John Dunn's Wives and Children

💬 How many wives and children did John Dunn have?
Here is a rare breakdown from a typed record dated 1954:

🔸 Wives: 44 in total
– Including 2 who had no children
– 23 wives still living at the time of his death (1895)
– By 1954, only 4 of his wives were still living

🔸 Children:
– 102 children born during his lifetime
– 79 survived to his death
– 18 sons and 18 daughters still living in 1954

The wife with the most children was Catherine Pierce, who bore him 11. Several others had 4 or more.

🪢 Lobola (bride price) was paid for most of the women — usually 9, 11 or 15 head of cattle.
But not all were arranged through cattle exchange:

2 wives were given to him by King Cetshwayo
Catherine Pierce was not acquired by lobola
2 girls were offered as a thank you gift after John Dunn gave the King someone two guns

This document may look clinical — just names and numbers — but each line holds a life, a family, a history.

🖋️ Part of “Inside Dunn’s World” — exploring the complex legacy of John Dunn, the white chief of Zululand.

📚 More on this in the forthcoming edition of The Crown, the Chief and the King.