1st wife of Henry Dunster

Family

From Waters, H. F. (Henry Fitz-Gilbert)., New England Historic Genealogical Society. The New England historical and genealogical register. [Boston, etc.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, etc.]. Page 187. Hathitrust

4. Henry* Dunster {Robert1), born about 1580, was father of President Dunster of Harvard College, and lived at Baleholt, where he died, and was buried Sept. 16, 1646.

His will, dated Oct. 6, 1645, probated Dec. 14, 1646, by his daughters Elizabeth and Alice, is on file at the Probate Registry at Chester.

His first wife was buried Feb. 7, 1643-4; and he married second, Dec. 4, 1644, Joane Orpe, who was buried Feb. 7, 1643-4.

Children by first wife:

• i. Isabel,4 bapt. May 1, 1603; bur. June 10, 1611.
• 6. ii. Robert, bapt. Aug. 18, 1605.
• iii. John, bapt. Aug. 24, 1606; probably d. young.
• iv. Margaret, bapt. Jan. 17, 1607-8; bur. Aug. 20, 1625.
• 7. v. Henry, bapt. Nov. 26,1609; the first president of Harvard College.
• vi. Thomas, bapt. Dec. 8, 1611-12; in the letter of Mar. 20, 1640-1, to President Dunster, it is stated that Thomas "is now a widower for both wife and children are dead since Michaelmas," but there is no mention of him, in the Bury Registers, after his baptism.
• vii. Alice, bapt. Dec. 19, 1613; living, unmarried, in 1646.
• viii. Richard, bapt. Mar. 23, 1616; came to New England with his brother Henry, and lived there a few years, but nothing further is known of him.
• ix. Elizabeth, bapt. Apr. 26, 1619; came to New England between 1647 and 1651; m. in 1651, as his second wife, Maj. Simon Willard of Concord, Mass., and died, without issue, about sis mouths after her marriage. Maj. Simon Willard by his first wife, Mary Sliarpe (whom he married in England about 1631), had nine chil dren, the last, Simon, b. Nov. 23, 1649, soon after which time she died. After the death of his second wife, Elizabeth Dunster, sis ter of President Dunster, as above stated, he m. (3) in the latter part of 1652, Mary Dunster, who had come to New England in the summer of that year, and by her he had eight children, beginning with Mary, b. in Concord. Sept. 7, 1653. This third wife was either the Mary4 Dunster bapt. at Bury, Dec. 5, 1630, dau. of Robert,4 and ueice of President Duuster, or else she was the Mary4 Dunster bapt. in Bury, Oct. 25, 1629, dau. of Henry3 Dunster (.No. 5) and second cousiu of President Dunster; ami although President Dunster in his will speaks of Mary (Dunster) Willard as "sister Willard," he so termed her because her husband, Maj. Willard, was his brother-in-law by previous marriage to Elizabeth Dunster his sister. Mary (Dunster) Willard, widow of Maj. Si mon, m. (2) July 14, 1680, Dea. Joseph Noyes of Sudbury, and d. in Dec, 1715.