My 6x great grandmother Abigail (Dunham) Thomas is my second line of descent from immigrant ancestors John Dunham and Abigail Barlow through their son Joseph.
Joseph Dunham's entry in Representative Men and Old Families of Southeastern Massachusetts is brief:
Joseph Dunham, born Nov. 18, 1637, married (first) Nov. 18, 1657, Mercy, daughter of Nathaniel Morton, and (second) Hester Wormall, daughter of Joseph. Wormall, of Rowley. His children, born in Plymouth, were: Eleazer, born in 1058; Mercy, born in 1660; Nathaniel, born in 1665; Micaiah, born about 1680; Joseph, born in 1682; Benaiah, born in J683; Daniel, born in 1689.-p.1691
Representative Men and Old Families of Southeastern Massachusetts: Containing Historical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families J.H. Beers & Company, Chicago, Ill. 1912
While you might think by that brief biography that my 8x great grandfather was a upright citizen, he seems to have had a bit of a naughty side which the Plymouth court records described as "lascivious":
5Mar 1660-1
Josepth Dunham. for diuers laciuiouse carriages, was sentanced by the Court to
sitt in the stockes, with a paper on his hatt on which his fact was written in
capitall letters, and likewise to find surties for his good behauior.
Joseph Dunham oweth vnto our sou lord the Kinge the sume of 20:00:00 shillings
John Dunham. Senir, the sume of 10:00:00
Nathaniell Morton the sume of 10:00:00
The condition, that if the said Josepth Dunham shalbee of good behauior towards
our sou lord the Kinge and all his leich people. and appeer att the Generall Court
to bee holden att Plymouth the first Tuesday in June next, and not depart the said Court without lycence ; that then, &c.
It was ordered by the Court, that Mary, the wife of Edward Cobb, of Taunton, should
bee sumoned to appeer att the Court to bee holden att Plymouth the first Tuesday in
May next, to answare for her miscarriages, as appeers by a deposition giuen in to the
grand enquest against Josepth Dunham. Vol3 p210
It looks like Joseph's father and his father- in- law Nathaniel Morton paid his fine.
Seventeen years later the by now forty something year old Joseph still had a bit of
a wild streak but the Court was a bit more lenient on this occasion:
5Mar 1677-8
Joseph Dunham, for laciuouse carriages vsed toward Elizabeth Ringe. fined
twenty shillings, to the vse of the collonie. Vol5 p253
One wonders how many other "lascivious carriages" Joseph may have committed without being brought into court.
I'm descneded from Joseph's son Micajah.
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