Jonathan Singletary Dunham

Jonathan Dunham (January 17, 1640 – September 6, 1724), known in his early life as Jonathan Singletary, was a prominent early European-American settler of Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, who built the first gristmill in New Jersey. He was an ancestor of President Barack Obama.[1][2][3]

Jonathan Singletary, later Dunham
Memorial at Trinity Episcopal Church in Woodbridge Township, New Jersey
Born
Jonathan Singletary

(1640-01-17)January 17, 1640
Newbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony
DiedSeptember 6, 1724(1724-09-06) (aged 84)
Woodbridge Township, Province of New Jersey
SpouseMary Bloomfield

Life
Jonathan Singletary Dunham House in Woodbridge, New Jersey, Original millstone used by Dunham and memorial plaques appear in foreground.

Jonathan Singletary, later Dunham, was born on January 17, 1639/40, in Salisbury, Massachusetts, the son of Richard Singletary and Susanna Cooke.[2][4] He married Mary Bloomfield (a relative of the later New Jersey Governor Joseph Bloomfield, for whom the township of Bloomfield, New Jersey is named).[5][6]

He and his wife migrated to Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, the first Township of New Jersey, which was chartered by King Charles II on June 1, 1669.[7] Possibly due to an unsubstantiated family legend about his father being the heir of the family of Dunham, or because Jonathan himself was the son of an earlier marriage of Richard Singletary to a Dunham wife who had died in 1638/39, Jonathan Singletary called himself Dunham after moving to New Jersey. While all of the other sons of Richard Singletary used the Singletary surname, Jonathan adopted the name of Dunham, and all of his children retained it.[8][9]

At Woodbridge, Dunham was granted 213 acres (0.86 km2) of land by the newly appointed Governor of New Jersey.[3][10] Upon this land, he built the first gristmill in New Jersey. He later received a further grant of 203 acres (0.82 km2) and also acquired many other tracts of land in New Jersey and Massachusetts.[5][6] After finding success with his gristmill, Dunham went into public life, serving as the Clerk of the Woodbridge Township Court and overseer of highways, and in 1673 he was elected to the New Jersey Provincial Congress.[3][11][12][13]

Death and legacy

Dunham died in Woodbridge, New Jersey in 1724.[4] The house the Dunhams built in 1671, the Jonathan Singletary Dunham House, still stands and currently serves as the Rectory of the Trinity Episcopal Church.[14][15]

In the words of Woodridge historian Rev. Joseph W. Dally, "Dunham was a man of great energy. When he determined upon an enterprise he pushed it forward to success with indomitable perseverance. So many of his relatives settled in the north of the Kirk Green that the neighborhood was known as Dunhamtown for many years."[16]

In addition to one of the original millstones used by Dunham, two memorial plaques have been placed in front of the Trinity Church Rectory. The first plaque reads, "This millstone from the mill of Jonathan Dunham builder of Trinity Church Rectory 1670 was placed here by Trinity Young Peoples Fellowship on the 250th Anniversary of Trinity Church May 16, 1948." The second memorial plaque reads, "In Memory of Jonathan Dunham who in 1670 established the First Grist Mill in New Jersey at Woodbridge, New Jersey and built the Brick House now Trinity Church Rector dedicated October 5, 1969 by the 300th Anniversary Comm. of Woodbridge Township NJ."

Notable descendants

References
  1. "SINGLETARY to DUNHAM FAMILY HISTORY, STORIES and TIMELINE". Retrieved 2009-06-06.
  2. David Webster Hoyt (1897). The old families of Salisbury and Amesbury, Massachusetts. Providence, R.I., Snow & Farnham. p. 317.
  3. "The SINGLETARY-DUNHAM HISTORY, NOTES, & RESOURCES". Retrieved 2009-06-06.
  4. Reitwiesner, William Addams. "Ancestry of Barack Obama". Retrieved 2008-10-09.
  5. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff and David Pulsifer (eds.) (1968). Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  6. Anderson, Robert Charles (1995). The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633: Great Migration Study Project (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society.
  7. John P. Snyder (1969). The Story of New Jersey's Civil Boundaries: 1606-1968. Bureau of Geology and Topography. p. 174. OL 5688289M.
  8. "JONATHAN SINGLETARY(aka Jonathan Dunham)BIOLOGICAL MOTHER POSSIBILITIES". Retrieved 2012-05-03.
  9. Hoyt, David W. (1981). The Old Families of Salisbury and Amesbury. NE History Press. pp. 317–18.
  10. "JONATHAN SINGLETARY-DUNHAM FAMILY LINE". Retrieved 2009-06-06.
  11. James Robert Woods; Laurence Charles Baxter; Sue Spotts; Sue Cooley (1984). William and Eliza (Johnson) Woods of county Antrim, Ireland: their descendants and some allied families.
  12. Dunham, Kenneth Royal (1987). Dunham-Singletary Genealogy, Descendants of Richard Singletary of Salem, Newbury, and Haverhill, Massachusetts and Deacon John Dunham of Plymouth, Massachusetts, With Particular Emphasis on the Life of David Elson Dunham, Architect of New Brunswick. Canada, Royal Press, Rochester, NY.
  13. Leonard, O. B. (1930). THE DUNHAM FAMILY (pp. 194-196), in Monnette, Orra Eugene (Eds.) FIRST SETTLERS of YE PLANTATIONS of PISCATAWAY and WOODBRIDGE, OLDE EAST NEW JERSEY, 1664-1714. The Leroy Carman Press, Los Angeles, CA.
  14. "A Brief History of Trinity Parish". Archived from the original on 2009-10-12. Retrieved 2008-10-09.
  15. "My Website | Just another WordPress site". Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-02-24. Retrieved 2011-04-11.
  16. Dally, Joseph W. (1989). Woodbridge and Vicinity. p. 44.
  17. "Gov. Joseph Bloomfield is related to Jonathan Singletary-Dunham!". geni_family_tree. Retrieved 2016-01-08.
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