Sources: Plymouth Colony Records [PCR]; Plymouth Church Records [PChR]; Plymouth Town Records [PTR].
| c. 1589 |
|
John Dunham is born, probably in the vicinity of Bedfordshire, England. |
| 1612 | John marries his first wife, Susanna Kaino, at Clophill in Bedfordshire. | |
| 1615 | John and Susanna’s first child, John, is baptised at Henlow, co. Bedford. | |
| c. 1617 | The second known child of the couple, Humility, is born, perhaps in Leyden, Holland. | |
| c. 1619 | A third child, Thomas, is born. | |
| 1622 | A census taken in October shows John and three young children living in the Zevenhuysen section of Leyden. One week later John marries his second wife, Abigail Ballou. Her father and sister witness the ceremony. | |
| c. 1623 | John and Abigail have their first child together, Samuel. | |
| 1624 | On 19 November Richard Dunham, “an old man” is buried at Langford, Co. Bedford. His will, dated a month before, mentions a son John who would receive his share of the estate, “at his retourne.” | |
| 1625-1629 | At least two more children are born to John and Abigail while living in Leyden. A division of cattle in New Plymouth undertaken in 1627 indicates that the Dunhams have not yet arrived. | |
| 1629 | William Bradford in his history of the Plymouth church would note that “In Anno 1629 a Considerable Number of the bretheren of the Church which were le[ft] in holland were Transported over to us that were of the Church in New England which although it was att About 500lb charge yett it was bourne Chearfully by the poor bretheren heer Concerned in it” [PChR 1:64]. It is possible that the Dunhams were among this number. | |
| c. 1632 | Jonathan is perhaps the first of the Dunham children born in the New World. John and Abigail will have four more children in Plymouth. | |
| 1633 | John is listed in Plymouth Colony records as a freeman. In the inventory of Peter Brown’s estate, taken 10 October, four shillings are owed to “Joh Dunham.” | |
| 1634 | John Reynor is ordained pastor of the Plymouth church. It is during his tenure that John Dunham is appointed a deacon of the church, a position he will hold until his death. | |
| 1636 | The colony determines that John, a weaver, is to “haue for the sheepe the watering place & the skirts of upland at Goose Point & About the first & second brooke” [PCR 1:56]. John also keeps cattle, for in Plymouth town records it is noted that “the marke of his Cattle is a croch on the left eare” [PTR 1:2]. | |
| 1639 | John is elected one of four committees, “to bee added to the Gounr & Counsell to make lawes, & c.” [PCR 1:121]. John would serve as a committee, or deputy, of the General Court of Plymouth for twenty of the next twenty-five years. | |
| 1642 | John Dunham, Jr., is sworn a freeman. It is about this time that his first known child, Mary, is born. She is the earliest known grandchild of Deacon John Dunham. | |
| 1644 | John’s second son, Thomas, is fined ten shillings for challenging Samuel Jenney to fight. Deacon John’s daughter Abigail marries this year Stephen Atwood (alias Wood) of Eastham. | |
| 1646 | John Dunham, Jr., is presented at court for allegedly poisoning the dog of Samuel Eddy. The case is settled a few months later by abitration. | |
| 1647 | Samuel and Thomas Dunham are propounded freemen. Samuel would be sworn a year later, but Thomas was among “those yt weer absent this Court yt should haue taken vp thaire freedom” [PCR 2:125]. | |
| 1648 | Thomas Dunham is ordered to “abstaine from coming att or sending vnto Martha Knote of Sandwidge” [PCR 2:136]. They had intended to marry, but never did. | |
| 1649 | Samuel Dunham marries the widow Martha Fallowell. In 1676 Samuel and Martha will be granted administration of the estate of John Fallowell, perhaps Martha’s son, who “was accessory to his own death, by willful going into a deep pond, called Loute Pond, and drowned himself” [PCR 5:182, 188]. | |
| 1651 | Deacon John’s daughter Hannah marries Giles Rickard. Their first two children will be named John and Abigail. | |
| 1655 | A second daughter, Persis, marries Benajah Pratt. This same year her brother Jonathan marries Mary Delano, who dies soon after. | |
| 1656 | Benajah Dunham is presented at court “for foolish and provoking carriages, in drawing his knife vpon sundry persons att Taunton.” The case was “examined by the Court, and deneying the mayne parte of the accusation, it rested for further proofe” [PCR 3:97]. | |
| 1657 | Jonathan Dunham marries a second wife, Mary Cobb. Eleven days later she is called Mary Dunham in the will of her grandfather, James Hurst of Plymouth. Joseph Dunham is also married this year, to Mercy Morton, daughter of Nathaniel Morton, secretary of the Colonial Court and author of a history of Plymouth Colony entitled New Englands Memoriall. John Dunham and Thomas Cushman inventory the estate of Governor William Bradford. | |
| 1660 | Benajah Dunham of Eastham marries Elizabeth Tilson. The couple will remove to Piscataway, New Jersey, about 1672. Also this year, Joseph Dunham “complained against Hester, the wife of John Rickard, in an action of slaunder and defamation, to the damage of an hundred pounds, for saying that hee, the said Josepth Dunham, did offer her money to bee naught with her” [PCR 7:96]. | |
| 1661 | Joseph Dunham “for diuerse laciuiouse carriages, was sentanced by the Court to sitt in the stockes, with a paper on his hatt on which his fact was written in capitall letters, and likewise to find surties for his good behavior.” [PCR 3:210 | |
| 1662 | John Dunham, Jr., is granted lands on the northerly bounds of Taunton as one of the “ancient freemen” of Plymouth Colony [PCR 4:19-20]. Isaac Watson Dunham, in his Dunham Genealogy (1907), will use this as evidence that John Dunham, Sr., was a passenger on the Mayflower. | |
| 1665 | John Dunham, Jr., is accused of “abusiue carriage towards his wife.” For “endeauoring to beate her in a deboist manor, and for affrighting of her by drawing a sword and pretending therwith to offer violence to his life” he is sentenced to be whipped. The sentence is respited “vntill the Court shall take further notice of his future walking” [PCR 4:103-4]. | |
| 1668 | Samuel Dunham is appointed a deputy in Plymouth, a position his father had held for many years. | |
| 1669 | Deacon John Dunham dies on the first or second of March “an approved servant of God, and a usefull man in his place” [PCR 8:32]. His will, exhibited in court on the fourth of June, mentions his “loveing wife Abigaill Dunham,” of whose death we have no record. |
Deacon John Dunham of Plymouth ©2003 by C. L. Dunham Email: dunham@softhome.net