Joseph Dennie

Joseph Dennie was about five years old when made a ward of his elder brother February 17 1749. Like his brothers he became a merchant and might have shared their wealth and prominence had his business career had not been arrested by mental disease. Soon after April 24, 1775, he left the beleaguered town of Boston for Lexington, where he remained subject to periods of insanity, of increasing in duration and severity until his death September 11, 1811. During lucid intervals he attended for a time to his business in Boston and took and active and scrupulous interest in his only son. He was tenderly cared for during is illness by his wife and a relative of hers by the name of Harriett Green. Who after the death of his son and his widow inherited most of his property. His obituary in the New England Palladium on October 4, 1811 says: "Died in Lexington, where is remains were respectfully entombed on Monday last, Mr Joseph Dennie, age 68, formally a merchant in this town. For nearly 40 years proceeding his death he was subject to great sufferings arising from bodily disposition and mental derangement. The last 20 years he was confined to his home bedridden. During the small portion of his life that he was able to transact business, he maintained the character of possessing an enlightened mind and benevolent heart".