1William Allan Dyer, Name of Dyer, A Genealogical Record, The (1940), Frank Dyer.
2Torrey, Clarence Almon, New England Marriages Prior to 1700 (Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore - 1985 & 1990).
3(various contributing members), New England Historical and Genealogical Society Register (Published by the Society at 9 Ashburton Place, Boston), Vol. 94, July 1940, Pg. 300 (CD-ROM).
4James Newell Arnold, Vital Records of Rhode Island 1636-1850, Friends & Ministers (Narragansett Hist. Publishing Co., Providence, RI. 1895).
5(many contributors), Rhode Island Historical Cememteries Transcription Project Index (electronic).
6James Newell Arnold, Vital Records of Rhode Island 1636-1850, Births, Marriages & Deaths, Newport Co. (Narragansett Hist. Publishing Co., Providence, RI, 1893), South Kingston Library, Wakefield, (Peace Dale), Rhode Island, RI 929.3 A.
7William Dyer - Misc. Sources.
"Pioneers of MA pg 148: Dyer, William, mylner (miller) Boston adm chh with wife Marie [Mary] 13 (10) 1635; frm 3/3/1634-6. He & his wife sympathized with Mrs. Hutchinson in 1638 [W] ch Samuel b 20 (10) 1635. He d in Dorchester 18 (4) 1672 in 93d year.
Pioneers on ME Rivers page 287: Dyer, Wlm, planter at Boston 1637, wife Mary executed for her religion 1660; bought land from the Indians at Sheepscot 1663; killed by natives in August 1689; children Christopher the eldest, John born 1648, and Mary who married Samuel son of Joseph Bowler of Cape Porpoise. This is an error as this William was married to Mary Chadbourne per Gen of Maine and New Hampshire.
Gen Register of 1st Settlers of NE: Dyer, Wlm admitted freeman 1636, rem from MA to RI in 1638. Mary Dyer, his wife, became a Quaker, and for "rebellious sedition, and presumptuous obtruding of herself after banishment upon pain of death," was sentenced to be executed but upon the petition of William Dyer, her son, was reprieved on condition that she departed the jurisdiction of MA in 48 hours; and if she returned to suffer the sentence. She returned & was executed 6/1/1660. Hutchinson, Hist MA 184.
Apr NEHGR, Volume 158, January 2004, #629, Pages 27-28. A Brother Found: A Clue to the Ancestry of Mary (Barrett) Dyer, The Quaker Martyr. by Johan Winsser: . It is now clear that Mary Dyer had a brother...and provides a clue to her true ancestry. In 1634 the Prerogative Court of Canterbury recorded the probate administration of William Barret, which granted the commission jointly to William Dyer of Saint Martin-in-the-Fields, fishmonger, and his wife Marie Dyer alias Barret, explicitly described as the sister of William Barret. The following year (1635) William & Mary (Barrett) Dyer settled in Boston.
The Dutch and Quaker colonies in America: We shall have occasion hereafter to comment upon the peculiar comradeship between Quakers and Roman Catholics which signalized the courts of the last two Stuart kings. We may see an illustration of it in some of James's appointments for New York. Governor Andros was a member of the Church of England. With him was joined as lieutenant governor Anthony Brockholls who was a Roman Catholic disqualified from holding office and in England while the collector of the port was William Dyer formerly secretary of Rhode Island whose Quaker wife had been cruelly hanged on Boston Common in 1660.
Petition of William Dyer to Save his Wife: Honored Sir It is no little grief and sadness of heart that I am necessitated to be so bold as to supplicate your honorable self with the honorable assembly of your general court to extend your mercy and favor once again to me and my children. Little did I dream that ever I should have had occasion to petition you in a matter of this nature but so it is that through the divine providence and your benignity my son obtained so much pity and mercy at your hands as to enjoy the life of his mother. Now my supplication to your honors is to beg affectionately the life of my wife. Tis true I have not seen her about this half year and there fore cannot tell how in the frame of her spirit she was moved thus again to run so great a hazard to herself and perplexity to me and mine and all her friends and neighbors. So it is from Shell Island about by Pequid Narragansett and to the town of Providence she secretely and speedily journeyed and as secretly from thence came to your jurisdiction. Unhappy journey may I say and woe to that generation say I that gives occasion thus of grief and trouble to those who desire to be quiet by helping one another as I may say to hazard their lives for I know not what end or to what purpose. If her zeal be so great as thus to adventure oh let your favor and pity surmount it and save her life. Let not your fore wonted compassion be conquered by her inconsiderate madness and how greatly will your renown be spread if by so conquering you become victorious. What shall I say more I know you are all sensible of my condition and let the reflect be and you will see what my petition is and what will give me and mine peace. Oh let mercy swings once more soar above justice balance and then whilst I live shall I exalt your goodness. But otherwise twill be a languishing sorrow yea so great that I should rather suffer the blow at once much rather I shall forbear to trouble your honor with words. Neither am I in a capacity to expatiate myself at present. I only say that yourselves have been and are or may be husbands to wife or wives. So am I Yea to one most dearly beloved. Oh do not you deprive me of her but I pray give her me once i inn and I shall be so much obliged forever that I shall endeavor constantly to offer my thanks and render your love and honor most renowned. Pity me I beg it with tears and rest your most humble supplicant. Most honorable sir let these lines by your favor be my petition to your honorable general court at yresent sitting. W DYER
for the honor of ye Commonwealth of England in wch they are employed. Given under ye Scale of ye Coleny of Providence Plantations this ye Psent 27th of May 1653. P me Will Lytherland Generall Recorder
Rhode Island by Richman: An opportunity for testing the merit of the foregoing act soon presented itself. Early in 1657 Anne Burden and Mary Dyer arrived in the Bay from England. The former for some time a Quakeress came to collect certain debts due the estate of her deceased husband and the latter to pass on to Rhode Island where dwelt her husband William Dyer. In 1652 when Dyer went to England as assistant to John Clarke he had been accompanied or preceded by his wife Mary. While abroad Mistress Dyer had permitted her Antinomianism to merge in Quakerism and she had remained in England probably engaged in evangelistic work some years after the return of her husband to Newport. She and Anne Burden therefore were legitimate prey to the late statute. Mistress Burden was imprisoned and harshly treated while Mistress Dyer was given in charge of William Dyer on his binding himself in a heavy sum to remove her out of Massachusetts without lodging her in any town during the transit and without permitting her to have speech with any person.
The Encyclopedia Americana: DYER or DYAR Mary American martyr d Boston 1 June 1660. She was a victim to the persecution which befell the Quakers in the early history of Massachusetts. She and her husband William Dyer came to Boston from London in 1635 but were forced to retire to Rhode Island in 1638. She was again in England from 1652 to 1657 where she became a convert to Quakerism. She came to New Haven in 1657 but was expelled therefrom in the following year. The government of Massachusetts by a statute excluded Quakers from the bounds of that colony and sentenced to death any one of that sect who should be guilty of a second visit there. The statute was little regarded or rather was construed as an invitation instead of a menace by the enthusiastic and devoted believers against whom it was directed. Mary Dyer had departed from the jurisdiction of the magistrates upon the enactment of the law but soon after returned on purpose to test its legality. She was arrested went willingly to prison and there wrote a remonstrance in which she denounced the injustice of the proceedings. She received sentence of death and with a rope around her neck witnessed the execution of her friends Robinson and Stephenson and then was banished from the colony. Seven months later she returned and for exciting rebellious sedition was publicly hanged on Boston Common. Consult Jones The Quakers in the American Colonies New York 1911 and Rogers Mary Dyer the Quaker Martyr Providence 1896.
Some Records of the Dyers: Pocasset was the Indian name of the place where the first English settlement upon Aquidneck was established. Ten coats and twenty hoes were given to the resident Indians to vacate the lands and five fathoms of wampum were paid to the local sachem. Before leaving Providence this civil compact was drawn up and signed 7th day of the 1st month March 1688. We whoso names are underwritten do hereby solemnly in the presence of Jehovah incorporate ourselves selves into a body politic and as he shall help will submit our persons lives and estates unto our Lord Jesus Christ the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and to all those perfect and most absolute laws of His given us in His holy word of truth to be guided and judged thereby Exodus xxiv 3 4 II Chron xL 3 II Kings ii 1Y. Its signers were William Coddington. John Clarke. William Hutchinson. John Coggcshall .Wm Aspin Wall. Samuel Wilbore. John Porter. John Sanford .Edward Hutchinson Jr. Thomas Savage, William Dyre, William Freeborne, Philip Shearman, John Walker, Richard Carder, Wm Baulstoue, Edward Hutchinson Sr, Henry Bull. The names of Roger Williams and Randall Holden appear as witnesses I On that day William Dyre was chosen the first clerk of the colony. He was also chosen clerk when Newport was settled in 1639. Upon consolidation of the towns into Providence Plantation in Narragansett Bay in New England in 1647 he was General Recoorder in 1648 he was Clerk of Assembly and in 1650 Attorney General. These official positions show the high estimation in which he was evidently held. À year after the settlement at Pocasset the colony had increased so greatly that a division was deemed expedient. A meeting was held at which the following agreement was entered into by the signers by whom the settlement of Newport was commenced on the southwest side of the island. Pocasset on the 28th of the 2nd 1639. It is agreed by us whose hands are underwritten to propagate a plantation in the midst of the island or elsewhere and doe engage ourselves to bear equall charges answerable to our strength and estates in common and that our determination shall be by major voice of judge and elders the judge to have a double voice. Present William Coddington Judge, Nicholas Gaston, John Coggeshall, Wm Breton, John Clarke, Jeremy Clerke, Thomas Hazard, Henry Bull, Elders; William Dyre Clerk. //P// The sons of William and Mary Dyre were Samuel, William, Henry, Mahershal alhashbaz, and Charles. The following record shows that there were at least two daughters. July 25 Í670 Samuel and Henry Dyre bind themselves to their father William Dyre to pay to their sister, eldest daughter of William, £100 within three years after the death of their father and to Elizabeth Dyre, second daughter of William ,the sum of £40 when eighteen years of age.
Register of the Society of Colonial Wars in District of Columbia: has Joseph Dyer 1653-1704 and Hannah (Baxter) Dyer as parents of Capt. John Dyer. and as parents of Capt. John - THOMAS DYER 1612 1676 and Agnes (Reed) Dyer __-1667
Dyer information per The New England Dyer Connection <http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/d/y/e/Frank-E-Dyer/index.html> and Joseph W. Pehoushek joepeh@comcast.net <mailto:joepeh@comcast.net> <http://www.pehoushek.com/>
Parish Register "October 27, 1633 Gulielmus Dyer and Maria Barret" NEHGR, Vol 94 7/1940 [?].".
1William Allan Dyer, Name of Dyer, A Genealogical Record, The (1940), Frank Dyer.
2Torrey, Clarence Almon, New England Marriages Prior to 1700 (Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore - 1985 & 1990).
3(various contributing members), New England Historical and Genealogical Society Register (Published by the Society at 9 Ashburton Place, Boston), Vol. 94, July 1940, Pg. 300 (CD-ROM).
4James Newell Arnold, Vital Records of Rhode Island 1636-1850, Friends & Ministers (Narragansett Hist. Publishing Co., Providence, RI. 1895).
5(many contributors), Rhode Island Historical Cememteries Transcription Project Index (electronic).
6James Newell Arnold, Vital Records of Rhode Island 1636-1850, Births, Marriages & Deaths, Newport Co. (Narragansett Hist. Publishing Co., Providence, RI, 1893), South Kingston Library, Wakefield, (Peace Dale), Rhode Island, RI 929.3 A.
7William Dyer - Misc. Sources.
"Pioneers of MA pg 148: Dyer, William, mylner (miller) Boston adm chh with wife Marie [Mary] 13 (10) 1635; frm 3/3/1634-6. He & his wife sympathized with Mrs. Hutchinson in 1638 [W] ch Samuel b 20 (10) 1635. He d in Dorchester 18 (4) 1672 in 93d year.
Pioneers on ME Rivers page 287: Dyer, Wlm, planter at Boston 1637, wife Mary executed for her religion 1660; bought land from the Indians at Sheepscot 1663; killed by natives in August 1689; children Christopher the eldest, John born 1648, and Mary who married Samuel son of Joseph Bowler of Cape Porpoise. This is an error as this William was married to Mary Chadbourne per Gen of Maine and New Hampshire.
Gen Register of 1st Settlers of NE: Dyer, Wlm admitted freeman 1636, rem from MA to RI in 1638. Mary Dyer, his wife, became a Quaker, and for "rebellious sedition, and presumptuous obtruding of herself after banishment upon pain of death," was sentenced to be executed but upon the petition of William Dyer, her son, was reprieved on condition that she departed the jurisdiction of MA in 48 hours; and if she returned to suffer the sentence. She returned & was executed 6/1/1660. Hutchinson, Hist MA 184.
Apr NEHGR, Volume 158, January 2004, #629, Pages 27-28. A Brother Found: A Clue to the Ancestry of Mary (Barrett) Dyer, The Quaker Martyr. by Johan Winsser: . It is now clear that Mary Dyer had a brother...and provides a clue to her true ancestry. In 1634 the Prerogative Court of Canterbury recorded the probate administration of William Barret, which granted the commission jointly to William Dyer of Saint Martin-in-the-Fields, fishmonger, and his wife Marie Dyer alias Barret, explicitly described as the sister of William Barret. The following year (1635) William & Mary (Barrett) Dyer settled in Boston.
The Dutch and Quaker colonies in America: We shall have occasion hereafter to comment upon the peculiar comradeship between Quakers and Roman Catholics which signalized the courts of the last two Stuart kings. We may see an illustration of it in some of James's appointments for New York. Governor Andros was a member of the Church of England. With him was joined as lieutenant governor Anthony Brockholls who was a Roman Catholic disqualified from holding office and in England while the collector of the port was William Dyer formerly secretary of Rhode Island whose Quaker wife had been cruelly hanged on Boston Common in 1660.
Petition of William Dyer to Save his Wife: Honored Sir It is no little grief and sadness of heart that I am necessitated to be so bold as to supplicate your honorable self with the honorable assembly of your general court to extend your mercy and favor once again to me and my children. Little did I dream that ever I should have had occasion to petition you in a matter of this nature but so it is that through the divine providence and your benignity my son obtained so much pity and mercy at your hands as to enjoy the life of his mother. Now my supplication to your honors is to beg affectionately the life of my wife. Tis true I have not seen her about this half year and there fore cannot tell how in the frame of her spirit she was moved thus again to run so great a hazard to herself and perplexity to me and mine and all her friends and neighbors. So it is from Shell Island about by Pequid Narragansett and to the town of Providence she secretely and speedily journeyed and as secretly from thence came to your jurisdiction. Unhappy journey may I say and woe to that generation say I that gives occasion thus of grief and trouble to those who desire to be quiet by helping one another as I may say to hazard their lives for I know not what end or to what purpose. If her zeal be so great as thus to adventure oh let your favor and pity surmount it and save her life. Let not your fore wonted compassion be conquered by her inconsiderate madness and how greatly will your renown be spread if by so conquering you become victorious. What shall I say more I know you are all sensible of my condition and let the reflect be and you will see what my petition is and what will give me and mine peace. Oh let mercy swings once more soar above justice balance and then whilst I live shall I exalt your goodness. But otherwise twill be a languishing sorrow yea so great that I should rather suffer the blow at once much rather I shall forbear to trouble your honor with words. Neither am I in a capacity to expatiate myself at present. I only say that yourselves have been and are or may be husbands to wife or wives. So am I Yea to one most dearly beloved. Oh do not you deprive me of her but I pray give her me once i inn and I shall be so much obliged forever that I shall endeavor constantly to offer my thanks and render your love and honor most renowned. Pity me I beg it with tears and rest your most humble supplicant. Most honorable sir let these lines by your favor be my petition to your honorable general court at yresent sitting. W DYER
for the honor of ye Commonwealth of England in wch they are employed. Given under ye Scale of ye Coleny of Providence Plantations this ye Psent 27th of May 1653. P me Will Lytherland Generall Recorder
Rhode Island by Richman: An opportunity for testing the merit of the foregoing act soon presented itself. Early in 1657 Anne Burden and Mary Dyer arrived in the Bay from England. The former for some time a Quakeress came to collect certain debts due the estate of her deceased husband and the latter to pass on to Rhode Island where dwelt her husband William Dyer. In 1652 when Dyer went to England as assistant to John Clarke he had been accompanied or preceded by his wife Mary. While abroad Mistress Dyer had permitted her Antinomianism to merge in Quakerism and she had remained in England probably engaged in evangelistic work some years after the return of her husband to Newport. She and Anne Burden therefore were legitimate prey to the late statute. Mistress Burden was imprisoned and harshly treated while Mistress Dyer was given in charge of William Dyer on his binding himself in a heavy sum to remove her out of Massachusetts without lodging her in any town during the transit and without permitting her to have speech with any person.
The Encyclopedia Americana: DYER or DYAR Mary American martyr d Boston 1 June 1660. She was a victim to the persecution which befell the Quakers in the early history of Massachusetts. She and her husband William Dyer came to Boston from London in 1635 but were forced to retire to Rhode Island in 1638. She was again in England from 1652 to 1657 where she became a convert to Quakerism. She came to New Haven in 1657 but was expelled therefrom in the following year. The government of Massachusetts by a statute excluded Quakers from the bounds of that colony and sentenced to death any one of that sect who should be guilty of a second visit there. The statute was little regarded or rather was construed as an invitation instead of a menace by the enthusiastic and devoted believers against whom it was directed. Mary Dyer had departed from the jurisdiction of the magistrates upon the enactment of the law but soon after returned on purpose to test its legality. She was arrested went willingly to prison and there wrote a remonstrance in which she denounced the injustice of the proceedings. She received sentence of death and with a rope around her neck witnessed the execution of her friends Robinson and Stephenson and then was banished from the colony. Seven months later she returned and for exciting rebellious sedition was publicly hanged on Boston Common. Consult Jones The Quakers in the American Colonies New York 1911 and Rogers Mary Dyer the Quaker Martyr Providence 1896.
Some Records of the Dyers: Pocasset was the Indian name of the place where the first English settlement upon Aquidneck was established. Ten coats and twenty hoes were given to the resident Indians to vacate the lands and five fathoms of wampum were paid to the local sachem. Before leaving Providence this civil compact was drawn up and signed 7th day of the 1st month March 1688. We whoso names are underwritten do hereby solemnly in the presence of Jehovah incorporate ourselves selves into a body politic and as he shall help will submit our persons lives and estates unto our Lord Jesus Christ the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and to all those perfect and most absolute laws of His given us in His holy word of truth to be guided and judged thereby Exodus xxiv 3 4 II Chron xL 3 II Kings ii 1Y. Its signers were William Coddington. John Clarke. William Hutchinson. John Coggcshall .Wm Aspin Wall. Samuel Wilbore. John Porter. John Sanford .Edward Hutchinson Jr. Thomas Savage, William Dyre, William Freeborne, Philip Shearman, John Walker, Richard Carder, Wm Baulstoue, Edward Hutchinson Sr, Henry Bull. The names of Roger Williams and Randall Holden appear as witnesses I On that day William Dyre was chosen the first clerk of the colony. He was also chosen clerk when Newport was settled in 1639. Upon consolidation of the towns into Providence Plantation in Narragansett Bay in New England in 1647 he was General Recoorder in 1648 he was Clerk of Assembly and in 1650 Attorney General. These official positions show the high estimation in which he was evidently held. À year after the settlement at Pocasset the colony had increased so greatly that a division was deemed expedient. A meeting was held at which the following agreement was entered into by the signers by whom the settlement of Newport was commenced on the southwest side of the island. Pocasset on the 28th of the 2nd 1639. It is agreed by us whose hands are underwritten to propagate a plantation in the midst of the island or elsewhere and doe engage ourselves to bear equall charges answerable to our strength and estates in common and that our determination shall be by major voice of judge and elders the judge to have a double voice. Present William Coddington Judge, Nicholas Gaston, John Coggeshall, Wm Breton, John Clarke, Jeremy Clerke, Thomas Hazard, Henry Bull, Elders; William Dyre Clerk. //P// The sons of William and Mary Dyre were Samuel, William, Henry, Mahershal alhashbaz, and Charles. The following record shows that there were at least two daughters. July 25 Í670 Samuel and Henry Dyre bind themselves to their father William Dyre to pay to their sister, eldest daughter of William, £100 within three years after the death of their father and to Elizabeth Dyre, second daughter of William ,the sum of £40 when eighteen years of age.
Register of the Society of Colonial Wars in District of Columbia: has Joseph Dyer 1653-1704 and Hannah (Baxter) Dyer as parents of Capt. John Dyer. and as parents of Capt. John - THOMAS DYER 1612 1676 and Agnes (Reed) Dyer __-1667
Dyer information per The New England Dyer Connection <http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/d/y/e/Frank-E-Dyer/index.html> and Joseph W. Pehoushek joepeh@comcast.net <mailto:joepeh@comcast.net> <http://www.pehoushek.com/>
Parish Register "October 27, 1633 Gulielmus Dyer and Maria Barret" NEHGR, Vol 94 7/1940 [?].".
1Liela Morse Wilson, Ten Generations from William & Mary Dyer of Newport, R.I. (Putnam, CT, private, 1949).