Research Notes:
169? On the 25th of month 10, Jacob Dennis was born in Shrewsbury, Monmouth County, New Jersey, to parents Samuel and Increase Dennis. [1] [2]
Jacob Dennis, son of Charles, and this Jacob Dennis, son of Samuel Dennis, both might have lived in Shrewsbury Twp, Monmouth County at the same time, so it is difficult to distinguish them in documents.
Jacob Dennis married Clemence Woodward, daughter of Anthony and Hannah Woodward. Clemence died when daugher Increase was young and Increase was placed in the family of her intimate friends J.W. and wife, who took her as their adopted child. [3] [4] [5]
1719 On 18 January, Samuel Dennis Junior purchased land from Jacob Dennis, both of Shrewsbury Twp, Monmouth County. The land was adjacent to land of Thomas Leonard, deceased and had been purchased by Jacob Dennis from John Bibbe on April 6, 1719. Witnessed by Sam'l Dennis, Zibiah Dennis, and Richard Rundels. [6]
1725 Jacob Dennis witnessed the will of Silas Cook on Shrewsbury, Monmouth County, New Jersey and made the inventory with John Eatton and George Williams. [7]
1748 Jacob Dennis and Anthony Dennis witnessed the will of Jacob Lippincott of Shrewsbury Twp, Monmouth County. [8]
1771 On 30 September, 1771, Jacob Dennis wrote, from Shrewsbury, a letter to daughter Increase concerning religion, in particular Quaker beliefs. [9]
"...Monmouth County Archive in Manalapan... Restore Lippincott was Jacob Dennis's uncle, and Justice Josiah Holmes was Jacob's son in law... New Jersey Monmouth Jacob Dennis in the Said County yeoman, aged upwards of seventy years being solemnly sworn upon the Holy Evangalist of Almighty God Deposeth and Saith, That his father Samuel Dennis late of said Shrewsbury deceased, from Great Brittain, who came to live in the said town in the year 1675 Boarded with one Restore Lippincott on Rumsom Neck in said town, and while he lived with him, the Surveyor laid out the said Lippincotts tract, and the tract next below or Eastward of it, now in the posession of Thomas Borden Jun.. And that the said Surveyor set his Compass at a Chestnut Tree about two rod below or South Eastward of the Highway that goes down Said Rumsom, on the Westerly bank of a small brook runing just under the root of the Said tree. To run the course between the said tracts to the North River which course this deponant thinks is Northwest and by North. And that the Said little brook from the Said tree, and a small creek, that it runs into, was the bounds between the said tracts to the South Eastward. Which said Chestnut Tree this deponent saith his Said Father showed to him, and told him divers times to remember it, and that he was present at the laying out of the Said tracts as above and that the Said Brook & Creek were the bounds between said tracts below it. And that this deponents neighbour, Peter White deceased hath often told this deponent that the Said Samuel Dennis showed him the Chestnut Tree, and told Said White to remember it, And that he was present at the laying out Sd tracts as above. And the Deponent further saith that he as a Surveyor hath several times been employed by the owners of the tracts to run the division line ( or part of it ) of the Said tracts, and they began at the Said tree to run the Sd Division line, and that this brook and creek **illegible line *** till very lately. And that he believes it is upwards of fifty years ago that his said father showed him the said tree. And that the Said Chestnut tree hath been blown down many years, but young ones are grown up from the root thereof, And that part of this Said tree is still remaining. And further this Deponent saith not. Jacob Dennis Sworn this eighth day of July 1764" [Quoted from http://dennisfamilyshrewsburyeatontownm.blogspot.com/]
[1] Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935, Abstracts of Marriages, Births, Deaths of Shrewsbury Meeting (Monmouth County, New Jersey), 145, [AncestryRecord], [AncestryImage].
[2] Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935, Abstracts of Marriages, Births, Deaths of Shrewsbury Meeting (Monmouth County, New Jersey), 145, [AncestryRecord], [AncestryImage].
[3] S. M. Woodward, "Memoirs, Essays, and Epistolary Correspondence of Increase Woodward, late of Crosswicks, New Jersey," Friends' Miscellany 12 (1839), 1-94, at 8, [InternetArchive], [HathiTrust].
[4] Chesterfield Township Tercentenary Committee, Chesterfield Township Heritage: Burlington County, New Jersey (1964), 30, [GoogleBooks].
[5] William S. Hornor, This Old Monmouth of Ours (1932, reprint 1974), 388, [FHLBook].
[6] Monmouth County, New Jersey Deed, G-86, [FamilySearchImage], [FHLCatalog].
[7] William Nelson, Documents relating to the Colonial History of the State of New Jersey. Archives Vol. 23. (Wills and Administrations 1, 1670-1730) (1901), 106, [HathiTrust], [GoogleBooks], [InternetArchive].
[8] A. Van Doren Honeyman, Documents relating to the Colonial History of the State of New Jersey. Archives Vol. 32. (Wills and Administrations 3, 1751-1760) (1924), 200, [InternetArchive].
[9] S. M. Woodward, "Memoirs, Essays, and Epistolary Correspondence of Increase Woodward, late of Crosswicks, New Jersey," Friends' Miscellany 12 (1839), 1-94, at 20, [InternetArchive], [HathiTrust].