State Treasurer: JOHN DENNIS (Democrat), Riderwood,
Maryland.

John M. Dennis was born February 23, 1866, at Fred-
erick, Maryland. He is the son of the late Colonel George
Robertson Dennis and Fanny McPherson Dennis. Colonel
George Robertson Dennis was born on a farm named "Essex,"
in Somerset County, Maryland, March 16, 1831, lie being a
direct descendant of John Dennis, who sailed from Grave-
send. England, July, 1638, at the age of 22 years, in the ship
Merchants’ Hope. Be settled in Accomac County, Virginia,
married and had several children, as appears by his will, on
record in the Northampton County Court House. His son,
Donnock Dennis, was born in 1645, moved to Somerset
County, Maryland, and resided there until 1716, when he
died. He married Eliza Lyttleton, daughter of Nathaniel
Lyttleton. He was appointed Lord High Sheriff of the
county in 1685 by Governor Copley, an office at that time of
high rank and dignity, and was a lawyer by profession.

The descendants of Donnock Dennis held high positions in
each generation and were recognized as men of learning and
ability, holding offices in the courts and councils of the State
and of the Nation.

Lyttleton Dennis, fourth in descent from 1)onnock, mar
ried Elizabeth Upshur. He was an able man and an eloquent
speaker. For many years he held the office of .Tudge of the
Court of Appeals and was a Whig Presidential elector for
five elections—from 1801 to 1829.

His son, Lyttleton Upshur Dennis, married Sarah Waters.
He died at his estate in Somerset, known as "Essex," aged
29 years. Two children, George Robertson Dennis and Eliza-
beth Upshur Dennis, who married Mr. Murray Rush of
Philadelphia, survived him.

Colonel George Robertson Dennis married Fanny McPher-
son of Frederick County. He removed from the Eastern
Shore to Frederick County after his marriage, where he
engaged in farming, and in later years was elected president
of the Central National Bank of Frederick. In protecting
the property of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad during the
Civil War he became a warm personal friend of the late
John W. Garrett and was a director in the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad Company from 1862 until his death in 1902.

On his mother’s side, the ancestors of John McPherson
Dennis were equally prominent in the early history of the
country. Governor Thomas Johnson, the first Governor of