Desire Denison

Biography

Desire Denison was baptized at Stonington, on Connecticut’s southeastern coast, on April 16, 1693, a daughter of George Denison and Mercy Gorham. She grew up in a family that reused the name Desire after the death of an earlier child.

She married John Williams on February 19, 1711. Over the next fifteen years, they had nine recorded children. Their eldest daughter was also named Desire; sons John, William, Thomas, Robert and George followed, along with daughters Thankful, Mercy and Prudence. The children’s names joined both parental families within the new household.

The brief life of Prudence is one of the more intimate details preserved in the record. Born in January 1725, she died only days later. The next recorded child, George, was born in July 1726. Desire lived for another eleven years, dying on August 13, 1737.