Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 16.djvu/209

 legatee, Miss Ellen Elizabeth Dunkin, now (1888) living at Dartford, his library and collections are to go, under certain conditions, to the Guildhall Library. On failure of such conditions the collections are to be presented to the trustees of the British Museum; and that the family monuments at Dartford and Bromley may be maintained and renewed when necessary, he left to the lord mayor, the vicars of Dartford and Bromley, and the principal librarian of the British Museum freehold estates at Stone, Erith, and Bromley; ten guineas annually to be spent in a visitation dinner to examine the tombs and memorials (Printing Times and Lithographer, 15 April 1879, p. 89). Dunkin had an honest love for antiquities, but his writings contain little that is valuable. The lighter essays which he contributed to periodicals, and of which he afterwards reprinted a few copies, are simply inane. The following is probably an incomplete list: 1. ‘Nundinæ Cantianæ. Some Account of the Chantry of Milton-next-Gravesend, in which is introduced a notice of Robert Pocock, the history of Dartford Market and Fair, together with remarks on the appointment of Grammar School Feoffees generally,’ 12mo, Dover, 1842 (twelve copies printed). 2. ‘Legendæ Cantianæ. William de Eynsford, the excommunicate; a Kentish legend,’ 8vo, London, 1842 (twenty-five copies printed). 3. ‘Nundinæ Floraliæ. Fugitive Papers. May Day, May Games, &c.,’ 8vo, Dover, 1843 (twelve copies printed). 4. ‘Nundinæ Literariæ. Fugitive Papers. Christmas Eve, Christmas, Easter, Whitsuntide, Harvest-Time, and the Morris Dancers,’ 12mo, Dover, 1843 (twelve copies printed). 5. ‘The Reign of Lockrin: a poem. Remarks upon modern poetry. Second edition with additions. The History of Lockrin, &c.,’ 8vo, London, Dartford (printed, 1845). 6. ‘Memoranda of Springhead and its neighbourhood during the primeval period’ (without author's name), 8vo, London, 1848 (one hundred copies privately printed). 7. ‘History of the County of Kent,’ 3 vols. 8vo, London, 1856–58–55 [–77]. Dunkin belonged to numerous archæological societies, English and foreign. An original member of the British Archæological Association, he edited and printed the report of the first general meeting, held at Canterbury in September 1844 (one hundred and fifty copies, 8vo, London, Gravesend [printed], 1845), and that of the special general meeting of 5 March 1845 (one hundred and fifty copies, 8vo, London, Gravesend [printed], 1845). Again, in 1851 he saw through the press the report of the fifth general meeting, held at Worcester in August 1848. He also edited ‘The Archæological Mine, a collection of Antiquarian Nuggets relating to the County of Kent … including the Laws of Kent during the Saxon epoch,’ vols. 1–3, 8vo, London, 1855 [53–63]. In the belief that he was the original editor, he printed (8vo, ‘Noviomago,’ 1856) twenty-five copies of the works of Radulphus, abbot of Coggeshall, to which he appended an English translation. An imperfect copy of this unlucky undertaking, with some severe remarks by Sir F. Madden, is in the British Museum.

[Dartford and West Kent Advertiser, 1 and 8 Feb. 1879; Dartford Express, 8 Feb. 1879; Dartford Chronicle, 1 and 8 Feb. 1879; Brit. Mus. Cat.]  DUNKIN, JOHN (1782–1846), topographer, the son of John Dunkin of Bicester, Oxfordshire, by his wife, Elizabeth, widow of John Telford, and daughter of Thomas and Johanna Timms, was born at Bicester on 16 May 1782. While attending the free school of that town he met with a severe accident, and for many years it was feared that he would remain a cripple for life. He employed the leisure thus imposed upon him chiefly by scribbling verses, but contrived at the same time to pick up some knowledge of history and archæology. After serving an apprenticeship to a printer, and living for a while in London, he established himself before 1815 as a bookseller, stationer, and printer at Bromley, Kent. Here he published his first topographical work, a compilation in part from Philipott, Hasted, and Lysons, entitled ‘Outlines of the History and Antiquities of Bromley in Kent. … To which is added an investigation of the Antiquities of Holwood Hill … by … A. J. Kempe,’ 8vo, Bromley, 1815. It was followed the next year by ‘The History and Antiquities of Bicester. .. To which is added an Inquiry into the History of Alchester, a city of the Dobuni. … With an Appendix and … Kennett's Glossary,’ 2 parts, 8vo, London, 1816. In 1819 he commenced arranging for the press his account of the hundreds of Bullington and Ploughley, Oxfordshire, for which he had previously collected large materials. ‘The following year,’ writes his son, ‘was devoted principally to re-examinations of the towns, villages, &c., together with a personal superintendence of the great excavations he was conducting at Ambrosden and Bicester,’ the particulars of which will be found detailed in the Appendix. In 1823 the work appeared under the title of ‘Oxfordshire: the History and Antiquities of the Hundreds of Bullington and Ploughley,’ &c., 2 vols. 4to, London. The impression was limited to a