Dunn Family of Sculcoates , Yorkshire

[Treetotal]

Hi Lynne and welcome to RootsChat, unfortunately, The original poster hasn't been on RootsChat since 2011 so you may not get a reply. You could start a new post requesting information to further your research.
Good Luck.
Carol

[Mountbrook14]

Hi Lynne
I am descended from one of the Pennock Dunns but as yet I haven't come across Robert.  However, parents of my John Dunn born Leven were from Hull.

[Mountbrook14]

Lynne Reid once you have posted 3 times I should be able to private message you my contact email.  If you are DNA connected to all Pennock Dunns then we are looking at the same tree but you have obviously researched a different line.  You can find me on social media under the name of Diane Chilton Skidby.

[Silverwhistle]

Hi!
From the material I've seen, Robert the naturalist seems to have been born in Liverpool. He married his first wife, Maria, in Lincolnshire.
His 2 later marriage were bigamous: his first wife Maria was still living when he married Mary in Stromness; she died in childbirth and is buried in Sculcoates Cemetery. He then appears with a third wife, an Irishwoman variously called Helen/Ellen or Eleanor, but so far I don't know her maiden name or whether he had gone through a marriage with her.
I'd be very interested in any other information on him and his family/families, please!
best,
Marianne

[Lynne Reid]

Hello Marianne

Yes I do have a lot of information, unfortunately it has erected more brick walls than it knocks down. Are you a descendant of Robert Dunn? The situation with Maria, his first wife is curious. She was living, with one or more of their sons, literally streets from where Robert was living with Eleanor and their children. Some of the later children, eg those of both Mary and Eleanor are baptised at Holy Trinity, where the vicar must have known he was still married to Maria. Maria dies in 1851; Robert in 1859 and he is in the same grave as her. Eleanor's maiden name was Murray apparently and she was born in Dublin in 1800 and that is another dead end. We have never found a marriage, maybe it was in Ireland. We believe that Robert's grandfather, also Robert was born in Hunmanby in 1739 which does connect us with other lines, esp through DNA. Are you on Ancestry? My tree is there. Hope to hear from you. Lynne

[Silverwhistle]

Hi! No, am no relation, but interested because a) I'm interested in birds and wildlife, and b) it's an intriguing story related to the Castle Street cemetery site, which I'm doing some research about.
(One of my great-grandmothers was a bigamist, so that side of things doesn't surprise me!)

Mary was buried in Sculcoates 3 July 1837, presumably as result of giving birth to Charles Humphrey.
Robert and Ellen and children are in Shetland in 1851 Census.
Maria died on 25 April 1855, bur. 29 April 1855. In 1851 she seems to have been living with John, the eldest surviving son.

I wonder if Robert and Maria had simply split amicably, if she didn't want to be gadding off to Orkney and Shetland in pursuit of wildlife all the time?
He was visiting one of his sons (John?) when he died in Hull.

I'd be interested to know about his parents and grandparents – had come across suggestions that on the one hand he's from Liverpool, and also that there's a tie-in with some Lincolnshire Dunns. I'd be grateful for any help in disentangling this.
best,
Marianne

[Lynne Reid]

Hello Marianne
I am guessing you have the book published by Robert Dunn, which gives gory details of his destruction of birds. Different times, but he clearly spent many years off in Scandinavian countries. As Ann Dunn, who appears on his death certificate was married to John Dunn, it is likely to be correct that this is where he was when he died. On the 1861 census that family is living at 7 Post Office Entry and his death certificate just states Post Office Entry. On the 1851 Maria is living with John and Ann. Clearly he had a somewhat rapid decline as Post Office Entry was a very poor sort of place, tenements in multiple occupancy. As indeed was Princess Row, where Maria was living in 1851.

As to Liverpool,yes it seems he and his father Joseph were there. Joseph was a shipwright and seems to have left Hunmanby for the bright lights of Liverpool during its heyday in the second half of the 18th century; sadly of course the slave trade. I have not found any connection to any Lincolnshire Dunns, nor have I found where he was trained to be a stone mason. I'll see what else I can dredge up...

Lynne

[Silverwhistle]

Hi!
Thanks for this! According to the Inverness Courier (22 Sep 1859), Robert was only visiting his son when he died in Hull. His usual address was in Stromness. Is there a cause of death given, please?
There was a biographical article about him in 'The Naturalist' (issue 137, 2012) by R. B. Williams, but it seems to confuse his family with another family of Dunns in Lincolnshire: a Joseph Dunn who d. in Stainton in 1812, who had at least 2 daughters living in Hull, but they don't seem to be related. I had wondered at first, but some of the births overlap with the ones of Robert's family in Liverpool.

Yes, sadly, killing the birds was how they got them for study then… One of his sons drowned in Norway.
best,
Marianne