Author: Dennison, Peter
Biography:
DENNISON, Peter (fl 1816-17)
The author has not been identified although he may have been the Peter Dennison who is recorded in the 1841 Census as living in Monkwearmouth, Sunderland, Durham; that man died in 1851. Peter Dennison specialised in writing poems about disasters: works by him that are too short to be included in this bibliography are An Elegy on the Death of Her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte (Newcastle, 1817; 1 page) and An Elegy on the Brevity and Uncertainty of Human Life: Exemplified in the Case of the Unfortunate Sufferers at Harraton Colliery (Newcastle, 1817; 8 pages). The Heaton colliery disaster of 3 May 1815 was caused by a sudden rapid burst of water into the mine which drowned seventy-five workers (men and boys) and fifty horses. In early July of 1817 an explosion at the Harraton colliery killed thirty-three workers, including ten from one family. It was said to have been caused by the use of a candle instead of a safety lamp. (ancestry.co.uk 10 July 2024; Durham County Advertiser 13 May 1815; Suffolk Chronicle 12 July 1817) SR