(1709 - c.1770); Oriel Oxf. 1726; Dilettanti 1736; army officer; dep. gov. of Pennsylvania 1756 - 9.
1731 - 4 [Lyons Jun. 1731] Padua (14 Dec. 1731), Rome (by 15 Nov. 1732 - Sep. 1734), Turin (by 5 Sep.)
A 'very sensible pretty gentleman', Joseph Spence met him in Dijon in May 1731, with Mr [Richard?] Shuttleworth ('ye son of Mr Shuttleworth Knight of the Shire'). Like Spence, they were heading for Italy, and they met up again in Lyons in June.1 The two were in Padua on 14 December 1731,2 and were in Rome by 15 November 1732. They then came to the attention of Stosch who reported that, along with another young Englishman, Joseph Alston, they had beaten a coachman in papal livery, but the matter was settled through the intervention of Sir Thomas Dereham.3 The following month Stosch reported that Shuttleworth, known in Rome as Chatelois, had challenged Sir Toby Birk to a duel for speaking badly of him after the affair over the coachman. Birk informed the Pope and Shuttleworth was forced to leave Rome for Naples.4 Denny meanwhile remained in Rome in 1733 - 4 in the 'Casa de P. di Gesuiti'.5 When he eventually arrived in Turin sometime before 5 September 1734, Lord Essex, the British ambassador, wrote that Denny had 'made a long abode at Rome, much against his Inclination, by an unfortunate affair in which he was bound security for some debts of a friend of his: I am told He is able to give some Lights as to the Pretender and the several Factions and Dispositions of the people about him; and I dare say, if it be so, besides the Satisfaction he will find in doing thereby his Duty as a faithfull Subject to the King, He will not be a little prompted to it, by the ill usage he has met with from that whole Party during his confinement at Rome, which has raised in him a strong Resentment against them'.6 See also Thomas Shuttleworth.
1. Spence Letters, 45 - 7, 52 - 3. 2. Brown 1907 - 12. 3. SP 98/32, f.465 (Walton, 15 Nov. 1732). 4. Ibid., f.470 (20 Dec. 1732). 5. AVR SA, S. Lorenzo in Lucina. 6. SP 92/37.