Research by J. Kelsey Jones in 1982:
James MacCarter of Windsor, Connecticut sold two parcels of 127 acres and 101 acres in Enfield and Somers in 1742 to William Dunn of Mansfield, Connecticut. William Dunne of Ellington Parish, Windsor, Connecticut sold 127 acres and 20 acres in Enfield and Somers to Jonathan Bement in Sept 1744. Jonathan Bement sold 26 acres in Enfield and Somers to William Dunn of Ellington Parish. William Dunn and his wife Esther resided Enfield, Connecticut where births of six of their children were recorded. There is a land survey (History of Enfield, Connecticut) dated 26 Jan 1757 - Twenty four acres and a half in Enfield bounded east of Somers line south on land of the estate of Joseph Jones, deceased, or part of the land of William Dunn. They removed sometime after 1755 and before 1761 to Sussex County, New Jersey, perhaps following other families who removed from the area to Sussex County - “A number of persons withdrew from the established church of Mansfield, Connecticut about the year 1749 or 50 and organized an independent or separate church. The following year, 1751, they agreed to emigrate to New Jersey in a body and settle at New Town in the northern part of Sussex County (Historical Sketch of First Baptist Church, Wantage, New Jersey, 1871, G. F. Love).” In the Nov 1764 Sussex County Court Records, William Dunn and William Dunn, Jr., were indicted for assault for which William, Jr., was fined 1 shilling. William Dunn witnessed the Will of Joseph Hull, Esq., of Newton, Sussex County, dated 27 Feb 1765. William Don was taxed in Newton township, Sussex County in 1773 with 80 acres, 6 horses and/or cattle. On the Sept 1774 tax list there was a William Dunn with 40 acres and 6 cattle/horses in Montague Township, Sussex County. A Jeams (James) Don (Dunn), single man, on 1773 Newton tax list with one “cattle.” Thomas and James Dunn on 1774 list of Newton.

It would seem likely that the family crossed the eastern mountains in Pennsylvania and removed to the frontier near the Susquehanna River in the fertile Wyoming Valley in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania where many settlers were locating, mostly New Englanders from Connecticut. On the Aug 1776 tax list of the Wilkes Barre District appeared William Dunn and William Dunn, Jr. William Dunn, Jr. appears on the 1777 and 1778 tax list of Wilkes Barre District, but not William Dunn. It is related that a William Dunn settled at Camptown, Bradford County, Pennsylvania who had been a speculator in Susquehanna lands, “retired and was killed by the Indians during the Wyoming troubles” 8 Apr 1781. This William Dunn was supposedly from York County, Pennsylvania. It would seem unlikely that if he was indeed from York County, Pennsylvania that he was the same William Dunn of Enfield, Connecticut and Sussex County, New Jersey.

The Dunn family was residing in the Wyoming Valley in July 1778 when Colonel John Butler with his rangers and Indian allies made their historic raid of destruction and bloodshed into the Wyoming Valley from New York State. Over three hundred people were killed in what has been commonly called the Wyoming Massacre. Families in different parts of the valley who escaped death at the first attack and who were cut off from the fort, fled east over the mountains, many by foot, and made the perilous trek to the Delaware and the safety of New Jersey. After the destruction of Wyoming, Butler's rangers, Indian allies, and Loyalist families of the Wyoming Valley returned north to their base at Niagara and the valley became deserted until after the Revolution when settlement began again. The Dunn family suffered personal and property losses during the Wyoming hostilities. The known personal losses were William and Esther’s sons, William and Levi, who were slain in battle and whose names are inscribed on the Wyoming Valley Memorial Monument.

Memorial marker reads:
NEAR THIS SPOT WAS FOUGHT
ON THE AFTERNOON OF THE THIRD OF JULY, 1778
THE BATTLE OF WYOMING
IN WHICH A SMALL BAND OF PATRIOTIC AMERICANS
CHIEFLY THE UNDISCIPLINED, THE YOUTHFUL, AND THE AGED
SPARED BY INEFFICIENCY FROM THE DISTANT RANKS OF THE REPUBLIC
LED BY COL. ZEBULON BUTLER AND COL. NATHAN DENISON
WITH A COURAGE THAT DESERVED SUCCESS,
FEARLESSLY MET AND BRAVELY FOUGHT
A COMBINED BRITISH, TORY, AND INDIAN FORCE
OF THRICE THEIR NUMBER.
NUMERICAL SUPERIORITY ALONE GAVE SUCCESS TO THE INVADER
AND WIDESPREAD HAVOC, DESOLATION, AND RUIN
MARKED HIS SAVAGE AND BLOODLY FOOTSTEPS THROUGH THE VALLEY.

THIS MONUMENT
COMMEMORATIVE OF THESE EVENTS
AND IN MEMORY OF THE ACTORS IN THEM
HAS BEEN ERECTED
OVER THE BONES OF THE SLAIN
BY THEIR DESCENDANTS AND OTHERS WHO GRATEFULLY APPRECIATED
THE SERVICES AND SACRIFICES OF THEIR PATRIOT ANCESTORS

This is very large spiraled and impressive monument. One side lists those slain in battle, which includes the names of Levi Dunn and William Dunn and another side lists those Officers and Privates who survived, but the names of Samuel Dunn and Thomas Dunn are not included on this list.

According to The History of Hanover Township and Wyoming Valley by Henry Blackman Plumb, it is related that an order was issued from Camp Westmoreland on October 22, 1778 to release a detachment of soldiers to bury the dead from the Wyoming Battle and Massacre, which occurred on July 3, 1778. The bodies had lain on the open ground through that summer after the valley was abandoned. The remaining bones not scattered by animals were collected and buried in two common graves some distance apart near Wintermoot's Fort according to someone who was part of that burial detail. In 1833 the bones from one of these graves, containing eighty-three skeletons, were gathered up and moved to the village of Wyoming in Kingston Township, over which the cornerstone of a monument honoring those who died was placed. The bones were placed in a chamber of that monument. The other grave was never found. The monument was completed in 1843, and was known as Johnson's Wyoming Memorial.

According to The History of Wyoming Borough by Charles Herbert Hall, written for the 50th anniversary of the incorporation of the borough and published in 1935, "the (Wyoming) monument is built over the exact spot where the slain were originally buried by Lieutenant John Jenkins and his detail of men from Capt. Spalding's company, in 1778". However, the monument lists the names of 170 killed. Eighty-three skeletons were found in the grave (in 1832) and later buried (December 1833) in the vault, which was built in the foundation of the monument. Some others were buried at a cemetery at the corner of West Eight Street and Wyoming Avenue, later known as Oemig's Cemetery, some in Forty-Fort Cemetery and possibly in other cemeteries and private grave yards.

Children of William and Esther Dunn:
1. Esther Dunn b. 19 Dec 1743 Enfield, Connecticut (vr).
2. William Dunn b. 16 Aug 1745 Enfield (vr).
3. Thomas Dunn b. 15 Oct 1747 Enfield (vr).
4. Hannah Dunn b. 10 Nov 1749 Enfield (vr).
5. Simeon Dunn b. 28 July 1751 Enfield (vr).
6. Samuel Dunn b. 1753 Enfield (pension application).
7. Molle Dunn b. 29 July 1755 Enfield (vr).
8. Levi Dunn b. perhaps c. 1757 killed 3 July 1778 in the Battle of Wyoming.
9. Ann Dunn b. c. 1760.
10. Joseph Dunn b. 22 Aug 1762.
11. Hannah Dunn b. c. 1764.
12. Sarah Dunn b. c. 1766 Sussex County, New Jersey.