J. C. Denovan was born at Edinburgh in 1798. Early evincing a
predilection for a seafaring life, he was enabled to enter a sloop of
war, with the honorary rank of a midshipman. After accomplishing a
single voyage, he was necessitated, by the death of his father, to
abandon his nautical occupation, and to seek a livelihood in Edinburgh.
He now became, in his sixteenth year, apprentice to a grocer; and he
subsequently established himself as a coffee-roaster in the capital. He
died in 1827. Of amiable dispositions, he was an agreeable and
unassuming member of society. He courted the Muse to interest his hours
of leisure, and his poetical aspirations received the encouragement of
Sir Walter Scott and other men of letters.