John Robert Dunn

MyHeritage family trees Walpole Web Site, managed by Ian Nouwens (Contact)

Birth: 1833 - Port Alfred, Cape, South Africa

Death: Aug 5 1895 - Moyeni, Zululand

Parents: Robert Newton Dunn, Ann Harold Dunn (born Biggar)

Siblings: Sarah Mary Pauling (born Dunn), Charlotte Louisa Dunn, Agnes Dunn, Herbert Alexander Dunn, <Private> Dunn

Partner: Catherine Dunn (born Pierce)

Wife: Nomtaba Dunn (born Mzimela)

Wife: Macibose Dunn (born Langeni)

Wife: Nokuta Dunn (born Mzimela)

Wife: Novumbi Dunn (born Mzimela)

Wife: Bambekile Dunn (born Mzimela)

Wife: Nomadhlozi Dunn (born Dube)

Wife: Nomtezi Dunn (born Dube)

Wife: Mtango Dunn (born Dube)

Wife: Snolepe Dunn (born Dube)

Wife: Noyintaba Dunn (born Nzuza)

Wife: Mongebha Dunn (born Nzuza)

Wife: Kayonina Dunn (born Mthethwe)

Wife: Putuza Dunn (born Nzuza)

Wife: Funiba Dunn (born Nzuza)

Wife: Vukuta Dunn (born Mthethwa)

Wife: Nogebdu Dunn (born Mthethwa)

Wife: Nombina Dunn (born Mdhletshe)

Wife: Mzandu Dunn (born Shandu)

Wife: Fungile Dunn (born Shandu)

Wife: Citekile Dunn (born Shandu)

Wife: Ngapune Dunn (born Mdhletshe)

Wife: Nomadulozi Dunn (born Mnguni)

Wife: Nabathathi Dunn (born Mgenge)

Wife: Sabisi Dunn (born Magubane)

Wife: Nimiti Dunn (born Magubane)

Wife: Nomkando Dunn (born Sokulu)

Wife: Ntombikade Dunn (born Mgenge)

Wife: Lunguzile Dunn (born Qwabe)

Wife: Basawane Dunn (born Kanyile)

Wife: Nonyati Dunn (born Kanyile)

Wife: Funekile Dunn (born Kumalo)

Wife: Nomtombi Dunn (born Sokulu)

Wife: Niyona Dunn (born Mpanza)

Wife: Madhlazile Dunn (born Mcanyana)

Wife: Noningu Dunn (born Ndlovu)

Wife: Noisaba Dunn (born Zungu)

Wife: Nomhlawati Dunn (born Mbambo)

Wife: Zulu Dunn (born Mampisi)

Wife: Ngukandula Dunn (born Tusi)

Wife: Mpansi Dunn (born Ntuli)

Wife: Nomasento Dunn (born Ncwabeni)

Wife: Mbunuse Dunn (born Mbokasi)

Wife: Nompi Dunn (born Mdhletshe)

Children: Kate Samuelson (born Dunn), Fannie Dunn, Elizabeth Dunn, Leonard Dunn

LAST WILL & TESTAMENT, etc. - https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9LS-594C-V?i=36&cat=229462'''

“Another of Minna’s daughters married ‘Piarse’ or Pierce. The Pierces first arrived in SA as 1820 settlers aboard La Belle Alliance. Richard Pierce, a 41 year old banker, his wife Ann, and 3 sons were members of Wilson’s party. The eldest son, Dick, who was then 11, grew up to marry a woman of ‘Cape Malay Origin’ – the daughter (name unknown) of the castaway Minna and Damin the runaway slave. The other two sons were Paul Pierce, aged 10, & Joseph Pierce, aged 9.

Dick Pierce and his wife worked in PE as servants to Robert Newton Dunn, also an immigrant of 1820. When Robert Dunn moved his family in the 1830s to Port Natal, where his father-in-law, Alexander Biggar was a leading figure in the fledgling settler community, with – like most of the other Englishman there – a son by a Zulu woman, the Pierces went with them.

Dunn settled at South Coast Junction, imposing his authority over several hundred Zulu and coloured clients. His son, John , was born in about 1835, followed three years’ later by the Pierce’s daughter Catherine. The 2 children grew up together. WhenJohn was about 14 his father was trampled to death by an elephant. His mother died a few years later and the household broke up. The orphanedJohn , in his own words ‘took to a wandering existence, having always been fond of my gun and a solitary life.’ He disappeared for a few years, taking Minna’s granddaughter, Catherine with him.

The teenagers lived off the land – ‘Dunn was a regular white kaffir and used, as a boy, to go about in native dress,’ said one old settler – surviving by hunting and ivory trading. They were ‘found’ by a trader named Walmsley while hunting in the wilds of Zululand near the Thukela River. Walmsley took Dunn under his wing and educated him. John Dunn stayed with the trader for 6 years, marrying his childhood companion, Catherine Pierce in 1853. (He was about 18; she 15.) [Crampton, p303]

“By the 1860s John Dunn was well established as a gunrunner, conducting an extensive trade in firearms, for which the Zulu king, Cetshwayo was a leading customer. Dunn became his friend and confidant and was awarded some land near the eMatikulu River. He became a man of power and adopted Zulu customs, one of which was polygamy.

Eight years after his marriage to Catherine he took a Zulu woman by the name of Macebose Mhlongo as his second wife”, then 48 others another, securing marital ties with clans living in his district, and beyond. “He was careful to respect traditional marriage rituals, paying lobola of 9 to 15 head of cattle for each and every one of them..

During the Anglo-Zulu War Dunn sided with the British and betrayed Cetshwayo. When hostilities ceased, the vanquished kingdom was divided into 13 chiefdoms and Dunn was rewarded with the largest portion, the southern region, stretching from the coast to the Buffalo River. John Dunn was described in 1880 as follows: ‘a handsome well-built man about 5 ft 8 in height, with a good forehead, regular features, and keen grey eyes; a closely cut iron-grey beard hides the lower half of his bronzed, weather tanned countenance, and a look of determination and shrewdness is discernible in every lineament.’

He was frequently visited by Whites – important officials from the colony and Natal, hunters and travellers – but neither his wives nor his children were allowed to socialise with them. Nor did Dunn ever take any of his black wives with him to Natal, and in this way their existence could be politely ignored. His son, Dominic acknowledged that ‘there was a kind of segregation practised… My father kept to his whiteness in social matters..we, the children, as coloureds, lived separately from the natives.” They were not encouraged to establish relationships with the Zulus.

Catherine remained very much opposed to his marriages to Zulu women, and despite t fact that she was herself of mixed descent, she ‘aspired to being as ‘European’ as possible and condemned Dunn for his ‘degenerate social behaviour.’

Dunn died on 5 August 1895, aged 60. He was survived by 33 sons, 46 daughters, and 23 wives, including Catherine. 2 years after his death the rinderpest epidemic destroyed 90% of Dunn’s cattle, and his descendants and dependants were reduced to extreme povert. The government of the colony of Natal set aside a piece of land for the occupation of Dunn’s descendants, but many were forced to leave Zululand to seek employment, and today can be found all over the world, including Britain, America, Canada and Australia.

Catherine died on 27 January 1905, aged about 70. She left no building or land to her surviving children; the ones she lived in reverted at her death to her husband’s will, which stated they were ‘to be shared amongst all members of the family.’ Described as a ‘housewife’ in her estate papers, she was survived by several children, listed as Ann Agnes (41), Sarah Amy (39), Mary Rose (38), Alice Lilly and Lizzy Edith (both 35), Catherine Louise (34) and Sunny Dunn (26)”. [Crampton, p305-6]

• Crampton, Hazel. ‘The Sunburnt Queen’. Johannesburg: Jacana. 2004. Print. Contact Sharon Doubell

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Robert Dunn in England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975

Christening: Apr 17 1835

Claverdon, Warwick, England

Father: Robert Dunn

Mother: Anne Dunn

Indexing Project (Batch) Number: C02953-0
System Origin: England-EASy GS Film number: 350544

See Also

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Robert_Dunn
• http://www.dunnsland.com/dunn/the_life_of_john_dunn.pdf
• http://www.dunnsland.com/dunn/john_dunn_hist.pdf
• http://www.dunnsland.com/
• http://hunterdunn.com/Images/treeHD.pdf
• http://hunterdunn.com/Images/treeOld.pdf
• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/sout...
• JOHN DUNN (Courtesy of the local History Museum, Durban) . I THE TRANSFRONTIERSMAN: / THE CAREER OF JOHN DUNf IN NATAL AND ZULULAND 1834 - 1895 by CHARLES CAMERON BALLARD '. A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History, University of Natal. University of Natal, Durban, Republic of South Africa. June, 1980. http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10413/6416/B...

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WILL OF THE LATE CHIEF JOHN DUNN (who died an Anglo Zulu, on August 6th, 1895)

ENYAZANE

This fourteenth day of May in the year of our Lord 1889.
I have been suffering from severe palpitation of the heart which has … lasted some months, and should I please Almighty God to take ….. I hereby earnestly beg those to whom it may be deputed to administer my property at the time of my death (those who have children by me) and are not mentioned by me in this document, Ten head of cattle (full grown), not counting calves, for the use of the children they have by me.

To Cathrine, my head wife, I bequeath one hundred (100) head of cattle and to each of my daughters by her, that are still unmarried, fifty head of cattle each.

To my eldest son Harry, I bequeath Two hundred head of cattle for his own use.

To “Nontombi” I bequeath the number of fifty (50) head of full grown cattle, not counting calves, for the benefit of herself and children.

To Bambakele, I bequeath he number of twenty five (25) head of cattle for the benefit of herself and children.

To Vukuta, I bequeath the number of twenty five (25) head of cattle for the benefit of herself and children.

To Tombiqude, I bequeath twenty five (25) head of cattle for the benefit of herself and children.

And to each of my sons Jack, Sam, Jim, Dunga, Sivivane, and Ned, also Sidumuka, whose Mother died, I bequeath twenty five (25) head of cattle to each and all of them.

One hundred head of cattle to be sold and the proceeds go to my sister Agnes should she survive me.

The remainder of my cattle to be divided, a fourth part to go to my wife Cathrine for the benefit of herself and her daughters during her lifetime, and on her death to be equally divided amongst my daughters by her married, or unmarried, and the other three fourths of my cattle to be equally divided amongst my daughters by the said Cathrine married or unmarried, and my sons of other women who might still be in my household at the time of my death, also any moneys that I might have in any Bank or otherwise invested, to be equally divided, the said Cathrine to get one fourth part.

All my furniture and other effects and houses I leave to Cathrine for the benefit of herself and children.

My house and all the effects at my place known as Moyeni, at the Enyazene river, I leave to Nontombi with all moneys that I might leave in the house at the time of my death.

My big travelling wagon with a span of sixteen oxen I leave to Cathrine, one of my wagons with sixteen oxen I leave to my son Harry.

One of my wagons with sixteen oxen I leave to Nontombi for the benefit of herself and children.

Any wagons, oxen, horses and traps, to be sold, and the money divided as above mentioned.

I again pray that my last will, will be faithfully adhered to in good faith.
Given by my hand on the afore mentioned date
(Signed): John Dunn
Witness: (Signed) F. Green
Emoyeni
27 March 1893

As Harry, my son and Vivian, have thought fit to leave me and live by themselves, and Harry to take to himself a wife, I hereby revoke anything I may have said in their favour and I leave them nothing and their mother I count as one who has been unfaithful to me. And I leave to Nomfezi twenty five (25) head of full grown cattle, not counting calves for the benefit of herself and children.
(Signed) John R. Dunn
Witness (signed) J.M. Gielink

My daughter Kungekile otherwise known as Bertha I do not include as one of my married daughters she having misbehaved herself.

Thanks to Huida Shenker for the above:
Dear all - a retyped copy of John Robert Dunn's Will. I received a PDF copy from CampbellCollections <CampbellCollections@ukzn.ac.za>

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Robert_Dunn