Dunsmore/Dunsmoor Surname

John Dunsmoor was born circa 1670 in Northern Ireland. He died circa 1750 in Lancaster, Worcester Co., Massachusetts.

He married name unknown circa 1695 in Ireland.

They had the following known children:

1	William Dunsmoor
2	Oliver Dunsmoor was born circa 1700 in Kilrea, Northern Ireland. He died on September 13, 1773 in New Braintree, Massachusetts. He married Barbara Anderson on September 25, 1733.
3	John Dunsmoor was born circa 1702 in Kilrea, Northern Ireland. He died on December 7, 1747 in Lancaster, Worcester Co., Massachusetts. He married Eunice Sawyer circa 1733 in Lancaster, Worcester Co., Massachusetts.
4	Thomas Dunsmoor was born circa 1705 in Kilrea, Northern Ireland. He died circa 1752 in Brookfield, Massachusetts.

William Dunsmoor was born circa 1698 in Kilrea, Northern Ireland. He died on November 27, 1782 in Boylston, Worcester Co., Massachusetts. He is buried in the Old Burial Ground, Boylston, Worcester Co., Massachusetts.

Father: John Dunsmoor
Mother: Unknown

By tradition, William is supposed to have been born in Kilrea, Northern Ireland. He came to Massachusetts as a youth. Eventually, he was living in Concord, Massachusetts, where he married Jane Mores in 1733. Soon after the marriage, William and his wife moved to Stow, Massachusetts, which is probably where his first wife Jane died. He did not remain in Stow for long and by 1737 had moved to Lancaster, in central Massachusetts. It is probably there that he met his second wife. They were married in Boston in 1736.

William settled in the part of the town of Lancaster that became Sterling in 1781. Although he and his family lived in Lancaster (now Sterling), they apparently made use of the church in the bordering town of Shrewsbury (the part of which became Boylston in 1786). Some researchers believe that the place William lived has been flooded by the Wachusett Reservoir. The place would probably now be within the town limits of either West Boylston, Sterling or Clinton.

They had one child:

1	Agnes Dunsmoor was born on June 28, 1735 in Stow, Massachusetts. She died on September 1, 1780 in Sterling, Worcester Co., Massachusetts. She married Joseph Sawyer on August 20, 1761 in Lancaster, Worcester Co., Massachusetts. (He was born in 1738 and died in 1786.)

They had the following children:

2	Mary Dunsmore was born circa 1738 in Lancaster, Worcester Co., Massachusetts. She died before February 9, 1782 in Lancaster, Worcester Co., Massachusetts. She married William Crawford on February 26, 1758 in Lancaster, Worcester Co., Massachusetts.
3	Oliver Dunsmore was born on January 23, 1739/40 in Lancaster, Worcester Co., Massachusetts. He died after 1800.
4	John Dunsmore was born on September 17, 1742 in Lancaster, Worcester Co., Massachusetts. He died on August 4, 1811 in Grafton, Vermont. He married Sarah Winn on September 13, 1766 in Lancaster, Worcester Co., Massachusetts.
5	Elizabeth Dunsmore was born in July 1744 in Lancaster, Worcester Co., Massachusetts. She died on January 7, 1744/5 in Lancaster, Worcester Co., Massachusetts.
6	Elizabeth Dunsmore
7	Joseph Dunsmore was born on July 5, 1747 in Lancaster, Worcester Co., Massachusetts. He died after 1783 in Georgia Plains, Vermont. He married Ruth Newton on November 16, 1769 in Lancaster, Worcester Co., Massachusetts.
8	Ruth Dunsmore was born before September 2, 1750 in Lancaster, Worcester Co., Massachusetts. She died after 1783 in Templeton, Massachusetts. She married Stephen Hayward on March 6, 1771 in Lancaster, Worcester Co., Massachusetts.
9	William Dunsmore was born before September 30, 1753 in Lancaster, Worcester Co., Massachusetts. He died circa 1754 in Lancaster, Worcester Co., Massachusetts.
10	Olive Dunsmore was born on May 15, 1757 in Lancaster, Worcester Co., Massachusetts. She married Peter Brown on October 24, 1781 in Lancaster, Worcester Co., Massachusetts.

They had the following children:

11	William Dunsmore was born on March 11, 1769 in Lancaster, Worcester Co., Massachusetts.
12	John Dunsmore was born circa 1781.

Elizabeth Dunsmore was born on March 31, 1745 in Lancaster, Worcester Co., Massachusetts. She died on March 11, 1791 in Guilford, Windham Co., Vermont ^4,6. She is buried in the Blanchard (Old North) Cemetery, Guilford, Windham Co., Vermont.

Father: William Dunsmoor
Mother: Jane Smith

Elizabeth was born and raised in Lancaster, Massachusetts, and was named after an older sister who died shortly before she was born. Elizabeth was probably raised in the part of the town of Lancaster that eventually became Sterling. In the mid-1760's, she apparently formed a relationship with a young man from the area named Manassah Bixby who had returned from service in the French and Indian War. They one child together in January 1766, and they were eventually married in November 1766, two months before the birth of their second child. After this, Elizabeth and Manassah either lived in Lancaster or neighboring Shrewsbury, yet did not remain there long. In 1766, Manassah purchased 40 acres of land in Templeton, Massachusetts, yet they may not have moved there immediately, but no later than July of 1768. Then in late 1768 or early 1769, Elizabeth and her family moved to the rural town of Guilford, in Windham County, Vermont.

Elizabeth and her family were among the earliest citizens of Guilford, and were influential, her husband serving in many early capacities in the early town government. Elizabeth had 12 children, yet saw 4 of them die in infancy or childhood. Another 4 of her children died as relatively young adults. Elizabeth died in 1791, not long after giving birth to her youngest child.

For information on their children, see his page.

1. William Dunsmoor research at the Boylston Archives, http://www.boylstonhistory.org/dunsmoor.htm
2. Vital records of the town of Boylston, Massachusetts to the end of the year 1850, Worcester, MA: Franklin P. Rice, 1900.
3. Early Massachusetts Marriages Prior to 1900. (Ancestry.com)
4. Bixby, Willard G. A Genealogy of the Descendants of Joseph Bixby, 1621-1701, of Ipswich and Boxford, Massachusetts. Willard G. Bixby, New York City, 1914 (reprinted by Higginsson Book Company, Salem, MA). 5. Online cemetery index, Old Burial Ground, Boylston, MA. (http://www.boylstonhistory.org/burial.htm). 6. Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine. 1937, R. R. Bowker Co.