Introduction

Biography

William was the son of Ro­bert Den­nis, a New­port bak­er, and lat­er keep­er of the Dutch Is­land light­house in Nar­ra­gan­sett Bay. Will­iam’s wife was Eli­za A. Den­nis.

He was edu­cat­ed in the New­port schools, and at the aca­de­my in East Green­wich, Rhode Is­land.

Without pur­su­ing his stu­dies fur­ther, he en­tered the work of Chris­tian min­is­try. He was a pas­tor in New York state, and lat­er of the New Mar­ket Street Bap­tist Church in Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia.

He sub­se­quent­ly with­drew from the min­is­try, and was ad­mit­ted to the bar in Phi­la­del­phia in 1853. He was a bril­liant speak­er, and achieved con­sid­er­a­ble re­pu­ta­tion at the bar, as he had al­ready done in the pul­pit.

In his lat­er years it was his cus­tom to spend his sum­mers in New­port. Five days af­ter ar­riv­ing there in the sum­mer of 1874, he was sud­denly tak­en ill and died.