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| Bernard Street, Leith |
Familysearch.org has the following records in Scotland, Births and Baptisms, all in South Leith, Midlothian.
Birth Baptism Father's name Mother's name
Catharin 16 May 1764 24 May 1764 Daniel Denoon Elizabeth Johnston
Agnes 29 Apr 1767 Daniel Denoon Elizabeth Johnston
Elizabeth 19 Sep 1768 22 Sep 1768 Daniel Denoon Elizabeth Johnston
Daniel 4 Nov 1770 14 Nov 1770 Daniel Denoon Betty Johnston
James 26 Feb 1773 7 Mar 1773 Daniell Denoon Elizabeth Johnston
Alexander 6 Dec 1774 24 Dec 1774 Donald Denoon Elizabeth Johnston
Katherine 19 Jul 1776 28 Jul 1776 Daniel Denoon Elizabeth Johnston
Charles 19 Dec 1778 3 Jan 1779 Daniel Denoon Elizabeth Johnston
Mary 12 Dec 1780 22 Dec 1780 Donald Denoon Elizabeth Johnston
Isabella 17 Jan 1783 19 Jan 1783 Donald Denoon Elizabeth Johnston
Janet 29 Sep 1785 31 Oct 1785 Daniel Denoon Elizabeth Johnston
Barbara 20 Feb 1788 6 Mar 1788 Donald Denoon Elizabeth Johnston
These are preceded by a marriage in 1762. The transcript of OPR Marriages 692/02 0100 0291 from scotlandspeople.gov.uk reads:
Daniel Denoon Mariner in Leith & Eliz=
abeth Johnston were married 13 December 1762.
Which unfortunately is not much information.
We can see among the birth records the interchangeability of Daniel and Donald. And this is confirmed here on the scotlandspeople.gov.uk website, along with Elizabeth/Betty and Jane/Janet/Jessie. Of these twelve children, Catharin (born 1764) must have died young before Katherine (1776), and this latter must be our Catherine Denoon, who married the Revd. James Young.
Of the some of the remaining children, I can document the following records, starting with the youngest:
Janet (or Jessie) Denoon
Scotland, Marriages has:
Janet Denoon (father Daniel Denoon) married Christan Reymert
on 13 Jul 1810 in South Leith
The Scot's Magazine Vol 69, p.637 notes a previous marriage
At Edinburgh, Mr. J. F. Ross, to Miss Janet Denoon, youngest
daughter of Capt. Donald Denoon, Leith
For Janet to be the youngest daughter, Barbara (born 1788) must have died
before this marriage.
Scotland, Births and Baptisms records that Christian Reymert and Jessie StClair Denoon had a child Christian Denoon Reymert, born 27 Mar 1813, baptized 17 May 1813 in South Leith. In addition, Norwegian records have other children, among them James Denoon Reymert, who studied in Edinburgh under the care of the Revd. James Young and Catherine Denoon, eventually emigrating to the United States of America.
The Phrenological Journal offers some biographical detail for James Denoon Reymert, although it's not clear where the information came from.
His [James Denoon Reymert's] mother, Jessie Sinclair Denoon, was a Scotch lady
of the Campbell clan, whose family grounds were a part of the present Argyle estate,
near the Clyde, where the castle of Denoon yet stands. He had two uncles who
participated in the American Revolution, one of whom fell in the naval service.
Another uncle, on the mother's side, was an object of British dislike on account of
his publications in favor of the independence of the colonies in America, and at
length made good his utterances by emigrating to America during the war. He
became afterwards the pastor of, and for upwards of fifty years preached in, the
"Auld Stane Kirk" at Caledonia, N. Y. The name of Rev. Alexander Denoon is
yet venerated by the Scotch of that place.
At the early age of fifteen Reymert left his father's house, and being intended for
mercantile pursuits, completed a course of study at the Commercial College at
Christiania, the capital city of Norway. He was the youngest student at that term,
and returned home with his diploma only to leave it again for Scotland. He entered
the extensive commercial house of John Mitchell & Co., at Leith. Four years were
spent there in active duties, partly in the office of Mitchell & Co., and more especially
in the study of law and literature in Edinburgh, in the law-offices of Messers. Murdoch
& Spencer. In Edinburgh he was under the guardianship of his uncle , Rev. James
Young, a minister of the Presbyterian Church...
While the latter paragraph above makes chronological sense, the uncles of James Reymert Denoon (at least on his mother's side) were too young to be fighting or publishing at the time of the American Revolution. This may relate to Reymert's great-uncles Denoon, but of his uncles, including the Revd. Alexander Denoon of the "Auld Stane Kirk", see Alexander below.
Mary (or Maria) Denoon
Scotland, Marriages has:
Maria Denoon (father Donald) married James Thomson
on 4 Aug 1815 in South Leith
From scotlandspeople.gov.uk, I have the following death record of 11 Aug 1818:
OPR 692/01 0070 0235
11/08/1818 DENOON MARIA THOMSON
JNO THOMSON F LEITH NORTH
Charles Denoon
National Archives in Kew has ADM73/212/92, relating to Greenwich Hospital School.
Name: Charles Denoon
Date of Admission: 14 Jan 1791
Parents: Daniel/Donald Denoon nee Johnston
Date of Birth: 19 Dec 1778
This has not been digitally imaged, and it's not in my budget to have it scanned, but it is definitely for the correct person.
An artist in the United States of America named Charles Denoon made at least three contemporary engravings of naval action during the Tripolitan War 1801-1805. I have not been able to find out much more about him, although the name and nautical connection are suggestive.
Alexander Denoon
US Mortality Schedules record the death of the Revd. Alexander Denoon of "The Auld Stane Kirk" in 1850, at the age of 80. This would be in the right ball park for Jessie Sinclair Denoon's brother, born in 1774. However, an obituary for the Revd. Alexander Denoon in the American Rochester Gazette claims that he was born near Inverness, whereas Jessie's brother was born in Leith. So, it seems unlikely to me that her brother is the Revd. Alexander Denoon, since I would tend to trust the obituary, rather than the unsourced genealogy of The Phrenological Journal.
Of greater certainty is the identity of James Denoon, born in 1773, who might just be the publisher mentioned in the Phrenological Journal, but who would have emigrated during the French Revolutionary War (and not the American). The Merrick Library has a 1796 deed naming James J Denoon and Thomas Condie, Booksellers of Philadelphia. Worldcat.org records the partners in connection with the book:
Sentiments upon the religion of reason and nature: carefully translated
from the original French, Philadelphia, printed for T. Stephens, and
Denoon and Condie 1795.
Denoon is listed by worldcat as James Johnston Denoon. And Johnston, of course, is his mother's maiden name. The book would appear to have been regarded as subversive as narrated in a story from Judicial Records of Renfrewshire: Illustrative of the Administration of the Laws in the County, and Manners and Condition of the Inhabitants, in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries by William Hector (Ed.) (J. & J. Cook Paisley 1876), pp.170-176.
Briefly, in February 1796, a package containing unbound books, pamphlets and newspapers arrived in Glasgow from James Denoon of Philadelphia addressed to D. Denoon of Leith. Among these were several that the customs officers thought seditious enough that they requested permission to confiscate the package pending further inquiries. One of these was Sentiments Upon the Religion of Reason and Nature. The package turned out to have contents for several recipients, among them Elizabeth Denoon - sister of the James who sent them - and D. Denoons, Senior and Junior. Although the relationship of these latter two is left as "relatives" in Hector's history, I suggest they are the father and brother respectively of James Denoon, and that the father is Daniel Denoon, Shipmaster of Leith. As seen above, Elizabeth and Daniel, Junior are also children born to Daniel Denoon and Elizabeth Johnston.
Donald Denoon
Scotland, Marriages has:
Donald Denoon married Agnes Keir (father Stephen)
on 25 Apr 1801 in South Leith
Donald Denoon married Harriot Ballingall (father David)
on 15 Jul 1804 in South Leith
A "Testament Dative and Inventory of the debt and sum of money addebted to and
owing remaining to [...] Donald Denoon residenter in Leith who died there upon the
fifteenth day of April [1806]" was made by "Harriet Ballingall or Denoon Widow of
the said Defunct".
There is a postscript to the story of his widow, although not involving any progeny of
the Denoons.
The Edinburgh Weekly Journal of 17 August 1806 notes the marriage of
Lieut. Alex. Anderson of the marines, to Mrs. Denoon, relict of Capt.
Denoon, and sister to Col. Ballingall. On 11 Sep 1814, now-Captain Alexander
Anderson R.M. of H.M.S. Confiance was killed in the Battle of Lake Champlain,
and is buried in Plattsburg, NY. The probate record for his will is at the National
Archives in Kew, and notes that he was a widower. A thread on
british-genealogist.com, the writer of which has presumably seen the will, notes
a son Alexander and his executor David Ballingall.
FreeReg has transcribed the birth (7 May 1807) and baptism (12 June)
record for the son, Alexander Anderson, at St. Margaret of Antioch, Rochester.
There also is the burial of 27-year-old Harriet Bellinghall Anderson on
11 February 1809. Alexander followed his father into the Royal Marines, rising
to the rank of Lt. General. He died 21 November 1877, and is buried in
Brompton Cemetery, London. His monument has an interesting arrangement of
cannonballs on it, one of which has been stolen.
Scotland, Marriages has:
Agnes Denoon (father: Donald) married James Thomson
on 22 Sep 1786 in Edinburgh Parish
Evidently, this is extracted from: The Register of Marriages of the City
of Edinburgh 1751-1800, Francis J Grant (Ed.) [Edinburgh 1922],
the entry for which reads (p.785):
Thomson, James, merchant, New Grayfriar's p., and Agnes, Tron p.,
d. of Donald Denoon, shipmaster in Leith, 22 Sept. 1786.
Returning to the father, Daniel/Donald Denoon, the Edinburgh Advertiser from the 1780s through to 1800 has many references to Captain Donald Denoon, Shipmaster of Leith in connection with the following vessels, plying trade between Leith and London:
1781-83 Friendship
1784 Raith
1785-86 Star
1789-92 Jemima
1793-96 Duchess of York
1796-97 Minerva
As to the fates of Daniel Denoon and Elizabeth Johnston,OPR692/01 0070 0190 transcript:
Johnson Elizabeth Relict Daniel Denoon Shipmr. S.L. died the 9th
& was buried the 12th June [1815] E.78.N.43. Old Age 68
Originally I had thought that her husband's burial might be recorded St Botolph, Aldgate, London on 16 Nov 1812 for one Donald Denoon. Our Shipmaster of Leith had London connections, while this London burial clearly had Scottish connections, noted as it is in The Scots Magazine and Edinburgh Miscellany, Vol 74 (1812), p.964 that "At London, Capt. Donald Denoon, in his 69th year". However, the date does not agree with the birth record of the three children of the Revd. James Young and Catherine Denoon, attested by Daniel Denoon and his son-in-law Christian Reymert. This record is dated April 1813, and latest of the births was December 1812, after the burial date. Thus, I am still searching for a death or burial date, sometime between 1813 (that is, after the birth record) and 1815 (before his wife's death).
City Directories and the advertisements for his voyages place his address at Bernard Street, Leith - the picture at the top of this post.
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