The Reverend James Denning (1814–1875)[1] was an Anglican clergyman of Irish descent.
[2] He was educated at Trinity College Dublin, and was ordained as a deacon in June 1842.
[7] The 1847 Reports of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the State of Education in Wales (commonly known in Wales as The Treason of the Blue Books)[8][9][10] records "The Reverend James Denning, who gave evidence on ‘Morals’ to the Commissioners, asserted that ‘to all appearances they enjoy their filth and idleness’, a trait he equates as common between the ‘lower order of Welsh and Irish’, both of whom are ‘dirty, indolent, bigoted, and contented’, though the Welsh are also seen as given to activity where moral duplicity is concerned (‘double dealing’) and the women as having a proclivity for drinking ‘quantities of gin’."
[13] On 8 April 1868 Denning was Chaplain at Shrewsbury Jail[14] (also known as The Dana and The County Prison) and was present at the execution of one John Mapp, the 'Longden Murderer'.
[16] In Reverend James Denning's immediate family tree the middle names "Vere", "ffolliott", "de Winton", "Glendenning" and "Glendening" appear frequently - no link to families of that name have been found to date.