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FOREWORD
HOWARD CHADWICK, M. A.
St. Catharine's College, Cambridge
Vicar of Dunham-on-Trent, 1906-1913
The descendants of Deacon John Dunham, Pilgrim, of Plymouth, Massachusetts, "John, Goodman," as he was frequently called, and members of other old New England families, will be interested in this volume entitled Dunham-on-Trent (with Ragnall, Darlton, Wimpton and Kingshaugh), a Record of Nine Hundred Years, by Rev. Howard Chadwick, M. A. (Vicar of Dunham 1906-1913), published by Otis Emerson Dunham, Page & Shaw Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.*
Dunham is an ancient English village on the west bank of the Trent River, Nottingham County, England. Its story forms an intimate, close-up picture of English History from the days of the Druids down to today. No one can visualize a great battle. The best one can do is to observe one of the individual fighters, or a small group of them.
Duna is supposed to have been the name of the Saxon chief of this "Ham" or village. Hence the name Duna's Ham, or Dunham. The record covers the period from the conversion of Edwin, the Saxon King, and his followers, and their baptism in the Trent River in 601 down to a sale of Dunham lands in 1922.
In these records there is mention of the Dunham family which existed in Norman times, and was frequently mentioned in later years. For example, The Red Book of the Exchequer, 1155, Henry II. states that (translation) "For land given to the Count of Flanders in Dunham £40, Robert son of Hugo de Dunham £112 clear", and again in 1171, "Golfar, Archdeacon of Canterbury, rendered an account of £880 and in land given to Yuoni (John) de Dunham in Dunham 10s. And in lands given to the sons of Hugo 112s, precisely in Clayworth (a village near Dunham) and of lands given to the Count of Boulogne £60 in Dunham".
''For several hundred years the de Dunhams were a family of position and importance in the country, and several members held the title of Knight.''
The English Dunhams and the American Dunhams are not numerous, relatively speaking, but the family name is quite well spread over both countries, and has members all over the world.
Everyone has an ancestry as old as human life on the planet, whether he can trace it or not. Few families, however, go back more than three or four hundred years. We frequently hear the expression: "He comes from an old family," meaning a family perhaps two or three hundred years old. Few persons realize that until the last four or five centuries people possessed only familiar or first names. Family names were unusual, and limited to the nobility. Very few families had a name nine hundred years ago. This is true both in Europe and in America. '' There are only a few families in England that can trace their descent in an unbroken line from Norman times. Only two or three can do so from Saxon times".
This book is published for the two-fold purpose, first of perpetuating the history of Dunham-on-Trent (and its several manors), a charming English village whose foundations were laid in the cultural and physical developments of a Saxon town of Norman Conquest times, and secondly, to show the origin of one of the few family names which existed in Norman times, and which can be traced to the present day.
Otis Emerson Dunham. Cambridge, Mass., October 12, 1924.
*A large part of these records was published by the Vicar originally in a monthly pamphlet distributed in Dunham Parish.