Eber Bunker's Hill in Australia, a Mayflower Descendant

The text on this plaque is below

Bunkers Hill

"Bunkers Hill was named after Captain Eber Bunker, father of Australian whaling, who had his house and store not far from here in the early 1800s.  This high ground, as outlined on the map below, was commonly called Bunkers Hill until the 1830s, but only received official recognition, at the request of the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority, in 1977.

Captain Eber Bunker was born to a Puritan whaling family in Plymouth, Massachusetts on 7^th March 1761.  He moved to England after the American Revolution where he married Margrett Thompson, second cousin to Admiral Collingwood, in 1786 and took his first command, the whaler “Spencer”, in 1788.  He first arrived in Sydney in 1791 as master of the “William and Ann”, a transport in the Third Fleet, and there upon engaged in the first whaling expedition in Australian waters in the company of the “Britannia”. 

He returned to Australia in 1799 with the new ship “Albion” and spent two winters whaling of the Australian and New Zealand coasts.  At the request of Governor King, he took presents to King Pomere of Tahiti in exchange for hogs, howls and fruits for the colony. On a second voyage from England in 1803 he discovered the Bunker Islands off Queensland.  The “Albion” accompanied the “Lady Nelson” from Sydney with stores and cattle, to found the new settlement of Hobart on the River Derwent, in Tasmania.

He was well rewarded for his services being given several land grants around Liverpool and the Hunter Valley and, after his last whaling voyage in 1824-25, he retired to his properties, dying at Collingwood (now part of Liverpool) on 27^th September 1836, aged 74.

You are standing on the high bluff that gave The Rocks its name and which marks the eastern edge of Bunkers Hill.  In front of you are the brickyards of Sgt. Major Row (1881), the stone buildings of the Counting House (1848), and Union Bond (1841) and below are the terraces of Atherton Place (1880 – 81).  Behind you, in Cumberland Street are under approaches to the Sydney Harbour Bridge, where Princes Street once lay, was the site of the solid mansions of worthy and well-to-do citizens of the 1850s.  Handsome homes of two or three storeys, with thick walls of squared stone and wide verandahs with graceful iron columns rose in grounds dotted with tall Norfolk Pines and Moreton Bay figs.

The Plague of 1900 led to a massive clean up of The Rocks and many of the old houses were torn down by the government of the day.  Work on the Harbour Bridge swept away much of what remained.

The walkway and lookout on which this plaque stands were put by the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority in 17979 – 80, transforming Gloucester Street to Gloucester Walk.

This Plaque was unveiled by the Minister for Planning & Environment the Hon. Eric Bedford BA MP on Wednesday 22^nd October 1980."

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These three photos were sent to me by a young genealogist friend in Australia. He is applying for membership to the Mayflower Society under the passengers John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley.  The new Australian Mayflower Society just formed a few months ago, and I wish him luck!  He is also a descendant of Eber Bunker.  Here is the lineage from John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley down to Eber Bunker.

Generation 1:  John Howland, Mayflower passenger, son of Henry Howland and Margaret Aires, was born 1592 in Fenstanton, England, died 23 February 1672 at Rocky Nook, Plymouth, Massachusetts; married on 25 March 1623 in Plymouth, Massachusetts to Elizabeth Tilley, Mayflower passenger, daughter of John Tilley and Joan Hurst.  She was born 30 August 1607 in Henlow, Bedfordshire, England and died 21 December 1687 in Swansea, Massachusetts. They had ten children.

Generation 2:  Desire Howland, born 13 October 1623 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and died 13 October 1683 in Barnstable, Massachusetts; married on 6 November 1644 in Barnstable to John Gorham, son of Ralph Gorham and Margaret Stephenson.  He was born 28 January 1620 in Benefield, Northamptonshire, England and died 5 February 1675 in Swansea. They had eleven children.

Generation 3:  Shubael Gorham, born 21 October 1667 in Barnstable, died 7 August 1750; married on May 1695 on the island of Nantucket to Puella Hussey, daughter of Stephen Hussey (grandson of Rev. Stephen Batchelder) and Martha Bunker (daughter of George Bunker and Elizabeth Godfrey).  She was born 10^th 10 mo. 1677 on Nantucket, and died in Barnstable before 23 September 1748. They had ten children.

Generation 4:  Desire Gorham, born 26 September 1710 in Barnstable, died 5 November 1801; married Zachariah Bunker on 2 September 1728 on Nantucket island. He was the son of Jonathan Bunker and Elizabeth Coffin.  Zachariah Bunker died on Nantucket 16 August 1757.  They had nine children all born on Nantucket island.

Generation 5: James Bunker, born 21 August 1733 on Nantucket island, was lost at sea in 1768; married Hannah Shurtleff in Plymouth, Massachusetts on 26 January 1757.  She was the daughter of James Shurtleff and Faith Jackson.  They had five children.

Generation 6: Eber Bunker, son of James Bunker and Hannah Shurtleff, was born on 7 March 1761 in Plymouth, Massachusetts and died on 27 September 1836 at Collingwood, now Liverpool, New South Wales. He married first on 16 November 1786 in England to Margrett Thompson, daughter of Henry Thompson and Isabella Collingwood, who died March 1808. They had children:  Isabella, Mary Ann, Charlotte, Charles Harris, Henry Edmund, Ernest, James Eber, and Henry Thompson.  He married second to Margaret Macfarlane.  He married third to Ann Howey, widow of William Minchin on 28 April 1823.

You might be wondering if Eber Bunker of Bunkers Hill in Australia is related to the same family of Bunker Hill in Boston (Charlestown).  The answer is “Probably!”. 

 The Bunker Hill in Massachusetts was named for George Bunker, who had a farm there in Charlestown.  The Bunker family lived on this land before the battle, and for generations afterwards.  George left the area a few years before the Revolutionary War, which was fortunate since the town of Charlestown was destroyed by the British during the battle.  The famous “Bunker Hill Monument” is on the top of Breed’s Hill in Boston, not Bunker Hill.  

George Bunker was born about 1600 at Bengeo, Hertfordshire, England and died about 1664 in Malden, Massachusetts; married Judith Major on 8 September 1624 at Odell, Bedfordshire, England.  He owned the land known as Bunker Hill in Charlestown and is buried at the Phipps Street Buring Ground in Charlestown.  His five children were baptized in Odell, Bedfordshire which is very close to Tingrith (see below for the lineage of Eber Bunker).  However George Bunker’s parents are unknown, so we cannot prove that these two Bunker branches were kin.  George Bunker’s last two children (he had seven children) were baptized at Charlestown, Massachusetts. 

Eber Bunker (1761 - 1836)

Eber Bunker’s Bunker Genealogy:

Generation 1: Tymothie Bunker and Elizabeth Hawkins, resided in Tingrith, Bedfordshire, England

Generation 2: George Bunker and Elizabeth Godfrey, 5 May 1644 in Maulden, Bedfordshire, England

Generation 3: William Bunker and Mary Macy

Generation 4: Jonathan Bunker and Elizabeth Coffin

Generation 5: Zachariah Bunker and Desire Gorham

Generation 6: James Bunker and Hannah Shurtleff

Generation 7: Eber Bunker of Australia

Isabella, daughter of Eber Bunker

For the truly curious:

Australian Dictionary of Biography website, a sketch about Eber Bunker:  http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bunker-eber-1849

The Bunker Blog – Website of the Bunker Family Association - https://www.bunkerfamilyassn.org/

Bunker Family History by Henry L. Bunker III, 1984.  [Information on Bunker Hill in Massachusetts is on pages 69 – 70, 72, and 99 – 100].

Australian Mayflower Society became official on 26 January 2020:
 https://www.themayflowersociety.org/blog/item/443-welcoming-the-australia-society

Australian Society of Mayflower Descendants Facebook group:   https://www.facebook.com/groups/736882643392129/

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Eber Bunker's Hill in Australia, a Mayflower Descendant", Nutfield Genealogy, posted March 20, 2020, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2020/03/eber-bunkers-hill-in-australia.html: accessed [access date]).