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- From the Genealogical Magazine "Families"
By Ewart W. Blackmore
The William Dunmead Family - Niagara Peninsula Connections with New Jersey
William Dunmead (also spelled Dunmaid, Dunmeade, Dunmeads, Dunmeeds, Donmeads, Dunmede) enlisted in the First Battalion of New Jersey Volunteers under Lt. Col. Joseph Barton on March 22, 1779, as a private. The New Jersey Volunteers, commanded by Brigadier General Courtland Skinner, were organized in September , 1776. It ultimately enlisted 2, 450 men of whom the great majority were natives of the province. Skinner's men came probably from a pool of some 13,000 potentially active loyalists who with their families made up more than 35% of New Jersey's population.
After the American Rebellion, the New Jersey Volunteers were moved to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick on the ships , Duke of Richmond and the Richard Davis on October 6th to 12th, 1783. After several years many of the loyalists returned to New York only to find that the bitter feelings toward them still existed and that it was too soon for a loyalist to seek to return. This happened to Col. Samuel Ryerse and others.
In the fall of 1796, William Dunmead and his family came to the Niagara area where they stayed with John Decou in Thorold. Having taken the oath of allegiance and signed the declaration before William Dickson J.P., Wm. Dunmead petitioned the Crown for 300 acres of land on April 28, 1797. A land grant was authorized by Order-in-Council of May 2, 1797, and Warrant #1804 was issued as authority for the Surveyor General to determine a land location for Wm. Dunmead.
It should be noted that many disbanded private soldiers who had been living in New Brunswick as hired men on farms or as workers in saw mills or grist mills, joined in the trek to Upper Canada. All three battalions of the New Jersey Volunteers show that many sergeants and corporals moved to Upper Canada; so it can be assumed that privates went in great numbers as well. The first wave of military settlers reached its peak around the turn of the century.
There seems to have been a delay in granting William Dunmead his land because of the request to produce a copy of his discharge certificate from a Captain of his Regiment. Meanwhile, William Dunmead moved to Finch's Mills, later known as Old New Port, the Glen, next as Cross and Fisher's Landing and finally as Fisher's Glen. Here he was burnt out when his house was destroyed along with Titus Finch's saw and grist mills, distillery, barn and house. William received £25 as compensation from the government. This was on May 14, 1814. There is also a record of repair to a government boat by a William Dunman who is presumed to be William Dunmead at Turkey Point on August 13, 1812. The payment was made in New York currency by W.D.Brown, Major commanding, but recorded as £0-3-9.
On the 6th June 1815, Thomas Hollowood of Bayham in the District of London, son of the late Thomas Hollowood of the Kings American Regiment and son-in-law of William Dunmead, gave a deposition at the Home District at York before John Small, J.P. that William Dunmead was still alive and residing in Bayham Township and had been so all during the war of 1812-14.
In March of 1820, W. Burwell, J.P. for the London District, certified as to the loyalty of William Dunmead, and he stated that it was out of the latter's power to obtain the necessary certificates from his regiment.
On March 8th, 1820, W. Burwell, acting as agent for Mr. William Dunmead paid the surveying fees of £1-7-6 on two hundred acres under regulation of 1796.
Little is known of William Dunmead's family. A daughter was married to Deacon Thomas Hollowood of Port Burwell, Bayham Township. Presumably a son, William, stayed behind in New Brunswick where he enlisted in the New Brunswick Fensible Infantry on October 24, 1803, being one of the earliest to join and on 12 November 1803, he was promoted to corporal in Capt. John Jacque's Company. He remained at Fredericton and was promoted to sargeant on 15th August, 1804. On 2nd May, 1805, he was reduced to private; then promoted to corporal again on 25th August, 1805, and to sargeant on 25th September 1807, but then he was reduced to private again on 11th April 1808. In 1808 he was sent to Cape Breton.
On 4th February 1811, the New Brunswick Fensible Infantry were taken into the 104th Foot, a regular British army regiment. The regiment marched to Quebec and on to Kingston in March 1813, but William Dunmead Jr. remained at Cape Breton until rejoining the main regiment at Kingston in October, 1814. The regiment took part in the battle at Lundy's Lane.
By August 1815, the regiment had returned to Quebec, and by August 1816 it was at Montreal. Meanwhile, on 25th December, 1814, William Dunmead Jr., was again promoted to corporal in #8 Company; he was reduced to private on 24th August 1816, but he was raised to corporal again in the #11 Company on 25th November, 1816. The 104th Regiment remained at Montreal until it was disbanded on 24th May, 1817. Nothing further is known at this time of Wm. Dunmead, Jr.
Another son, John, who was a stonemason, enlisted in the 4th Lincoln Regiment*. He is shown to be in Captain Abram Nelles' Flank Company in July, 1812 as a private; in 1814 he was in Captain Henry Nelles' Company. He married Mary Ross of Lincoln County, Clinton Township, near Beamsville on January 1, 1815 at Grimsby. He first met his wife-to-be when he was locked up as a prisoner of war in an old house on the Niagara frontier, and she risked her life in letting him out. She was assisting the commissariat in provisioning the troops as they passed from point to point.
* The 4th Lincoln Regiment was formed at Grimsby to fight the Americans who came across from the Niagara River and advanced as far as Stoney Creek during the early part of the 1812-14 War.The Americans took a number of Canadians as prisoners at various times during these advances.
UPPER CANADA LAND PETITIONS
Joshua Nunn's petition states that he came into the area with his step father, William Dunmead, so we can assume William Dunmead's wife had died and he had married the widow Nunn and Joshua and Benjamin Nunn are her children. Both Joshua Nunn and William Dunmead make their mark and Benjamin Nunn's says 'for Benjamin Nunn, Paul Averill', and both William Dunmead's and Joshua Nunn's are dated 28th April, 1797, with Benjamin's being dated 9th May, 1797.
William Dunmead's Petition:
To His Honor Peter Russell Esquire
Administering the Government of
Upper Canada etc. etc. etc.
In Council
The Petition of William Dunmead
Humbly Sheweth
That Your Petitoner was a
Soldier in the Jersey Volunteers commanded by Col
Skinner - and came last fall into this Province
with his family who are at the present at John
Decoes in Thorold - that your Petitioner has
taken the Oath of Allegiance and signed the Declara
tion - and being desirous to settle in the Province
prays your Honor would be ? pleased to grant
him 300 acres as military lands - having
served from the years 1777 to the end of the war
and your petitioner as in duty bound will
ever pray
his
William X Dunmead
mark
Newark
28 April 1797
Witness
T. Ridout
"Wm. Dunmead must produce his discharge or a Certificate from a Captain of his Reg't supporting what is stated and saying this (person) was regularly discharged after the Peace. (26th June 1815)....
At York, 8th March, 1820, - I Certify that the Petitioner retained his Loyalty during the late War, and that it is now out of his power to obtain the neccessary certificates to entitle him to be privileged.
M. Burwell, J.P., London Dist.....
Wm. Dunmead, Rec'd 2d May 1797, Ordered 200 acres if none granted before. P.R., No. 25...."
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Rainham Builders
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