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Archiver > PIATT > 2004-07 > 1089439468


From: John Keilch <>
Subject: [PIATT] Rev Dunham at Conococheague
Date: Fri, 09 Jul 2004 23:04:28 -0700


Hi, Laverne --

In my notes, I have Rev. Jonathan Dunham (b1695, d1779 NJ) as a member in
1722 of the Seventh Day Baptist congregation in Piscataway (I think his
father, Rev. Edmund Dunham, was the founding minister), and as ordained in
Conococheague, PA, in 1845. I had never read the full account you quoted,
so my information was from another (now forgotten) source, though of course
it may have derived from the Leonard file.

The division of the 1st Day and the 7th Day Baptists was central to Pyatt
family history; Thomas Pyatt's young widow, Mercy Hull, remarried to Rev.
Benjamin Stelle, head of the 1st Baptist Congregation, while other Pyatts
and inlaws joined the 7th Day offshoot. I suspect there may be more to
discover about Pyatts by examining the two congregations and associated
family clusters. For example, 7th Day Baptist John Doty (born ca 1680)
married an unnamed Pyatt as his second wife around 1730; and Isaac Doty
(born 1683) may have also married an unnamed Pyatt about 1716 (one of these
two women may have been the Frances Pyatt named as a co-grantee with James
Pyatt in 1701).

As I am sure you recognize, the Conococheague connection also raises
interesting questions about the as-yet undiscovered migrations of Rene's
eldest son Jacob Pyatt I, and of his own eldest son, Jacob Pyeatt II, the
Indian trader who operated in the Conococheague area in the 1730s and 1740s.

-- John Keilch, Berkeley, California

>From:
>Date: Wed, 07 Jul 2004 06:33:49 +0000
>To:
>Reply-To:
>Subject: [PIATT] Rev Dunham at Conococheague
>
>Oliver B Leonard's file on church history (see posting on
>Conococheague-Piscataway Connection) contained another item of interest to
>Piatt researchers.
>
>Four handwritten pages relate biographical information concerning Rev
>Edmund Dunham and his son Rev Jonathan Dunham of the Piscataway (NJ)
>Seventh Day Baptist Church. A reference at the top of the first page
>indicates that these four pages were, in turn, pages 129-133 of a
>publication titled "Morgan Edwards Materials...," Philadelphia, 1772. A
>trip to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia revealed
>that Leonard's notes were indeed copied from Morgan Edwards' 1770 [sic]
>publication "Materials Toward a History of the American Baptists in xii
>volumes." (Actually only 2 volumes were published and both are bound
>together in the book held by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, or
>rather in the collection of rare books next door at the Library Company of
>Philadelphia.)
>
>Because of the restrictions on photocopying both Leonard's materials and
>the original book at HSP/LCP, in the time I had I could hand copy only the
>information concerning Rev Jonathan Dunham.
>
><<Rev Jonathan Duham
>
>He succeeded his father in the partnership in 1745, but had preached to
>them as a licentiate for many years before. He continued in partnership
>till March 11, 1777 when he died of smallpox in the 86th year of his
>age. He also left behind him an excellent character: he was first
>ordained as a deacon the year that his father died, Nov 2 [1732]: received
>holy orders the year he commencing (?) pastor: the ordainers were Rev
>Messrs Davis Williams and William James: the place Conococheague in
>Pennsylvania, His wife was Jane Pyaat [sic] by whom he had children
>Elizabeth, Azariah, Jonathan, David, Ruth & Samuel: these married into
>the families of the Dunns, Thomases, Fords, Randels, Martins, & Lucases
>and have raised 41 grandchildren. His ancestor [sic, should be
>'descendant'] is the present pastor, Rev Nathan Rogers.>>
>
>Jane Pyatt is thought to be the 9th child of Rene Piatt and Elizabeth
>Sheffield. Jane was born 15 Sep 1695; d 15 Sep 1779, buried in the Dunham
>Burial Ground in Piscataway NJ. She married Rev Jonathan Dunham on 15 Aug
>1714 at Piscataway NJ. It is interesting that Edwards spelled the name
>Pyaat. Jane's brother Thomas Pyatt's tombstone spells the name Pyaat,
>too, the only two instances I've seen that spelling.
>
>Could it be possible that Rene Piatt's son-in-law, Rev Jonathan Dunham,
>was ordained at Conococheague? If so, it indicates that there was a far
>closer connection between Conococheague and Piscataway than I had ever
>imagined, due to the distance. And it would suggest that the second and
>third generations of Piatts in the two locations likely knew of one
>another, that one branch of the family was not really lost from the other.
>
>A letter in Leonard's files, dated 18 March 1896, from Alfred, New York,
>inquired about the place of ordination of Rev Jonathan Dunham. This
>particular letter did not have the name of the writer, but other letters
>from Alfred NY and in the same handwritting were from C H Greene. Alfred
>State University began as a Seventh Day Baptist instutition. Copies of
>Leonard's replies to Greene don't seem to be among Leonard's files, but we
>could hope that Greene's correspondence may have been preserved in Alfred NY.
>
>Some of us have expressed the concern that we have found everything we can
>under the Piatt name and have suggested that by following the colateral
>family names we might turn up something new. Indeed research on these
>lines may turn out to be fruitful.
>
>--
>Laverne Ingram Piatt
>Ontario, OH
>
>
>
>
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