(b. c.1741), merchant; m. Louisa - (b. c.1751).
- 1765 - 94 Leghorn (by 3 Jun. 1765), Civitavecchia (1771 - 94) with visits to Naples, Rome and Florence
A Mr Denham, probably a merchant, was in Leghorn in 1765; Sir William Farington dined with him and Messrs.Earle and Hodgson on 3 and 5 June.1
This may have been the Joseph Denham, merchant, who began trading in Civitavecchia early in 1771.2 'Mr. Denham of Civitavecchia' shipped nine cases of marbles for Gavin Hamilton in 1771.3 In 1774 Denham was listed as a merchant at Civitavecchia, with his clerk, 'Mr [Thomas] Jenkin's nephew'.4 Ozias Humphry mentioned that Thomas Jenkins had 'procured an appointment for Mr Denham and his Nephew who is in partnership with him that will produce them £;2000 sterling a year'.5 Father Thorpe in 1774 said that Denham and Jenkins 'survive all the riguour of satyre &c. & affect a triumph, & well they may, for they are both as rich as ever'.6 Thorpe later described Denham as 'the English Merchant of Civitavecchia, who has a Receipt of the late Pope in proof of his being a Cath'k. & what he seems to value more, he enjoys an ample estate & barony beyond a Mr Fiazione, which he got gratis from the Pope, beside a very lucrative employ at Civitavecchia; in summer he resides at Rome, or at his estate (Onano) from whence he came to Rome a few days before the death of him whom in his letter he calls friend [the Pope] & benefactor, & whose defects he does not now spare'.7 His wife Louisa is first mentioned on 20 December 1777;8 in 1783 they were listed as living with their children on the first floor of the 'Bottega del Sig.re Sarmiento, Scalinata di Trinita dei Monti', their ages given as 41 and 31.9 These apartments had been used by the Abbé Grant who, on departing for Scotland in March 1783, had sold his furniture to Denham 'for a trifle' and 'bound himself conjunctly with Mr Denham for the house rent, for Mrs Denham comes to the apartment he occupied'.(10) Denham was still in Rome in 1794: on 15 February he dined at Guy Head's with the Flaxmans, Sir William Hamilton and many others,11 and on 4 November he was writing to Lady Hamilton in Naples concerning the 4th Earl of Bristol's intention of asking Sir William to resign as British envoy in favour of his own nephew.(12)
1. Farington jnl.MSS. 2. ASR c 1024, f.48 (22 - 4 Mar.), also f.73v, 74, 210. 3. Cat. of Lansdowne marbles, Christies, 5 Mar. 1930, 78. 4. Hayward List, 15, 22. 5. [1773]; Humphry
corr.MSS, hu/1/136 - 7. 6. Thorpe letters MSS (5 Nov. 1774*). 7. Ibid. (21 Dec. 1774*). 8. Gazz.Tosc. 9. AVR SA, S.Andrea delle Fratte. 10. Thomson letters MSS (19 Mar. 1783). 11. Mrs Flaxman jnl.MSS 2. 12. Morrison, 1:195(no.248).