James Denning was born March 2, 1829 in Kilmersdon.  His parents were Henry and Martha Nicklas Denning.  Henry first married Sarah White in 1811.  They had five children and then she died, leaving Henry a widower with 5 children.  Henry then married 34 year old spinster, Martha Nicklas, on January 13, 1823.   Martha had been orphaned at the age of nine.  She had been raised by a widowed aunt and cousin who were cruel to her and her sister, Grace.  With the marriage to James, she then took on the responsibility or raising Henry’s five children, along with giving birth to four of her own.  Young James did not attend school, but worked in the coal mines with his father.

Sarah was born August 19, 1832 at Colford, Somersetshire, England.  She was the fourth of six daughters of Uriah Merrifield and Jane Denning.  Sarah had brown eyes, black hair and weighed about 150 lbs.

As children, James and Sarah would have attended the same parish in Coleford.  However, the circumstances and timing of their courtship is not known.  It appears that when James was about twenty years old, he left Kilmersdon to work in the coal mines of Abersychan in Monmouth, Wales.

A large iron works was built in the area and beginning in the 1830s attracted coal miners from Wales and Southern England.  Sarah must have gone with him, for on July 8, 1849, James and Sarah were married in Abersychan.

While in Monmouth, James Denning met a young Welshman named John Jones Williams who would not only become his brother-in-law, but would also change the course of his life.