Born in Wallingford, Connecticut, on 3 June 1746 (New Style 14 June 1746), Moses Dunbar was the second of sixteen children of John Dunbar and his wife Temperance Hall. John moved his family to Waterbury in 1760. Moses Dunbar married Phoebe Jerome there in 1764. Moses and Phoebe raised seven children, four of which were living at the time of Moses’ execution in Hartford on 19 March 1777. His wife Phoebe died almost a year before, on 20 May 1776.

Moses Dunbar was outspoken in his opinion against taking up arms against Great Britain. Although he wanted nothing more than to live in peace, Moses was charged and ordered imprisoned for up to five years. His charges were dismissed after only fourteen days, but feeling he was still in danger, Moses fled to Long Island. However, he was already engaged to Esther Adams, so he returned to Connecticut where he and Esther were married. Moses traveled to Long Island a second time, hoping to remove his wife and family to that place for the family’s safety. While in Long Island, he accepted a captain’s warrant in the King’s service, in Colonel Fanning’s regiment.

Returning once again to Connecticut, he was apprehended with incriminating papers in his pocket, and he was tried and convicted of high treason for enlisting men to serve in the British ministerial army and for joining the British service. He was sentenced to suffer death. Before the date of his sentence was fixed, he managed to escape prison, but he was quickly recaptured. His execution by hanging was a very public affair. His wife, “big with child,” was compelled to attend the execution.

Moses and Esther’s only child together, Moses Dunbar, Jr., was born later in 1777 after his father’s death. The infant Moses was baptized in December 1777. Esther subsequently remarried, to Chauncy Jerome, brother of Moses’ first wife Phoebe. They apparently relocated to Nova Scotia for several years, but eventually returned to the Bristol, Connecticut, area in the 1780s. Esther and Chauncy raised the Dunbar children, including Esther’s son Moses, along with several children of their own.