Our thanks to Roland Dunbrack for this material on the Dunbrack
family.
James Dumbreck - 'Salmon fisher at Spey', lived at Coble-pot of Airndilly on the River Spey opposite
Rothes, Morayshire, Scotland.
James Dumbreck was born about 1727 in Scotland, the son of Charles Dumbreck and Isobel Mitchell. He was christened in the Parish of
Rothes, Morayshire, Scotland in 1727. He married Ann Sharp (1726-1781) and together with his wife and at least two of his children migrated to Halifax, Nova Scotia prior to the Revolutionary War.
At this time the spelling of the family name was altered to Dunbrack, and now
has several families spread throughout Canada and the U.S. to this day.
An older son William apparently remained in Scotland, as there was a record of
3 children born to him there. There could well have been a
first-born son Charles, named for his paternal grandfather, who died before 1771, thus repeating the name. Nothing is known of the younger children who may have died of illness before the family sailed or died
on the voyage.
James died August 9, 1776 at the age of 48, and was buried in St. Paul's Cemetery, Halifax. His wife, Ann Sharp was "murdered by
persons unknown" in Halifax five years later and is buried beside her husband.
According to research furnished by Hazel Dunbrack Wilkins of Somerset, MA (1991) the earliest date of record of the Dunbrack family in Nova Scotia is
on a gravestone in St. Paul's Cemetery, Halifax:
"James DUNBERACK, died August 9, 1776, aged 48 years with his wife, "Ann DUNBERACK, died June 5, 1781, aged 55 years".
