Benajah Dunham was the next to the last child of eight children born to Deacon John Dunham and his second wife Abigail Ballou.

Born in Plymouth, Mass. 1640, Benajah Dunham was a freeman in 1664, a court officer at Eastham, Mass., in 1669, emigrated to East Jersey about 1671; in 1672 purchased 100 acres of land at Piscataway, N. J., and became a planter and in 1673 a captain of the Piscataway Militia Squad in New Jersey under the Dutch.

Benajah married October 25, 1660, Elizabeth Tilson, of Scituate MA. Shortly after Benajah & Elizabeth’s marriage, the young couple moved from Plymouth to Eastham Massachusetts (on Cape Cod). They stayed here for eight or nine years but by 1671 they had relocated to Piscataway, New Jersey.

Between 1661-1671, Benajah 2 and Elizabeth had 3 sons and 4 daughters. Their first born son Edmund Dunham moved to the new town of Piscataway along with several other Eastham families.

Benajah died in Piscataway, New Jersey 24 December 1680.