Dennis, John, 1771-1806

John Dennis (1771-1806). Wikimedia Commons

Born to Littleton Dennis and Susanna Upshur Dennis at Beverly in Worcester County, Maryland, on December 17, 1771, John Dennis later became an influential politician representing Somerset County and the State of Maryland in the state’s House of Delegates and the United States Congress.

Dennis was elected to Congress as a Federalist at the age of 25 in March 1797. He served until March 1805. One year into his first term, Dennis served on the committee that impeached Representative William Blount of Tennessee – the first impeachment trial in United States history.[1]

John Dennis also played a crucial role in The Election of 1800. In one of the most consequential elections in American history, the Democratic-Republican, Thomas Jefferson, soundly defeated the incumbent, Federalist John Adams. However, the electoral votes for vice president – decided by electors on the same ballot as president – ended in a tie. Thomas Jefferson and his running mate, Aaron Burr, received the same number of electoral votes. Unable to resolve the deadlock, the election was thrown to the House of Representatives in 1801. There, 35 ballots were cast without a solution until John Dennis and four other representatives changed their votes that elected Thomas Jefferson to the presidency.[2] As a result of the controversy, Congress passed the 12th Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1803.[3]

On May 19, 1802, John Dennis purchased from his brother-in-law a tract of land “contiguous to the town of Princess Anne” in Somerset County known as “Beckford.”[4] Two years later, on December 11, 1804, Dennis sold part of the Beckford land to his nephew and Somerset County merchant, Littleton Dennis Teackle.[5] The latter eventually used his portion of the Beckford tract to build the Teackle Mansion.[6]

John Dennis married Elinor Jackson Dennis on August 9, 1793. The two had seven children, including: Elizabeth W. Dennis (1795-1817), Susan Upshur Dennis Snead (1799-1864), John Dennis II (1807-1859), Littleton James Dennis (1797-1829), Henry Jackson Dennis (1802-1828), Robert Jackson Dennis (1804-1857), Betsy Henry Dennis, Henrietta Dennis (1800-1829).[7] Elizabeth W. Dennis later married Abel Parker Upshur but tragically died during childbirth.[8] Beckford was eventually passed down to John Dennis II, even though he was born shortly after John Dennis I died in 1806. Dennis II served in the Maryland House of Delegates, the United States Congress, and in Maryland’s constitutional convention in 1850.

Footnotes

  1. ^ Foner, Give Me Liberty!, 7th edition (2023): 302-304; “Presidential Election of 1800,” Library of Congress, accessed September 26, 2023.
  2. ^ “Electors…shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President.” National Archives and Records Administration, “The Constitution: Amendments 11-27.” https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/amendments-11-27; “Beckford, National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form” (National Park Service, April 3, 1974).
  3. ^ Somerset County Court Land Records, MSA CE 102-38, “George Wilson Jackson to John Dennis Esquire,” 05/19/1802, MDLandRec, 1800-1802, Liber N. p. 529. The Justice of the Peace who facilitated and validated this transaction was Levin Winder who, a decade later during the War of 1812, became Governor of Maryland; “Beckford, Somerset County, Maryland,” Digital Maryland, https://collections.digitalmaryland.org/digital/collection/bama/id/5/.
  4. ^ Somerset County Court Land Records, MSA CE 102-40, “John Dennis Esquire to Littleton Dennis Teackle,” 12/11/1804, MDLandRec, 1803-1805, Liber. P, pp. 402.
  5. ^ Somerset County Court Land Records, MSA CE 102-40, “Littleton Dennis Teackle to John Dennis Esquire,” 12/11/1804, MDLandRec, Liber. P, pp. 399; “Teackle Mansion,” Society of Architectural Historians, https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MD-01-039-0127; “Teackle Mansion,” Maryland Historical Trust, https://apps.mht.maryland.gov/nr/NRDetail.aspx?NRID=61&COUNTY=Somerset&FROM=NRCountyList.aspx; “Beckford, National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form” (National Park Service, April 3, 1974).
  6. ^ For a comparison, see John Andrews Upshur, Upshur Family in Virginia (Richmond, VA: Dietz Press, 1955): 32, 68; and “Hon. John Dennis b. 17 Dec 1771 Beverly, Pocomoke City, Worcester Co, Maryland d. Yes, Date Unknown: MilesFiles,” Eastern Shore of Virginia Public Library System, March 23, 2023, https://www.espl-genealogy.org/getperson.php?personID=I51081&tree=1; Catalogue of the Cliosophic Society: Instituted in the College of New Jersey, 1765, Princeton University, (Princeton: John Bogart, 1840), 21.
  7. ^ Upshur, Upshur Family in Virginia, 30-35, 68.
  8. ^ Beckford, National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form” (National Park Service, April 3, 1974).

Mentioned in these documents

[Letter from Ann Upshur Eyre to her sister Elizabeth Upshur Teackle, May 9, 1805]

Letter from Ann Upshur Eyre to her sister Elizabeth Upshur Teackle, detailing her return to her home in Northampton, Virginia. She mentions Louisa A. Bowdoin's wedding is next month and they expect to see a few out of town guests, including Anna "Nancy" Teackle Smith Donnell. She talks of their shared acquaintances in town, including Sarah Barraud Taylor, Grace Duncombe Taylor Eyre, Susannah Gore Kendall, and Charlotte Smith. She asks about Elizabeth's health and about two enslaved members of her house, Sarah and Nancy. The last page is missing.

[Letter from Elizabeth Upshur Teackle to her sister Ann Upshur Eyre - May 28, 1800]

Letter from Elizabeth Upshur Teackle to her sister Ann Upshur Eyre, written from her Uncle Littleton Upshur's home, Vaucluse, on Hungars Creek. She lists off the expected guests at her upcoming wedding to Littleton Dennis Teackle: the family of John Teackle, Congressman John Dennis and his wife Eleanor Jackson Dennis, her brothers, Nancy Read, Peter Hack, Dr. George Teackle, her step-father John Upshur of Brownsville, Littleton P. Townsend, Betsy Teackle of Craddock, Maria Parker, and the family of her Uncle Col. Samuel Handy.

[Letter from Elizabeth Upshur Teackle to her sister, Ann Uphsur Eyre - June 26, 1803]

Letter from Elizabeth Upshur Teackle to her sister, Ann Eyre, written from Princess Anne. This letter discusses her sister-in-law Sarah Upshur Teackle Bancker, and some family unrest over a man who was courting her behind her parents back, George Wilson Jackson. While in New York City, she met Charles Nicoll Bancker, her eventual husband, and this letter explains how it all came to pass. George Wilson Jackson was the brother-in-law of Congressman John Dennis, Littleton Teackle Dennis's Uncle who lived next door to them in Princess Anne at their home Beckford, which Elizabeth states "places our family in a delicate situation." Elizabeth mentions a recent trip to Baltimore and their Aunt Susannah Kendall.