Author: DENOVAN, James Farquhar
Biography:
DENOVAN, James F. (1777-1831: ancestry.co.uk)
He was the eldest surviving son of Campbell Denovan, an Edinburgh printer, and Mary Farquhar; his parents had married in St. Cuthbert’s, Edinburgh, on 17 June 1775. He was born on 8 Nov. and baptised on 14 Nov. 1777. Campbell Denovan died in Mar. 1800 and James, with his brother Alexander, took over the printing business in the Lawnmarket, Edinburgh. Two works by him, both claiming to be translations from German, were published in 1800: The Hussar of Magdeburg, said to be from the German of “Gotterfried Augustus Burger,” and The White Rose of Vilna, A Poem, Written Originally in the Polish Tongue, said to be from the German of Goethe. Both may in fact be by Denovan—no originals by Bürger and Goethe have been discovered—and the latter is not a poem but an 8-page prose story. The White Rose includes advertisements for two forthcoming works—“The Maid of Drontheim,” translated from Norse, and “Verses on November”—which seem not to have been published. In about 1800 Denovan also issued a pamphlet, Descriptive Sketch of the Storming of Seringapatem…by Robert Kerr Porter, with an announcement of a new subscription publication of three large prints from Porter’s painting. The latter also seems not to have been published. From about this time Alexander Denovan began operating the printing business alone while James was in search of other means to make a living. The facts are uncertain but genealogical records suggest that he began calling himself James Frederick Denovan and followed a mixed career path—police intendant in Leith (1808-13); Danish Consul in Leith (1814); and Consul for Hanover in Leith (1817). In about 1820 he and a younger brother, Francis Garden Denovan (1790-1860; he married a Danish woman), began promoting herrings salted according to the Dutch manner. Three of Denovan’s publications from 1825 are about salted herrings and include a proposal to establish a joint stock company for their manufacture. If James Farquhar Denovan was James Frederick Denovan, he married twice: Jemima Gordon on 12 Nov. 1805 in Leith, and Cathrine Hutchieson on 13 Sept. 1809 in Leith. He died in Fife, Scotland, on 21 Feb. 1831 and was buried in Aberdour cemetery on 26 Feb. 1831; his gravestone identifies him as “late merchant in Leith.” (ancestry.co.uk 4 Sept. 2023; SBTI 4 Sept. 2023; John McGowan, A New Civic Order [2013]; ECCO; WorldCat) SR