This page presents brief histories of the three largest branches of the extensive Bunker family. The Bunker genealogies designate the branches with a letter, and the first Bunker in the line is denoted with a numeral one. So, George Bunker of the Charlestown Branch is C-1, James of Dover is D-1 and George of Topsfield-Nantucket is N-1. The names of both Georges as well as James Bunker were frequently recorded as Buncker.
Charlestown Branch
In America the earliest mention of a Bunker is of George Bunker, who founded the Charlestown, Massachusetts branch of the Bunker family. George Bunker was designated C-1 in the Bunker genealogies. George, a wealthy emigrant, settled in Charlestown prior to January 1633. He was a great-grandson of Roger Bunker who died in 1515 in the parish of Tingrith, Bedfordshire, England. The history of this family is briefly described on the Bedfordshire posting under this site’s British Research category. George’s original birth record has been copied but is, according to Henry Bunker’s research, practically illegible. We do know George was younger than 18 in 1609. In 1624 George married Judith Maior (Major) at the parish church of Odell in Bedfordshire. George and Judith had seven children, five born in England and two in Charlestown. The family came to Charlestown between April 1632, when son Joseph was baptized in Odell, and January 1633, when George was allotted a 10-acre lot in Massachusetts.
By 1638 George owned 22 parcels of land in Charlestown, plus 200 or more acres in Malden and almost 300 acres in Woburn.The land assigned to George Bunker extended from Main Street over the hill to the north to the Mystic River. One of his pastures reached over the summit of Bunker Hill, which was given his name by early and common consent to the connected ridges of elevated ground on the peninsula.
George Bunker sold his home in Charlestown in 1648, two years after the death of his wife Judith, who died Oct. 10, 1646. She was the first of the Bunker family to be buried in the ancient burial ground under the shadow of Bunker Hill, where still stands a headstone in memory of her youngest son Jonathan, grandson Captain Benjamin Bunker, and four great-grandchildren. Although George was undoubtedly buried there in 1664, no memorial stone has survived in that location.
George Bunker’s descendants were not numerous and by 1793 they were dead or had moved west to Smyrna, New York, where Benjamin Bunker (C-9) built and operated the Bunker Hotel. The only male member of the Charlestown branch of the Bunker family alive at the time of the battle of Bunker Hill was Benjamin Bunker, and to the best of our current knowledge there were no Bunkers of any branch who fought in the battle, which occurred on Breed’s Hill, lower down the main hill from Bunker Hill.
The above information is summarized from Henry L. Bunker III’s 1984 Bunker Family History; the most recent and complete Charlestown branch genealogy is the 1965 Bunker Genealogy, Volume II, compiled by Edward C. Moran Jr.
Dover Branch
The earliest knowledge we have of James Bunker, sometimes spelled Buncker, is the record of his christening on February 10, 1633/34 in the parish church of Slapton, Devonshire, England. His christening is the earliest record of the name James among the Devonshire Bunckers.
Given the Bunker designation D-1, James in 1678 stated in a court deposition that he was 50, hence born in 1628. James served on a jury in 1646 in Kittery, Maine, and it is not likely he would have been called for such duty at the age of 13. We have no “positive proof” that James of Devon and James of Kittery is the same man but “circumstantial evidence is very strong,” according to Henry Bunker III in his Bunker Family History.
James Bunker apparently came to New England without parents, arriving in Kittery in 1646. Sometime between 1649 and 1652 he moved to Dover, New Hampshire, where he was granted land on August 10, 1653. He built a fortified home known as Bunker’s Garrison in the Oyster River Plantation area. Sources disagree on the date of the garrison’s construction. One states shortly after 1652 (probably too early) and another states it was built in 1675. In any case it was the last remaining garrison of the Oyster River Plantation area attacked by Indians in 1694. The Oyster River Plantation area became the town of Durham, New Hampshire in 1732; the garrison was torn down in 1927. In the Bunker genealogies, references to Dover in the early years of the family really refer to territory now designated as Durham, New Hampshire. After 1732, a reference to Dover is most likely not a reference to the Oyster River Plantation area, but to the city.
The above information is generally summarized from Henry L. Bunker III’s 1984 Bunker Family History. The most recent and complete Dover branch genealogy is the 1971-83 Bunker Genealogy, Volume III, updated and compiled by Ruth Bunker Christensen, Ward Bunker and Henry L. Bunker III.
Topsfield-Nantucket Branch
George Bunker is credited with founding the Nantucket branch of the Bunker family, although he never visited Nantucket. Only his wife and children made the journey when they settled there in 1659. Until June 1998, extensive research by family genealogists had not revealed whether Francis or Timothy Bunker was the father of George, who is given the Bunker Family Association designation as N-1. George Bunker (C-1) and George Bunker (N-1) were first cousins, grandsons of Roger Bunker of Tingrith.
In June 1998, Brian J. Bunker, BFA Life Member from Hong Kong, and his parents from the United Kingdom attended the BFA annual reunion, and displayed a pedigree going back to Roger and Agnes Bunker through Francis, not Timothy Bunker. The descendents of Francis Bunker stayed in England, thus the descendents of Timothy’s son George (N-1) are now identified as the Nantucket Branch.
George Bunker married Elizabeth Godfrey in the parish church of Maulden, Bedfordshire about seven or eight miles from Tingrith center. There is some confusion concerning George’s wife’s name when they arrived in America. In Topsfield she was known as Jane. According to Henry Bunker, “Two alternatives appear: first, Elizabeth died just before they left England or more possibly en route to America, and George married a Jane shortly afterwards so that Elizabeth never reached America and was not buried in Tingrith either. The second possibility is that she was Elizabeth Jane Godfrey and chose to drop the Elizabeth in America where she had no friends to continue her former name.” George and Elizabeth had two children born in Tingrith and three born in Topsfield.
George Bunker is first recorded in Ipswich, Massachusetts. We do not know how long George and his family lived in Ipswich or why they decided to move a few miles west to Topsfield, but by 1652 they resided there. George drowned in 1658. His widow remarried and moved to Nantucket in 1659. George’s son William (N-2) was the first Bunker male to live, work and die on Nantucket.
The above information is summarized from Henry L. Bunker III’s 1984 Bunker Family History; the most recent and complete genealogy of the Nantucket branch is the 1965 Bunker Genealogy, Volume II, compiled by Edward C. Moran Jr. See the August 1998 issue of the Bunker Banner for an account on George Bunker (N-1) and his parentage.