User:Geo Swan/John Denison (Ontario settler)

John Denison (1757-1824) born in Hedon, Yorkshire, settled in Upper Canada 1792, with his wife and three sons George Taylor Denison, Charles Denison and Thomas John Denison. Denison was in debt when he arrived, but he subsequently came to own valuable property so that he was one of the Province's richest individuals.

Denison held a Lieutenant's commission in the 2nd York Militia regiment (later renamed the 65th Regiment of the Line), for seven years. He was mobilized, with his regiment, in 1780, to help put down the Lord Gordon Riots.

When he initially arrived in Kingston, Upper Canada, in 1792, he secured a personal loan from Peter Russell, then the Province's Inspector General.

Largely through his friendship with leading men of the Province, like Russell, Denison transitioned from being a tenant farmer to one of the wealthiest land-owners.

Denison