16 LIBERTY March/Apri l 1990 Donated by MCCDY .P'R mi ly Jean Zapeda

he valued freedom. She op­ posed oppression. She spoke out fo r religious freedom. I wanted to know more about her. She sounded like a twentieth­ century-style feminist alive and well in the seventeenth century. Her roots were waiting to be uncovered down the leafy lanes and in the rich libraries of , land of my birth. I read LIBERTY' s coverage, and Eric I era rd i's Gravesend: The Home of Coney Island' and the Essex Institute Historical Collections: Swampscott in the Seventeenth Century. I wondered, When and where was Deborah bom?2 What was she like? Who were her parents and grandparents? What innuences shaped her strong spirit? Why did she leave England? What were conditions like in the England of the late six­ teenth and early seventeenth centuries? On which vessel did she sail to America? There seemed no end to my questions. But how was I to find answers? She wrote no books or articles. How could anyone tell what she was like? I began my auempt to reconstruct the world of Deborah Duvch with Ierardi's report that Deborah was born at "Dunch's Priory Manor of Avebury at Little Wi1tenham in , England." This de­ scription is puzzling: Avebury and Little Wi 11en­ ham are two different villages 40 miles apart. I would visit both. , I believed, was in the royal county of Berkshire (royal because the Queen has one of her fav orite palaces there-Windsor Castle). But I soon discovered that wh ile I was living in the United States, in 1974 in fact, the British authorities· reshaped and renamed several English counties. Little Wittenham is now in Oxfordshire. However, the county records stretch­ ing back to the sixteenth centu ry when Deborah was born , are still at Reading's Shire Hall, in Berk-

- Vicwr Cooper now--resides- in Berkshire, England and serves as a communications consultant for the Seve11th-day Adve11tist church.

Does ot Cir ~!late LIBERTY March/April 1990 17 shire (pronounced Barksher). tenham, a long ancient ramparts by the tions and a Bronze Age shie ld have been I searched lhrough lhe sixleenlh-cen­ river Thames. The surrounding "Sinodun found. Also coins, cups, a lamp, and a key tury church register en1ries (recorded on Hills are best seen under 1he fu ll moon on from Roman times. film) to find the name of Deborah Dunch. a clear summer's night," it said. "Bui even In the church I mel C lifford Hammer­ In those days births were not recorded­ in the day they retain a slightly erie atmos­ ton, church warden from 1950 to 1988, only baptisms. The handwriting was dif­ phere." Apparenlly in Saxon days men and local historian. T he stooped, gray­ ficult to decipher. No reference 10 Debo­ died violently in battle on these slopes, haired gentleman confinned thal the rah Dunch! I sunnised thal her parents and a phantom raven was said to guard Dunch mansion was des1royed aboul A.D. may not have be lieved in infant bap1ism. their treasure in a fosse, or ditch, known as 1800. The church, he said, was restored in In the name index fi le, I came across the Money Pit. the nineieenth century on a founda1ion references to two documenls under I was ready to go. here from 675. The existing church tower Dunch. An hour later I held in my hands Then I read !hat "a mansion demol­ is fo urteenth and fifteenth cenlury, and the 1he 1597 1i1le deeds for the properly of ished in about 1800 was fonnerly the fonl is 500 years old. Deborah's uncle, . home of the Dunch fam ily, some of whom Was Deborah bapiized here? I won­ And 1here was grandfalher William are buried in the local church." dered. Dunch's last will and testament, dated I was even more keen to go. On ledges of the we l wall oft.he lower I 599. My five years of Latin classes, arc two recumbenl effigies in a labasler: taken so many years ago and so little used At Little W ittenha m Sir Wi ll iam Dunch (Deborah's cousin) since, were not of much helped to me. But I fo und Lillie Wiuenham at a bend of and his wife, Marie. He was baptized in in closely wri llen cursive scri pt were the Thames, also known here as Isis. 1578 and died in February 16 12 at age 33. listed the eslates owned by Will iam Footbridges cross firs! an ann of the river Small figures on the front of the tomb Dunch in Avebury, Wiltshire, in Lillie and then the main stream. represent the ir nine children. T wo are in Wiuenham, in Wookey Hole, Somerset; The 1own is nesiled down a narrow lane swaddling clothes, and one rests hi s head and elsewhere. Dunch was evidently a big at the foot of several hills. Castle Hill was on a skull (evidently a stillborn). Marie landowner. turned into a fortified encampment 1,200 was an aunt of , and sis­ In my copy of the Aulomobile years ago. Harp Hill and the Dike Hills ter-in-law to . Association's Book of Country Walks I were the scene of prehistoric batLles. On !he north wall are two fascinating noticed reference to a walk, at Little Wit- Spearheads, swords, scabbard decora- brass memorials. One is to William

18 LIBERTY March/April 1990 Dunch and his wife, Mary Barnes (Debo­ rah Dunch's grandfather and grand­ mother). He was audi tor to the mint in 1546. during the reign of Henry V111 , and reappointed in the reign of Edward VI. He was also "sworn Esquire extraordinary of the body of Queen Elizabeth," who granted hi m the manor of Little Witten­ ham, where he sett led in 1562/ 1563. He died May 11, 1597, at the age of 89. His wife, Mary Barnes, was sister and heiress to John Barnes, Esq. , "Gentleman Porter of the Towne and Castle of Guysnes, in Fraunce when it was Eng­ lish." The second brass memorial is in memory of Deborah's father, Walter Dunch, Esq., son of Wi ll iam and Mary Dunch, bencher of Gray's Inn, who died June 4, 1594. So Deborah 's father was a lawyer. That agrees with notes on a Dunch fam ily tree I found in Reading, written in long­ hand by an unknown writer. I must inves­ tigate that further. I imagined Deborah and her mother and sisters at Walter's funeral. At most she was only 12, perhaps less-young to discover how transitory life is. Three years later her grand fa ther died. But there is nothing in the old church to suggest that Deborah was born in Little Wittenham. A mile over the fla t fi elds lies Dorch­ ester. The Dunch fa mily members must often have walked across the breast of grassland outlined by the Thames. Situ­ ated on the main Oxford to London road, Dorchester has been cont inuously occu­ pied since around 2500 B.C. Now a one­ street village, it was formerly a Roman stati on (Dorocina) and then a cathedral city in Saxon times. A thousand years before Deborah, Birinus, bishop of Genoa. brought the Christian fa ith here. He had promised that he would "sow the seed of our Holy Faith in the distant lands beyond the ki ngdom of the English where no other teacher had been before him." In Dorchester he con­ verted Cynegils, king of the West Saxons, and baptized him in A.O. 635 by the Thames. Queen Elizabeth II is a direct descen­ dant of Cynegils through King Alfred. And the British monarchy is still adherent to the Christian fa ith . . The beauti ful abbey church memori al­ izes the important even!. Its lead font was 400 years old in Deborah's time. I con­ cl uded that Deborah was not bapt ized

LIBERTY March/April 1990 19 here. Bui the Dunches must have seen the river Wear. And about living in London at candidates, he was made bishop of Dur­ fourteenth-century windows, including the attractive Durham Palace on the ham, the first Protestant to hold this posi­ the celebrated Jesse window. Its tracery is Strand. She probably told young Deborah tion. Some of his writi ngs survive. in the form of a family tree rising from the that her grandfather favored the Reforma­ Pilkington was one of the visitation recumbent form of Jesse, father of David tion and lived in the Puritan tradition. commissioners of King's College, Cam­ and ancestor of Christ. Pilkington was appointed president of bridge. He also he ld a visitation of his And the Dunches must often have St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1550, cathedral when injunctions for the re­ waited for transport outside the church al and took part in a disputation about tran­ moval of superstitious books and orna­ the George Hotel on High Street. They substantiation on June 24, 1549. When, ments and defacing idolatrous fi gures would recognize the hotel today along during the reign ofBloody Mary, persecu­ from the church plate were carried out with the Fleur-de-lys fnn, Roue n Row, tion of Protestants began, Pilkington with great rigor. and Watling Lane. Outside the George along with other Protestants fled to the He once expressed his unenthusiastic still stands an old well-preserved stage­ Continent, living in Zurich, Basel, Ge­ auitude toward the supreme governor: coach such as seventeenth-century travel­ neva, and Frankfort. When Mary died he " We are under authority and can innovate ers used 10 reach London and the restofthe was the first to sign, ifhedid not also write, nothing without the Queen; nor can we country. the " Peaceable Letter" sent to the English aher the laws; the only thing left for our church at Geneva. choice is whether we will bear these Deborah's Mother and Grandfather Returning to England, Pilkington was things, or break the peace of the Church." Deborah's mother, also named Debo­ appointed one of the commissioners to During the northern rebellion of 1569, rah, was the daughter of James Pilkington, revise the Book of Common Prayer. He Pilkington and his family fled for their Bishop of Durham.3 Of course, Deborah preached al St. Paul's Cross in favor of lives. In his will he desired 10 be buried could not have known her grandfather assisting scholars at the universities and with "as few popish ceremonies as may Pilkington. He died before Deborah was increasing clergy incomes. be, or vain cost." born. Bui her mother must have told her At this lime he was bi shop-elect of Grandfather Pilkington died January stories of her young days. Perhaps she told Winchester, but he lost the job because of 23, 1575-1576, age 55, at Bishop Auck­ about li ving 200 miles north near the dra­ his outspoken Protestant convictions. land. He is buried at Durham Cathedral. I maticall y sited Durham Catheoral on the Because of the shortage of other plausible am sure Deborah would have learned all

20 LIBERTY March/Apri l 1990 - initials: M(ervyn) J(ames) D(eborah this from her mother. hide-and-seek here. And she must have [James's wife)). Religious freedom for all was certainly watched the doves fl ying around the dove­ The village historian, Mrs. Titcombe, not guaranteed in sixteenth-century Eng­ cote. And with her family, worshiped at informed me that Deborah Dunch had land. Persecution and martyrdom of both the adjacent church. three sisters and one brother-Ruth, Mary, Protestants and Catholics took place ac­ During my second visit to Avebury, in cording to the sympathies and inlluence of company with the editor of LIBERTY, min­ Anne, and William.• William was an the monarchy. strels, strolling players, court jesters, infant of 4 months when his father, Walter lords, and ladies recreated Elizabethan Dunch, died in 1594. But we still do not Avebury Manor life with all its color and pageantry. In the know when Deborah was born. We sur­ Now we go to the vill age of Avebury, gardens peacocks strutted while the scent mise it was between 1582 and 1584. in the county of Wiltshire, some 40 miles of roses and old-fashioned herbs delighted In his will, Walter Dunch bequeathed west of Little Wittenham and Dorchester. us. A jousting tournament on the manor the profits of A vebury Manor "to hi s A vebury Manor is one of the finest grounds enabled us to relive Deborah's widow for 2 1 years towards raising por­ Elizabethan manor houses in Britain. days. There were di splays of musketry, t ions for his four daughters. The wardship Built on the site of a Benedictine priory, it archery, and falconry, with the resident of his son was granted to his widow, and was bought by Sir Wil- when she married Sir James liam Sharington after the Mervyn in 1598 it passed to dissolution of the monas- Sir John Cooper and Sir teries. Disgraced as mas- Daniel Norton, both of ter of the Bristol Mint, he Hear Ye! Hear Ye! whom lived in Hampshire. sold the manoron May I I , The important things about Lady Moody "William Dunch, ei­ 1552, to William Dunch, are not her death or burial plot, or even what ther then or after his Deborah· s grandfather, mother's death, wem to live who purchased it for she looked like. What is important is her life with Sir John Cooper at £2,200. and the principles of religious freedom that Rockbourne, and before Mr. and Mrs. Ken King she practiced in an era when religious free­ 1610 had married Marga­ paid £ 1 million sterling ret, one of Sir John 's (equivalent to $ 1.7 mil­ dom was not generally espoused. daugthers." lion at current rates) for it For these reasons Deborah Moody needs Walter was succeeded in 1988. (See photos.) to be remembered: She deserves a United by his son, William, who Upon the marriage in States postage stamp commemorating her, a sold the manor to Sir John 158 1 of Wi lliam 's Stawell in 1640. younger son, Walter, to - bust in the state houses of New York and So Deborah must have Deborah, daughter of Massachusetts, and a scholarship named in enjoyed her youth here in James Pilkington, bishop her honor as LmER1Y has proposed. She also these very pleasant sur­ of Durham, Wi lliam should be listed in encyclopedias and text­ roundings-a manor house settled the property on surrounded by 160 acres of Walter. And so it seems books. arable land and I ,300 likely that Deborah, their By paying tribute to this great lady, we will sheep, according to a 1620 first child, was born here. be paying tribute to the great spirit that forged notation. The manor, along with The largest element in the village, is at the center the religious freedoms we enjoy today. Wiltshire was the native of the largest stone circle gentry-about 200 fa milies in the world-outrivaling in 1565 and not much below the famed Stonehenge, 300 in 1623. Many were some 18 miles away. Avebury dates from falconer demonstrating the hunting skills members of Parliament, as we Wl more than 4,000 years ago when un­ of merlins. Plays on the manor stage, shall see. ~ knowns created a circle of 98 huge uncut exhibitions of crafts and torture instru­ Next Installment: Deborah's Marriage stones known as sarsens. Covering nearly ments extended our insights into Debo­ 30 acres, they surround two smaller rah's world. FOOTNOTES circles of about 30 stone each. The kitchen and Elizabethan rooms in 1 Eric J. lcrardi. Gravese11d: The Home ofCo11ey We can only guess at how the mega­ the east wing of the manor are largely /sla11d (New York: Vantage Press. 1975). See also lithic rocks were moved the three miles unaltered. Upstairs are life-size wax L IBERTY. Sept.-Oct. 1987: Sept.-Oct. 1988. from the Marlborough Downs. Were they models of former owners-the rogue Wil­ ' TI1e earliest documents spell her name Debora. Dunch frequently has an e added on early docu­ dragged with the help of leather ropes, liam Sharington and the royalist Sir John ments. Moody is variously spelled Moodie. wooden levers, tree-trunk sledges, and a Stawe ll. Modye, and Mudie. vast amount of man power? It must have Sir James Mervyn, high sheriff of 1 David L. Edwards. From rhe Reforma1io1110 rhe taken 200 men two weeks to fetc h one Wiltshire, who married Walter's widow, £igh1ee111/i Century: (London: Collins). Christian England. vol. 2. p. 160; The Dicrionary of Na­ medium-sized stone. The largest, known Deborah, extended the house. The elegant tional Biography, "James Pilkington." vol. XV. as the Devil's Chair, weighs about 60 tons. entrance porch constructed in 1601 still pp. 1179- 11 8 1. Deborah and her friends must have played bears the crest containing the incumbent's • Wi/1slrire No1es and Queriel, vol. 8, p. 214.

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