Feudal barony of Dunster Ryce, by whom he had no sons, only three daughters, Catherine, Dorothy and Mary, co-heiresses to 1/3 in total of his estate, the remaining 2/3rds going by entail to his younger brother Thomas Luttrell (died 1571). Mary survived him and remarried to James Godolphin of Cornwall. Thomas Luttrell (died 1571) of Dunster Castle (younger brother). In 1563 he was MP for the newly created Luttrell Pocket Borough of Minehead, two miles north-east of Dunster Castle. He sold the Devon and Somerset estates, excepting Dunster Castle, apparently to meet debts. These were however "amply replaced" by the large estate inherited from
Henry Dunster University. He set up as well as taught Harvard's entire curriculum alone for many years, graduating the first college class in America, the Class of 1642. From 1649-1650 Dunster also served as interim pastor at The First Parish in Cambridge until the accession of Jonathan Mitchel. Historians have generally treated Dunster well in terms of his theological beliefs and educational abilities. Samuel Eliot Morison, the best-known historian of Harvard's history, wrote that Harvard College "might have followed her first patron to an early death and oblivion but for the faith, courage and intelligence of Henry Dunster." Dunster held Harvard together