A Comprehensive Biographical Analysis
According to Rev. Jethro Rumple, John was related to the Erskines, on his mother's side. See Lord Gray, and Peerage of Scotland...
According to General William Smith and W. Thomas Smith, John relocated to North Carolina when he was about 17 years old, and he and Frances Peronneau parented 10 children, Nancy, Mary, Elizabeth, Hannah, four girls; Joseph, John, Isaac, Hezekiah, Leonard and Bartholomew, six boys.
In 1714, Frances Peronneau faked her death, and joined into a Common Law union with John Dunn, which was a Capital Offense, equivalent to rape, and punishable by death. See Burial.
In 1726, they parented Priscilla, born in South Carolina, where Frances’ relatives lived.
https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~haunpolk/genealogy/haun/haug84.htm
After Royal Gov. George Burrington died, Gov. Gabriel Johnston finally resolved the disputes between the original settlers of the Backcountry, and Britain. https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/johnston-gabriel
John Dunn was a surveyor, and in 1731, was appointed to survey the road, in Goochland, Virginia.
https://www.virginiadot.org/vtrc/main/online_reports/pdf/75-r71.pdf
And, in 1736, John was assigned to lay out the dividing line between the Carolinas. See History of The Old Cheraws.
John Dunn and Frances were living in a Common Law union, which was prohibited, but was not being stringently enforced, in North Carolina. It was only permitted if one person was sick and dying. Rape was a capital offense, so, from 1736, to 1739, while among the Royal Governors, and while briefly residing in South Carolina, John wrote a Will, claiming he was sick, and expecting to die. It was strictly formality.
To further the ruse, Frances went by her given name, Katherine, and they named their son, born in 1736, John Dunn, Jr., so it would not be apparent that they were the same John and Frances, who parented children, out of wedlock, in North Carolina, as they already had a son, named John Dunn II.
From Feb. 1736 - Jun. 1736, May 1737 - Sept. 1737, Feb. 1738 - Sep. 1739, Gov. Johnston's Executive Council met in Newton, on Cape Fear, to address the issues regarding original land patents, and the division line between the Carolinas.
In 1736, when John "Jack" Dunn was born, his birth was recorded, in St. Philip’s Parish, S.C. Then, after he was weaned, John delivered him to his relatives, in Virginia, where he was Christened.
When John returned to S.C., it was recorded in the St. Philip’s Parish Register that the child was buried, on July 27, 1738.
In November, 1738, John served on the Petit Jury for the Parish of St. Philips, in Charleston, S.C., where Jury Men included Frances’ Uncle, Henri Peronneau, her cousin, Henry Peronneau, Jr., and her future husband, Joseph Moody.
On April 29, 1738, their son, William was born, and Christened on May 26. Then, John was able to acquire some land in Cape Fear, where they settled their children.
When John and Frances arrived in Newton, NC, Priscilla was 12 years old, and William was newborn. William was subsequently raised in Onslow, NC.
John had known Newton when it was called Newtown, and that was how he got the nickname, "Toune". See History of Hanover County.
They likely stayed in Darlington, South Carolina, where Catherine's relatives lived, or at one of Maurice Moore's properties, in the Cheraws.
https://tourism.berkeleycountysc.gov/wp-content/uploads/docs/Boochawee%20Plantation%20Goose%20Creek%20Land,%20Labor%20and%20Legacy.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orton_Plantation
Roger Moore was present at Gov. Johnston's Executive Council meetings. http://www.elliewoodkeith.com/getperson.php?personID=I1187&tree=EW1
Governor James Moore was the leader of the Goose Creek Men.
Founding Fathers of the Deep South
Maurice Moore transferred land, in New Hanover County, to Richard Dunn. https://www.ncgenweb.us/newhanover/deed1.html
When John left Catherine with their younger children, in 1739, she recorded his burial, on August 7, 1739, in the St. Philip’s Parish Register, and he went to retrieve his 2-year-old son, "Jack", from where he was living among relatives, in Augusta, Virginia. Then, he brought his son, Jack, to Brunswick County, or Lunenburg, Virginia, where, according to Archibald D. Murphey, he married Betsy Howard, and according to Murphey, Betsy Howard was John's second wife. It was also here, in Lunenburg, Virginia, where John Dunn met, and married Mary Read. See "The Reads and their Relatives"
John and Mary Read parented 5 children: 2 boys, and 3 girls, Charles, Eleanor, George, Susannah, and Elizabeth. Given that their children were born after 1749, Mary Read's birth date may be approximated to have been about 1720 - 1725.
Archibald D. Murphey erroneously spelled her last name "Reid", and claimed that they settled on Reid's Creek, a tributary of the Yadkin River, but her last name was spelled "Read", not Reid, nor Reed, and they actually settled on Reedy Creek, a tributary of the South Yadkin River. See South Yadkin River. In that same paragraph, Murphey also stated that all of John Dunn's children were by his first wife, whom we now know to have been Frances Peronneau.
Archibald D. Murphey also wrote, that John, later married Frank Petty, which was actually John's first wife, Frances (Françoise) Peronneau, but she had shortened her name to Frank, and her last name to Peddy, "Peronneau-Dunn-Moody". Then, they actually married in 1775, when John was 78 years old. Lincoln County, North Carolina was formed in 1779, from Tryon County.
When John was in Cecil, Maryland, he joined the Maryland Militia, and stayed at William Rumsey's Bohemia Manor.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/bohemia-manor
Here is how the Dunn family acquired land, in New Hanover County, North Carolina.
John Carteret was a favorite of both King George I and King George II. Upon the death of his father at a young age, he inherited a share of Carolina and was the only Lords Proprietor not to sell his share to the Crown in 1728/1729.
He forced the Crown to survey a large swath of North Carolina and deed it to him when they purchased the other seven shares. As Lord Granville, he sent several Land Agents to North Carolina to manage the sale of his land holdings, piece-by-piece, until his death in 1763.
Thomas Broughton was acting governor, and his home was in Berkley, South Carolina.
He was also one of the Goose Creek Men. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goose_Creek,_South_Carolina
Landgrave Thomas Smith, Jr. died in 1738, and willed an enormous amount of land,
including his plantation, in Goose Creek.
Landgrave Robert Daniell was also a Goose Creek Man.
The following excerpts show John Dunn's movements, after he left Catherine with their children.
According to General William Smith and W. Thomas Smith, in 1748, by the same Colonial Records, John Dunn appears as Lord Proprietor of 100 acres of Bladen County land, and in 1749, Lord Proprietor of 100 acres in New Hanover, 150 acres in Craven, and 200 acres in Bladen. "From the east he came further west and settled in the town of Salisbury."
Bladen Co, was formed in 1734 as Bladen Precinct of Bath County, from New Hanover Precinct, and from 1734 until 1750 took in all the settlements to the north, northwest, and west. The following early counties were formed from Bladen: Anson, 1750; Orange (partly), 1752; Cumberland, 1754; Brunswick (partly), 1764; Robeson, 1787; etc.
Priscilla, daughter of John Dunn and Katherine, married Thomas Polk, Jr., who was born in Cecil, Maryland, and as you can see, someone has changed his date of birth, from 1726, to 1737, in yet another attempt to invalidate my research.
According to Carolina Cradle: Settlement of the Northwest Carolina Frontier, 1747-1762, by Robert W. Ramsey,
pages 28-30, John Dunn was a resident of Bohemia Manor, in Cecil, Maryland, in 1743, and was there at the time his daughter, Priscilla, met her future husband, and this link shows the Polk Farm, right next to the Rumsey Farm.
Priscilla's brother, "Jack" was captured by the Shawnee, on Feb. 8, 1778, along with Daniel Boone, and briefly lived among the Makujay sept. Boone escaped after four months, and returned to Boonesborough, to prepare the fort for a raid. Jack Dunn also escaped early, and joined Benjamin Logan's Kentucky Militia. In 1780, when the Shawnee still had not launched an attack on Boonesborough, Jack defected, and returned to his former tribe, with a warning, in a foolish effort to secretly learn of their plan, and to attempt a rescue of the other captives. The Shawnees did not trust him, called off the raid, and burned Jack at the stake.
John's and Frances' son, Bartholomew, begat Isaac, who begat Susannah, who married William Bennett. We see Richard Bennett, of Queen Ann County, Maryland, into whose family, Susannah married.
Rev. Jethro Rumple claimed that John Dunn briefly resided in Charleston, before coming to Salisbury, unaware that John had previously resided in North Carolina before his brief residency in South Carolina, nor does Rumple make any mention of John's visits to Virginia and Maryland prior to the founding of Rowan. Apparently, Rev. Rumple's sources were extremely lacking. https://www.ancestraltrackers.net/nc/rowan/history-rowan-county.pdf
The biography of John Ross Dunn, by Archibald D. Murphey, claims that John Dunn was from Ireland, when we know he was from the Dunn family of Virginia. See Anson County NcArchives Biographies, by Leonard Wilson (1916). NCpedia also makes that error, and while including some of the information from the Family tree book, overlooks a lot of it, specifically the details involving the first half of his life with his first wife, Frances, and also, completely omits that source from its referrences. The University of North Carolina makes the same erroneous claim that he was Irish, and also makes the claim that John Ross Dunn was the Salisbury lawyer who was arrested, although documents simply indicate that his name was John Dunn.
https://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.php/document/csr15-0650
https://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.php/document/csr19-0028
https://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.php/document/csr15-0651
Upon further investigation, the erroneous information appears to have originated at the Florence County Detention Center, South Carolina, which suggests that John lied about his true identity when he was incarcerated, in 1776, which now makes perfect sense, as the previous time he was in South Carolina, from 1736 to 1739, he had faked his death, to avoid being charged with unlawful cohabitation, and rape, and if that had been discovered, his legal problems would have multiplied, exponentially, and when pressed as to why he sounded like an Englishman, he further lied, claiming to have attended Oxford.
According to 'Over the Hills and Far Away', by Richard (Ric) Berman, this was John Ross Dunn.
and North Carolina state records attribute the following claim to John Ross Dunn, Esq., but it was John "Jack" Dunn. In 1754, John "Jack" Dunn was being recruited by Arthur Dobbs to fight in the French and Indian War. He agreed to meet Dobbs, at Fort Dobbs, and signed the contract, with a mark, (x).
These two excerpts, from The Family Tree Book, claim that John Dunn, the emigrant, and John Dunn, the Salisbury lawyer, were the same man.
John Dunn II, brother of Bartholomew, was also referred to, in the Regulator Movement Participation Database. In exchange for his execution, he performed the Civil Service, as Tax Collector.
Their brother, William T. Dunn, received the same offer, and chose to join the North Carolina Militia. In 1770, he was imprisoned for assaulting John Williams, during the Hillsborough Riots, and in 1771, was residing in Alamance, NC.
http://piedmontwanderings.blogspot.com/2016/03/who-were-regulators.html
In 1758, at the invitation of his father, John Ross Dunn, Esq., John "Jack" Dunn married Sara Cross, in Rowan, North Carolina. Note that his middle name was indicated with an "X", and witnesses were the same Andrew Cathey and James Dorthey, refered to in the above notice to appear at Fort Dobbs. Sara Cross was the daughter of John B. Cross, Jr., of Baltimore County, Maryland, and sister of Asahel Cross.
In 1782, just before his grandfather, John Ross Dunn, Esq. died, my GGGGG grandfather, John "Jackie" Dunn, born August 21, 1758, Lunenburg, Virginia, married Sarah Greer, also in Rowan, North Carolina. Sarah Greer was the daughter of Aquilla Greer, of Baltimore, Maryland, and Elizabeth Hannah Riley, and they were in Pendleton, South Carolina, in 1809, where my GGGG grandfather, John Dunn, born 1785, Virginia was, when my GGG grandfather, John Dunn was born.
John "Jackie" Dunn, served in the Bedford County Militia, and migrated to Garrard County, Kentucky. His father was John "Jack" Dunn, who had migrated to Kentucky, in 1775, and was captured by the Shawnee.
Related Documents: Due to the nature of documenting my research, which was fluid, and changing, the following related documents have some inaccuracies, and inconsistencies, which I've since corrected.
Breaking Down My Dunn Brick Wall, and Addendum
Hezekiah Dunn,
My Kentucky Dunn Family.
During the many years I worked to create, and document, my Dunn family tree, on FamilySearch, I continually met with resistance from persons who, simply, didn't have the education, the resources, the desire, nor the dedication, but who seemingly, had nothing better to do. And frankly, what I was able to do, had not been possible for anyone, at all, in the past. Yet, as I've since retired from my labors, I've noticed that there are still those who want to tamper with my work, offering alternate, flawed, biased analyses of the facts, changing dates, and creating fake profiles, to obscure, and falsify the historical record. I won't name any names, but you can clearly see who has littered these profiles, so I'd like to further solidify the findings of my research, by indicating some important elements, here.
Firstly, according to Archibald Murphey, Mary Dunn was the daughter of John Ross Dunn and Frances Peronneau, but someone has reassigned her to Mary Read. Please note that the historical record clearly states that Mary was the daughter of John's first wife, who has been proven to have been Frances. And, as you can see, they married her to a ficticious John Brandon, with absolutely no sources attached. This is completely unacceptable behavior, and yet another example of the destructive nature of some FamilySearch users.
Secondly, John Ross Dunn and Mary Read did not have a son named John, yet someone has created a fake profile showing him to have been born in 1740, long before John Ross Dunn had even met Mary Read. The birth dates of Mary Read's children have also been skewed, to try to fit them into a timeframe which would contradict John's historical record of being in Virginia and Maryland. Then, someone has moved John Dunn and Mary Read's daughter, Susannah, to John "Jack" Dunn and Sarah Cross. Clearly someone has either done no research whatsoever, or is deliberately being malicious.
Now, for those of you who haven't done any research on this family, and those who don't have many years devoted to this research, let me make this as easy as possible. Let me begin with Thomas Dunn, the 14 year old immigrant to Virginia. He was orphaned, in 1619, when his father, Henry, died. Here are just three accounts of his immigration, in 1620, to America.
Virginia Calorum: The Colony during the Days of Charles the First and Second,
The Georgians: Genealogies of Pioneer Settlers, and
Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers, 1607-1635: A Biographical Dictionary.
In 1625, that colony failed, and the Virginia Company was dissolved. The Dunn members of the Virginia Company were identified, according to Alabama Genealogy Trails, as Sir Daniel Dunn, and his brother, William, sons of Robert Dunn, citizen and draper of London, brother of David Edward Donne, and son of Gabriel Donne.
After that colony failed, Thomas Dunn returned to England, and married Anne Gerard. His two sons, Thomas Jr., and Robert, were born in 1626, and 1627, and after Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army decapitated King Charles I, they, both immigrated to America, in 1650. As you can see, even though their birth certificates, and immigration data, are attached to their profiles, Thomas, Jr.'s birth has been maliciously changed to 1605, his wife's name has been changed, from Elizabeth Ann Burgess, to his mother's name, Ann Gerard, and he's been detached from his father, the original, 14 year old immigrant, Thomas Dunn. Thomas, Jr.'s son, Thomas Dunn, was born in 1641, and his son was Thomas Dunn, born 1669, who, with Elizabeth Gray, parented John Ross Dunn. John Ross Dunn and Frances parented John Dunn II, and more information about him can be found at genealogy.com.
It seems that not a day goes by without someone altering these profiles, with no substantial contribution, and when I add new research findings to this blog, they directly target those new findings. Regardless, while there will always be haters, the efforts of those, to alter my family tree, are futile, because the official documents, and historical facts, will forever remain indisputable, and in the end, all will be revealed.
Only my unique perspective enabled me to trace my Dunn ancestry. In 2001, my family genealogist, Gail Bisbey informed me that my DNA, and that of my Dad, was a close match with that of Pharaoh Dunn (1778-1859). It was known that Pharaoh Dunn was the son of William T. Dunn and Olive, but no one knew who William T.'s father was. My earliest known direct ancestor, at that time, was John Dunn, born 1785, in Virginia. The Genealogists at WikiTree helped me analyse The James McMurry Dunn family book, and distinguish the John Dunn of Maryland, from the John "Jackie" Dunn, of Virginia, and from there, the pieces just fell into place.
Now, I'd like to propose another Dunn family relationship, which has also befuddled genealogists. I think the John Dunn (1719-1792) family of Louisa County, Virginia, belongs to this Thomas Dunn (1700-1772). Here, is more of that old research, and also here, and here, although most of that has never been confirmed. I haven't fully researched that branch of the family, and probably won't, but I offer that theory, and wish you good luck in your family search.
Joseph Leon Dunn is a retired Computer Information Systems Analyst, with a Specialization in Database Analysis and Design, and all of these presented research findings have been positively confirmed with verifiable DNA evidence, from FamilyTreeDNA.
Dunn Pedigree FTDNA Kit# 46931
Sir John Donne (-1477) m. Agnes (1433-1516)
Sir Angell Donne (1455-1506) m. Anne Haywardine (1448-1518)
Gabriel Donne (1496-1558)
David Edward Donne (1513-1580) m. Katherin Crambury (1512-)
Thomas Donne (1545-1621) m. Jane Cole (1557-)
Henry Donne (1576-1619) m. Frauncis
Thomas Dunn (1605-) m. Anne Gerard (1605-)
Thomas Dunn (1626-1699) m. Elizabeth Ann Burgess (-1675) See House of Burgesses
Thomas Dunn (1641-1732) m. Obedience Ann Burgess (1641-1690)
Thomas Dunn (1669-1728) m. Elizabeth Gray (1676-1767)
John Ross Dunn (1696-1783) m. Frances Katherine Peronneau (1691-)
John "Jack" Dunn, Sr (1737-1778) m. Sarah Cross (1736-)
John "Jackie" Dunn, Jr (1758-1840) m. Sarah Greer (1758-)
John Dunn, Sr (1785-) m. Mary "Polly" Hayes (1785-)
John Dunn (1809-1859) m. Nancy Hatfield (1807-1859)
Charles Walter Dunn, Sr (1846-1909) m. Mary Elizabeth Henderson (1844-1936)
Leslie Theodore Dunn (1884-1918) m. Nancy "Nannie" Purcell (1887-1963)
Sherman John Dunn (1912-1998) m. Charlotte Ruth Meisner (1919-1984)
Richard Ernest Dunn (1938-2019) m. Glenda Joan Laing (1938-2021)
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