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DR. WILLIAM DENUNE
The first Denune in America — William Denune of Prince
Georges County, Maryland — came here from Scotland about
1724. According to Harry Wright Newman, a genealogist of
the Duvall family (see below), William Denune was a
physician. From documents discovered since Mr. Newman did
his seminal work about our family, we have come to know our
ancestor as a planter. And, thanks to paintings discovered in
the 1970s, word has now spread of his work as a painter of
portraits in the American Primitive style (an example of his
work is at the right). The majority of people in the Midwest
and West United States with the name Denune, DeNune,
Denoon, or DeNoon, appear to be descended from this
man and his wife, Elizabeth Duvall. |
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Click here to read more about this
portrait. |
William Denune has sometimes in family records been identified as "William Alexander
Denune." This is how Mrs. Ethel Denune Young referred to him, and — though I have never
seen an official document indicating whether or not he had a middle name — it has helped in
keeping the Williams of the first few generations of American Denunes and Denoons straight.
Mrs. Young wrote much about the history of her family, including what she knew of the man William himself, in an
article published in 1935 in a volume celebrating the 300th anniversary of the founding of
Maryland. An excerpt from Mrs. Young's article follows, below, recalling the man
through memories and artifacts preserved by her family, the Denunes of central Ohio.
William Denune was first noticed by the Duvall family genealogist, Harry Wright Newman,
who identified Dr. Denune as the husband of Elizabeth Duvall who was a daughter of Mareen
Duvall the younger, son of the immigrant Marin Duval, a Frenchman who won the favor of
Lord Baltimore in the late 1600s. Upon completion of an indenture which merited him quite a
few acres of land in Ann Arundel County, Mr. Duval became a very wealthy man and one of the
established gentry of the early colony. In his book Mareen Duval of Middle Plantation
(Baltimore:Lord Baltimore Press, 195x, p. 216), Newman quotes the register of St. Barnabas
Church in Prince Georges County. The register records that Elizabeth Duvall and "William
Denune (a Scotchman)" were married there, 24 February 1728.
The two took up residence in Prince Georges County on a plot of land given them by
Elizabeth's father, near Upper Marlboro on the Patuxent River. During his lifetime, Dr. Denune
added substantially to the acreage, eventually assembling a plantation which trailed a couple miles
along the river. The acquisitions are recorded in documents at the Maryland State Archives,
along with the register from St. Barnabas which record his marriage record and his children's baptisms.
Also at the MSA may be found the estate inventory of one James Denune of Annapolis, who died in
December 1738. What we know of James is that he was married to Rebecca Woodall, who was
the widow of John Lawson. The inventory of James's estate reveals a farmer of comfortable
means with pleasant but not expensive personal items, livestock, and three slaves (a woman and
two young children). William Denune was listed on the document as next of kin to the deceased,
and sole blood survivor, on the inventory document.
We do not know whether he was William's father or brother or
other relative. My guess is that William and James were brothers who set out together
for the New World, dreaming of good fortune in the colonies.
Back to "The First Denune/Denoons in America.
From Register of Maryland's Heraldic Families, Alice
Norris Parran, author and editor, Roebuck & Son:Baltimore, 1935.
An excerpt from the article, "Denune," by Ethel Denune Young
From old letters relating to the early history of this family in
Maryland, we learn that our Denune ancestor was a physician who
was graduated from a medical school in Paris in 1721. He came first
to Queen Anne county; Eastern Shore, Md., where fields and farms
are colorfully patterned with brilliant trumpet flowers and misty
Queen Anne's Lace, where no estate counted as such until its
limits had the thousand acre mark, and whose hospitality, wealth
and culture were outstanding in Maryland. The records of St.
Barnabas' Church, Queen Anne's Parish in Prince Georges County,
inform us that "William Denune was married to Elizabeth Duvall,
dau—of Maren at the 'Marsh', by the Reverend Mr. Jacob
Henderson, the 24th of November, 1728." On this register we find
the names of the children born to Dr. William and Elizabeth
Denune and in this church, pew number 12 was assigned to Dr.
William Denune, Mr. William Fowler and Mr. Mark Brown. Dr. William
Denune died in Prince Georges Co. in 1756 and few, if any,
important family names of either Anne Arundel or Prince Georges
County are missing from the pages of his record book, testimony of
the high esteem in which his professional services were held. Here
appear the names of Hardesty, Green, Beck, Fowler, Digges,
Lancaster, Tyler, evans, Brown, Magruder, Beall, Dixon, Spriggs,
Williams, Jones, Jacob, Clarke, Ogle, Duvall and many others.
From publicity by William Young and Company,
Private Vendors of Fine Art, Box 282, Wellesley Hills, MA 02181:
A Newly Discovered Early Southern Colonial Painter
William DeNune
1699 - 1744
oil on canvas, 41"x 32 3/4" — Signed I. R.: W. DeNune, pinxt. 1735
DeNune, the first of his line in America and, the earliest of the Southern
Colonial portrait painters, was known to us, until now, by the anonymous
Brodnax portraits in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the collection of
W. F. Brodnax III. It is entirely probable that the portrait of
Edward Jaquelin, Jr., in V.M.A. is also by DeNune. DeNune married
Elizabeth Duvall of Queen Anne Town, Maryland in 1728 and his painting
career seems to have occupied itself in Maryland and Virginia. The subject
of this picture is unknown. The condition is excellent, with only minor
restoration. We have prepared a brochure fully documenting DeNune which
is available. Belknap lists only ten portraits in his census of
Va.-Md. colonial painters.
Wm. Young & Co. was offering this portrait for sale in 1976 at $125,000.
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