1536 – 45 Dissolution of monasteries/chantries, etc. Rise of the parish as a unit of social control (parish registers). Decline in fortunes of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk and dissolution/sale of Wangford Priory lead to gradual removal of headquarters of Rous family to Henham Hall. Henham estate bought in 1545 by Anthony Rous: family said to be making a fortune from exporting Suffolk cheese.

1553 – July 12th – Edmund and Anthony Rous among first to join future queen, Mary Tudor, in all-important muster below walls of Framlingham Castle. As queen, staunchly catholic Mary launched Counter Reformation with some dire consequences – e.g. protestant John Noyes burned at stake at Laxfield, 1557.

1601 – Poor Law Act. Made parishes responsible for own dole, rates, workhouse.

1603 – Thomas Rous sells Dennington Place Manor to Edward Bacon of Shrubland Hall. Bacon, educated radically in Switzerland and considered the black-sheep of the Bacon family of Redgrave, was the third son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal to Elizabeth 1st.

1615 – ref. to Toll-House on Fen Street Common: also “pit” and “doles”.

1617 – Nicholas Bacon Esq. (son of Ed) arrives at Dennington, partly as overspill from Shrubland. Wealthy, radical, parliamentarian, Presbyterian family of considerable influence. No “Puritan” – had a reputation for high living.

1637 – Killam and Goodale families of Dennington emigrate from Ipswich to America on the “Mary Ann”, probably with active assistance of Nicholas bacon.

1642 – “mending the (town’s) spearhead and oiling the corselet”.

1643 – Dowsing’s visitation. Brasses weighing +51 lbs. taken up from chancel, etc.

1643 – Parish pays out 17s. to “yonge Lionell Nicholls, being maimed in the parliamentary service” and gives “money, jewels and plate” to Lord Fairfax.

1648 – Wm. Baxter exercised in the Town Armour at Saxmundham, Southwold. Alleged visit to Dennington by Cromwell’s army returning from Battle of Lowestoft and field –archaeological evidence of large concentration of musket-shot suggest serious local skirmishes. Target probably Lionel Gatford, Rector of Dennington, gaoled in Holborn, London, for publishing pamphlets against the “the now raigning sin of rebellion”. Gatford focus of Royalists in village?

1662 – after Restoration, brasses “ found – laid up in corner of vestry chamber.”

1663 – Rous’ Place demolished and sold off in part to Pembroke Hall, Cambridge University, to build Framlingham’s poor-house inside the castle. Bacons back at Codename/Shrubland. Henham now main residence of Rous family.

1660-9 – burials per annum in parish register:- 15,5,6,5,8,10,13,18,9,8. Plague!

1735 – first surviving Overseers’ Book for Dennington. Parish responsibilities increasing for maintaining own poor inhabitants, removal and resettlement orders, bastardy, contracts for parish work, etc.

c1765 – Dennington Oak felled (unnecessarily). Was this the medieval “Holyoak”?

1801 – First national census. Dennington population = 726.

1827 – Ed. Dunthorne’s alternative census. E.D., grocer, asst. overseer.

1834 – New Poor Law takes effect. Hoxne Hundred spike built at Stradbroke, replacing village workhouses. Emigration schemes to Australia, Canada, etc. One emigrant returns and Dunthorne writes down his story.

C1838 – John Glyde calculates Dennington c7th richest church living in Suffolk: reflected in size and high quality of rectory.

1851 – “Greta Census”. Dennington population peaks at 1,047. Farmers, farm labourers and dependants form (sample) c90% of population. Drift to towns and industry begins (Ipswich, Lowestoft, Leiston).

Population lowest in 1961 (474).

c.1890 – parish still beating the bounds (Easter week). Parish vestry meetings frequently conclude with the statement – “The meeting adjourned to The Queen” (local pub).

1991 – Census – population 492, of which, if typical of Suffolk Coastal D.C. sample, agriculture, forestry and fishing together form c5%.