Martin and George Dunsford

Martin Dunsford (1744-1807) and his brother, George Dunsford (d.  1822), were significant Dissenting figures in Tiverton in the last half of the eighteenth century. Martin Dunsford was the author of Historical memoirs of the town and parish of Tiverton, in the County of Devon (1790). He and his brother, George, were woolen merchants in Tiverton. They came from a prominent family of Devonshire Dissenters, primarily Particular Baptists. Martin’s father, also named Martin Dunsford (d. 1763), though he adhered to baptism by immersion, moved away from a strict belief in Calvinism, a liberal position passed on to his sons, Martin and George, both of whom became Unitarians, attending the ecumenical Steps Meeting where Flower attended. Martin Dunsford wrote of the Steps Meeting, “It would be extremely difficult to say what are now the generally prevailing religious sentiments of the people attending social worship in this house.  From various concurring causes, Trinitarians, Arians and Unitarians, Calvinists and Arminians, Episcopalians, Baptists, Presbyterians, Independents and Methodists assemble together here to form a numerous congregation of individuals, widely differing in religious opinions, under the general appellation of Dissenters only” (Historical Memoirs 371). The Dunsfords exemplified the kind of Christian tolerance that characterized Flower’s life as well.  George Dunsford’s obituary notes,  “though fully decided as to the truth of his own religious principles, he always exercised the most perfect Christian candour and charity towards all who differed from him.  That liberty with which all are made free, he had well learnt; an attainment by no means general, but of great account in the Christian character” (“Dunsford Family” 245-46). The Dunsfords were actively involved in promoting the political and civil liberties of Dissenters in Devon in the 1780s and ’90s. Believing in the right to free and frequent elections for members of Parliament, Martin Dunsford helped draw up a petition (signed by 491 freemen in and around Tiverton) presented to the House of Commons in protest of the exclusive voting privileges of the Corporation of Tiverton. According to M. L. Banks, “At a time when the outlook of Liberalism was darkest, Dunsford struggled steadily for the repeal of the Test Acts, a wider franchise for Tiverton, and the impartial direction of parish concerns” (Banks 91).   In his unpublished Memoir, Dunsford wrote that his purpose for the Historical Memoirs, written during his tenure as churchwarden for Tiverton in the late 1780s, was to “introduce to public view and public instruction just principles of civil and political freedom and religious liberty and truth, by a pleasing historic vehicle” (Banks 93).  Dunsford’s assessment of the French Revolution and the ensuing war with England in 1793 reveals why he and Flower would have had grounds for friendship beyond their religious beliefs.  “Early in the year 1793,” he writes,

soon after the execution of Louis xvi., the impolitic conduct of the English Ministry, the corruption of the people, and their servility to the views of an invidious administration, commenced a war between Great Britain and France, for indefinite ends and objects which were artfully shifted, as the horrid events of his cruel and bloody contest of despotism against liberty throughout Europe, obliged the ministers to have recourse to, for the continuation of the war, the real design of which was undoubtedly to re­establish the monarchical tyranny of France, and to prevent the re­establishment of just and rational freedom in the several kingdoms of Europe.  Thus, instead of the blessings of peace and just neutrality, and the great trading advantages this country might have obtained by the revolution in France and the disputes of the continental states and kingdoms, besides a commanding general influence, a train of calamities and distresses ensued, particularly to the trading inhabitants of Great Britain of which I had as large an allotment as any of my rank and station in life.  (Banks 93-94)

Dissenters warmly welcomed Dunsford’s Historical Memoirs, both in the West Country and throughout the kingdom.  The lengthy list of the book’s subscribers includes fourteen individuals who appear in the Benjamin Flower Correspondence. Thomas Dunsford, the cutler, had one son who resided in Tiverton, viz. John Dunsford, a tinman, and a regular communicant at the Baptist congregation there.  John’s brother, Martin, succeeded his father in the cutlery business, and he was succeeded by his brother Jabez Dunsford (the author Martin’s cousin).  He was led to conviction of his sin by the preaching of Henry Terry, then pastor of the Baptist congregation at Tiverton.  He would later join the church and be baptized in December 1760 by Thomas Lewis, the pastor at that time.  Upon the death of his brother Martin (not the author) he was chosen deacon in 1779 (Historical Memoirs 307).  His sister, Elizabeth, died one month before his death in 1795.  He was widely respected and loved among the members of his congregation and by his pastors, including his last one, Daniel Sprague (308).  See Martin Dunsford, Historical Memoirs of the Town and Parish of Tiverton, in the County of Devon . . . (Exeter: T. Brice, 1790); “The Dunsford Family,” Baptist Annual Register, Vol. 2 (1794-07), 303-08; M. L. Banks, Blundell’s Worthies 1604-1904 (London: Chatto and Windus; Exeter: James G. Commin, 1904).