John Punch

Biography

retrieved 19 September 2019 from Wikipedia article (link below)

John Punch (fl. 1630s, living 1640) was an enslaved African who lived in the Colony of Virginia. Thought to have been an indentured servant, Punch attempted to escape to Maryland and was sentenced in July 1640 by the Virginia Governor's Council to serve as a slave for the remainder of his life.

indentured servant (later slave) of Hugh Gwynn/Gwyn

1st documented African slave in colonial America

Genealogy notes

The National Park Service, in a history of Jamestown, notes that while it was a "customary practice to hold some Negroes in a form of life service," Punch was the "first documented slave for life."

In July 2012, Ancestry.com published a paper suggesting that John Punch was a twelfth-generation grandfather of President Barack Obama on his mother's side, on the basis of historic and genealogical research and Y-DNA analysis. Punch's descendants were known by the Bunch or Bunche surname. Punch is believed to be one of the paternal ancestors of the 20th-century American diplomat Ralph Bunche, the first African American to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Biography

From https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/176878786

John Punch

• Birth: 1605, Cameroon
• Death: unknown
• New Kent County Virginia, USA

John Punch was an African slave brought to Virginia by 1640. The DNA of his descendants suggest that John Punch probably came from Cameroon or Ivory Coast. He was owned by Hugh Gwyn. John Punch and two white slaves ran away to Maryland and were captured and returned to Virginia. John Punch received a lifetime indenture in punishment for running away. The white slaves received whippings and were still set free at the end of their seven years indenture. John's wife is unknown, but his grandson was referred to in court as a "mustee" which was the child or grandchild of a mulatto, so it is probable that whoever John Punch's consort was, she was white. John Punch's descendants were known by the surname "Bunch."

Family links:

Children:

• John Bunch (1632 - ____)*
• Calculated relationship

Burial: Body lost or destroyed

Created by: KM Record added: Mar 01, 2017 Find A Grave Memorial# 176878786

References

• https://pamsfamilytrees.weebly.com/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Punch_(slave)_
• https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/slavery/experience/responses/spotligh...
• https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/147607
• https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/awlaw3/slavery.html
• https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/General_Court_Responds_to_Runa...
• https://old.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=176878786
• Paul Heinegg, "Bunch Family", Free African Americans in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware, 1995-2000. Note: Heinegg believes that Bunche was descended from Bunch ancestors established as free blacks in Virginia before the American Revolution. http://www.freeafricanamericans.com
• “African Americans at Jamestown” NPS
• https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:LBFH-82N
• “Documenting President Barack Obama’s Maternal African American Ancestry” Anastasia Harman, Ancestry.com Lead Family Historian, Natalie D. Cottrill, MA, Paul C. Reed, FASG, and Joseph Shumway, AG. With the comment: Documents the life of John Punch and many of his descendants including John Bunch I, John Bunch II, John Bunch III. July 15, 2012. Ancestry.com PDF
• https://pamsfamilytrees.weebly.com/john-punch-notes.html
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/176878786/john-punch
• https://pamsfamilytrees.weebly.com/ Joseph Bunch (son of Henry Bunch/John Bunch III/John Bunch Jr./John Bunch/John Punch)
• https://www.familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/27194194?cid=mem_copy. John Punch Lifetime of Servitude for Running Away: Original Document. On 9 July, 1640, John Punch, African slave owned by Hugh Gwyn was given a lifetime indenture in punishment for running away to Maryland with two white slaves. The white slaves were only given whippings and one extra year of servitude. "Whereas Hugh Gwyn hath by order from this Board Brought back from Maryland three servants formerly run away from the said Gwyn, the court doth therefore order that the said three servants shall receive the punishment of whipping and to have thirty stripes apiece one called Victor, a dutchman [sic], the other a Scotchman called James Gregory, shall first serve out their times with their master according to their Indentures, and one whole year apiece after the time of their service is Expired ... the third being a negro named John Punch shall serve his said master and his assigns for the time of his natural Life here or elsewhere."
• “Descent of the Bunch family in Virginia and the Carolinas (2012)”. Ancestry.com PDF

links

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Punch_%28slave%29
• http://c.mfcreative.com/offer/us/obama_bunch/PDF/punch_tree_final.pdf
• http://c.mfcreative.com/offer/us/obama_bunch/PDF/descendancy_final.pdf
• https://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/john-i-punch-bunch-24-2h...

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GEDCOM Note

See http://corporate.ancestry.com/press/press-releases/2012/07/ancestry...

• Documenting the ancestors of Barack Obama and the descendants - http://c.mfcreative.com/offer/us/obama_bunch/PDF/main_article_final...
• Obama-Bunch Key Documents - http://www.ancestry.com/obama* John Punch Lifetime of Servitude for Running Away - https://familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/27194194* Descent of the Bunch Family in Virginia and the Carolinas - http://c.mfcreative.com/offer/us/obama_bunch/PDF/descendancy_final.pdf
• Addition by Patty LaPlante, 7 Aug 2017