no image
Privacy Level: Open (White)

George Bunker (abt. 1621 - abt. 1658)

George Bunker
Born about in Tingrith, Bedfordshire, Englandmap
Ancestors ancestors
Son of and
Brother of [half], [half], and
Husband of — married [date unknown] [location unknown]
Husband of — married 5 May 1644 in Maulden, Bedfordshire, Englandmap
Descendants descendants
Father of , , , , , and
Died about at about age 37 in Topsfield, Essex, Massachusetts Baymap
Problems/Questions Profile managers: Darlene Athey-Hill private message [send private message], Massachusetts Project WikiTree private message [send private message], Kerry Fisher private message [send private message], and Linda Sandahl private message [send private message]
Profile last modified | Created 27 Mar 2011
This page has been accessed 7,053 times.
Massachusetts state seal
George Bunker is a part of Massachusetts history.
Join: Massachusetts Project
Discuss: massachusetts

Contents

Biography

The date of birth shown is the date of his baptism.

Disputed Origins

"George Bunker of Topsfield" is thought to be the son of Timothy Bunker & Elizabeth Hawkins. Some genealogies have him the son of Francis Bunker & Tabitha Davey. Although no sources appear to exist, other genealogies have him the son of Guillaume Boncoeur, a Huguenot who fled from France to England.

The below links are discussion of George's origins by family researcher Michelle Boyd.

Notes from Darlene Athey Hill:

The Bunker Family Association accepts George, son of Timothy as the ancestor of the Nantucket branch based on the research of Brian J. Bunker of Hong Kong (“George of Tingrith—The Missing Link is Found”, Bunker Banner, August 1998, Bunker Family Association). The article says, “Bunker historians and genealogists have been plagued for over a half century about the parents of George of Nantucket. Countless hours of research failed to reveal whether George the son of Francis, or George the son of Timothy, was the progenitor of the Nantucket branch. (See Bunker Family History, p. 45, for a simplified chart). 'Thanks to the research of Brian Bunker of the Tingrith Branch in England, we now have proof that his forebear is George, the son of Francis Bunker and Tabitha Davey.
With this new knowledge, we can easily deduce that George the son of Timothy is the Nantucket primogenitor.
‘Brian has traced his lineage back 14 generations to Roger (d 1515) and Agnes and recorded many of the dates, surnames, and he primary sources of his genealogy…
‘…SOURCES: GENERATIONS 1 TO 3, Bunker Wills & Bedfordshire County Record Office; GENERATIONS 4 TO 10, Tingrith Parish records...”
However, this article did not state what the evidence was in the above sources that led the author to conclude without a doubt that Brian Bunker's George was the son of Francis and not the son of Timothy.

Immigration

George sailed in 1650 and settled initially at Ipswich, Massachusetts; he then removed by 1652 to Topsfield, Massachusetts.[1] George was made freeman on 17: 2 :1655 at Topsfield.[1]

Uncertain Marriage(s)

George may have married twice (?). The alternative is that there were two different George Bunkers.

  • He married on 5/5/1644 at Mauldon, Bedfordshire, England, to Elizabeth Godfrey/Godfree.[2][1] William's birth was recorded to George in Tingrith.[3][4]
  • George drowned on 26 May 1658, and on 29 June 1658, the administrator of his will was wife, "Jane." It is unlikely that his wife was named "Elizabeth Jane." as proposed by Moran.[1] This is a discrepancy which is unresolved. After George's death, on 15 September 1658, Jane (Godfrey) Bunker, widow of George Bunker, married to Richard Swain.[5]

From Pedigree chart tabulated by Wm E. Osborn; Isaiah Osborn married Lydia Worth; appears child was Charles Worth Osborn, and his son was Wm E. Osborn. The chart has probably 100 names.

Children

Children of George and Elizabeth.[1] William's birth was recorded in Bedfordshire as son of George (no mother mentioned). Elizabeth's birth is not in the IGI Index or in the freereg.org database as is William's. The birth's of all five children (to George and Jane) are in the printed Nantucket records, compiled much later from a variety of sources some of which are not considered sound. Theirs cites PR 38. "PR38 -- private record, from the William C. Folger genealogical records in the possession of the Nantucket Historical Association (This compilation has been used because of the valuable clues it affords, but its statements should be received with caution, as it is not free from errors. It should also be understood that in many instances the events recorded did not take place in Nantucket, and in a few cases attention has been called to the question of residence.)"[6] Evidently the compiler of the record looked at the will and looked at the will and knew of the marriage record to Godfrey and assumed George's children all belonged to Jane Godfrey.[7]

  1. Elizabeth Bunker; born 1646 in Tingrith, Bedfordshire, England; married Thomas Look on Nantucket Island.
  2. William Bunker; was baptized June 17, 1648 in Tingrith, Bedfordshire, England, at St. Nicholas Church.[3][4] married Mary Macy on April 11, 1669 on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts; died 26th 7mo 1712 in Nantucket, Massachusetts; will dated June 22, 1712 and probated August 5, 1712. Raised sheep on Nantucket.
  3. Mary Bunker, born 5 mo 1652 in Topsfield, Essex, Massachusetts; married Stephen Coffin October 8, 1668 in Nantucket; died May 18, 1724 in Nantucket; will probated July 10, 1724.
  4. Ann Bunker; born about 1654 in Topsfield; married Joseph Coleman (son of Thomas & Susanna Coleman) in 1672.
  5. Martha Bunker; born November 1, 1656 in Topsfield; married Stephen Hussey October 8, 1676 in Nantucket; died 21st 9 mo 1744 in Nantucket.

Sources

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Moran, Edward C., (19661?) Bunker genealogy ... 3 Vols. Rockland? ME: HathiTrust.org (Vol 2, Page 25).
  2. ↑ England Marriages, 1538–1973. database, FamilySearch (10 December 2014), Geo Bunker and Eliz Godfree, 05 May 1644; citing Maulden,Bedford,England, reference ; FHL microfilm 599,351.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 FreeReg.org.uk Search on William Bunker, 1648, Bedfordshire.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J3ZH-G5T : 30 December 2014), Wm. Bunker, 17 Jun 1648; citing TINGRITH, BEDFORD, ENGLAND, reference ; FHL microfilm 599,350.
  5. ↑ Anderson, Robert Charles, (1995) Great Migration 1634-1635, R-S. AmericanAncestors.org (Volume VI, R-S, Page 613).
  6. ↑ Nantucket (Mass.). Vital Records of Nantucket, Massachusetts to the Year 1850. Boston, Mass.: The New England Historic Genealogical Society at the charge of the Eddy Town-Record Fund, 1925. PR38 p. 8[Elizabeth p. 142Anne p. 137Mary & Martha p 152William p. 164
  7. ↑ George Bunker of Nantucket pdf. downloadable at The Bunker Blog, Bunker Family Association

See also:

  • Page 8: "Among others who came... William Bunker, 1650-1712, carried to Nantucket by his mother, Jane Godfrey, whose first husband, George, was drowned, 1658, when she married Richard Swaine, married, 1669, Mary, daughter of Thomas Macy..."
  • Moran, Edward Carleton. Bunker Genealogy, Descendants of James Bunker of Dover, N.H. (Bunker Family Association of America, Rockland, Maine, 1913)




Sponsored Search by Ancestry.com

DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships. Paternal line Y-chromosome DNA test-takers: Have you taken a test? If so, login to add it. If not, see our friends at Ancestry DNA.


Comments: 19

Leave a message for others who see this profile.
There are no comments yet.
Login to post a comment.
Bob Dunlap
I have spent the last few days trying to sort out my Bunker ancestors. I come from the Nantucket branch, and see a lot of confusion over who George Bunker's parents were, and who he married. I have not seen anything that conclusively identifies Elizabeth Godfrey as his wife. The earliest I see her linked to George is about 1937, when the origins of George coming from Guillaume, who came to England to escape the Huguenot situation in France was published. That source claimed George married Elizabeth. But what I have not seen addressed is the possibility that George's marriage may not have even been registered. Also in about 1937 the Bedfordshire Parish Registers were transcribed and each one indexed to make it pretty easy to browse them. I think it is accepted that George was from Tingrith, and the parish registers state that from 1641 through 1645, the registers were either not kept or were lost, mainly due to the ongoing civil war. There were Godfrey families in Toddington, just to the south of Tingrith, including the family of Jn (John) Godfrie/Godfree/Godfre, which included a Jane, baptised Oct. 14, 1625. That register states that records between the years 1642 to 1654, with a few exceptions, were lost. I think the possibility that George Bunker married Jane Godfrey from Toddington, probably in Toddington, during the years that records were lost, needs to be taken more seriously. They probably lived in Tingrith until they came over in 1650, and that explains why Elizabeth's baptism is not recorded either, but William's is. As far as who were George's parents: that he named his eldest daughter Elizabeth would suggest that his mother may have been Elizabeth, and his parents were most likely Timothy Bunker and Elizabeth Hawkins.
posted by Bob Dunlap
Husted-87 H Husted
The Michelle Boyd links in this profile are now redirecting to another website. I clicked the first one and was prompted to download a Firefox add-on, so it looks like they could be infected with spam. Anyone else getting this error?
posted by H Husted
Smith-62120 Ellen Smith
I have encountered similar problems with Michelle Boyd links on other pages. I recall that I have been able to find replacements -- either archive.org or her new website...

ADDED: And I have replaced the links with archived URLs for the content. Much web content that appears to be lost can be found in the Wayback Machine on archive.org. It took only a couple of minutes to find these pages. I have not evaluated the content of the pages; all I did was provide new links.

posted by Ellen Smith
edited by Ellen Smith
Isaac Taylor
Something is fishy here.

His wife as shown now on this profile is married to a different George Bunker (son of Timothy not his brother Francis) so there appears to be some kind of merge or unmerge required.

What's unusual is that the marriage connection between THIS George and his notional wife Jane is only visible from this (his) profile, and not from hers; which shows her married to a different George Bunker. I haven't seen that one-way relationship visibility site behavior before...

Should these two women be merged:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-346517 https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Godfrey-3003

And then their relationships unconflated?

posted by Isaac Taylor
Isaac Taylor
We appear to have a duplicate or conflation here... is the George Bunker who married Jane NN (who later remarried to Richard Swain) the son of Timothy or Francis?

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bunker-224

Our relationships in the WikiTree database are currently saying she's George-son-of-Francis and George-son-of-Timothy are both married to her, though you can't see this from her profile but can from the Georges. Weird. (I haven't seen that before.)

posted by Isaac Taylor

Rejected matches › George Bunker (1671-1743) › George Bunker (abt.1599-bef.1664)

Featured Eurovision connections: George is 30 degrees from Agnetha Fältskog, 20 degrees from Anni-Frid Synni Reuß, 24 degrees from Corry Brokken, 15 degrees from Céline Dion, 24 degrees from Françoise Dorin, 23 degrees from France Gall, 25 degrees from Lulu Kennedy-Cairns, 24 degrees from Lill-Babs Svensson, 17 degrees from Olivia Newton-John, 30 degrees from Henriette Nanette Paërl, 29 degrees from Annie Schmidt and 12 degrees from Moira Kennedy on our single family tree. Login to see how you relate to 33 million family members.

B  >  Bunker  >  George Bunker

Categories: Bunker Name Study | Maulden, Bedfordshire | Massachusetts Project-Managed