Father: Hugh Dunn
Mother: Elizabeth Drake

Spouse: Hezekiah Bonham
  m: ~1690 - Piscataway Twp., Middlesex Co., East Jersey Prov.

Child-1: Mary - b: 4/Oct/1691 - East Jersey Prov.
                        m: Jonathan Fitz Randolph - ~1715 - Piscataway Twp., Middlesex Co., NJ
          2: Samuel
          3: Hannah - b: 14/Mar/1694(1695) - Piscataway Twp., Middlesex Co., East Jersey Prov.
                            d: 21/Jan/1770 - Hopewell Twp., Hunterdon Co., NJ
                           m: Benjamin Stout - ~1714 - Hopewell Twp., Hunterdon Co., NJ
          4: Sarah - b: 20/Feb/1697(1698) - Piscataway Twp., Middlesex Co., East Jersey Prov.
                         m: Thomas Runyon

Biographical Details:

Mary Dunn was the eldest child of Hugh and Elizabeth Drake Dunn and was born January 19, 1671 (1672 N. S.) at Piscataway in the New Jersey Province, which had originally been a Dutch possession attached to New Netherland.  Of course, the English took New Netherland from the Dutch in 1664 renaming it New York in honor of the king's brother, James, Duke of York (later King James II).  Consequently, the Duke of York was granted the Province of New York as a royal colony in March of 1665.  James then gave part of the New York colony lying between the Hudson and Delaware Rivers, to Sir George Carteret in exchange for settlement of a debt.  The territory was named after the Island of Jersey, which was Carteret's ancestral home.  Another section was sold to Lord Berkeley of Stratton, who was a close friend of the Duke.  These two territories were combined and as a result, Carteret and Berkeley became the two English Lords-Proprietors of the Province of New Jersey.  In 1665, Philip Carteret (a cousin of Sir George Carteret) was appointed by the two proprietors as the first governor.  He selected Elizabethtown (later Elizabeth) as the provincial capital and, in addition, immediately issued several additional grants of land to various individuals.  Towns were quickly established and charters granted to Piscataway and Newark (1666), Bergen (1668), and Woodbridge (1669).  However, in 1673 a Dutch fleet recaptured New York (including New Jersey) holding it until it was permanently ceded to the English by the Treaty of Westminster on February 9, 1673 (1674 N. S.).  Accordingly, a second grant was obtained by the Duke of York in July of 1674 to perfect his title.  From 1674 to 1702, the Province of New Jersey was divided into the Provinces of East Jersey and West Jersey, each with its own governor and constitution.  Even so, in 1688 the two provinces were amalgamated with the Province New York and other colonies in New England as part of the short-lived and largely ineffective Dominion of New England.  Indeed, the Dominion was dissolved in 1689 and the staus quo reestablished in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution in England, which deposed the Catholic Stuart monarch, James II, and placed his son-in-law, the Protestant Dutch stadtholder, Prince William III of Orange-Nassau (Willem III van Oranje), on the throne as William III of England ruling jointly with his wife Mary II.  (She was the eldest daughter of James II, but unlike her father, she was indisputably a Protestant.)  On April 17, 1702, under the rule of Queen Anne (the younger sister of Mary II), the Provinces of East and West Jersey were reunited and New Jersey became a royal colony with Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury, as the first governor.  Unfortunately, he was eccentric and corrupt, notorious for taking bribes and speculating in land.  Therefore, in 1708, Lord Cornbury was recalled to England and New Jersey, again, became subject to the governor of New York.  This arrangement infuriated settlers of New Jersey, who complained of favoritism to New York.  Subsequently, Judge Lewis Morris argued the case for a separate governor and was himself appointed as governor of New Jersey by King George II in 1738.  Concomitantly, the boundary between the Provinces of New Jersey and New York was disputed until settled by a royal commission and approved by King George III on September 1, 1773.  Of course, New Jersey was one of the original thirteen colonies that approved the Declaration of Independence which was proclaimed on July 4, 1776.  Accordingly, the Province of New Jersey became the State of New Jersey as it is currently known.

Hezekiah Bonham and Mary Dunn were married about 1690 in Middlesex County in the East Jersey Province.  This is confirmed by the will of her father, Hugh, in which she is identified as "wife of Hezekiah Bonham".  Four children have been attributed to them, viz., Mary, Samuel, Hannah, and Sarah.  Mary Dunn Bonham reportedly died in Middlesex County on November 7, 1699, evidently at the age of twenty-seven years.¹

1.  Howard Eugene Bonham and Jean Allin, Bonham and Related Family Lines, Bonham Book(s), 5104 Bridlington Ln., Raleigh, NC, 27612, printed by Genie Plus, Bradenton, FL, 1996: pg. 83.
     "1699, Nov 7.  Mary (Dunn) Bonham, first wife of Hezekiah Bonham, died in Piscataway, Middlesex, New Jersey.  [Piscataway, NJ Town Records, 1668-1805.]"
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Additional Citations:

2. William Nelson (ed), New Jersey Archives - First Series (alt. title Calendar of Records in the Office of the Secretary of State, 1664-1703. Part I: East Jersey Records. Part II: West Jersey Records), New Jersey Historical Society, Trenton, NJ, The Press Printing and Pub. Co., Paterson, NJ, 1899: Vol. 21, pg. 217.

3. William Nelson (ed), New Jersey Archives - First Series (alt. title Calendar of New Jersey Wills. Vol. I: 1670-1730), New Jersey Historical Society, Trenton, NJ, The Press Printing and Pub. Co., Paterson, NJ, 1901: Vol. 23, pg. 145.

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