Henry Dennis (sheriff)

The earliest record of the family is in a Glamorgan Latin charter of 1258,[4] where Willelmus le Deneys appears as a witness to an exchange of land between Gilbert de Turberville of Coity Castle and Margam Abbey.

The canons of Bath & Wells did however regularly visit their manor to hold a manorial court, and there must have existed a suitable hall-type building for this purpose.

The ground floor front left room was formerly the ante-room to the great hall and has a fine plaster ceiling with large Tudor roses at its corners, with in its centre a ribbed pattern with fruit and flowers, and fully panelled walls.

In memoriam Johannis Dennis Armigeri, primo-geniti et haeredis Henrici Dennis Armigeri qui 26 die Junii Anno Domini 1638 ex hac vita decessit postquam ex uxore sua Margareta Domini Georgii Speake de Whight-lackington in Comitatu Sommerset Equitis balnei e filiabus una, Duos accepisset filios Johannem Scilecet et Henricum Equibus.

In memory of John Dennis Esquire, first-born and heir of Henry Dennis Esquire who on the 26th day of June in the year of Our Lord 1638 departed from this life after he had received from his wife Margaret, one out of the daughters of George Speake Lord of Whight-lackington in the county of Somerset, Knight of the Bath, two sons, that is to say John and Henry (knights?).

John Dennis of Puckle-church (otherwise pulcher-Church) in the county of Gloucester, Esquire, married Mary, one of the daughters and co-heiresses of Nathaniel Still of Hutton in the county of Somerset, Esquire; from whom he received three sons and one daughter, that is to say: Henry, John, William, and Margaret.The text plays on the Latin word pulcher meaning "beautiful", as mediaeval scribes often Latinised the name of the manor to Pulcher-Church.

Dennis memorial tablet, Pucklechurch parish church, erected post 1660. In memory of John Dennis(d.1660) and his father Henry Dennis (died 1638)
Jane Whitmore, widow of Nathaniel Still(d.1626), with their daughters, the youngest of whom is Mary Still. Detail from mural monument to Nathaniel Still, Hutton Church, 1626
"OldHall" or "Great House", Pucklechurch, believed to have been the manor house . 19th-century artist's impression of the supposed original seven-gabled form of the house, which in its 2011 form, known as "Moat House", retains only the right-most three gables [ 11 ]