He was the younger son of the ejected minister John Jennings (1634–1701), whose ministry to the independent congregation at
Kibworth was continued by his elder brother
John. David passed through the Kibworth grammar school, and studied for the ministry (1709–14) at the Fund Academy in
Moorfields, under
Isaac Chauncy and his successors,
Thomas Ridgley, D.D., and
John Eames. His first sermon was at
Battersea, 23 May 1714. In March 1715 he was chosen evening lecturer at
Rotherhithe; in June 1716 he became assistant to John Foxon at Girdlers' Hall,
Basinghall Street; on 19 May 1718 he was called to succeed Thomas Simmons as pastor of the independent congregation,
Wapping New Stairs. Here he was ordained on 25 July 1718, and in this charge he remained till his death. At the
Salters' Hall debates of 1719 he sided with the non-subscribers, though a
Calvinist. In 1733 he was selected by
William Coward as one of the lecturers in Bury Street, St. Mary Axe; he became one of the Coward trustees in May 1743, and in August 1743 one of the Coward lecturers at Little St. Helen's. Jennings's career as a divinity tutor began in 1744, on the death of Eames, whose successor he became under the Coward trust, the "congregational" fund at this point transferring its support to another academy. The presbyterian board sent him no students till 1758. Jennings extended the course of study from four years to five, and abandoned the boarding school model. The lectures were given in
Wellclose Square, at the residence of
Samuel Morton Savage, the tutor in classics and philosophy. Unlike his brother John, Jennings did not attempt lectures on an independent plan. The divinity textbook on which he lectured was the ‘Medulla Theologiæ’ of the Dutch divine,
Van Marck. His lecture notes on the
Moses and Aaron of
Thomas Godwyn became the posthumous work on
Jewish Antiquities, by which Jennings is best known. A strict disciplinarian, he was suspicious of any heterodoxy. Two of his students, Thomas and John Wright, afterwards presbyterian ministers in
Bristol, were expelled on grounds of doctrine; in fact the majority of his pupils became
Arians, according to
Alexander Gordon writing in the
Dictionary of National Biography.
Philip Furneaux, his editor,
Joshua Toulmin, his biographer, and
Abraham Rees, the encyclopedist, were among his students;
Thomas Cogan and Thomas Jervis were under him for short periods. He encouraged the study of physical science, enjoyed astronomy, and had in practical mechanics as a hobby; he was also musical. In May 1749 the
university of St. Andrews, at
Philip Doddridge's suggestion, sent him its diploma of D.D. He enjoyed good health till the last two years of his life, and died on Thursday, 16 September 1762. ==Family==