DUNGAN FAMILY. Reverend Thomas DUNGAN, the great-grandfather of John DUNGAN, mentioned in the preceding sketch, was born in London, England, about the year 1632. His father, William DUNGAN, was a merchant of London, and was of a cadet branch of the DUNGANS of Dublin, Ireland, ennobled by Queen Elizabeth. The senior branch ended under the following circumstances: William DUNGAN, Earl of Limerick, died in 1698, without leaving issue, in consequence of the death of his son, Lord Walter DUNGAN, colonel of dragoons at the Boyne, in 1690. The title of Earl of Limerick, then came to Colonel Thomas DUNGAN, brother of the Earl of Limerick. Thomas, under the will of his father, Sir John DUNGAN, baronet, inherited an estate in the Queen’s county, and served in the army of Louis XIV till 1678 as colonel of an Irish regiment, worth to him about 5,000 pounds per annum. He had from Charles II a life pension of 500 pounds a year: was made lieutenant governor of Tangier, in Morocco, and subsequently governor of New York in America. The title of Earl of Limerick ceased in the DUNGAN family on the death of Colonel Thomas DUNGAN in December 1715, he leaving no heirs. William DUNGAN died in London in 1636, leaving four children, Barbara, William, Frances, and Thomas. The mother of Rev. Thomas DUNGAN was Frances LATHAM, daughter of Lewis LATHAM, sergeant falconer to Charles I. She had married (first) Lord WESTON and (second) William DUNGAN, and soon after the latter’s death married Captain Jeremiah CLARKE, and with him and her children emigrated to New England and settled in Newport, Rhode Island, where Captain Clarke became prominent, serving in the provincial assembly and filling other official positions. He died in 1651, and his widow married (fourth) Rev. William VAUGHAN, paster of the first Baptist church in America. Mrs. VAUGHAN died in September 1677, at the age of sixty-seven years.

Thomas DUNGAN came to Newport, Rhode Island, in 1637, with his mother and stepfather, Captain CLARKE, and was reared and educated in that colony, probably receiving his education in a school established there by Roger WILLIAMS. His second stepfather being a Baptist clergyman he imbibed that faith and became an eminent Baptist preacher. He was a representative in the colonial assembly of Rhode Island, 1678-81, and a sergeant in the Newport militia. He became one of the patentees of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, but sold his real estate there in 1682 and removed with a colony of Welsh Baptists from Rhode Island to Cold Spring, Falls township, Bucks county, and established the first Baptist church in Pennsylvania. He died in 1688. He married in Newport, Rhode Island, Elizabeth Weaver, daughter of Sergeant CLEMENT and Mary (FREEBORN) WEAVER, Clement WEAVER was a member of colonial assembly in 1678, and his father-in-law, William FREEBORN served in the same body in 1657. Elizabeth (WEAVER) DUNGAN died at Cold Spring, Bucks county, in 1690. The children of Rev. Thomas and Elizabeth (WEAVER) DUNGAN were as follows:

1. William, born 1658, preceded his father to Bucks county, died there 1713; married Deborah WING of Newport and left five children.
2. Clement died in Northampton township, Bucks county, in 1732, without issue.
3. Elizabeth married Nathaniel WEST and had four children, one of whom, Elizabeth, married Joseph HOUGH of Warwick, and has numerous descendants in Bucks.
4. Thomas, born about 1670, died June 23, 1759, married Mary DRAKE and had nine children, Thomas, Joseph, James, John, Jonathan, Elizabeth, who married John HELLINGS: Mary, married Thomas BARTON; and Sarah married -------- Stevens.
5. Rebecca married Edward DOYLE, who died in 1703, leaving sons Edward and Clement, who were the ancestors of the DOYLES for whom Doylestown is named.
6. Jeremiah, born about 1673, died in Bucks county, April 6, 1766, married Deborah DRAKE and had eight children.
7. Mary married a RICHARDS and had three children.
8. John, who died without issue.
9. Sarah, who married James CARREL, and had six children.

The sons and sons-in-law of Thomas and Elizabeth DUNGAN became large landowners in Bucks county, and they and their descendants were prominent in the affairs of the county, province and state.

James DUNGAN, son of Thomas and Mary (DRAKE) DUNGAN, of Northampton township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, was the great-great-grandfather of Howard O. FOLKER, the historian of the family, and a full account of his is given in his "Levi DUNGAN, the Pioneer," among the archives of the Bucks County Historical Society. He married Rebecca WELLS, daughter of Samuel WELLS, a farmer in Lower Dublin township, near the present site of Bustleton, Philadelphia county, and lived and died on a farm in Lower Dublin township.

Test taken from page 207-208 of:

Davis, William W. H., A.M., History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania [New York-Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1905] Volume III

Transcribed June 2001 by Joan Lollis of  IN. as part of the Bucks Co., Pa., Early Family Project, www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/bucksindex.html

Published June 2001 on the Bucks County, Pa., USGenWeb pages at www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/