several years the family lived in a lean-to with a natural rock chimney, as William and Ann cleared and planted and built a cabin. In a letter from Esther Boorman (wife of John Boorman and unknown relation to Ann) to Ann Billinghurst in December 1797⁴ there was a description of the Denman family’s conditions.

At the time this letter was written, the third child was son Edward who was born in August 1797 so only an infant.

The family did persevere and thrive over time. The land was cleared and crops planted and first a cabin and then a house built. Ann and William went on to have a total of 11 children, 10 of whom survived to adulthood. My g-g-g-grandfather, John Denman, was their oldest son. Ann died in January of 1842. I have no picture of her: she died before photography was commonly used for portraits. I do have this picture of the family house taken much later (although I don’t know the date it was taken).
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