Beeks line: Benjamin Dunham 1681-1715

For a man in the ancestry of Barack Obama, there is still a lot of mystery about him.  Was his name actually Singletary?  I've not found any reference to that name in the vital records and histories of Woodbridge, New Jersey that I've seen, but many genealogies have him listed as either Dunham alias Singletary or Singletary alias Dunham.  That story is too complicated to go into here, especially since I am not confident of the answer.  Another mystery is the name of his wife.  Many trees list her as Mary Rolph or Rolfe, but I can find no supporting documentation for that.  Most experts now give her name only as Mary.

We do know that he was born August 22, 1681, in Woodbridge, New Jersey, the son of Jonathan and Mary Bloomfield Dunham (alias Singletary?).  He was one of possibly as many as 12 children born to this couple, so he had lots of companions growing up, even in a small village such as Woodbridge was.  His father, Jonathan, was a miller and probably one of the more prosperous people in the town.  The Dunhams may had been friendly with the Quakers who also settled in Woodbridge, but our family appears to have been congregationalist in belief, or at least in practice.

Woodbridge was on the frontier when it was settled.  There are references to wolf pits built within the township, which actively trapped wolves, and of course the early settlers would have hunted them, or at least had firearms handy, to protect their families.  Benjamin's father built a house in 1700 that was built of brick and still stands, known as the Jonathan Singletary Dunham house.  If Benjamin wasn't living with another family prior to his marriage, he would have lived here for a few years in his late teens and early twenties.

Marriage records for Benjamin have apparently not been found, which makes it a bit mysterious as to when and where it was decided that he had married Mary Rolfe.  However that may be, a marriage evidently occurred about 1705 or 1706, and his wife does seem to have been named Mary.

Of Benjamin's adult life, we know three things.  He was considered to be wealthy, he was actively involved in starting an Anglican house of worship and providing a place for a small church to be built, and he served in the militia.   I don't yet know his occupation.  His impetus for starting the Anglican church seems to be that he was unhappy with the presbyterian government of the church as it was set up at the time, and he failed to see eye to eye with that pastor.  The militia would have been called out whenever there was a scare from the native Americans, which did happen from time to time. 

The marriage, and Benjamin's life,  was a short one, producing just four children.  Benjamin died on December 31, 1715 of unspecified causes, in his thirty fifth year.  There is an abstract of a will from 1706 that is being accepted as his will, although I haven't read the original.  If he wrote the will in 1706 and didn't die until 1715, it makes us wonder whether he survived an early illness or injury that perhaps made him aware of the brevity of life.  It's also possible that he died of a lingering illness or condition.  Or perhaps he wrote the will during the early months of his marriage, at the request of his wife or in-laws. We just don't know.

I think Benjamin is an interesting man.  I'd like to know why he was considered wealthy, what his occupation was, how often he saw military service, and why he decided to become Anglican.  There are things we'll never know, but there's always the possibility that more information will come to light.  

The line of descent is

Benjamin Dunham-Mary
Jonathan Dunham=Mary Smith
Samuel Dunham=Hannah possibly Ruble
Jacob Dunham-Catherine Goodnight
Samuel G Dunham-Eliza Matilda Reese
Margaret Catherine Dunham=Harvey Aldridge
Cleo Aldridge-Wilbur Beeks
Mary Beeks-Cleveland Harshbarger
Their descendants