27 Apr 2024
We’re trying to find the parents of the John Dunmore who married Elizabeth Johnson in Market Harborough in 1785. His death certificate and burial entry both state he was 76 in 1839 which places his year of birth at 1763. He would have been 22 when he married.
He had his first child in 1786, the year after his marriage, and his last in 1808, at the age of 45. We don’t know his profession but two of his sons, Henry and Thomas, became coal dealers and carriers in Great Bowden, just a couple of miles from Market Harborough.
Both John and Elizabeth died in Great Bowden but were buried in Market Harborough. This could have been a family plot but we haven’t found any record of that. Burials were not made at the parish church, St Dionysius, but at the otherwise unused St Mary in Arden Church near the present-day station.
Our task is to find a birth or baptism for John Dunmore, ideally no earlier than 1755 and no later than about 1767.
There is a John Dunmore baptised in Market Harborough in 1763 which would be ideal, however it is followed by two others which appear to be from the same family, suggesting that the earlier John’s must have died in childhood. The last John baptised in this family would have been far too young to marry in 1785. The parents were Joseph and Mary. There is a Joseph Dunmore and Mary Hill getting married in 1760 in Harborough.
The following are all the baptisms of John Dunmore in Market Harborough, interspersed with the most likely burials. Unfortunately the Market Harborough burial register lists only names without ages or parentage:
- 26 May 1763 baptism of John of Joseph and Mary
- 5 Jun 1765 burial of John
- 31 Oct 1766 baptism of John of Joseph and Mary
- 18 Feb 1775 baptism of John of Joseph and Mary
- 22 Feb 1775 burial of John
There is no trace of a burial between 1766 and 1775 and we have combed through the register carefully. There are a few possibilities to explain this:
- The burial in 1775 is the John baptised in 1766. For this to be the case the mother must have just given birth to a new baby just as the older child died, they baptised the new baby immediately and then waited four days to bury the older child. This seems implausible and, regardless, means none of these John’s can be our ancestor.
- The family moved away from Market Harborough for a short period, John1766 died in that new place and then they moved back. There is a gap in baptisms between 1766 (John) and the 1772 (Joseph). However as in the first possibility this still eliminates any of the Johns from being our ancestor.
- The baptism in 1766 is for a different family with the same parent names. However, there is no trace in the registers of another Joseph Dunmore marrying in or near Market Harborough within 40 years of 1763. The closest is a Joseph Dugmore in Hanbury, Staffordshire in 1754 who married a Hannah Ellis.
Only possibility 3 allows John baptised in 1766 to be our ancestor and there isn’t any other evidence to support it.
We need to look further afield for other John Dunmores. There are a few candidates:
- 2 Sep 1753, Stockerston, Leics: John Dunmore, parents Thos and Eliz.
- This seems to early.
- A sister Mary was baptised the year before.
- The mother, Elizabeth, was buried 12 Feb 1757 aged 46
- Thomas was buried 9 May 1794 age 70.
- There are no further mentions of Dunmores in the parish after 1794.
- It’s possible that Thomas was baptised in 1723 in Stonton Wyville, son of Edward and Alice (register)
- 27 Dec 1760, Derby: John Dugmore, parents Samuel and Elizabeth
- 24 Nov 1762, Raunds, Northants: John Dunmur, parents John and Judith (register).
- 7 Nov 1762, Bingham, Notts: John Dunsmore, parents William and Sarah
- 31 Jul 1763, Whatton, Notts: John Dunsmore, parents John and Margaret
- 14 Apr 1763, Melbourne, Derbyshire: John Dugmore, parents Thomas and Elizabeth
- 2 Feb 1765, Walsall, Staffs: John Dugmore, parents Daniel and Ann
- 15 Feb 1766, Rolleston, Staffs: John Dugmore, parents Jn and Ann (actually Dagmore)
- 16 Aug 1767, Emneth, Norfolk: John Dunmore, parents John and Elizabeth
