Jabez Denison (1698 - 1788)

Born Aug 1698 in Saybrook, Connecticut

Ancestors

Husband of Dorothy Emerson (Cogswell) Denison — married 1740 in Connecticut

Descendants

Died 4 Jun 1788 at age 89 in Essex, Connecticut

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Biography

Jabez Denison was born August 1698 in Saybrook, Connecticut. He was the fifth child of John Denison and Anne Mason.

The prevailing consensus (although uncertain) is that Jabez Denison married Dorothy (currently profiled with surname Cogswell) in 1740. The surname Cogswell as attached to Dorothy seems to have cascaded into online family trees as an artifact of an earlier (1881; Baldwin & Clift) publication, which is known to contain many errors.

Note the following text, transcribed from the more recent Denison Genealogy (1963): The w[ife] of Jabez has been stated as Dor Cogswell, but Cogswell Gen fails to provide such a Dor. Since mother of Jabez m[arried] Sam[uel] Cogswell it seems possible that Cogswell was called "father-in-law" of Jabez in some rec[ords], that being regular term at that period for stepfather. If misinterpreted it would imply that Jabez m[arried] a Cogswell. Thus the identity of the spouse(s) of Jabez Denison is uncertain.

Additional uncertainty surrounds the six children of Jabez Denison as identified in the Denison Genealogy reference source. Note the disjunctions of birth dates vs. ostensible marriage date of these parents, thus casting doubt on relevance to this speculative birth family:

1. Jabez Denison, b. about 1740; married Mary (or Mercy) Wheeler
2. James Denison, b. about 1730
3. John Denison, b. about 1734; married Mary Post; d. 19 Jul 1789
4. Robert Denison, b. about 1745; married 1) Elizabeth Pelton; 2) Jemima Buckingham
5. Abigail Denison, b. about 1732; married 1) Daniel Ely; 2) Richard Hayes
6. Dorothy Denison; married Amaziah Bush

Jabez Denison died 4 Jun 1788 at Essex, Connecticut.

Sources

• Denison Genealogy: Ancestors and Descendants of Captain George Denison; E. Glenn Denison, Josephine M. Peck and Donald L. Jacobus; Gateway Press, Inc. Baltimore, MD 1993 [Originally published, Pequot Press 1963; Reprinted, Baltimore, MD 1978, 1982, 1993], no. 79: https://archive.org/details/denisongenealogy00deni/page/10/mode/1up

• Denison, Elverton Glenn. Denison genealogy: a record of the ancestors and descendants of James Post Denison a Revolutionary War soldier who moved with his family from Saybrook, Conn. to Burlington, Otsego County, New York in 1796, unknown: unknown, 1939. On Hathitrust.org

• Ancestry-Rueben. Jabez Denison, son of John and Ann. Husband of Dorothy. Father of James. 3 sources.

• Wheeler, Richard Anson. History of the Town of Stonington, County of New London, Connecticut, p. 340 no. 77: https://archive.org/stream/historyoftownofs00whee_1#page/n362/mode/1up