Sir Peter Denis, 1st Baronet

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Admiral Sir Peter Denis, 1st Baronet (1713 – 11 June 1778) was an English naval officer and Member of Parliament.

The son of a Huguenot refugee, Denis joined the navy as a young man and was a midshipman in HMS Centurion under the command of Commodore Anson at the start of his famous circumnavigation (1740-1744). He was promoted to lieutenant in 1739. On 5 November 1741, in the South Seas, he was sent in command of 16 men in a cutter to pursue a Spanish vessel . He boarded and carried his prize, which proved to be bound from Guiaquil to Callao. The cargo was of little value to its captors, but intelligence derived from the capture led to the attack on the town of Paita a few days afterwards.

By 1745 Denis had been promoted to command and given the Greyhound, a 24-gun 6th rate. Soon afterwards he was transferred to temporary command of Windsor, during which he captured a French privateer and recaptured two British merchantmen. By 1747 Denis was back in Centurion (a 50-gun ship) as Captain, taking it into action at the Battle of Cape Finisterre, and once more under the command of Anson, now an Admiral. When the enemy was sighted, Anson signalled a general chase as he expected the French to evade action if possible until they could escape under cover of darkness; Centurion was swiftest into action, engaging the rearmost French ship and occupying it and two larger enemy ships until the main body of the British fleet could come up. After the battle Denis was entrusted with bringing back to England the news of Anson's victory; as the public acclaim that followed won Anson a peerage, this may well have further endeared Denis to Anson.

In 1754, Denis entered Parliament as member for Hedon, a Yorkshire borough where Anson was the "patron" with the power to select the MPs. He held the seat for fourteen years, throughout which time the other MP was another naval officer, Sir Charles Saunders, who later rose to become First Lord of the Admiralty.

Denis continued his naval career, commanding HMS Namur of 90 guns in Admiral Hawke's unsuccessful expedition against Rochefort in September 1757. At the decisive victory of Quiberon Bay in 1759, he was captain of the 70-gun HMS Dorsetshire. In 1767 he was created a baronet, but as he left no male heir the title became extinct on his death.

He died in 1778, having reached the rank of Vice-Admiral of the Red.

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Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by Sir John Savile Luke Robinson	Member of Parliament for Hedon with Sir Charles Saunders 1754–1768	Succeeded by Sir Charles Saunders Beilby Thompson
Baronetage of England
Preceded by New creation	Baronet (of St Mary's) 1767-1778	Succeeded by Extinct