Littleton Dennis Jr.

{{Short description|American judge (1765–1833)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2023}}

Littleton Dennis Jr. (1765–1833){{cite web|url=https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/000001/000426/html/am426--261.html |title=A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature 1635-1789|first1=Edward C.|last1=Papenfuse|publisher=Maryland State Archives|access-date=January 31, 2023}}

Maryland Historic Magazine (Summer 1926). was a justice of the Maryland Court of Appeals from 1801 to 1806.{{cite web|url=https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/speccol/sc2600/sc2685/html/ctappj.html |title=Maryland Court of Appeals Judges, 1778– |publisher=Archives of Maryland|access-date=September 22, 2021}}

Born in Worcester County, Maryland, to Littleton Dennis and Susan (Upshur) Dennis, Dennis inherited Essex Farm in Rehobeth, Somerset County, Maryland, from his father in 1884, and over the next fourteen years had a large frame dwelling constructed there.{{cite web|url=https://mht.maryland.gov/secure/medusa/PDF/NR_PDFs/NR-782.pdf |title=National Register of Historic Places Registration: Caldicott|date=September 1983|accessdate=2016-03-01 |author=Paul Touart|publisher=Maryland Historical Trust}} Dennis was appointed to the state court of appeals, then the highest court in the state, on October 22, 1801, after William Cooke of Baltimore County declined the appointment. Dennis was appointed from Somerset County, along with Richard Potts of Frederick County."[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/117695570/annapolis-october-22/ Annapolis, October 22]", The Maryland Gazette (October 22, 1801), p. 2. While other judges were appointed around the same time, only Dennis and Potts took oaths of office, on November 3, 1801.{{cite web|url=https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/000001/000368/html/am368--79.html |title=The Court of Appeals of Maryland, A History|publisher=Maryland State Archives|access-date=January 31, 2023}} In 1806, the state courts were restructured so that district court judges would also constitute the court of appeals.Thomas Waters Griffith, Sketches of the Early History of Maryland (1821), p. 180.

Dennis married a cousin, Elizabeth Upsher, with whom he had several children, and died at Essex Farm around the age of 68. The house was later listed on the National Register of Historic Places under the name Caldicott (the original name of the tract of land).