William Denman

Denman, WILLIAM, publisher, b. in Edinburgh, Scotland, March 17, 1784; d. in Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A., September 12, 1870. His father was a German, his mother an Alsatian, and he claimed to have been in the English army before he emigrated to New York in 1824. He was an associate of William E. Andrews, the London publisher, and after settling down in New York, he began, in conjunction with George Pardow, on April 2, 1825, the publication of “The Truth Teller”, the first Catholic paper issued there. It was a weekly, and for a time enjoyed considerable local influence which gave Denman political prominence. Tainted, however, with the prevailing error of trusteeism, it lost the support of the local ecclesiastical authorities, rival publications were started and its prestige waned until he sold the paper March 31, 1855, to the proprietors of “The Irish American”, who merged it in that journal a short time after. Three of his sons were in the United States service: Adjutant Frederick J. Denman, of the Artillery, killed by accident in Texas in 1854; Ensign Joseph A. Denman, of the Navy, died 1862; Colonel Charles L. Denman, who served in the Mexican War and as consul in South America, died March 17, 1893. The youngest son, William, was for some years editor of the New York “Tablet”.

THOMAS F. MEEHAN