Thomas Dungan

Notes:

Thomas came to America around 1638 with his mother and stepfather, Jeremiah CLARKE.

Thomas studied for the ministry under both Roger WILLIAMS and Rev. William VAUGHN, who became his mother's fourth husband.

In 1677 he was named with forty-seven others who took grant of 5,000 acres to be called East Greenwich. He deeded his cousin (i.e. nephew) Thomas WEAVER, of Newport, 100 acres in East Greenwich, for love and in 1682 he and his wife Elizabeth sold John BAILEY, late of Portsmouth, 50 acres in Newport.

In 1684 Thomas DUNGAN and his family moved to Cold Spring, PA and established a Baptist church, of which he was the first pastor. Morgan EDWARDS gives the following account of him. "In 1684, Thomas DUNGAN removed from Rhode Island and settled at a place called Cold Spring, Bucks County, between Bristol and Trenton."

After alluding to the breaking up of the church in 1702 (an old graveyard stone marking the site of the church in 1770 when Edwards wrote), he further says of Mr. DUNGAN, "The Rev. Thomas DUNGAN, the 1st Baptist minister in the Province, now (1770), exists in a progeny of between 600 and 700."

Thomas DUNGAN died in 1688 and was buried in the churchyard in Cold Spring.

(Source: excerpted from a biographical sketch by Norman Wesley Merritt with notes by America's First Families from The Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island; website of America's First Families, Ancestor Roll of Honor)

Thomas married Elizabeth Weaver 1663. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

William & Frances and their family resided in St. Martin's in the Fields, London, England. William was a "Gentleman."

William married Frances LATHAM Abt 1628. Frances (daughter of Lewis LATHAM and Elizabeth Unknown) was born 15 Feb 1609/10, Kempston, Bedford, England; died Sep 1677, Newport, RI; was buried , Governor's Lot, Newport, RI. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

When Frances died in 1677, she left 86 grandchildren.

The following note is from a website: "The writer can state definitely that the Dungan family, of whom were the Earls of Limerick, was the only manorial family into which Frances Latham could have married, her father being the King's Sergeant Falconer, and a member of his household. There is no doubt in the writer's mind after an extended search, that William Dungan was a grandson of Sir John Dungan by his wife Margaret Forster, and this conclusion was arrived at by Mr. Howard O. Folker and an Irish genealogist in Dublin, who conducted their investigations without consultation with the writer." (source: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~mylines/dungan108_09.htm)

The following information is from another website: http://pages.prodigy.net/reed_wurts/heraldry/latham.htm

Frances Latham now generally called "The Mother of Governors," because no less than fourteen of her direct descendants, and many sons-in-law in succeeding generations, became Governors or Lieut. Governors. Baptized 15 February 1609/10, she was the eldest of nine children of Lewis Latham whose portrait is in the collection of the late George W. Elkins, a descendant of Lewis Latham.

He who was of Elston, co. Bedford, England, was born about, 1584 and buried 15 May 1655, aged about 71 years. He was a member of the King's household, and Falconer to Prince Henry in 1612, and later was Sergeant Falconer to King Charles I.

ARMS-Or, on a chief indented azure, three bezants
CREST-An eagle standing on an empty cradle with wings displayed, reguardant or.

(NEHGR, Roll of Arms, Vol. LXXXII, p. 156; A.R. Justice, ANCESTRY OF JEREMY CLARKE..., p. 72)

We can imagine Frances as a young girl on the moors in companionship with her father as he attended the Royal Princes, Henry and Charlie, in their hunting with falcons, ever a favorite royal sport, the birds being highly trained to search out and pounce upon rabbit, grouse and other small game and bring them to their master.

Frances Latham was married in 1627 at age 17 to William Dungan, Gentleman, who was born about 1606, a London Merchant and Perfumer. His wares were in great demand and quite necessary to offset the obnoxious odors arising from the gutters in a thickly settled district subject to heavy fog and having surface drainage.

They made their home at St. Martins-in-the-Fields where later he died and was buried 20 September 1636, leaving her a widow at age 26 with four little children between the ages of 2 and 8 years. By his Will dated 13 September 1636 he gave all his property to his wife Frances, after bequeathing

Notes:

Lewis Latham, Gentleman, was sergeant falconer to King Charles I.

Lewis died at age 80. His will, dated 6 May 1653 and proved 1 Sep 1655, leaves legacies to sons Henry and John; dtrs Ann Segar, Frances Clarke, Catherine Garrett, Elizabeth Bibble, Ellen Sherringham, and Winifred Downes; his wife and executrix was Winifred Latham.

Lewis married Elizabeth Unknown Abt 1606, England. Elizabeth died Abt 12 Sep 1620, Elstow, Bedfordshire, England; was buried 14 Sep 1620, Elstow, Bedfordshire, England. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Oliver was likely the grandson of Thomas Latham of Kingsthorpe, Northamptonshire, England. (source: New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol 171 Winter 2017, page 18)

The name of Oliver's wife is not known, but the baptisms of all the children were recorded at Lowick, with Oliver as the father.