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Thomas Dunckerley (23/10/1724 - 19/11/1795) Thomas Dunckerley is perhaps one of the more famous bearers of the Dunkerley name. He was an Englishman, born on 23rd October 1724 and died on 19th November 1795. His life therefore fell within that period of history referred to as the Enlightenment.
He is well-known on two counts. The more abiding is for the great contributions he made to English Freemasonry, where he is credited with bringing order and standing to the rank of Provincial Grand Master, and was, indeed, Provincial Grand Master in no less than eight of the thirty-four provinces that existed late in his life. The second reason for his celebrity is that he was considered to be a ‘natural’ (i.e. illegitimate) son of George II, king of England.
I have taken an interest in Thomas Dunckerley principally because I am curious about his name, but also because both my father, James Leslie, and my uncle, Clare, were devoted Freemasons, both Past Grand Lodge Officers; indeed, it was my uncle who first brought Thomas Dunckerley to my attention. With reference to the first appearances of the name 'Dunkerley', apart from some enigmatic references in Nottingham there is an early record from 1548 in the International Genealogical Index (IGI) that may be reliable. It relates to a Cicely Dunkerley who married William Prat on 8th July of that year at the church of Saint Pancras in Soper Lane, London. It is worth noting that St Pancras used to lie in Middlesex – and there is some evidence that the Nottingham Dunkerleys originated there. If we assume that Miss Cicely was about twenty years old on the date of her nuptials she would have been born around 1528, probably ante-dating the first Nottingham reference. The Dunkerley line seems to have persisted in London. A ‘Robert Donkerley’ paid £3 in a Subsidy Roll (tax) in 1582 [1], another Robert married there in 1609 [1], but there is then a break of eighty-five years until an Adam Dunkerley is noted as a Yeoman of the Guard between 1694 and 1723 [1]. (For further information see 'Geographical Spread of the Early Dunkerleys').
During the eighteenth century the IGI lists forty-five Dunkerley baptisms and nineteen marriages, one of which involved a Mary Dunkerley in the Fleet prison [1]. There are also records of another ‘A. Dunkerley’ who rose through the ranks of Porter in Somerset House from 1715 onwards [1]. It is hardly surprising to find members of any family in London – it would be remarkable if it were not so for the capital was always a great magnet. The same churches tend to recur among the London Dunkerleys and it would be interesting to try to establish links between the London families. A cursory inspection of some of the duplicated IGI records shows that on occasion the same person is represented as ‘Dunkley’ and as ‘Dunkerley’, but it is unclear if this indicates a ‘blending’ of the two names, or simply confusion on the part of the people who submitted the records. It may also be noted that the forenames of the London Dunkerleys are often quite different to those of the Dunkerleys of Lancashire. In any case it is perhaps unlikely that the London Dunkerleys populated the provinces – that was not the way things generally worked. The spelling of Dunkerley used by Thomas is an old one that was never the most common but seems to have been used with some frequency in London. The oldest known occurrence of the name ‘Dunkerley’ in the Manchester area, in 1549, uses the most usual spelling (Dunkerley). However, the birth of a John Dunckerley was registered at Newton chapel (at Newton Heath, on the road from Manchester towards Oldham) in 1565, so this spelling of the name is old. Various other occurrences of the ‘c’ variation occur in the late 16th and throughout the 17th centuries, but they are much subordinate to the usual spelling. Perhaps as early as 1636, but certainly by 1682, the name had migrated, as had the bulk of the Dunkerleys, to Oldham. The latest occurrence of the ‘c’ form of which I have knowledge – prior to a consideration of Thomas Dunckerley – is 1704.
In a biography of Thomas Dunckerley [2], Sadler reproduces two accounts for the origin of his subject. The first links him to a Porter at Somerset House [3] - perhaps the one mentioned above, but that provided by Dunckerley himself appears the more likely - certainly the more interesting - and I now summarise it:
Dunckerley’s 'father', Mr. Dunckerley (first name not given), appears to have been a minor courtier or servant of confidence to the Duke of Devonshire – perhaps originally at Chatsworth in Derbyshire, south of Manchester. Whether Mr. Dunckerley was from Derbyshire or London is not clear, however this is the closest connection I can deduce to the Manchester area, where, as I have explained, the name developed most strongly. At the time of Thomas’ birth in 1724 Mr. Dunckerley was living in London and had married Mary, who was some sort of lady-in-waiting, possibly a surgeon’s daughter. The marriage appears not to have been happy. It is from Mary’s deathbed account that the story of Thomas’ origins are derived.
According to Mary, while her husband was away for several months at Chatsworth in 1723 on business for the Duke of Devonshire, she was required to attend at Lady Ranelagh’s house where the Prince of Wales (later George II) was present. Mary indicates that the Prince of Wales had slept with her before her marriage (indeed, first when she was a virgin), and the august gentleman now required her to stay for several days, during which he made her ‘five visits’. She became pregnant and Thomas was born the following year.
On her husband’s return, it appears he was not perturbed by events, and indeed he may have benefited from them by having two residences and other ‘advantages’ bestowed upon him.
The baby took on the surname ‘Dunckerley’ and as a young man Thomas joined the Royal Navy where he enjoyed a career of twenty-six years and became ‘gunner’, ‘schoolmaster’ and ‘mathematics teacher’ on various ships of the line. He was most closely associated with the ‘Vanguard’, where he spent six years. The position of ‘gunner’ was a very senior one, responsible for all the armament of the vessel – usually over 70 cannon.
It was while in the Royal Navy that Dunckerley became involved in Freemasonry, and it was this interest that he so much developed following his retirement from the navy, in June 1764.
His mother died in 1760, soon after which Thomas was apprised that his actual father was George II. Before Thomas could contact George II, the king died. However, through the intermediation of friends in 1767 Thomas was able to bring his story to the notice of George III, who, following enquiries, awarded Thomas a pension of £100 per annum and acknowledged his birth origin. Various other favours and many contacts with the most eminent gentlemen of the land followed.
This, then, is a brief summary of the life of the comparatively well-known Thomas Dunckerley. The best that can be said of him, from the point of view of one interested in the Dunkerley family history, is that he made the name more widely known. However he appears not to have been a Dunkerley at all. Thomas is the latest bearer of the ‘c’ variation of the name of whom I am aware.
Written by Philip Dunkerley. Filename: Thomas Dunckerley. This page was last modified on 21 January 2008
Reference [2] Thomas Dunckerley: This Life, Labors and Letters, by Henry Sadler, originally published in 1891. Republished by Kessinger Publishing's Rare Reprints. See www.kessinger.net. [3] 'The Gentlemen's Magazine' 1795. page 973. [4] 'The Freemanson's Magazine', February 1796. |
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