vital records sources

John was baptized at the church in Dunnet, Scotland, on 5 May 1762. His parents were George Dunnet and Barbara Shearer. At the time, the family was living on the south side of Rattar near Dunnet. John's death registrations says his father was a farmer. It's likely they did what many families did at the time - move around Caithness to hire themselves out as farm laborers. John certainly did this.
     The baptism records of John and Jacobina's children show they stayed in and around Rattar. They were in Corsback, Inkstack, Rattar, all neighborhoods just east of Dunnet. Between 1799 and 1810 they were in East Dunnet. On the 1873 Ordnance Survey map, the latter was a croft. The first UK census in 1841 puts them in Scarfskerry, and John was an agricultural laborer. In 1851 they were likely the Dunnets working on the farm associated with Hempriggs House near Wick. John was an 88 year-old widower born in Dunnet. With him were his daughter Janet and Barbara. They were supposedly 40 and 30 respectively. These rounded off ages are suspect. The fact that John is known to have been living, was that age, born in Dunnet and had daughters named Janet and Barbara (Janet died unmarried in 1880 and Barbara maybe unmarried in 1864), it's safe to say this is the same family.
     By the time John died in 1856 at 94, he was in West Dunnet, likely living with his son James, who was a crofter there, and he reported John's death. In 1841 his daughter Margaret Calder and her family were enumerated next to John and Jacobina in Scarfskerry. Aside from Janet and Barbara, James and Margaret are the only other of the 13 siblings that I've been able to trace into adulthood.

children of John Dunnet and Jacobina Swanson: (births are recorded with the baptisms but I only noted the birth for James)

i. Catherine bap. 19 May 1786, family at Corsback
ii. George bap. 30 June 1789, family at Inkstack
iii. Barbara bap. 26 March 1790, family at Rattar
iv. William bap. 24 September 1791, same
v. John bap. 24 September 1791, same
vi. Janet bap. 6 November 1793, same
vii. Margaret bap. 23 July 1795, family at East Dunnet
viii. Jacobina bap. 30 April 1797, same
ix. Barbara bap. 27 November 1799, same
x. James b. 6 September 1801, East Dunnet
xi. Mary bap. 26 December 1803, same
xii. Elspeth bap. 22 February 1806, same
xiii. John bap. 9 February 1810, same

vital records sources: John's birth and baptism are recorded at Dunnet church. There is a civil registration of his death (1856, Dunnet Parish, #26, p. 9).