Henry Dunster of Balehoult

Not the same as Henry Dunster of Elton

Henry Dunster (Yeoman)

• Birth: About1580
• Buried:: Sep 16 1646
• Cemetery: Parish Church Of St Mary The Virgin, Bury, Lancashire, England
•  Parents:  Robert Dunster (1555 - 1599), Jony Scholes (1559 - 1624)
• Spouse: 1)  unknown 1st wife 2) Joan Orpe In 1644

Biography

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; She proved her father's will on 14 Dec 1646 at Chester in England together with her sister Alice. Although she could have emigrated to New England after 1646, presently there is no source to support her acutual emmigration or immigration. It could just be a mix up with her cousin Elizabeth Dunster who certainly emigrated to New England. Disproved: 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.

Notes

From Savage (may have errors):

Dunster, || Henry, Cambridge, first Presid. of Harv. Coll. a Lancashire man, s. of Henry of Balehoult, a seat in Bury of that Co. came in 1640, and resid. a short time in Boston, was of ar. co. 1640, but not of our ch. so that we may be sure he ws of ano. town prob. Cambridge bef. adm. as freem. 2 June 1641; was bred at Magdalen Coll. in the Univ. of Cambridge, had his degrees 1630, and 1634. Soon after com. he was made presid. 27 Aug. 1640, compell. to resign 24 Oct. 1654, on acco. of his opinion on inf. bapt. He was desir. to come to Ireland by the deputy Henry Cromwell and his coune. and £50 advance. for his passage, but he was wise eno. to avoid that evil, and d. at Scituate 18 or 27 Feb. 1659, where he preach. all his latter days; but his heart's desire was to be bur. at Cambridge, where, in his will, he says lay the remains of some of his babes. He names, as liv. two s. David, and Jonathan, d. Eliz. sis. Hills, w. of Joseph of Malden, and her childr. sis. Willard of Concord, and her childr. an cous. Faith D. His first w. Eliz. m. June 1641, d. 23 Aug. 1643; and next yr. he m. Eliz. wid. of Rev. Josse Glover, had David, b. 16 May 1645; Dorothy, 29 Jan. 1648; Henry, 1650; Jonathan, 28 Sept. or ano. acco. says, 26 Oct. 1653; and, after rem. from C. to S., Eliz. 29 Dec. 1656. Eliz. wh. at Cambridge they presume to have been his wid. d. in her 60th yr. 12 Sept. 1690, as the rec. plainly, but falsely, bears; for if it be so, she must have been only 14 yrs. old when he took her for his sec. w. and less than 9 yrs. old, when her h. d. on the ocean. Perhaps she was not mo. of Glover's ch.

JONATHAN, Cambridge, s. of the preced. m. 5 Dec. 1678, Abigail Eliot, had Henry, b. 17 July 1680; and Eliz. 22 Feb. 1682. For sec. w. 5 Apr. 1693, he took Deborah Wade of Medford. The s. Henry had two ds. bur. at Cambridge; but in other parts of Mass. as well as in N. H. descend. of the long suffer. presid. remain; and Deane says that one of them did the presswork for his Hist. of Scituate.

RICHARD, Cambridge 1642, br. ofHenry, of wh. no more is kn. A very curious letter of Mar. 1641, to him from his f. in Lancashire, is in 4 Hist. Coll. II. 191. Sis. of the Presid. were Eliz. and Mary, wh. successive. were ws. of Maj. Simon Willard, the latter surv. him, m. Joseph Noyes of Sudbury, and a third, perhaps, Rose, was [p.83] w. of Capt. Joseph Hills of Malden. One niece, Eliz. was w. of Benanuel Bowers; and ano. Faith, m. 12 May 1664, John Page of Groton.