William Denning

1736 (age 94)

Pennsylvania, United States

Denning became an “artificer” for or in the Revolutionary army. He made two small cannon successfully at Middlesex, Pennsylvania, and then attempted to make a larger one at Mount Holly. The latter experiment was a failure, owing, it was said in the obituary written at the time of his death, to the fact that he could get no workmen who could stand the heat which was so great as to melt the lead buttons off their clothes. The cannon were made of wrought-iron staves, hooped with bands of wrought iron, four layers of staves, breaking joints, being finally bound together, and then boxed and breached like other cannon. One of those in use at the battle of Brandywine was captured by the British and placed in the Tower of London where it may still be seen. The British government offered a large sum and an annuity to any one who would instruct them in the manufacture of the cannon, but Denning declined. The United States government, however, gave him no reward until near his death and he passed his later years in poverty.