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Person ID: I5659336067

John Dunham, VI Deacon

ABT 1588 – 2 Mar 1668/1669

Male

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Events

Born
ABT 1588 — Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, England, United Kingdom
Died
2 Mar 1668/1669 — Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States

Parents

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Family

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Married: 22 Oct 1622 — Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States

Family

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Married: 17 Oct 1619 — Leyden, Netherlands

Notes

  • John Dunham was the son of Thomas and Janet (Bromley) Dunham. He married (1) on 17 October 1619 at Leyden, Susanna Keeney, by whom he had three children, John, Humility, and Thomas. At the time of his marriage to Abigail Bailliou he was a widower living at Zevenhuyser, Holland. The Baillious were probably Huguenot refugees from England. The exact time of John's arrival in Plymouth is not known. His name first appears on the Plymouth records in 1630, and he was taxed nine shillings in 1633. He was later a Deputy to the General Court. He died at age 80 years. DEACON JOHN DUNHAM American Immigrant Ancestor 1589 - 1668 DEACON JOHN DUNHAM, son of Thomas, was born in Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, England, in 1589. He was a member of the First Pilgrim Church in Scrooby. He left his country at the age of eighteen when his church moved to Holland in 1607, on account of religious persecution. At the age of fourteen years he received his religious instruction under the guidance of William Brewster, born in 1560 in Scrooby, England. (John's land in Plymouth is said to adjoin Elder Brewster's.) In the winter of 1607/8 the members of the Pilgrim Church held its meetings in the manor house at Scrooby. In their escape from Scrooby, the center of the Separatist movement, the exiles first went to Amsterdam, Holland. A stay in England was especially dangerous. After nine months in Amsterdam, they removed to Leyden, Holland, where John was a member of the First Pilgrim Church in Leyden, Holland. His relatives were bitter against his religious beliefs. It is said that he came with the Pilgrims from Holland. It is not known just when he came. It is said that he adopted the name John Goodman in his escape from Holland. There is the name John Goodman on the original voyage and it is said that he died in the first year. The Mayflower Society will not accept that they are the same person. Isaac W. Dunham has him living in Plymouth, with several grants of land and living next to Elder Brewster after arriving. In the book, Ancient Landmarks of Plymouth, 1633 is the first time the name John Dunham appears. At that time all land owners had to be recorded. At the same time, 1633, he was chosen Deacon of the First Church of Plymouth by Elder Brewster. He was a weaver by trade. He married Abigail Wood Barlow, a distant relative, in Holland, Oct. 22,1622. She was his second wife, the first was Susanna Kenney, who had died. He had three children by his first wife Susanna. John; Humility; Thomas Isaac Dunham's Genealogy states that "It is said that John came over on the Mayflower under the name of John Goodman, and his family came later." Passengers and Ships by Charles E. Banks states, "The Mayflower (not the original voyage) Master William Pierce, left Groversend, in March with thirty-five passengers mostly from Leydon, Holland, destined for Plymouth, arrived May 15, 1629, no list of names." All his children but John, 1620, are said to be born in Plymouth. Dr. Dexter's The England and Holland Pilgrims is the following appendix. Pg. 612, Dunham-Denham. John, widow of Sussana Kenney, betrothed to Abigail Barlow, Oct. 7, 1622, the witness, her father Thomas and sister Ann of Langerbrugge, Holland. John was living in Zevenhuysen in 1626. He had eleven children, according to the History of Norway and Paris by Whitman: John, Benaiah, Jonathan, Daniel, Persis, Samuel, Benjamin, Joseph, Hannah, Abigail, and Daniel (Isaac Dunham names Thomas instead of Daniel twice.) Deacon John Dunham died March 1, 1668 at the age of 80 years. He was a servant of God and a useful man in his place, being deacon of the Plymouth Church. He made his will Jan. 5, 1668. In his will he mentions his oldest son John, two younger sons Ben and Daniel and daughters Abigail and Persis. He was Deacon of the Church for thirty- four years and twenty-one years deputy of Plymouth Colony. Plymouth First Church Records, Part 2, page 1. His residence after leaving the village was north of Watson's Hill and southwest of the Village of Plymouth. To the west was a swamp having an outlet to Town Brook, called "Dunham's Brook." By means of a dam it became a pond and was separated by a narrow strip of land known as "Dunham's Neck." This strip was a portion of Deacon John's land, the highway leading to Carver. In 1907 some of the offspring lived in the vicinity. John owned other land in Plymouth. Dunham Coat of Arms was adopted by Sir John Dunham, 1498, as the family shield. Taken from Pilgrim Republic, Goodwin, Page 13:"The Pilgrims were Separatists having openly withdrawn from the National Church. The Puritans were Nationalist, believing that a Christian Nation is a Christian Church." Page 15: Henry Barrows 1593/4, a lawyer, one of Elizabeth's former Courtiers, with John Greenwood and John Penry were hanged for teaching Separatist Doctrines, and lived in the vicinity of Scrooby, also. *Reference: "Boston Transcript", issue of 27 December 1940; MD 15:214; Weston, 41; Dunham, Isaac W., 13;"The Ancestors and Descendants of Asa Freeman Ellingwood and Florilla (Dunham) Ellingwood" compiled by Florence Evelyn O'Connor - West Paris, Maine - 1979.; NEHGR114:115. He was a deputy of the Plymouth General Court1639-54; a member of the Council of War, and Deacon of the church. Marriage to Abigail at Plymouth from Reference Book 1, Genealogy Research in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts: Miscellaneous Marriages before 1699