David Dunster

DAVID DUNSTER(*) (Henry1), born May 16, 1645, unfortunately fell under public censure. At the County Court, June 17, 1662, being only seventeen years old, he was adjudged guilty of a youthful indiscretion, for which he was sentenced "to pay a fine of £20 to the use of the county or to be whipt and also to give £50 bond with sufficient securities for defraying the charges," which might naturally be expected. (Court Record.) He soon after went to England, and probably never returned. In 1664 his mother, who was his guardian and who signed the £50 bond on his behalf, petitioned the Court for relief, alleging that she "hath been at great charge and expense for him since the death of your servant his father:

• 1. In learning here, in hopes of his progress therein, about £100.
• 2. His voyage to England in hope to settle him there about £50.
• 3. To Mr. Stedman** towards the court's sentence £30.
• 4. There is due to his sister out of his estate by will £50 so that it is indeed doubtful whether he have any clear estate of his own left beyond which your petitioner did not understand herself to be engaged."

There is an old tradition (Rev. Isaiah Dunster's Bible,) that President Dunster's son Henry was a lawyer in England, and died there without issue. This tradition may be safely rejected as utterly false in regard to Henry, who undoubtedly died young, but it may be substantially true in regard to David. Their father says in his will: "I have given unto my son David liberal education in schools of learning from his childhood unto this very day;" and the mother says she expended about £100 during the next three years for his advancement in learning here, until he departed for England. A proper foundation was laid for subsequent legal studies, and it is possible, indeed not very improbable--and it is surely most devoutly to be wished--that he may have become a successful and eminent lawyer in England, but we have no certain knowledge of his history after he left Cambridge.

(*) Rev. L. R. Paige, Gen. Reg., Vol. XXVII., p. 307.

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