Here’s the entire text of the debunk.
https://groups.google.com/g/soc.genealogy.medieval/c/9njNYuYgXoU
Having had a chance to look into the matter today, I have to report that the
account of the Dunham family of Scrooby, co. Notts., is an amazingly poor
fraud, which should have been exposed decades ago, yet is still followed in
many publications.
The fabricated origin and family of the [actually nonexistent] Dunhams of
Scrooby originated with the publication of the _Dunham Genealogy_ by Isaac
Watson Dunham (Hartford, 1907). He was about eighty at the time of
publication, so I don't think the fraud was his, but I fear he was imposed upon
by unscrupulous English researchers, too many of whom were operating at that
time.
The purported line of descent (according to the Dunham Genealogy) is thus:
VII. Sir John Dunham, b. 1474, d. 1502 m. Jean Thorland
VIII. John Dunham, b. 1498, d. 1545, m. Benedict Folgambse [sic]
IX. Ralph Dunham, b. 1526, d. [not known], m. Elizabeth Wentworth, daughter of
Sir Thomas, Lord Wentworth of Nettlested. (!)
X. Thomas Dunham, b. 1560, d. [not known], m. [some sources give Jane Bromley]
XI. JOHN DUNHAM, the immigrant, b. 1589 (according to his age given in New
England records), d. 1669, m. Abigail Wood.
The actual facts are quite different. Robert Charles Anderson gives a very
detailed account of the immigrant in _The Great Migration_, but makes no
attempt to trace the English ancestry. There was a preliminary attack against
the line by Ralph E. Dawson in _The Mayflower Quarterly_ 54(1988):201-3, but
his conclusions were not very solid or profound. He does note the "Paucity of
documentation and a certain uninhibited ebullience of treatment" in the Dunham
Genealogy, and he did at least make reference to Marshall's edition of the
Visitations of Nottinghamshire and Norcliffe's edition of the Visitation of
Yorkshire.
The Dunham Genealogy states that Ralph Dunham was born in Scrooby about 1526,
and married Elizabeth Wentworth, daughter of Thomas, Lord Wentworth. Speaking
of Lord Thomas Wentworth, it says, [p. xxxvii] "He then resided in Scrooby,
where his dau. Elizabeth was m. to Ralph Dunham in or about 1556." Dunham
states that Thomas Wentworth of Nettlested [and Stepney] resided at Scrooby in
several different places.
This is complete and utter nonsense. I took the opportunity to scrutinize the
Wentworths of Nettlested with extraordinary care when I wrote the article on
the Harleston family where I was able to determine that Jane Harleston was Lord
Wentworth's last wife (see _The Genealogist_ 9(1988):pt. 2, pp. 163-225,
281-292, esp. 177-8, 190). Thomas, 1st Lord Wentworth, was b. 1501 and d. at
Westminster 3 March 1550/1. Any suggestion that he resided at Scrooby is
utterly astounding (and completely false). Dunham understood that Lord
Wentworth was born in 1501 and mentioned it, but that is why he stated that
Elizabeth Wentworth was born "at Scrooby about 1536."
As shown in a previous post, the wife of Ralph or Raffe Dunham/Denham (but
remember the name Denham can be equivalent to Dinham, a completely different
family), belonged to the family of Wentworth of Wentworth-Woodhouse, and was
married by 1530. She would be born possibly about 1505-10, and therefore could
not have been mother of a fictional person named Thomas Dunham born in 1560 or
1556. Remember that the Plymouth settler John was born about 1589, though
there is no evidence as to where he was born in this account.
But even overlooking the entire lack of any evidence or source for any Dunham
at Scrooby, even if one ignored all the inaccuracies and decided to believe
some connection to Ralph Dunham, THE LINE STOPS THERE.
The Dunhams had been a minor gentry family in co. Nottingham until the marriage
of John, son and heir of Robert Dunham of Darlton, to Elizabeth Bowet, widow of
Sir William Chaworth (d. 1467), and senior daughter and coheir of the
representative of the Zouche estates at Kirklington. "The premature deaths
without issue of Elizabeth's son by Sir William Chaworth and of her nephew, the
only son and heir of her sister Margaret by John Chaworth, in 1483 and 1485
respecitively, left her son by Dunham as Zouche's sole heir." [Simon Payling,
_Political Society in Lancastrian England: The Greater Gentry of
Nottonghamshire (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), 53.]
CIPM Hen. VII [Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem ... Henry VII] 2:367-8 (no.
577), 371 (no. 584), 380-1 (nos. 602-4), 386 (no. 612), and 390 (no. 618), are
accounts of the lands of Elizabeth, widow of Sir William Chaworth and "late the
wife of John Dunham, esquire." She died 20/29 March 17 Henry VII, her heir
being her son Sir John Dunham, knight, aged 28. He was heir to the manors of
Bolton-upon-Derne, Yorks., Whethamsted, Herts., Kyngesworthye, Hants.,
Ambresburye, Wilts., Alvynglegh, Suffolk, Eynesford, Essex, and Kyrklyngton,
Nottingham.
As Sir John Dunham, Elizabeth's son, was about 28 in 17 Henry VII, he would be
BORN ABOUT 1474. The Dunham Genealogy states that he had a son named John who
was born at Scrooby in 1498 and was father of Ralph, b. 1526, BUT THE JOHN WHO
WAS SUPPOSED TO BE RALPH'S FATHER ACTUALLY DIED UNMARRIED AS A CHILD.
Tonge's Visitation of the North in 1530 [SS 41:6] states:
"Syr John Donham, son of John, maried to his first wyfe Jane, doughter of
Thomas Therlond of Gamston, esquire: and by her had no yssue. And the said Syr
John maried to his second wyfe Bennet, doughter to Syr Godfrey Folgeam
[Foljambe] of Derbyshire: and by her had yssue, John, whiche dyed yonge; and
Katherine; Elizabeth; Margaret; Anne; and Mary."
Note that as no children were born to the first marriage it would explain why
Sir John was so old at the births of his children by Bennet Foljambe [but see
my last note below].
As the father John was born about 1474, the son John would not have been born
until about 1495 or later, and died as a child. His sisters became coheirs of
the Zouche lands mentioned above. The Visitation of Nottingham, 1569 [HS
4:160], gives the children thus:
John Donham ob. yong
Catherine ux. Rafe Okover of Okover in Com. Stafford
Frances ux. John Haselwood
Anne ux. George Meverell of ... in Com. Stafford
Mary ux. Thomas Grantham of ... in Com. Lincon [sic]
Flower's Visitation of Yorkshire in 1563-4 [HS 16:100] states that Sir John
Dunham died 26 Henry VIII (1535), holding the manor of Bolton-super-Derne.
This agrees with the official list of inquisitions post mortem for the reign of
Henry VIII [Lists and Indexes, no. 23], which shows inquisitions taken for
lands in Lincoln, Nottingham, Wilts., and Yorks. in 26 Henry VIII. His son had
predeceased him (the visitation says, "John Donham, dyed yong."), his daughter
Katherine was aged 10 (b. 1525), Ann was aged 6 (b. 1529), Mary was aged 3 (b.
1532), and Francis was aged 7 [b. 1528]. The Yorkshire Visitation lists as
daughters and coheirs Kateren, Elsabeth, Margaret, Ann and Mary. But
apparently only four daughters survived to adulthood. The Yorkshire Visitation
is also wrong on other small points.
Katherine was married to Henry Legh by 1549 when they entered upon the manor of
Zouches or Ing's Place in Wheathapstead, Herts. [VCH Herts. 2:307]. Francis
Meverell held it in 1560. Francis Meverell, MP, was born 1514/15, son of
George Meverell, and had married, by 20 October 1544, Anne, da. and coh. of Sir
John Denham of Kirklington, Notts., and they had five sons and two daughters
(he also had one illegitimate son) [S. T. Bindoff, _The House of Commons,
1509-1558_ 2:597]. Anne was therefore about fourteen years his junior. Mary,
da. and coh. of Sir John Dunham married, by 1547, Thomas Grantham, MP, b. by
1525, oldest son of Vincent Grantham of Goltho and Lincoln [ibid.]. So Thomas
was only about seven years his wife's senior. The manor of Kirklington,
Notts., apparently went to Francis, wife of John Hasilwood [Thoroton's History
of Nottinghamshire... 3:98]. Thoroton states that Katherine, 'one of the four
daughters and coheirs,' received another small manor in that parish and married
(1) Raph Okeover, of Okeover, esquire, and (2) Henry Leigh, of Rushall,
esquire.
Even though this study is preliminary, it is clear that the account given in
the Dunham Genealogy is entirely spurious, though who perpetrated the fraud is
not yet clear. The ancestry is completely severed in the parentage of Ralph
Dunham, there is no reason to believe he had any connection to Scrooby, and
there isn't even any reason to believe the Plymouth settler was born in
Scrooby. Wills for Scrooby Dunhams were not found in the PCC, Prerogative
Court of York (PCY) or Archdeaconry of Nottingham. Parish registers for
Scrooby do not survive from this period.
Detailed extracts of inquisitions post mortem for Nottinghamshire are in print
for this period, but I cannot find where I've put my copy and the library's
closed, so it will have to wait until later. I still need to determine who
the Sir John Dunham was who had inquisitions taken in cos. Kent, Notts.,
Suffolk and Wilts. in 17 Henry VIII. It should be the husband of Elizabeth
Bowet who held the lands by courtusy, but I want to see the record before
drawing that conlusion (and I am very interested to know the names and ages of
the heirs at that time). The inquisition for Elizabeth [Bowet] for her manor
of Whethamsted, co. Herts., says that she and John Dunham were seised on the
manor in fee tail "and afterwards she dies so seised, and the said John Dunham,
esquire [her husband], survived her, and was, and still is, solely seised
thereof in fee tail by the form of the gift."
