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 SOME RECORDS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 DYER FAMILY 
 
 Compiled bt 
 
 COENELIA C. JOY-DYER 
 
 "Rememherthedaysofold, consider the years of many generations : 
 ask thy father, and he will shew thee ; thy elders, and they loill tell 
 thee. — Deuteronomy xxxii. 7. 
 
 " / have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.'" — 
 Psalm Ixxvii. 5. 
 
 PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION 
 
 NEW YORK 
 THOMAS WHITTAKER 
 
 2 AND 3 Bible House 
 
 1884 
 
 855S3
 
 t r c t <■? 
 
 Qt 
 
 <:i 
 
 i
 
 
 J To THE 
 
 REV. Heman Dyer, D.D. 
 
 This History of his Ancestors 
 
 IS affectionately inscribed 
 
 BY his Wife

 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The following pages have not been hastily written, 
 but are the result of much patient, and thoughtful re- 
 search. Great care has been taken that no statement 
 ^, should be made, without ample proof of its correctness. 
 0^ Numerous books, and musty records, have been consult- 
 ed, and the most persevering, and untiring efforts made, 
 ^ to reach the truth. If mistakes can be found, it is be- 
 ^^ lieved that they are but slight ones. It may be thought 
 ^' that some matters have been introduced, which are 
 foreign to the subject; but in each instance, there has 
 been a motive for doing so. There has been no at- 
 tempt to trace the lineage of the various branches of 
 the Dyer family. The object of the writer was to find 
 the link between the noble-hearted martyr, Mary Dyre 
 — her brave husband — and that branch of their 
 descendants for which she has a particular regard. 
 It is believed that much of interest will be found, in the 
 book, to any bearing the name, and certainly all are
 
 6 PREFACE. 
 
 justified in feeling both pride and pleasure, who can 
 trace their lineage back to that remarkable band of 
 Exiles, who left their native land for conscience' sake, 
 came to this wilderness, and, after years of trial, toil, 
 and embarrassment, most cheerfully and nobly borne, 
 laid the foundation for the rich inheritance we now en- 
 joy. Such an ancestry is indeed a " precious heritage." 
 
 " Yet, remember! 'tis a crown 
 That can hardly be thine own, 
 Till thou win it by some deed 
 That with glory fresh shall feed 
 Their renown!" 
 
 Cornelia C. Joy-Dyer. 
 
 New Yokk, March, 1884. 
 
 ->
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 Fifteen years after the Pilgrims of the Mayflower 
 had landed on Plymouth Rock, we find the first record 
 of William and Mary Dyre, in Boston. A family 
 tradition says that two brothers and a sister — Edward, 
 George, and Tabitha Dyre — came from England to 
 Boston in the Mayflower, about 1627 or 1629. With 
 them, were the son of one brother and the daughter of 
 the other — William and Mary. The cousins married; 
 when^ it is not known. As it has been impossible to 
 ascertain any other maiden name for Mary Dyre, the 
 inference is that the tradition may be a correct one. 
 Gerard Croese in his "History of the Quakers," 
 quaintly describes her as " a person of no mean extract 
 or parentage, of an estate pretty plentiful, of a comely 
 stature and countenance, of a piercing knowledge in 
 many things, of a wonderful sweet and pleasant dis- 
 course." Governor John Winthrop, in his Journal 
 dated 1638, speaks of her as " a very promp, and fair 
 woman, of a very proud spirit." " Thus," says Drake 
 in his " New England Legends," " we have, in her.
 
 8 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 the portrait of a comely woman of fine presence, high 
 spirit, a fair share of education, and possessing, more- 
 over, a soul endowed with the purpose of an evangelist, 
 or, at need, a martyr." The Dyre family, like many 
 others in that day, had left the refinements of an 
 English home, and braved the discomforts of the western 
 wilderness, in order to enjoy the blessings of religious 
 liberty. William and Mary Dyre united with the 
 church of which the Rev. Mr. Wilson, (afterwards so 
 malignant in his persecution of the Quakers) was the 
 pastor, and on the 20th of December, 1635, their son 
 Samuel was baptized. The following March, William 
 Dyre was made freeman. As this act gave him the 
 elective franchise, and was not bestowed without a cer- 
 tain amount of property, it is probable that he was a 
 man of some means, when this privilege was conferred 
 upon him. The name Dyre has, like many names in 
 this country, been spelled in various ways by different 
 branches of the family. We find it thus written — 
 Dier, Dhier, Dyor, Dyar, Dyre and Dyer, — the last 
 being the spelling by which the name is now known, 
 both in England and America. William, of Boston, 
 wrote his name Dyre, as his ancestors had done for 
 many years, and thus it continued for several genera- 
 tions in this country. In Anglo-Saxon the adjective 
 dyre means " strong — bold." In the days of Chaucer, 
 dyre meant " dear," and he says : 
 
 " Farewelle, dyre herte, chef yn remembraunce, 
 And ever schalle unto the oure y dy." 
 
 It is not known how much the ancestors of William
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 9 
 
 Dyre were governed by these considerations in spelling 
 their names, but the Anglo-Saxon meaning probably 
 had its influence. About the time that the Dvre 
 family came among the Puritans of New England, 
 Roger Williams, originally from Wales, and a graduate 
 of Pembroke College, Cambridge, then a young man 
 of thirty-two years of age, had made his appearance, 
 and taken a decided stand against many of the views of 
 the founders of Massachusetts, who came to secure 
 freedom for the exercise of their own religious opinions, 
 but were zealous in putting down all those who differed 
 from them. He believed in religious freedom, not 
 only for his own opinions, but for those of all others. 
 He thought that the law ought to be used to keep 
 people from crime, but that it had nothing to do with 
 their religious belief. He did not approve of obliging 
 people to attend church, unless they wished to do it. 
 He did not think it right to choose the magistrates 
 from the church members only, or to make people pay 
 to support the cliurch unless they wished. There were 
 many who shared these views, but had not the courage 
 to avow them, knowing it might bring them into 
 serious difficulties. Petitions, however, were gotten up, 
 protesting against these requirements, and agents were 
 sent about to get signers. They soon got into trouble, 
 and one incident will show how bitter was the feeling 
 against them. My ancestor, Thomas Joy, in an unwary 
 moment, was persuaded to carry a petition for signa- 
 tures. John Winthrop, Esq., first Governor of the 
 colony of Massachusetts Bay, makes this record in his
 
 10 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 Journal : " There was, also, one Thomas Joy, a young 
 fellow, whom they had employed to get hands for the 
 petition. He began to be very busy, but was laid hold 
 on and kept in irons about four or five days, and then 
 he humbled himself, confessed what he knew, and 
 blamed himself for meddling in matters belonging not 
 to him, and blessed God for these irons upon his legs, 
 hoping they would do him good., while he lived ! So he 
 was let out upon reasonable bail." 
 
 A novel way of taking iron as a tonic ! 
 
 Roger Williams talked so boldly against the es- 
 tablished laws, that the Massachusetts magistrates de- 
 cided to send him back to England. He heard of this 
 intention and fled, in mid winter, from his home in 
 Salem, and wandered in the wilderness for fourteen 
 weeks, "sorely tost in a bitter season," he says, "not 
 knowing what bread or bed did mean." 
 
 This was in January, 1636. It has been shrewdly 
 said that, " when the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth 
 Rock they fell upon their knees, and shortly after, fell 
 upon the aborigines." Roger Williams, however, 
 pursued a different course. He sought the friendship 
 of the Indians, and by kindness and attention, making 
 them presents, and visiting them, as his letters de- 
 scribe, " in their filthy, smoky holes, to gain their 
 tongue," he overcame the shyness of old Canonicus, 
 and won the esteem of the high-spirited Miantinomo. 
 It proved well for himself, and for New England, 
 that this intercourse was maintained. He crossed the 
 Narragansett Bay, with five companions, in an Indian
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 11 
 
 canoe, and the first place where he landed, he called 
 Providence, thus acknowledghig his gratitude to God. 
 There were no white settlers in that region ; and 
 Canonicus and Miantinomo were sachems over the 
 Narrasan setts, and resided on the island of Canonicut 
 in the Narragansett Bay. It was from them that Mr. 
 Williams obtained his first deed of the lands about 
 Providence. This deed bears date March 24, 1637, 
 and it mentions a sale of lands to him, and a large 
 tract of country, which, " in consideration of the 
 many kindnesses and services he hath continually done 
 for us, we doe freely give unto him." " It was not 
 price and money," says Roger Williams, " that could 
 have purchased Rhode Island, but it was obtained by 
 love." But he kept nothing himself ; he gave away 
 his lands to those he thought most in want, and only 
 desired that a shelter might be found for " persons 
 distressed for conscience." Many such came in proc- 
 ess of time ; for the " Antinomian controversy," as 
 it was called, had caused great disturbance in Boston. 
 The leaders of it, the Rev. John Wheelwright, and 
 his sister-in-law, Mrs. Ann Hutchinson, promulgated 
 their views so freely that they were banished from the 
 colony — the former going to the head-waters of the 
 Piscataqua, and the latter following Roger Williams. 
 
 Williarti Dyre had not remained a silent spectator 
 in all this controversy. He warmly espoused the 
 cause of Wheelwright; and to use his own words, 
 " because his hand was to the seditious writing and 
 defended the sanu,^'' he was disfranchised and dis-
 
 12 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 armed, and finally was driven out of Massachusetts 
 Colony, to the new settlement formed by Roger 
 Williams. Mary Dyre had taken a prominent part in 
 the Antinomian controversy, whilst her force of 
 character, and vigorous understanding, no doubt, 
 caused her to be regarded as a formidable opponent 
 by the orthodox Puritans. When Mrs. Hutchinson 
 was cast out of the church, young Mrs. Dyre walked 
 out with her, in presence of the whole congregation. 
 A fact recorded by Governor Winthrop. 
 
 The brave woman, even then, was not afraid to 
 " show her colors." 
 
 Soon after reaching their new home, William 
 Dyre joined seventeen others, and they bought 
 the island of Rhode Island, then called Aquid- 
 neck, or the " Isle of Peace," — a name which should 
 have been retained, but Governor Coddington 
 thought otherwise, and, from a fancied resemblance to 
 the Isle of Rhodes in the Mediterranean Sea, he 
 changed the name, and it soon became known as 
 Rhode Island. Pocasset was the Indian name of the 
 place where the first English settlement upon Aquid- 
 neck 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 com- 
 pact was drawn up and signed : 
 
 " 7th day of the 1st month (IVIarch), 1638. 
 
 "We, whose names are underwritten, do hereby 
 solemnly, in the presence of Jehovah, incorporate our-
 
 SOME RECOKDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 13 
 
 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. Ohron. xi. 3. II. Kings, 
 xi. 17." 
 
 Its signers were William Coddington, John Clarke, 
 William Hutchinson, John Coggeshall, Wm. Aspin- 
 wall, Samuel Wilbore, John Porter, John San ford, 
 Edward Hutchinson, Jr., Thomas Savage, William 
 Dyre, William Freeborne, Philip Shearman, John 
 Walker, Richard Carder, Wm. Baulstone, Edward 
 Hutchinson, Sr., Henry Bull. The names of Roger 
 Williams and Randall Holden appear as witnesses. 
 On that day, William Dyre was chosen the first clerk 
 of the colony. He was also chosen clerk when New- 
 port was settled in 1639. Upon consolidation of the 
 towns into "Providence Plantation in Narragansett 
 Bay in New England " in 1647, he was General Re- 
 corder ; in 1648, he was Clerk of Assembly ; and in 
 1650, Attorney-General. These ofiicial positions show 
 the high estimation in which he was evidently held. 
 A year after the settlement at Pocasset, the colony had 
 increased so greatly, that a division was deemed expe- 
 dient. 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 :
 
 14 SOME KECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 " Pocasset on the 28th of the 2d, 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 Gierke, Thomas Hazard, Henry 
 Bull, Elders. 
 
 William Dyre, Clerk. 
 
 In " Extracts from Rhode Island Colonial Records, 
 papers never before published, relating to the original 
 grant of lands to the early settlers of Newport, R. I.," 
 it is stated that " William Dyre having exhibited his 
 bill under the Treasurer's hand unto the sessions held 
 on the 10th of March, 1640, wherein appears full sat- 
 isfaction to be given for seventy-five acres of land, 
 lying within the precincts of such bounds, as by the 
 committee, by order appointed, did bound it withal, 
 viz.: To begin at the river's mouth, over against 
 Coaster's Harbour, and so by the sea, to run up to a 
 marked stake, at Mr. Coddington's corner, and so 
 down, upon an easterly line to a marked tree over 
 against the Great Swamp, and so two rods within the 
 swamp, at the two deepest corners of the clear land, 
 the one at the southeast corner, and the other upon a
 
 SOME BECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 15 
 
 straight line in the northeast, marked by stakes, and so 
 down to a marked tree by the river side ; the river 
 being his bounds to the mouth thereof. v,^ith a home 
 lot and a parcel of meadow and upland lying between 
 Mr. Jeremy Clarke's meadow, and Mr. Jeoffrey's at 
 the north end of the harbour, and north upon the 
 highway, with ten acres allowed by the town order for 
 his travelling about the island, lying within the for- 
 mer bounds, which is his proportion. 
 
 "This, therefore, doth evidence and testify, that all 
 those parcels of land before specified, amounting to 
 the number of eighty-seven acres, more or less, is fully 
 impropriated to said William Dyre and his heirs for 
 ever." 
 
 This land is beautifully situated on Narragansett Bay, 
 opposite Coaster's Island, and is at the extreme end of 
 what is called " Old Newport." When I visited the 
 place in September, 1883, I found an old family burial 
 ground of the Dyres, which is protected by a high, 
 strong fence, and is literally " impropriated to the heirs 
 of William Dyre, foreve7\''^ It was very touching to 
 look upon this " God's acre," the only relic left to show 
 who were the proprietors of that lovely spot, more than 
 two centuries ago. 
 
 With Longfellow, 
 
 " I like that ancient Saxon phrase which calls 
 The burial ground God's acre! It is just. 
 It consecrates each grave within its walls, 
 And breathes a benison o'er the sleeping dust."
 
 16 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 Many of the inscriptions on the tombstones are leg- 
 ible, but undoubtedly, many stones liave been broken, 
 and destroyed, by the ravages of time. It is probable, 
 also, that there were some interments, with no stones to 
 mark the last resting place of those who were buried 
 there. The oldest stone legible is that of Desire Dyre, 
 1707, and the last interment was that of Wm. Dyre of 
 South Kingstown, September, 1797, aged 91 years. Be- 
 sides this estate and some other lands, William Dyre 
 of Newport, owned an island in Narragansett Bay con- 
 taining 600 acres which was called " Dyre's Island," and 
 still bears his name. On the 5th August, 1670, he gave 
 it to his son William. After the settlement of Rhode 
 Island, many people of various opinions went there, 
 and it used to be said that any man who had lost his 
 religion would be sure to find it again, at some village 
 in Khode Island ! " The laws of the colony were based 
 on the plan of perfect religious toleration, and good 
 Roger Williams would not permit any thing else. In 
 the mean time, there were various organizations for the 
 protection of the laws. A formal act of the whole peo- 
 ple passed at this time, will set their regard for justice 
 and their care in providing for its administration, in 
 still clearer light. 
 
 " By the Body Politicke in the Isle of Aquitteneck, 
 inhabiting this present 25th of 9th month, 1639. 
 
 " In the fourteenth yeare of y' Raign of our Soveraign 
 Lord, King Charles. It is agreed, that as natural sub- 
 jects to our Prince, and subject to his Lawes, all matters 
 that concerne the Peace shall be by those that are officers
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 17 
 
 of the Peace transacted ; And all actions of the case, on 
 Debt, shall be in such Courts as by order are here ap- 
 pointed and, by such Judges as are deputed, heard and 
 legally determined. 
 
 "Given at Niew-Port on the Quarter Courte day 
 which was adjourned till y' day. 
 
 " William T>yre^ Secretary." 
 
 At the first General Court of Election ever held in 
 Newport, in 1640, various officers were elected; among 
 them, William Coddington Governor, William Dyre 
 Secretary. 
 
 The first General Assembly met at Portsmouth, 1647, 
 when William Dyre was chosen Eecorder. They agreed 
 upon a body of laws, chiefly taken from the laws of 
 England, with the addition of a few suited to their par- 
 ticular circumstances. The code, which contains noth- 
 ing except civil regulations, concludes thus : " Other- 
 wise than thus, what is hei-ein forbidden, all men may 
 walk as their consciences persuade them, every one in 
 the name of his God. And let the lambs of the Most 
 High walk, in this colony, without molestation, in the 
 name of Jehovah, their God, for ever and ever." 
 
 Governor Coddington, it is said, was "among the most 
 turbulent spirits." He was strongly attached to the 
 King's party, against that of the Protector, and main- 
 tained that his authority was paramount in the govern- 
 ment of the colony. In 1649, Coddington went to Eng- 
 land, and found King Charles already beheaded, and the 
 Commonwealth declared. He obtained a hearing of the 
 2
 
 18 SOME RECOKDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 Council, and received a commission to govern the island 
 of Rliode Island, and Canoniciit, during his life, with 
 a council of six men, to be named by the people and 
 approved by himself. The alarm felt throughout the 
 colony was great, and preparations were immediately 
 made to send delegates to England, to obtain a revoca- 
 tion of Coddington's power. John Clarke, Roger Will- 
 iams, and William Dyre were sent, and accomplished 
 their important errand. An order of council was is- 
 sued, vacating the commission of Coddington, and 
 ordering the towns again to unite under the charter. 
 The mission was successful, at every point. Two of 
 the agents remained in England, on their private bus- 
 iness, and also to sustain the rights of the colony, while 
 Williaon Dyre returned home with the joyful news, 
 leaving his wife, who had accompanied him, in England. 
 This was in 1652. Some time afterward, when Cod- 
 dington was elected Commissioner, and there was great 
 dissatisfaction, ha was compelled to submit to the au- 
 thority of the colony in these words : " I, William Cod- 
 dington, do hereby submit to y® authoritie of His High- 
 ness in this Colonic, as it is now" united, and that, with 
 all my heart." In 1653, active measures were taken 
 against the Dutch, who were sending exploring parties, 
 and making claims along Long Island Sound. William 
 Dyre received a commission to act against the enemy, 
 and for a time commanded a privateer. The commis- 
 sion " constituted Captain John Underhill Commander- 
 in-Chief upon the land, and Captain William Dyre 
 Commander-in-Chief at sea; 3'et '"to join in counsel,
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 19 
 
 to be assistant each to the other, for the propagating of 
 the service promised." How much maritime skill 
 William Djre possessed has not come down to us, but 
 he seems to have been ready for any emergency. His 
 dislike of Coddington continued all these years, and 
 there seemed little probability of any harmony between 
 them. In an article on " Highways," from the Colonial 
 Land Evidence, he speaks of a " highway from the town, 
 laid out, of two poles wide, to William Dyre's farm, and 
 so to lead to the lauds on the north side of the town, 
 viz.: the meadows, Mr. Coddington's cow pasture, the 
 Artillery garden, etc." He significantly adds, " Thus 
 much I have said and do affirm to the best of my un- 
 derstanding and knowledge, in the common good, 
 wherein all men have right, and if any one is impeached 
 the whole is wronged (as to concerning highways 
 through which all have propriety of free egress). And 
 because this particular doth emearge to that which is 
 committed to our care, I do declare, in my observation, 
 two or three impediments : First, Mr. Coddington, in 
 that highway that goes to the Artillery garden and 
 burying place, he hath set near sixty poles of fencing 
 upon the highway, six feet at least, at the north end. 
 Let them, therefore, that know any injury in this 
 kind, put it down, under their hands, as I now have 
 done, and be ready to make it good, as I am, so 
 shall we avoid hypocrisy, dissimulation, back-bitting, 
 and secret wolveish devourings, one of another, 
 and declare ourselves men, which, how unmanlike 
 the practice of some sycovents are, is and may safely
 
 20 SOME KECORDS OF THE PTER FAMILY. 
 
 be demonstrated : Therefore, let all that love the 
 light come forth to the light and show their deeds. 
 So saith William Dyre. This as a record, I give forth 
 to be a record, from the simple and honest intent of ray 
 heart and soul, this 15th February, 1654." 
 
 Certainly no one can accuse William Dyre of a want 
 of frankness, and he seems always to have been most 
 honorable in his intention, and just in his dealings. His 
 dislike of Governor Coddington was always ready to 
 manifest itself. This dislike was shared by many others, 
 and a letter was addressed to Oliver Cromwell, setting 
 forth the complaints of the colonists, to which he replied 
 by letter March 29th, 1655, telling them that they were 
 to " proceed in their government according to the tenor 
 of their charter, taking care of the peace and safety of 
 those plantations, that neither through any intestine 
 commotions, or foreign invasions, there do arise any 
 detriment or dishonor to this commonwealth." He 
 adds, "And so we bid you farewell, and rest your loving 
 friend, Oliver, P." 
 
 As their " loving friend " did not long remain Protec- 
 tor, a very liberal charter was granted by King Charles 
 II., July 8, 1663, and remained in force for many 
 years. In 1664, the royal commissioners having 
 nearly completed the subjugation of the Dutch provin- 
 ces, had their headquarters on board the English fleet 
 lying in the harbor of New York. A delegation, con- 
 sisting of John Clarke, who had lately returned home, 
 Captain John Cranston, and Wm. Byre, was sent on 
 with a letter from the authorities of Ehode Island, ex-
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 21 
 
 pressing the gratitude of the colony to his Majesty for 
 the charter, and congratulating the commissioners. It 
 is pleasant to know that, after various litigations with 
 Coddington for many years, William Dyre and he 
 were formally reconciled to each other May 14, 1656. 
 
 But a great sorrow was in store for William Dyre. 
 "When he left England in 1652, his wife remained 
 there with her relatives. One can imagine her delight 
 in seeing once more the beautiful land of her birth, 
 after all the hardships of this western wilderness. Dur- 
 ing her visit of five years in Great Britain, Mary 
 Dyre became a Friend, and was a minister of that 
 society, at the time of her return to the forbidden 
 port of Boston. The year 1656 will be darkly mem- 
 orable in the annals of New England, for the arrival 
 of the Quakers, and the commencement of their per- 
 secution in Boston. The appearance of this "cursed 
 sect of heretics," as they were called, so alarmed the 
 Puritans, that a day of public humiliation was ap- 
 pointed to be held in all the churches, mainly on tlieir 
 account. A stringent law was enacted for their sup- 
 pression, and two years later, their tenets were made 
 a capital offence. Fines, imprisonment, whipi)ing, 
 banishment, mutilation, and death, were inflicted upon 
 them. 
 
 The wildest fanaticism on the part of the Quakers 
 was met by frenzied bigotry on the part of the 
 Puritans. Such was the most miserable state of affairs, 
 when Mary Dyre, in 1657, returned to the land of 
 her adoption. She had no knowledge of what liad
 
 22 SOME EECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 been done in Massachusetts, but was at once seized, 
 and cast into prison. 
 
 When her husband (who had not adopted the faith 
 of tlie Friends) heard of her imprisonment, he came 
 from Rhode Island, and succeeded in obtaining her re- 
 lease, and leave to take her home, after becoming 
 " bound in a great penalty not to lodge her in any 
 town of the colony, nor to permit any to have speech 
 with her on the journey." 
 
 What a meeting for the long-parted husband and 
 wife, and how humiliating such a concession ! Mary 
 Dyre spent some time in her Newport home, and then 
 ventured again into Massachusetts, to carry comfort 
 and cheer, to her captiv^e fellow-believers there, feeling 
 that she went in obedience to the divine call. She 
 was again imprisoned, and at her arraignment before 
 Governor Endicott she "gave no other answer but 
 that she denied our law, and came to bear witness 
 against it, and could not choose but come." 
 
 One cannot but think, in this connection, of the 
 often quoted saying of grand old Martin Luther, 
 when he made his defence at the Diet of Worms. 
 "Here standi. lean do no otherwise. God help 
 me !" As Marj^ Dj^re's brave determination could not 
 be conquered, Governor Endicott pronounced the sen- 
 tence of death upon her. 
 
 " After Mary Dyer had heard her sentence, she only 
 replied by the significant words, ' The will of the Lord 
 be done.' And when Endicott impatiently exclaimed, 
 ' Take her away, marshal,' she added, ' Yea, joyfully I
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 23 
 
 go ; ' for her heart was filled witli heavenly consolation 
 from the love of Christ, and from the thought that she 
 was counted worthy to suffer for His sake. She told 
 the marshal that it was unnecessarv for him to ofuard 
 her to the prison. 'I believe you, Mrs. Dyre,' he 
 answered, * but I must do as I am commanded.' 
 From her prison she addressed an ' Appeal to the 
 Kulers of Boston,' in which she asks nothing for 
 herself, but manifests the courage of an apostle 
 contending for the truth, and the tenderness of a 
 woman, feeling for the sufferings of her people. Her 
 appeal is pervaded throughout, by a simple and 
 touching dignity. She writes : ' "Whereas, I am 
 by many charged with the guiltiness of my own 
 blood ; if you mean in my coming to Boston, I am 
 therein clear and justified by the Lord, in whose 
 will I came, who will require my blood of you, 
 be sure, who have made a law to take away the lives 
 of the innocent servants of God, if thev come amonor 
 you, who are called by you cursed Quakers ; although 
 I say I am a living witness for them and the Lord, 
 that he hath blessed them, and sent them unto you : 
 therefore, be not found fisjliters ao-ainst God, but let 
 my counsel and request be accepted with you to repeal 
 all such laws, that the truth and servants of the Lord 
 may have free passage among you, and you be kept 
 from shedding innocent blood, which I know there are 
 many among you would not do, if they knew it so to 
 be. I have no self ends, the Lord knoweth : for if my 
 life were freely granted by you it would not avail me.
 
 24 SOME KECOEDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 nor could I expect it of you, so long as I should daily 
 hear or see the sufferings of these people, my dear 
 brethren, with whom my life is bound up, as I have 
 done these two years ; and now it is like to increase, 
 even unto death, for no evil doing but coming among 
 you. Was ever the like laws heard of among a peo- 
 ple that profess Christ come in the flesh ? And 
 have such no other weapons but such laws to fight 
 against spiritual wickedness, withal, as you call it ? 
 Woe is me for you ! I leave these lines with you, 
 appealing to the faithful and true witness of God, 
 which is one in all consciences, before whom we must 
 all appear — with whom I shall eternally rest in ever- 
 lasting joy and peace, whether you will hear or forbear. 
 With Him is my reward, with whom to live is my joy, 
 and to die is my gain, though I had not had your 
 forty-eight hours' warning for the preparation of the 
 death of Maiy Dyre. Oh, let none of you put this 
 good day far from you, which verily, in the light of 
 the Lord, I see approaching, even to many in and 
 about Boston, which is the bitterest and darkest pro- 
 fessing place, and so to continue so long as you have 
 done, that ever I heard of. Let the time past, there- 
 fore, suffice for such a profession as brings forth such 
 fruits as these laws are. In love and in the spirit of 
 meekness, I again beseech you, for I have no enmity 
 to the persons of any ; but you shall know that God 
 will not be mocked ; but what ye sow, that shall ye 
 reap for Him, that will render to every one according 
 to the deeds done in the body, whether good or evil. 
 Even so be it, saith Mary Dyre.' "
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 25 
 
 It is said that on the day preceding that appointed 
 for the execution, Mary Dyre's eldest son (Samuel) ar- 
 rived in Boston, and was allowed to remain all night 
 with his mother ; he came in the vain hope of inducing 
 her to make such concessions as might be the means 
 of saving her life. Boston Common was separated by 
 the distance of a mile from the jail, and the pris- 
 oners were escorted bv two hundred men, armed with 
 halberds, guns, swords, and pikes, in addition to many 
 horsemen. The drummers were ordered to walk im- 
 mediately before the captives, and to beat more loudly, 
 if they should attempt to speak. William Robinson 
 and Marmaduke Stevenson, who had experienced the 
 blessedness of living under a higher and holier law than 
 any mere human authority, felt that the Lord still had 
 need of them to testify for him in this colony, and had 
 remained there, at the peril of their lives. They also 
 were condemned to death, and went with Mary Dyre 
 to the scaffold, "with great cheerfulness," saying '"We 
 suffer not as evil-doers, but as those who have testilied 
 and manifested the truth.'' From " A History of the 
 Christian People called Quakers," by William Sewel, I 
 quote the conclusion of this terrible tragedy. " Mary 
 Dyre, seeing her companions hanging dead before her, 
 also stepped up the ladder ; but, after her dress was 
 tied about her feet, the noose put about her neck, and 
 her face covered with a handkerchief, which the priest 
 Wilson lent the hangman, just as she was about to be 
 executed, a cry was heard : ' Stop ! she is reprieved I ' 
 Her feet then being loosed, they bade her come down.
 
 26 SOME EECOEDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 But she, whose mind was already, as it were, in Heaven, 
 stood still, and said she was then willing to suffer as 
 her brethren did, unless they would annul their wicked 
 law. Little heed was given to what she said ; but they 
 took her down, and the mai'shal and others, taking her 
 by the arms, carried her to prison again. That she was 
 freed from the gallows, this time, was at the interces- 
 sion of her son, to whojn, it seems, they could not then 
 resolve to deny that favor. She, now having heard 
 why she was reprieved, wrote the next day, being the 
 28th of October, 1659, the following letter to the Court : 
 
 " ' Once more to the General Court assembled in Bos- 
 ton, speaks Mary Dyre, even as before. My life is not 
 accepted, neither availeth me, in comparison of the 
 lives, and liberty of the truth, and servants of the living 
 God, for which, in the bowels of love and meekness, I 
 sought you; yet nevertheless, with wicked hands, 
 have you put two of them to death, which makes me 
 to feel that the mercy of the wicked is cruelty. I rather 
 choose to die than to live, as from you, as guilty of their 
 innocent blood ; therefore, seeing my request is hin- 
 dered, I leave you to the righteous Judge and Searcher 
 of all hearts, who, with the pure measure of light He 
 hath given to every man to profit withal, will, in his 
 due time, let you see whose servants you are, and of 
 whom you have taken counsel, which I desire you to 
 search into, but all his counsel hath been slighted, and 
 you would none of his reproofs. Read your portion : 
 Proverbs, i. 24 to 32. 
 
 '' ' "When I heard your last order read, it was a disturb-
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 27 
 
 ance unto me that was so freely offering up my life to 
 Him tliat gave it to me, and sent me hither so to do, 
 which obedience he gloriously accompanied with his 
 presence, and peace and love in me, in which I rested 
 from my labors till, by your order and the people. I 
 was so far disturl^ed that I could not retain any more 
 of the words thereof, than that I should return to 
 prison and there remain forty and eight hours ; to which 
 I submitted, finding nothing from the Lord to the con- 
 trary, that I may know what His pleasure and counsel 
 is concerning me, on whom I wait therefore, for he is 
 my life and the length of my days ; and, as I said be- 
 fore, I came at His command, and go at His command. 
 
 " 'Mary Dyre.' 
 
 "The magistrates, now perceiving that the putting 
 "William R,ol)inson and Marmaduke Stevenson to death 
 caused great discontent among the people, resolved to 
 send away Mary Dyre, thereby to calm their minds a 
 little. And so she was put on horseback, and by four 
 horsemen conveyed fifteen miles towards Rhode Island, 
 where she was left with a horse, and a man, to be con- 
 veyed the rest of the way ; which she soon sent back, 
 and so repaired home. By the style of her letters and 
 her undaunted carriage, it appears that she had indeed 
 many extraordinary qualities. She was also of a comely 
 and grave countenance, of a good family and estate, 
 and a mother of several children ; but her husl)and, it 
 seems, was of another persuasion. 
 
 "After her return to Rhode Island, she went from
 
 28 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 thence to Long Island, where she spent the most part 
 of the winter, and then, coming home again, she was 
 moved to return to that bloody town of Boston, whither 
 she came on the 21st of the third month, 1660, and on 
 the 31st she was sent for by the General Court. Being 
 come, the Governor, John Endicott, said : ' Are you the 
 same Mary Dyre that was here before ? ' And it seems 
 he was preparing an evasion for her, as she might 
 easily have replied 'No.' But she was so far from 
 disguising, that she answered, undauntedly : ' I am the 
 same Mary Dyre that was here at the last General 
 Court.' Then Endicott said : ' You will own yourself 
 a Quaker, will you not ? ' To which Mary Dyre said, 
 'I own myself to be reproachfully called so.' And 
 Endicott said the sentence was passed upon her at the 
 last General Court, and now, likewise. ' You must re- 
 turn to the prison, and there remain till to-morrow, at 
 nine o'clock ; then from thence you must go to the 
 gallows, and there be hanged till you are dead.' To 
 which Mary Dyre said : ' This is no more than what 
 thou saidst before.' And Endicott returned : ' But 
 now it is to be executed ; therefore, prepare yourself ; 
 to-morrow, at nine o'clock.' She then spoke thus : ' I 
 came in obedience to the will of God, the last General 
 Court, desiring you to repeal your unrighteous laws of 
 banishment on pain of death ; and that same is my 
 work now, and earnest request ; although I told you 
 that, if you refused to repeal them, the Lord would send 
 others of his servants to witness against them.' Where- 
 upon Endicott asked her if she was a prophetess? And
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 29 
 
 she answered that she spoke the words that the Lord 
 spoke in her, and now the thing was come to pass. And 
 beginning to speak of her call, Endicott cried, ' Away 
 with her ! away with her ! ' So she was brought to the 
 prison-house where she was before, and kept close shut 
 up until the next day. About the appointed time the 
 marshal, Michaelson, came, and called her to come 
 hastily ; and coming into the room where she was, she 
 desired him to 'stay a little;' and, speaking mildly, 
 said she ' should be ready presentl3\' But he, being 
 of a rough temper, said he ' could not wait upon her, 
 but she should now wait upon him.' One Margaret 
 Smith, her companion, being grieved to see such hard- 
 heartedness, spoke something against their unjust laws 
 and proceedings. To which he said, ' You shall have 
 your share of the same.' Then Mary Dyre was brought 
 forth, and, with a band of soldiers, led through the 
 town, the drums being beaten before and behind her, 
 and so continued, that none might hear her speak all 
 the way to the place of execution, which was about a 
 mile. With this guard she came to the gallows, and, 
 being gone up the ladder, some said to her that, if she 
 would return, she might come down and save her life. 
 To which she replied, ' Nay, I cannot ; for, in ol^edieuce 
 to the will of the Lord I came, and in His will I abide, 
 faithful to the death.' Then Captain John "Webb said, 
 that she had been there before, and had the sentence of 
 banishment upon pain of death, and broken the law in 
 coming again now, and therefore she was guilty of her 
 own blood. To which she returned : ' Nay, I came to
 
 30 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 keep blood-guiltiness from you, desiring you to repeal 
 the unrighteous and unjust law of banishment upon 
 pain of death made against the innocent servants of the 
 Lord ; therefore, my blood will be required at your 
 hands, who wilfully do it. But for those that do it in 
 the simplicity of their hearts, I desire the Lord to for- 
 give them. I came to do the will of my Father, and 
 in obedience to His will I stand, even to death.' The 
 priest, Wilson, said : ' Mary Dyre, O repent ! O repent ! 
 and be not so deluded and carried away by the deceit 
 of the devil.' To this Mary Dyre answered : ' Nay, 
 man, I am not now to repent.' And being asked by some, 
 whether she would have the elders pray for her, she said : 
 'I know never an elder here.' Being farther asked 
 whether she would have any of the people to pray for 
 her, she answered that she desired the prayers of all 
 the people of God. When accused of having said she 
 had been in Paradise, she replied without hesitation : 
 ' Yea, I have been in Paradise these several days. This 
 is to me an hour of the greatest joy I ever had in this 
 world. No ear can hear, no tongue can utter, no heart 
 can understand the sweet incomes and the refreshings 
 of the Spirit of the Lord which I now feel ! ' In this 
 frame of mind, this honest, valiant woman died, — a 
 martyr to her faith." 
 
 A Friend who had united in her ministerial services 
 on Shelter Island, sums up his description of her, by 
 saying: "She even shined in the image of God." 
 There will always be a difference of opinion as to the 
 course she pursued ; but no one can question her won-
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 31 
 
 derful bravery, and certainly, not many can now be 
 found, who would have the courage to imitate it. The 
 raotto of one branch of the Dyer family, " Terrere nolo, 
 timere nescio" (To affright, I would not — to fear, I 
 know not), seems to have been applicable in her case. 
 A strong sense of duty, and an intense hatred of wrong, 
 influenced her actions ; and while we may, perhaps, feel 
 that it was a mistaken duty, we cannot but admire and 
 reverence the real nobleness, and grandeur, of her char- 
 acter. The " Divine immanence," of which our Quaker 
 poet, John G. Whittier, speaks, seems to have lifted her 
 above all the sufferings of earth, and given her a faith 
 which nothing could weaken — a courage which never 
 faltered. 
 
 Edward Wanton, a member of one of the most dis- 
 tinguished families of Ehode Island, and the first of 
 the name in America, was an officer of the guard, when 
 Mary Dyre suffered death. The unshaken firmness 
 with which she submitted to her fate moved Wanton, 
 greatly. " Alas, mother ! " said he, as he went into his 
 house after the execution, " we have been murdering 
 the Lord's people ;" and taking off his sword, he made a 
 solemn vow never to wear it again. Kot long after- 
 ward, he became a member of the society of Friends. 
 Amelia Opie, in her excellent work entitled " Illustra- 
 tions of Lying," mentions Mary Dyre as one of the in- 
 stances of those M'hom even the fear of death has not 
 been able to terrify into falsehood, because they were 
 supported in their integrity by the fear of God. 
 
 As William Dyre had not adopted the tenets of the
 
 32 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 Friends, it could hardly have been possible for him to 
 sympathize in the views of his wife ; and no doubt, her 
 course did not always meet with his approval. He 
 wrote many pathetic letters to Governor Endicott, 
 sometimes " blaming her," but speaking of her as his 
 " dear wife." She spent much time away from home, 
 in ministering to the comfort of those who needed her 
 aid. It has been said that " no Puritanical power, no 
 human hand, was strong enough to suppress the heav- 
 en-implanted and divinely directed zeal of the Friends 
 to share their spiritual treasure with others." A few 
 days before Mary Dyre's death, her husband in great 
 anguish of mind, he being wholly ignorant that she 
 -meditated this fatal step, wrote to the General Court of 
 Massachusetts, once more imploring its clemency. 
 His entreaties would have moved a stone to pity. 
 
 But it was now, too late. In a letter to Governor 
 Endicott dated May 27, 1660, he says, " I have not 
 seen my wife lately and, therefore, cannot tell how, in 
 the frame of her spirit, she was moved thus again, to 
 run so great a hazard to herself, and come to your 
 jurisdiction. Unhappy journey ! " 
 
 Those were, indeed, bitter days for "William Dyre, 
 and for his family. There were many other instances 
 of most revolting cruelty practiced upon persons not 
 resident in Ehode Island, and which continued till 
 Charles II. peremptorily forbade any further murders 
 to be perpetrated in the name of God, by those infuri- 
 ated zealots. An Eno-lish writer has said that " the most 
 important fact concerning Mary Dyre is that of her
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 33 
 
 murder having been the motive of the wonderfully 
 liberal charter granted by Charles IL, to the province 
 of Rhode Island, making it the lirst spot of earth on 
 the globe, whereon religious toleration and absolute 
 freedom of worship were established by law. What 
 influence the Dyres may have possessed at court 
 is not known, but it is possible to account for the 
 interest taken in her fate by Charles II., (who is 
 not to be credited with any purely humane considera- 
 tions,) from the fact that Mai-y had probably descended 
 from Sir Ludovick Dyer, Baronet, of Stoughton, 
 Hampshire county, whose patent bears date of 8th 
 June, 1627, (temp. Charles I.)." 
 
 Arnold, in his history of Rhode Island, says of the 
 Puritans : " In estimating their characters, we are too 
 apt to judge them by the light of the present day. 
 They founded a colony for their own faith, without 
 any idea of tolerating others. For doing this, they have 
 been chai-ged with bigotry, fanaticism, and folly. Every 
 epithet has been applied to them, that can be employed 
 to express detestation of the conduct of men acting un- 
 der a sober conviction of truth. Regarding their con- 
 duct from the standpoint of the nineteenth century, all 
 this may be just. The like proceedings in this age, 
 would deserve the severest sentence of condemnation. 
 But not so, two hundred years ago. The bigotry of 
 the Puritans was the bigotry of their times. In every 
 act, they illustrated the spirit of the age." From this 
 point of view, we must forgive them for the bitterness 
 of a persecution which brought the life of Mary Dyrc 
 3
 
 34 SOME RECOKDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 to an untimely end on the 1st of June, 1660. It has 
 been said of her that she was "one of those rare spirits 
 who 2i.YQ predestined to become martyrs and saints to 
 the faith they profess." 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, 
 1670, Samuel and Henry Dyre bind themselves to 
 their father, William Dyre, to pay to their sister (eld- 
 est 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." The remarkable Scripture name given 
 to the fourth son, can be found in the eighth chapter 
 of Isaiah, first verse. It is a striking illustration of 
 the great fondness for Old Testament names, which 
 prevailed at that time, — a fondness which, it is said, 
 brought Beelzebub into use. The tragic death of the 
 wife and mother must have greatly saddened the lives 
 of William Dyre and his family; but unfortunately, our 
 accounts of them are very meagre. The commercial 
 prosperity of Newport began early in the history of the 
 country, when, owing to its magnificent harbor, it be- 
 came one of the principal ports of the New World, 
 and for a time rivalled New York in its general com- 
 merce, and surpassed it in the special branches of whal- 
 ing and trade with Africa and the Indies. It is pain- 
 ful to add that many of the fortunes which were ac- 
 cumulated were the result of a vigorous prosecution of 
 the African slave trade. On the breaking out of the
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 35 
 
 Revolutionary War, Newport was, to a great extent, de- 
 serted by its inhabitants and, being left in a defenceless 
 state, was occupied by the British for the three years 
 succeeding 1776. It was used for the most part as a 
 naval station, though some SOOO English and Plessians 
 were, during most of the time, either quartered in the 
 town or encamped in its suburbs. When the town 
 was evacuated in 1779, many buildings were wantonly 
 destroyed. At this time, the inhabitants numbered 
 only about 4000 souls ; and although efforts were at 
 once made to restore its prosperity as a commercial 
 port, it never recovered from the depressing effects of 
 British occupation. It is unfortunate that the town 
 records were either carried off, or destroyed hy the 
 British, for, with them, was lost the only source of in- 
 formation regarding the glory of ante- Revolutionary 
 Newport. The loss of these valuable documents pre- 
 vents us from having much knowledge of the marriages, 
 births, and deaths of members of the Dyre family, or 
 their wills. Neither do we know what were their 
 church relations. William Dyre, after the death of his 
 wife, continued his public services, and was chosen So- 
 licitor for the colony. In 1665, in a petition to the Com- 
 missioners, he offended the authorities by the freedom 
 of his complaints ; and " being reasoned with, admit- 
 ted his fault, in writing, to the Assembly, and received 
 pardon." On May 27th, 1669, it is recorded that 
 " William Dyre, Secretary of the Councell, this day 
 rendered up unto the Councell, the books and ])apers 
 which belonged unto them, and also the scale.'' It is
 
 36 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 hardly possible that a life of such constant activity and 
 care should pass without leaving its traces upon him, 
 in various v^-ays, and he must at times have been very 
 weary of it. Many years had passed since he first land- 
 ed in America, and how little peace, and quietness, he 
 had known ! His children, too, were beginning to 
 leave him for other homes. William Dyre, Jr., about 
 the time of his mother's death, went to the State of 
 Delaware. There are many of his descendants, among 
 the first families of Delaware and Maryland. The 
 "Wynkoops, Georges, Bradfords. the families of Judge 
 Milligan, of Wilmington, and of the Hon. Lewis Mc- 
 Lane, all belong to the Dyre genesis. 
 
 Samuel Dyre, the oldest son of William and Mary, 
 married Ann Hutchinson, daughter of Captain Edward 
 Hutchinson, and granddaughter of the famous Ann 
 Hutchinson. She was also a grandniece of the poet, 
 John Dryden. Mrs. Dyre's grandmother is described 
 as " a woman of great intellectual endowments and of 
 masculine enei'gy, to whom even her enemies ascribed 
 unusual mental powers, styling her " the masterpiece 
 of woman's wit," and describing her as " a gentlewoman 
 of an haughty carriage, busy spirit, competent wit, and 
 a voluble tongue ; who, by a remarkable union of char- 
 ity, devotion and ability, soon became the leader not 
 only of her own sex, but of a powerful party in the 
 state and church, so that her opponents have termed 
 her " The Nonsuch." She went first to Providence, 
 and thence to Aquidneck, which had just been pur- 
 chased by the fugitives of her party, and where her
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 37 
 
 husband died in 1642. Soon after this bereavement, 
 she removed with her family to a spot near Hurl Gate, 
 within the Dutch jurisdiction, where, in a short time, 
 she and, with the exception of one child, all her house- 
 hold, sixteen in number, were murdered by the Indians 
 in 164:3. Whether her granddaughter, Mrs. Samuel 
 Dyre, inherited Mrs. Hutchinson's talents and graces, 
 we do not know. Mrs. Dyre was early left a widow 
 with two sons, Samuel and Edward, and September 
 22d, 1679, at Tower Hill, Xarragansett, she married 
 Daniel Yernon, a man of very superior education, who 
 spoke several languages, and was long a tutor in the 
 family of Lodowick Updike, in Xortli Kingstown. She 
 had three children after her marriage to Mr. Yernon — 
 Daniel, Samuel, and Catharine; from them are sprung 
 one of the most distinguished families of Newport. A 
 descendant, William Yernon, was in familiar corre- 
 spondence with La Fayette, Adams, Yiscount Xoailles, 
 Franklin, and other men of note in his day. He was 
 a great friend of learning, and was appointed president 
 of the Redwood Library on the death of its founder 
 and first president ; and the Second Congregational 
 Church owed much to his liberality. He entered heart 
 and soul into the cause of freedom during the Revolu- 
 tion; and it is said that, " to his unflinching devotion to 
 liberty, personal sacrifices, and extraordinary exertions, 
 America, under Providence, owes much of her success 
 upon the sea." Ann Dyre Yernon died January 10th, 
 1716, and her gravestone is still standing in the Yernon 
 lot at Newport, beside that of her husband. Her 
 
 855^3
 
 38 SOME EECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 father, Captain Edward Hutchinson, was actively en- 
 gaged in King Philip's war, and commanded a body of 
 troops. In his will, proved in Boston in 1675, he gives 
 all his Narragansett lands to Elizabeth Winslow, Ann 
 Dyre, and Susanna Hutchinson — the latter afterwards 
 married Nathaniel Coddington, 
 
 The name of Samuel Dyre appears in various records. 
 
 In 1661, land in Narragansett, called Misquamokuck 
 (now Westerly), was taken by William Dyre, Sr., 
 Samuel Dyre, and Mahershalalhashbaz Dyre, and^arti- 
 cles of agreement between an Indian captain and others 
 were signed by them. William Dyre was appointed to 
 transcribe the deeds, testimonies, ratifications, etc. At a 
 general meeting, February 17th, 1661-2, William Dyre 
 was chosen surveyor of Misquamokuck. At the court 
 held at Acquedneset, near Wickford, May 20th, 1671, 
 the persons inhabiting here being called to give their 
 eno-asement and desirino; to know whether or no the 
 court, on behalf of the colony, do lay any claim to their 
 possessions which they now inhabit, which persons 
 were Mr. Samuel Dyre and others. To which demand 
 this present court do return unanimously this answer : 
 That on behalf of the colony this court do not lay any 
 claims to their possessions which they now inhabit. 
 May 21st, 1669, Samuel Dyer, of Narragansett, was ap- 
 pointed one of two conservators of his Majesty's peace 
 for the Narragansett country — the other being Richard 
 Smith. The latter had, in 1639, established a trading 
 post, and erected the first English dwelling at Wick-
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 39 
 
 ford. In 1656, Mr. Smith leased of the Indians, for 
 66 years, all the land which now forms the present 
 site of Wickford. A few years afterwards, he leased 
 it again for a thousand years. In 166(», he received a 
 quitclaim deed of nearly, if not quite all, of these 
 lands. Some estimate may be formed of his extensive 
 domain, when we lind that the tract was nine miles 
 long, and three miles in width. Roger Williams 
 named the place Wickford, in honor of a lady guest of 
 Richard Smith's. Smith bought also Mr. Williams' in- 
 terest, including " his trading house, his two big guns, 
 and a small island (Rabbit Island) for goats." 
 
 The following letter from Roger Williams, with 
 reference to this estate of Richard Smith's, is so quaint 
 that I cannot resist insertinor it, 
 
 Nahiggonsik, 24th July, 1679, (ut vulgo). 
 " 1st. I, Roger Williams, of Providence, in theNahig- 
 gonsik bay in N. Engl., being (b}' God's mersie) ye first 
 beginner of ye Towne of Providence and of ye Col- 
 ony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, 
 being now neere to Foure Score years of age, yet (by 
 God's mersie) of sound understanding and memorie, 
 doe humbly and faithfully declare yt Mr. Richard 
 Smith, Senior, who, for his conscience to God, left faire 
 possessions in Gloster Shire, and adventured with his 
 Relations and Estate to N. Engl., and was a most ac- 
 ceptable Inhabitant and prime leading man in Taunton 
 in Plymouth Colony. For his conscience' sake (many 
 differences arising) he left Taunton, and came to ye
 
 40 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 Nahiggonsik country, where, by God's mersie and ye 
 fave of ye Nahiggonsik sachems he broke ye Ice (at 
 his great Charge and Hazard) and put up in ye thickest 
 of ye Barbarians ye first English House amongst them. 
 
 " 2d. I liumbly testifieyt about forty years (from this 
 date) he kept Possession, comming and going himselfe, 
 children and servants, and he had quiet Possession of 
 his Howsing, Lands and meadow, and there, in his 
 own house, with much serenity of soule and comfort, he 
 yielded up his spirit to God, ye Father of Spirits, in 
 Peace." 
 
 Never a claim to land in New England was involved 
 in greater uncertainty than this. The fight for its pos- 
 session lasted long after Roger Williams had been placed 
 in his grave. All the surrounding colonies became 
 gradually involved in it. Rhode Island came near be- 
 ing entirely absorbed by Massachusetts and Connecticut. 
 Many were the traditions of long-continued wars and 
 bloody conflicts ; and his Indian neighbors had to tell 
 when Richard Smith settled in Wickford, in the year 
 of our Lord 1639. 
 
 In October 1674, just before King Philip's war, and 
 a generation after Richard Smith had taken up his 
 abode within it borders. Kings Towne was incorporated. 
 It thus became the seventh town in the colony of 
 Rhode Island, although, in point of fact, it was proba- 
 bly the third settlement. In 1679, the incorporation 
 was reaffirmed. In 1722 the town was divided into 
 North and South Kingstown, the act of legislature 
 providing that North Kingstown be considered the
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 41 
 
 elder town. These towns were generally known as the 
 "Narragansett country," and their history is full of in- 
 terest and romance. In South Kingstown occurred the 
 great Narragansett Swamp Fight between the English 
 and the Indians, which resulted in the destruction of 
 the Narragansetts as a tribe. Commodore Oliver Haz- 
 ard Perry, the hero of Lake Erie, was born in South 
 Kingstown. 
 
 The town of East Greenwich was founded in May, 
 1677. Five thousand acres were granted to fifty per- 
 sons in consideration of services rendered in King 
 Philip's war, who thus became proprietors of the 
 town, and founders of the new settlement of East 
 Greenwich. The early settlers expected great things 
 of the town. The liberality with which they 
 laid out the streets, shows that they meant that it 
 should be worthy of its future greatness. The 
 names which they bestowed upon them. King, Queen, 
 Marlboro', Duke, London, etc., are proofs of their 
 loyalty to the mother country. In the year 1709, 
 the town purchased a tract of land adjoining its 
 western border, containing thirty-five thousand acres. 
 The first Collector was Thomas Arnold. East Green- 
 wich has the honor to have printed the first calico 
 in America ; some time previous to 1794, a man 
 named Dawson erected print works. Jemima Wilk- 
 inson had a meeting-house there about 1774. On the 
 31st of October, 1677, one hundred acres of the five 
 thousand were allotted to Henry Dyre. He had also, 
 in 1670 and in 1680, received land by deed from
 
 43 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 his father, William Dyre, and his brother Samuel. 
 Whether Henry Dyre resided on his land in East 
 Greenwich I have no means of knowing. He died in 
 February, 1690, aged 43 years. When I was in that 
 pretty town in September, 1883, I found but few old 
 records in the office of the town clerk, and most unfort- 
 unately, the town records of North Kingstown were 
 destroyed by fire, some years ago. Undoubtedly in the 
 probate proceedings, much valuable information might 
 have been obtained, which is now forever lost. It is 
 well known, however, that members of the Dyre fam- 
 ily settled on lands bordering on Narragansett Bay. 
 Beautiful estates they were, and tradition tells us of 
 the style which was long kept up among them. In 
 the days of slavery, the colored coachman and footman 
 in livery, were by no means uncommon, and the land 
 was tilled and cultivated by slave labor. When slav- 
 ery was done away with, they probably took the plough 
 in their own hands, and could heartily sing with 
 Burns, " A man's a man for a' that." At what time 
 the name was changed from Dyre to Dyer is not 
 known. In a family cemetery of North Kingston I 
 found one stone only with the old spelling : that of 
 Captain Samuel Dyre, who died April 4th, 1791, in 
 the 34th year of his age. Probably the new spelling 
 was adopted by degrees. The name certainly was 
 not improved by the change, and it is a pity that the 
 spelling of years, was not retained. 
 
 In a book recently published in England, I find
 
 SOME KECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 43 
 
 further notices of William, Dyi'e. It is entitled, 
 " Dorothea Scott, of Egerton House, Kent, 1611 to 
 1680, by G. D. Scull, editor of 'The Evelyns in 
 America.' Printed for private circulation by Perker 
 & Co., Oxford, 1883." It is stated in the book that 
 one John Scott, who came to America, had defrauded 
 Mrs. Dorothea Scott, who " did intrust him with the 
 whole concernes of her estate, which in the end proved 
 fatall to her." The Duke of York commanded Sam- 
 uel Pepys, Secretary to the Admiralty, to collect evi- 
 dence against Scott. This Samuel Pepys is the au- 
 thor of the " Diary " much read and quoted. He had 
 an interview with Captain William Dyre in London, 
 on the 19th September, 1679, and engaged him to 
 collect information in New York and elsewhere, con- 
 cerning Scott's antecedents in America. Captain Dyre 
 wrote to Pepys '* from on board y* ship Bevei\ in y® 
 Downes, y^ 2*^ of 8ber., 1679," and incidentally men- 
 tioned that Mr. Randolph " sends his service." This 
 was Edward Randolph, Charles II. 's commissioner to 
 New England, who made eight voyages aci'oss the At- 
 hintic in nine years. Thomas Lovelace, an important 
 witness for Pepys, was making a visit to England in 
 1680, and on his return that year to New York, Pepys 
 gave him letters of introduction to Captain Dyre and Sir 
 Edmund Andross. (This Captain Dyre, it is stated, was 
 the husband of Mary Dyre, who was executed in 1660, 
 in Boston, for her professions of Quakerism. It is also 
 stated that the descendants of William Dyre spelled their 
 name Dyer.) Samuel Pepys writes to William Dyre :
 
 44 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 " September 20th, 1679. 
 " Sib : "Were it not yt y^ Honour of his Majesties 
 and his service is more concerned in it than any inter- 
 est of my owne, I should not hold it so excusable in 
 me to offer y* trouble I am now designing you ; but 
 knowing how acceptable anything is to you wherein 
 His Honour and y** Justice due to His Ministers is con- 
 cerned, I take y^ liberty of putting into your hands an 
 Extract of a letter relating to severall parties by him 
 therein charged upon one Captain John Scott. I am 
 to desire y* so soon as you shall be received where you 
 are now going (and towards w'^^ I wish you a happy 
 voyage), you will use y** speediest and most effectnall 
 means you can of informing yourself e, and enabling me 
 to report to his Majesty, what evidences you can col- 
 lect of y® truth of y* particulars menc'oned in y^ said 
 Extract, and of whatever undue behaviours you shall 
 (upon inquiry into y*" legend of Scott's life in New 
 England, Long Island, and parts adjacent) obtaine y® 
 certaine knowledge of. W''' takeing y*" liberty of re- 
 commending to you, 1 beg you to favour me w"' any 
 commands of yours wherein I may, in some measure, 
 answer yo'' respect to me in this particular, assuring 
 you of my being, with all faithfulness, y"" most humble 
 servant, Samuel Pepts.'' 
 
 The following letter was written to Samuel Pepys 
 by William Dyre, dated : 
 
 New York% 4th January, 1680. 
 " Worthy Sir : Yours of the 24th Aug*, by Mr.
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 4:5 
 
 Lovelace, I have received, for which great favour of 
 correspondence I own myselfe much obliged, and am 
 unexpressibly rejoiced that Sir Anthony and yourselfe 
 are out of y* pernitious power of that villain Scott, 
 whome, doubtlesse, the hands of Justice one day will 
 reach for all his horrid contrivances and practices w"" 
 condign punishment.- You may please to know 
 hee has a son now gone from here to England, to seek 
 out his flfather, hearing that hee was famous in y^ king- 
 dome. But I doubt y* young man will be disappointed 
 in his expedition ; hee can certainly informe you that 
 his mother is alive in y^ province, and yett, as wee 
 heare, old Scott had the Impudence to make his ad- 
 dresses to y* Lady Yane, and that in a very splendid 
 manner, and had not Death (which some say hee oc- 
 casioned) put a period to her days, he had most miser- 
 ably deluded, deceived, and abused her ladyship. Sir, 
 you will (by the occasion of some like Coll. Scott), 
 have the advantage of seeing my Governor, Sir Ed- 
 mund Andross, in England, who, doubtless, is a person 
 of that great worth and honour as not to have his 
 name or reputation blemished by anything but what 
 is false, envious, and malicious, which has caused the 
 Dukes desires of seeing him at home with all speed, 
 and soe hath given his Excellency the trouble and danger 
 of a severe winter's voyage ; but I hope y* sunshine 
 of his happy returne to us in the Spring, will dispell all 
 those malevolent clouds, and render the people of 
 theis country (under his Maj"*' and Royal Highness 
 dominion) as fortunate as formerly by his prudence
 
 46 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 and noble government, the continuance of which, to- 
 gether with your health and prosperity, is the hearty 
 desire of yours, etc. etc., William Dyke." 
 
 England was at this time having serious difficulty 
 with the Dutch, and it may have been that loyalty to 
 his native land, took William Dyre to England. It 
 has been hinted that he " did a little privateering on 
 his own account, and that privateering theii, was com- 
 mon with respectable persons." This charge has 
 never been sustained, and the esteem in which he 
 was held seems to contradict any accusation of unfair 
 or dishonest dealing. In a letter from Koger Wil- 
 liams to his " dear and loving friends and neighbors, 
 of Providence and Warwick," dated from the resi- 
 dence of Sir Henry Yane, at Belleau, in Lincolnshire, 
 April 1st, 1653, he says : " I hope it may have pleased 
 the Most High Lord of sea and land, to bring dear 
 Mr. Dyre unto you." After 1680 we lose all trace of 
 William Dyre. In that year he was collector of cus- 
 toms at New York for the Duke of York. Un- 
 doubtedly the town records taken so unceremoni- 
 ously, by the British, from Newport would have told 
 the tale, now lost to us forever. It is probable that 
 advanced age kept him in America for the rest of his 
 days, and that he died on his Newport farm in 1681. 
 His friend, Roger Williams, died in 1683, aged 84, 
 and it is known that the death of William Dyre oc- 
 curred before that time. As they had been so closely 
 and intimately connected in life, it is pleasant to know
 
 SOME RECORDS OF TUE DYER FAMILY. 47 
 
 that their descendants have kept up the friendly tie, 
 there havinir been several intermarria£;es amonoj them. 
 Some of our best and most valued citizens are proud 
 to claim descent from these alliances. 
 
 It has been impossible to trace the liistory of all the 
 children of William, and Mary Dyre ; but I liave been 
 able to lind tl^ most important laics' with reference to 
 the descent of the branch of the family in which I am 
 most interested, and it is this : 
 
 First. William and Mary Dyre. 
 
 Second. Samuel, their eldest son, baptized in Bos- 
 ton, December 20th, 1635. Married Anne Hutchin- 
 son, daughter of Captain Edward Hutchinson, grand- 
 daughter of the celebrated Anne Hutchinson, great 
 granddaughter of the Re v. Edward^Marbury, of Lincoln- 'y-f/, u if 
 shire, England, and grandniece of the poet John Dryden. 
 
 May 21st, 1669, Samuel Dyre was appointed one of 
 two conservators of his Majesty's peace for the Narra- 
 gansett country, and was long engaged in promoting 
 the settlement of that country. 
 
 Third. Edward Dyre, son of Samuel and Anne 
 Hutchinson Dyre, was born in 1670. He married 
 
 Mary . Owned a farm in North Kingstown, 
 
 May 7th, 1712, he petitions to the General Assembly 
 of Rhode Island concerning a highway near his land. 
 
 Fourth. Edward Dyre, Jr., son of Edward and Mary 
 was born in North Kingstown, January 6th, 1701 — lived 
 in North Kingstown, and was made freeman. May 
 1st, 1722. In 17-18 was deputy to the General As- 
 sembly from North Kingstown. 
 
 V 
 
 
 t { r c .'^?',/S<_
 
 48 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 Fifth. Edward Dyre (son of Edward, Jr.) was born in 
 North Kingstown in 1725. "Was made freeman in 
 May, 1T52. Married Elizabeth Fish, Nov. 29th, 1750. 
 Their children were "William, Charles, Frances, Benja- 
 min, Amherst, Henry., Susannah, Anna, Elizabeth. 
 
 Sixth. Henry Dyre (son of Edward Dyre, 3d) was 
 born in North Kingstown, July 12th, 1759. On tlie 
 19th of March, 1787, he married Sarah Coy. Soon 
 after his marriage he went to Shaftesbury, Vermont, 
 and there the following children were born : Moses, 
 Anna, Olive, Lydia, Rufus, Dennis, David, Daniel, 
 Lewis, Heman. His son Dr. Lewis Dyer speaks thus 
 of him : " My father was a modest man. He was a 
 great reader, especially of history. When he went to 
 school he walked three miles, twice a day. He culti- 
 vated intellectual arithmetic with much interest, and 
 in his old age, when his sons were at home, would 
 often reach results by mental process in half the time 
 it required them by the use of slate and pencil. There 
 was much of the ' old school gentleman ' about him." 
 
 Henry Dyer died January 2d, 1855, aged 95 years. 
 Sarah Coy Dyer died July 26th, 1846, aged 77. Their 
 last years were spent on a farm delightfully situated in 
 the valley between the Green and Equinox ranges of 
 mountains, near the beautiful village of Manchester, 
 Vermont. In this secluded home they reared their 
 family of children, giving them every educational ad- 
 vantage possible, and fitting them for useful citizens. 
 No iron road then ran through that remote valley, no 
 shrill whistle echoing through the mountains gave to
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 49 
 
 those dwellers in rural homes intimations of the stir, 
 the gatherings, the quick life, the accelerated move- 
 ments of the populations of cities. They were far 
 away from great centres, which did not, as they now 
 do, report themselves daily — transmit daguerreotypes of 
 their busy, bustling scenes to the quiet village and 
 the lonely farm-house. Children reared amid such 
 surroundings must often have longed to pass those 
 mountain barriers, and as the family of Henry Dyer 
 on " Equinox Farm " grew up, they left their home 
 on the hillside, to take their part in the battle of life. 
 The farm, however, still remains in the family, and is 
 now owned by Douglas Henry Dyer, a grandson of 
 Henry Dyer, Senior. The two following sketches are 
 of the youngest sons of Henry and Sarah Coy Dyer. 
 
 Lewis Dyer, M.D., son of Henry and Sarah Coy 
 Dyer, was born in Shaftesbury, Vermont, February 
 24th, 1807. He graduated December, 1828, at the 
 Berkshire Medical Institute, Massachusetts, which was 
 organized under the charter of Williams College. 
 After practicing a few years, at Gloversville, Xew 
 York, he emigrated westward in the summer of 1832. 
 "While visiting his brother. Rev. Heman Dyer, D. D., 
 then connected with Kenyon College, Gambler, Ohio, 
 the trustees of the college and theological seminary, 
 offered him the position of physician to these institu- 
 tions, which he accepted, and filled for a few years. 
 That field being too limited for professional labor, he 
 moved to Mount Vernon, in the same county, where 
 4
 
 50 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 he shared, for a time, an office with the Hon. Cohimbus 
 Delano, late Secretary of the Interior — the one dis- 
 pensing plijsic — the other, law and metaphysics. 
 While liere he edited the Whig newspaper of the city, 
 and was a member of the Ohio Whig State Conven- 
 tion, called to consider what action should be taken 
 consequent upon the repeal of the Missouri Compro- 
 mise. While some advocated its restoration, Dr. 
 Dyer said, " Let it stand repealed, but never admit 
 another slave State into the Union," In 1855 he 
 moved to Iowa, but the winters were too severe for 
 his wife and daughter, and, declining a professorship 
 in a medical college at Keokuk, he sought a more 
 genial climate at Du Quoin, Illinois. When the late 
 war broke out he was instrumental in sending many 
 soldiers into the field and, at the personal request of 
 Governor Yates, accepted the position of surgeon to 
 the Eighty-first Illinois regiment, to which office this 
 regiment elected him. On the day he entered the 
 field he was placed upon the operating staff, where he 
 remained for two years, after which he was promoted 
 to the office of surgeon-in-chief of division, the 
 duties of which were both grave and arduous. In 
 justice to the subject of this notice, an episode in his 
 army life should here be noted. Two or three officers 
 of the line, having become displeased with the Doctor, 
 succeeded, by subornation of perjury, in having 
 certain charges secretly preferred against him and 
 forwarded to the Secretary of War. It was a month, 
 or more, before this conspiracy came to the Doctor's
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 51 
 
 knowledge. It was then communicated by his colonel, 
 who advised him to resign. This he indignantly refused 
 to do; as, under the circumstances, it would be an 
 admission of guilt and both dishonorable and cow- 
 ardly. 
 
 He now repaired to General Grant's headquarters 
 and, on learning that a document containing certain 
 charges had been received and forwarded to the 
 Secretary of War, inquired what an innocent, honor- 
 able and determined man should do, to vindicate him- 
 self. Whereupon General Grant at once issued an 
 order to General McPherson to convene a court of 
 inquiry, forthwith, to investigate the matter. Such 
 a court was convened, and the evidence elicited by it 
 not only exculpated the Doctor, but brought to light 
 one of the foulest conspiracies on record. The pro- 
 ceedings of the court, with a letter from General 
 McPherson, were forwarded to the War Department ; 
 but, meantime, an order dismissing Dr. Dyer from the 
 service, with the loss of all pay, was received and read 
 at dress parade. The Doctor was present, and re- 
 marked : "" Gentlemen, this matter will not end here !" 
 Doffing his shoulder straps, and repairing to General 
 McPherson's headquarters, he said to that officer : 
 " General, I have come to tender my services to carry 
 a musket in the ranks!" The corps medical director, 
 who was present, interposed by saying, " If Dr. Dyer 
 wishes to volunteer, I shall be verj' glad to assign him 
 to duty, as we need his services very much.'" This 
 arrangement was entered upon, but shortly terminated
 
 52 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 bj the prompt restoration of the Doctor to his former 
 position. He was regarded by his associates as a skill- 
 ful, brave and noble officer. A high compliment was 
 paid him, when, at the close of the war, the history of 
 the Illinois troops being called for, by an act of the 
 Legislature, Dr. Dyer was assigned to the duty of 
 writing the history of his command. It must be a 
 pleasant reflection that, being himself the son of a 
 Revolutionary soldier, who fought to establish our 
 government and institutions, he and his two sons, 
 during "the great rebellion," fought to save them. 
 Keturning to Du Quoin after the war, he resumed his 
 profession, and has pursued it ever since, conscious of 
 the confidence and good will of the public and profes- 
 sion, generally. He has ever been an active and effi- 
 cient member and once the president of the Southern 
 Illinois Medical Association — a body of two hundred 
 physicians, all graduates. In 1875, the office of United 
 States examining surgeon was offered him, which he 
 accepted. During the last year, the board, of which 
 he is president, examined over five hundred pensioners. 
 He is the friend of popular education, and much of 
 his life has been connected with educational interests. 
 In politics he is a Republican, but believes the party 
 has been needlessly demoralized by the unscrupulous 
 conduct of demagogues. He has delivered numerous 
 public addresses and lectures on a variety of subjects. 
 On General Grant's return to the United States, after 
 his voyage around the world, and his visit to Mexico, 
 Dr. Dyer, by appointment of his fellow citizens, de-
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 53 
 
 livered to him the address of welcome, on his arrival 
 at Du Quoin. He commenced as follows : 
 
 " General Grant : I need not say, this assemblage 
 of people has no political significance whatever. We 
 are met to greet you, and to welcome you home to 
 your native land. 
 
 " We have met to show respect to the distinguished 
 general and the magnanimous conqueror ; the ex- 
 President of the United States, the renowned travel- 
 ler, — and the illustrious citizen. We have met to show 
 respect to the private citizen who has been honored 
 above all other men, living or dead, by the crowned 
 heads of Europe and Asia; and who, in the presence 
 of royalty and amid the blandishments of court 
 etiquette and the dazzling splendor of oriental nations, 
 has never uttered a sentiment compromising his per- 
 sonal dignity and his exalted personal character ; but 
 who has always proved the faithful and true exponent 
 of the principles and institutions of his own glorious 
 country." 
 
 Dr. Dyer has had a large experience in presiding 
 over conventions and public assemblies. He was 
 president of the large liepublican club of the city in 
 which he lives, during the campaigns of Grant, Hayes 
 and Garfield. The most notable occasion of this kind 
 was at a Congressional convention held at Cairo, 
 Illinois, a year or two ago, to nominate a candidate for 
 Congress, which, during its two days' and two nights' 
 continuance, threatened, several times, to break up in 
 a row, and would have done so but for Dr. Dver's
 
 54 SOME EECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 level Lead and firm hand. His life has always been a 
 useful and active one. In December, 1883, he writes 
 to a friend, " I shall be, according to tradition, seventy- 
 seven years old next February, and this has been one 
 of the busiest years of my life !" 
 
 The Rev. Heman Dyer, D. D., was born in the 
 town of Shaftesbury, Bennington county, Vermont, 
 9'i/o: on the W^ of September, 1810. He was the son of 
 '^ Henry and Sarah Coy Dyer. His father and all his 
 uncles on his father's side served in the war of the 
 Revolution. One of his uncles became a captain in 
 the service. 
 
 While Dr. Dyer was yet a child, about six years of 
 age, his father removed to Manchester in the same 
 county and State. Here he spent the rest of his child- 
 hood and early youth, attending the district school 
 during the winter and working on the farm in the 
 summer. When in his fifteenth year he created quite 
 a sensation by commencing the study of Latin, a thing 
 unheard of at that day in a district school. In his six- 
 teenth or seventeenth year he was sent to the academy 
 in Arlington in the same county. Here he pursued 
 his studies preparatory to entering college. Among 
 his instructors were the Rev. Anson B. Hard, the 
 principal of the academy, and the Rev. Dr. Coit, the 
 rector of the parish. To these instructors he became 
 strongly attached, and for them he ever after cherished 
 the sincerest respect. 
 
 During this period Dr. Dyer taught the district
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 55 
 
 school in two of the neighborhoods in Arlington, 
 spending in all about eight months in this occupation. 
 As he was much younger than many of his scholars, he 
 had to assume an air of dignity and importance, which 
 seemed rather comical to himself and his friends. It 
 being the custom for the school-master and the school- 
 mistress to board round among all the families of the 
 district, he thus acquired a kind of knowledge and ex- 
 perience, which served a most valuable purpose during 
 the rest of his life. While pursuing his studies in 
 Arlington, there occurred an incident which shaped, 
 very largely, his whole future career. It had been his 
 wish and ambition to enter and go through either 
 Middlebury College or the University at Burlington, 
 both in his native State, but one day at the academy 
 there was put in his hand, by some one, a leaflet en- 
 titled " The Star in the West," after the fashion of 
 Dr. Buchanan's " Star in the East." This leaflet was 
 prepared and sent out by the Rt. Rev. Philander 
 Chase, D. D., the first bishop of Ohio, and was a plea 
 and appeal in behalf of education and Christian missions 
 in the West. Bishop Chase was then engaged in 
 founding Kenyon College, and the other institutions at 
 Gambler. The appeal so stirred up the young student 
 that he resolved at once to go to Ohio, at the earliest 
 day practicable. When he made his resolution known to 
 his classmates and others, they were amazed ; admir- 
 ing, no doubt, his pluck more than his wisdom. They 
 could not understand how a vouno; ji man should be 
 willing to go so far from home, and buiy himself in
 
 56 SOME EECOKDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 such a wilderness as Ohio then was. Fortunately his 
 parents did not oppose the idea, but rather encouraged 
 it. 
 
 Accordingly, at the close of his second engagement 
 as a teacher, about the 20th of April, 1829, he left his 
 home, and the East, for the West. The West was then 
 most emphatically in Ohio. He made the journey 
 from Manchester to Gambier — about the centre of the 
 State — entirely by stage, consuming fourteen days and 
 nights in continuous traveling. He reached Gambier 
 early in May, a perfect stranger, and without even a 
 note of introduction from anybody to anybody. He 
 commenced his studies without delay, hoping to enter 
 the Freshman class in Kenyon College at the beginning 
 of the next term, which he succeeded in doing. As 
 student, teacher, tutor, and head of one of the depart- 
 ments of the institution, he remained in Gambier ten 
 years and a half. For two years and more, he occupied 
 the anomalous position of a student and also of a mem- 
 ber of the faculty. While in these double relations, he 
 became acquainted with, and rendered some valuable 
 services to, Edwin M. Stanton, afterward the great 
 War Secretary in President Lincoln's cabinet ; Mr. 
 Stanton never forgot these services. During these 
 ten and a half years. Dr. Dyer took his degrees of 
 A. B. and A. M. While yet a student he was elected 
 as secretary of the Diocesan Convention, and treasurer 
 of the Episcopal fund. It was during this period that 
 the difficulties arose between Bishop Chase and the 
 faculty, with regard to the administration of the insti-
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 57 
 
 tutions. Tliese difficulties were followed by the resig- 
 nation of the Bishop both as president of the college, 
 and Bishop of the diocese. Subsequently, upon the elec- 
 tion of Dr. Mcllvaine to succeed Bishop Chase, Dr. 
 Dyer was sent East to lay before the Bishop-elect the 
 official documents connected with the election and such 
 other information as might be desired. After Bishop 
 Mcllvaine took charge of the diocese. Dr. Dyer was 
 ordained by him, both as deacon and as presbyter. In 
 his many and varied duties he was constantly occupied 
 until the spring of 184:0, when he removed to Pitts- 
 burgh, Penn., and established a classical school there. 
 At the head of this school he continued for three years 
 or more, when he was elected to a professorship in the 
 "Western University of Pennsylvania. After serving 
 for one year as professor he was elected principal or, 
 as it was subsequently called, chancellor of the institu- 
 tion. About this time he received the degree of D.D. 
 from Trinity College, Hartford. lie was then in the 
 34:th year of his age. In the great fire in Pittsbui-gh 
 the University Buildings, with the library and ap- 
 paratus, were entirely destroyed. Within a year new 
 buildings were erected and the institution was pros- 
 perous, but the health of Dr. Dyer was very much 
 shattered by his many cares and labors, and in 1849 he 
 resigned his connection with the University and re- 
 moved to Philadelphia, where he had been invited to 
 perform certain duties in connection with the Ameri- 
 can Sunday School Union. He continued in this con- 
 nection from February, 184:9, to January, 1854. In
 
 58 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 1852 he and his wife visited Europe, spending between 
 six and seven months. 
 
 About a year after his return from Europe, he was 
 elected Corresponding Secretary and General Manager 
 of the Protestant Episcopal Society for the Promotion 
 of Evangelical Knowledge, commonly called the Evan- 
 gelical Knowledge Society. This society was formed 
 in 1847, and had for one of its objects the meeting 
 and counteracting of certain tendencies in the Episco- 
 pal Church, which had been largely awakened and 
 promoted by the somewhat famous Oxford, or Trac- 
 tarian, movement in England. 
 
 He accepted the new position to which he had been 
 appointed, and removed to New York early in 1854. 
 The duties to which he was now called brought him 
 more or less into antagonism with many of the leading 
 influences of his church. He met the charge of dis- 
 loyalty brought against the new society, by inducing 
 the Executive Committee to bring out the Book of 
 Common Prayer in three or four different sizes, and 
 give it the widest possible circulation. For several 
 years this society distributed more prayer books than 
 all the other societies put together. This action was a 
 practical and logical answer to the criticisms which 
 had been made. 
 
 From 1854 to 1861, he was constantly employed in 
 his duties at the office of the society in New York, 
 and in visiting various parts of the country, to attend 
 diocesan conventions and public meetings, and to preach 
 and make addresses in the interest of the society.
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 59 
 
 In 1861, M'hen tlie war broke out, the society was 
 actively engaged in publishing books, tracts, and two 
 periodicals, the Parish Visitor and the Standard 
 Bearer. \]\) to this time the duties of editor-in-chief 
 had been discharged, Urst, by the Rev. John S. Stone, 
 D. D., and afterwards by the Rev. C. W. Andrews, 
 D. D., of Virginia. As the war interrupted all regu- 
 lar intercouse with the South, Dr. Dyer was requested 
 to act as editor of the society's publications and 
 periodicals; this added very largely to his cares and 
 responsibilities. In 1861 the American Church Mis- 
 sionary Society was organized, and Dr. Dyer was ap- 
 pointed Corresponding Secretar3\ About the same 
 time the New York branch of the Christian Commis- 
 sion was established, and he became its local secretary, 
 the Hon. Nathan Bishop being the chief secretary. 
 He was also made a director of the American Bible 
 Society. In 1862 he was elected the first Bishop of 
 the new Diocese of Kansas, which office he declined 
 to accept. During the war he was appointed on 
 several occasions to visit AVashington, with others, in 
 behalf of the work of the Christian Commission. On 
 one occasion he was taken by Secretary Stanton into a 
 cabinet meeting and, on introducing him to Mr. 
 Lincoln, the Secretary said, "Mr. President, I wish to 
 introduce to you my old friend, the Rev. Dr. Dyer, of 
 New York ; he was my friend when I needed a friend." 
 To which the President, stretching out his long arm 
 and grasping the Doctor's hand, and shaking it vigor- 
 ously, responded : " I am glad to see you, sir ; I am
 
 60 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 glad to know any one who helped to make my Secre- 
 tary of "War, for I don't know what / should have 
 done without him," With that, Mr. Seward, Mr. 
 Fessenden, and others of the cabinet clapped their 
 hands, and cried " Good, good." 
 
 During one of his visits to Washington he went, in 
 company with the Rev. Dr. Butler, to see the magnifi- 
 cent army of General McClellan of some 200,000 men, 
 encamped a few miles from Washington. Dr. Dyer's 
 only son was at this time a soldier in this army. 
 While dining with the captain of the company to 
 which his son belonged, they were startled by the 
 sudden order for the regiments to form and prepare for 
 battle. At once the whole scene was changed, and 
 infantry, cavalry and artillery were in motion ; the 
 dinner and all ceremony were cut short, and the two 
 Doctors of Divinity hastened to their horse and wagon, 
 which an orderly had charge of, and commenced a 
 rapid advance in a direction quite opposite to that 
 towards which the troops were moving. 
 
 The battle proved to be the short and sharp skir- 
 mish of Drainesville. But it enabled the visitors to 
 see the great army in motion, and marching in columns, 
 six or eight deep, and at double quick time. On 
 another occasion, when Dr. Dyer was called to Wash- 
 ington to see his son who was confined in one of the 
 hospitals there, Mr. Stanton showed him much atten- 
 tion by having him spend the whole morning with 
 him in his ofiice at the War Department, and the 
 afternoon with him and his family at their private
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 61 
 
 residence. Before leaving, the Secretary surprised the 
 Doctor by giving him, to take to his son, at the hospi- 
 tal, a captain's commission, and the copy of an order 
 appointing him to duty, as soon as he should be able 
 to leave, in the commissary department in New York. 
 He also offered the Doctor an appointment to an impor- 
 tant position in connection with the chaplain service, 
 which he felt bound to decline. These friendly rela- 
 tions between the two parties continued till the death 
 of Mr. Stanton. 
 
 During the war Dr. Dyer took an active part with 
 Bishop Alonzo Potter and others, in establishing and 
 endowing the Philadelphia Divinity School. For 
 many years he was a member of its Board of Manage- 
 ment. At the close of the war, and at the request of 
 several prominent laymen of New York, he visited the 
 Theological Seminary of Virginia, and some of the 
 government officials at "Washington, in reference to the 
 restoration of the buildinors and g-rounds of the institu- 
 tion, so that they might again be used for their origi- 
 nal purposes. For a considerable time they had been 
 occupied as hospitals, and needed many repairs. At a 
 later period he visited Richmond in Virginia and 
 Charleston, South Carolina, to ascertain the condition 
 of things in the South and the best methods of ex- 
 tending needed aid on the part of Northern friends. 
 These visits resulted in much pecuniary assistance to 
 individuals and institutions in that part of the country. 
 
 Dr. Dyer took an active part in the formation of the 
 " Latimer Society," and afterwards of the " Clerical
 
 63 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 Associatiou," — both located in New York, and estab- 
 lished in the interests of evangelical religion. In 
 these and many other associations, he was incessantly 
 occupied, and to a degree that most seriously impaired 
 his health. 
 
 In 1868 it became evident that he must have rest, or 
 completely break down. Accordingly, it was so ar- 
 ranged that he could be relieved of his duties ; and 
 early in the spring, accompanied by his wife and 
 daughter, he sailed for Europe, where he spent several 
 months in England and Scotland and on the Con- 
 tinent. On his return in October, a breakfast was 
 given him by his friends, in one of the public halls. 
 In the autumn of 1869 Dr. Dyer met with a most 
 serious railroad accident. He was on his way from 
 Troy to Manchester, Yt. Heavy rains had produced 
 very high water in all the streams, and much damage 
 had been done to the railroads. Consequently, the 
 trains were running very irregularly. Just before the' 
 train on which he had taken passage reached Lansing- 
 burg, at a sharp turn of the road, it came into col- 
 lision with a train coming from the north. The crash 
 was terrible, and the cars of both trains were piled 
 on top of one another in a most indescribable manner. 
 Only one person was killed, but many were injured. 
 This occasioned a delay for several hours. It was 
 raining very heavily. Night came on, and everything 
 was shrouded in darkness and gloom. The conductor 
 told the few passengers in the car that he would take 
 them to Hoosick Falls, where they would find hotel
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 63 
 
 accommodations. On reaching the Hoosick River, it 
 was found to be verj much swollen, and the' passen- 
 gers were requested to leave the cars and cross the 
 bridge on foot, as it was not safe to attempt to take 
 the locomotive and cars across it. With much diffi- 
 culty the bridge was crossed, and at about 9 o'clock in 
 the evening some ten or fourteen passengers got on 
 the locomotive and tender, which were found on the 
 other side of the river. Dr. Dyer was on the loco- 
 motive, near the engineer. After going about three- 
 fourths of a mile thev came to a curve in the road, 
 where the river, now swollen to a raging flood, had, 
 during the preceding hour, completely swept out the 
 foundation of the road, but the rails appeared to be 
 undisturbed. As soon as the locomotive came upon 
 this spot, both it and the tender went down, instantly, 
 into the fearful chasm, a distance of some thirty or 
 forty feet. Most of those on the tender jumped off, 
 and thus saved themselves. All on the locomotive 
 were carried down into the raging waters. Several 
 were killed instantly. Dr. Dyer was carried down 
 with the others ; but, extricating himself from the loco- 
 motive, he was swept away by the current, and being 
 a good swimmer, he succeeded at last in making a 
 landing about three quarters of a mile down the river 
 and was saved, though he was terribly bruised. He 
 never recovered his usual health and strength after 
 this accident. The shock to his nervous system was 
 too great to pass permanently away. 
 
 As early as 1865 Dr. Dyer was appointed a member
 
 64 SOME RiQORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 of the Foreign Co^j^ittee of the Board of Missions, 
 which added very ^^^h to his labors. When the 
 Board established commissions for work among the 
 freedmen of the South a^^d the Indians in our Western 
 States and Territories, he ^as placed upon the execu- 
 tive committees of each o± these bodies, and made 
 chairman of that for the Indian Commission. This 
 made it necessary for him to carry on an extensive 
 correspondence, and to have frequent personal inter- 
 course with the Secretary of the Interior, the Com- 
 missioner of Indian Affairs, and other officials at 
 Washington.. As the nomination of Indian agents 
 for all the reservations assigned by the government 
 to the Episcopal Church devolved upon his commit- 
 tee. Dr. Dyer became painfully acquainted with the 
 plans and schemes and wicked devices of politicians, 
 great and small, in carrying out and accomplishing 
 their personal and selfish ends in this branch of the 
 public service. He often spoke of the conduct of 
 men holding the highest political, and even moral, 
 trusts with the severest disapprobation and disgust ; 
 and very glad was he when, by a change in the policy 
 of the government, as well as of the church, he was 
 relieved of this most unpleasant service. 
 
 In 1873 a meeting of the Evangelical Alliance took 
 place in New York. As a member of one of the com- 
 mittees, Dr. Dyer took a deep and active interest in the 
 proceedings of this body. In the same year, what has 
 been termed the " Cummins Movement," that is, the 
 secession of one Bishop and several of the clergy from
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 65 
 
 the Episcopal Church, took place. While Dr. Dyer 
 sympathized with some of the difficulties under 
 which these brethren labored, he did not think that 
 secession was the best way of curing the evils com- 
 plained of. The whole country had had a notable 
 illustration of the difficulties and dangers of secession, 
 and he did not think such an experiment should be 
 tried in the church. He took strong ground in favor 
 of fighting the battle out within the church, feeling 
 very sure that in the end all needed relief would be 
 obtained, and that thus, even the appearance of schism 
 would be avoided. 
 
 About the same time the movement in England, 
 and in this country, took place with regard to Bible 
 revision. Dr. Dyer took a lively interest in this 
 undertaking, and served on the American Finance 
 Committee for many years. In 1875 he was appointed 
 to accompany Bishop Lee, of Delaware, in his visit to 
 Mexico to inquire into the present condition and 
 future promise of the evangelistic work there going 
 on under the administration of the Rev. Henry C. 
 Riley, D.D. In this expedition he was accompanied 
 by his wife and daughter, and other friends. About 
 two months were thus occupied. 
 
 At the General Convention of 1877, the old Board 
 of Missions, consisting of several hundred members, 
 was abolished, and in its place a Board of Managers, 
 consisting, exclusive of the Bishops, of fifteen clergy- 
 men and fifteen laymen, was created. To this Board 
 the conduct of our general church missionary work, 
 5
 
 66 SOME EECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 at home, and in foreign countries, was committed. Dr. 
 Dyer was appointed by the Convention a member of 
 this Board, and was assigned for duty in the Foreign 
 department. 
 
 In 1879 he was elected by the Convention of the 
 Diocese of New York as a trustee of the General 
 Theological Seminary. This was a great surprise to 
 him, and many of his friends. So pronounced had 
 been his views, particularly as to the former adminis- 
 tration of the institution, that it seemed incredible 
 the Convention of New York should elect hiin to 
 such a post. Some of his friends criticised rather 
 severely his acceptance of this position. But his reply 
 was that, having had no knowledge of, or anything to 
 do with the election, he felt it was his duty to avail 
 himself of the opportunity of doing what he could to 
 make the Seminary what it should be — general in the 
 spirit of its administration, as well as in its name. 
 Soon after his election he was made a member of the 
 Standing Committee, and was appointed on two special 
 committees having charge of a revision of the statutes, 
 as well as the constitution of the institution. To the 
 work of these committees he gave much attention, and 
 had the satisfaction of seeing their recommendations 
 adopted first by the Standing Committee, then by the 
 Board of Trustees, and finally by the General Conven- 
 tion in 1883. The character of some of the changes 
 made will be understood from the fact that the old 
 Board consisted of several hundred members, and 
 from all the dioceses, and was a constantly increasing
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 67 
 
 body, as the cliurch grew. The new Board, exchisive 
 of the bishops, consists of fifty members, of which 
 twenty-five are to be appointed by certain dioceses to 
 represent certain pecuniary endowments, and twenty- 
 five are to be appointed triennially by the General 
 Convention. Of this latter numl)er Dr. Dyer was 
 appointed a member by the General Convention of 
 1883, his name standing first on the list. 
 
 His only motive in accepting this trust, as well as 
 some others which had been committed to him, was to 
 recognize the great change which had taken place in 
 the general spirit and tone of the different parties in 
 the church, and to give expression to that catholicity 
 for which he had labored so long and so earnestly. 
 While his views of church polity remained substan- 
 tially the same as they had been throughout his life, 
 he thought it the part of wisdom and of a true liber- 
 ality, to adapt the policy of the church to the altered 
 state of sentiment and feeling which so generally pre- 
 vailed. Some there were who considered his course 
 somewhat inconsistent, but he regarded it as entirely 
 consistent with the principles he had always advocated, 
 and as the only honest and honorable course to pursue. 
 
 During Dr. Dyer's life in New York he performed 
 a large amount of clerical and other duty, outside of 
 the societies with which he was more especially con- 
 nected. Soon after his removal to the city he was 
 asked to take charge of the Church of the Incarna- 
 tion, which for a time had been a chapel of Grace 
 Church. The rector of the new parish, Dr, Harwood,
 
 68 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 was obliged to leave his charge, and the city, on 
 account of illness. Dr. Dyer supplied the pulpit for 
 several months, including the Lenten and Easter sea- 
 son. During this time, he prepared and presented to 
 the Bishop quite a large class for confirmation. Im- 
 mediately upon the close of his services at the Incar- 
 nation, he was elected an assistant minister by the 
 vestry of St. George's Church. In this relation he 
 continued for five years. While the rector, the Rev. 
 Dr. Tyng, was absent in Europe, he occupied the pul- 
 pit for six months, and performed more or less paro- 
 chial duty. On several different occasions he had 
 charge of the pulpits at St. Mark's, the Ascension, the 
 Nativity, Calvary, Mediator, the Anthon Memorial; 
 and also of St. Ann's and Christ Church, Brooklyn ; 
 Trinity Church, Newark ; and Trinity, of Bergen 
 Point, IST. J. In this last-named parish he performed 
 many services during the period of its organization, 
 and on many occasions afterwards. At many differ- 
 ent times he was put in charge of Christ Cliurch, Bay 
 Ridge. During the absence of the rector, the Rev. 
 Mr. Aspinwall, in Europe, he, with his family, occu- 
 pied the rectory, and he had entire charge of the 
 parish, for more than a year. In all of the afore- 
 named churches he rendered services for from three 
 to nine months each. For more than a year he held 
 morning and afternoon services, and established a 
 Sunday-school in the chapel of the Rutgers Institute 
 on Fifth Avenue, near Forty-second street. 
 
 It was during the period of these services, that he
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY, 69 
 
 organized the Church of the Holy Trinity. On the 
 evenings of the Sundays, he officiated at the chapel of 
 the Rutgers Institute, he preached regularly in a 
 hall in West Forty-second street, at a mission started 
 by the Church of the Ascension. Among the labor- 
 ers at the time in the mission, were Bishop Whittaker, 
 of Nevada, and his wife. This mission grew into what 
 became known as the "Memorial Chapel," with its 
 chapel building and its settled pastors. He also per- 
 formed many services at another mission of the 
 Church of the Ascension, afterwards called the 
 Chapel of the Comforter. He had charge, at diifer- 
 ent times, of the services at the Church of the Medi- 
 ator, the building for which, on Lexington Avenue, 
 was purchased by his friends, Mr. Wolfe and Mrs. 
 Spencer. 
 
 Dr. Dyer rendered occasional services in many other 
 churches, chapels, and missions. As a rule, he offici- 
 ated from two to three times on Sundays, and very 
 frequently during the week. 
 
 Dr. Dyer was an active friend and worker in behalf 
 of St. Luke's Hospital from its commencement. He 
 was for many years on its Board of Management, and 
 was elected the president of the corporation, but 
 declined to accept the office, thinking it ought to be 
 held by a layman. He was also much interested in, 
 and cooperated with his revered friend, Dr. Muhlen- 
 berg, in establishing St. Johnland. He gave much 
 time and labor, in organizing '' The Home for Incur- 
 ables." For these three last-named institutions he
 
 70 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 was instrumental in raising a large amount of 
 funds. 
 
 In 1872 or '73 he became a member of the Clerical 
 Club, of which the Rev. Dr. E. A. Washburn was the 
 chief originator. One of the outgrowths of the club 
 was the Church Congress. Dr. Dyer was active in 
 promoting the interests of both of tliese associations. 
 For a lonor time he acted as chairman of the club, and 
 presided at the breakfast given to Dean Stanley, during 
 his visit to this country. He was for a long period 
 the chairman of the Executive Committee of the 
 Congress, and its meetings were held at his office in 
 the Bible House. The interest he had in these asso- 
 ciations arose largely from the conviction he had that 
 their influence would be in the line of a broader and 
 deeper and, consequently, truer catholicity through- 
 out our church. 
 
 During Dr. Dyer's life in New York he was instru- 
 mental in raising large amounts of money for specific 
 oljjects — objects outside of missionary and other 
 causes, for which collections are taken in churches, or 
 by any other systematic methods. From the books of 
 record which he was in the habit of keeping, it would 
 appear that more than $500,000 were received, and dis- 
 bursed by him, for charitable purposes. The kind of 
 reputation which he thus acquired, gave him not a little 
 labor and trouble, and sometimes annoyance. 
 
 It will be seen, from the foregoing, that Dr. Dyer 
 has led an exceedingly busy and laborious life, and 
 that he has been associated with many leading eharac-
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 71 
 
 ters, and connected with many societies, both local 
 and general. 
 
 Several of the East Greenwich and North Kings- 
 town branches of the Dyer family left Rhode Island 
 and went to Vermont. The fame of that beautiful 
 mountain region had spread all over New England, in 
 the latter part of the last, and early part of the pres- 
 ent century, causing a large emigration from tlie 
 different States. 
 
 The following sketches are of other descendants of 
 William and Mary Dyre : 
 
 CHARLES VOLNEY DYEK. 
 
 A Sketch of His Long and Useful Career, Which is Closely Inter- 
 woven with the Early History of Chicago. 
 
 One more of the historic men who helped to make 
 Chicago, passed away April 24, 1878, in the death of 
 the venerable Dr. Charles Volney Dyer, one of the 
 oldest and best known pioneers of the city, who died of 
 paralysis at the residence of his son-in-law, Mr. Adolph 
 Heile (Mr. Heile married a daughter hy adoption)^ in 
 the town of Lake View. He was born at Clarendon, 
 Vt., on the 12th of June, 1808, and was, therefore, 
 rounding up the full measure of his three score and 
 ten, at his demise. His father, Daniel Dyer, was one 
 of those sturdy old Green Mountain men, who did 
 right gallant service in the days of the Revolution. 
 His mother was Susan, daughter of Gideon and sister
 
 72 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 of Judge Abraham Olin, a woman of some note in her 
 time, and whose character may be judged from the 
 fact that she rode on horseback, unattended, a distance 
 of over a thousand miles to collect silverware and 
 gold beads from her friends for the purpose of secur- 
 ing the then enormous bail of $15,000 for the release 
 of one Matthew Lyon, of Kutland, incarcerated for 
 violation of the notorious sedition law. 
 
 For the first fifteen years of his life, the subject of 
 this sketch lived on his father's farm at home, passing 
 the uneventful days of a farmer boy, at work in 
 summer, and at the district school in winter. At 
 this age, however, he went to the Castleton (Vt.) 
 Academy, where he fitted for the higher course of 
 study which he subsequently pursued. He entered 
 college at Middlebury, from which he was graduated 
 with honors, in the medical course, in 1830. 
 
 He began the practice of medicine at Newark, 
 N. J., where he achieved enough local success to make 
 him ambitious for a broader field in which to try his 
 talents and exercise his industry. Like other aspiring 
 young men of his time, he cast longing eyes toward 
 the new West, and finally resolved to take the trip 
 and trust his fortunes with the destinies of Chicago, 
 where he arrived in August, 1835, He married Miss 
 Louisa M. Gifford, of Elgin, in 1837, a lady who 
 proved to be a woman of most sterling character, and 
 whose long life of usefulnesss has but recently closed 
 in death. The couple were blessed with six children, 
 three of whom survive — a daughter, wife of Mr., S,
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 73 
 
 E. Loring, and two sons, Charles, an artist, now in 
 Italy, and Louis, a professor in the Chicago Univer- 
 sity. 
 
 Dr. Dyer, upon his arrival, was appointed surgeon 
 of old Fort Dearborn, and from that tinne his practice 
 grew to such an extent, that in the course of a short 
 time he had means to invest. With the infinite faith in 
 the future that has characterized Chicago's pioneers, 
 he purcliased a large amount of real estate then out- 
 side of the corporation. Among other spots, once his 
 property, is the lot now occupied by the " First National 
 Bank Building." which he sold to the government for 
 the old post-office, for the sum of $46,000. 
 
 In 1854 he had acquired a competence, and retired 
 from the practice of his profession, determined to pass 
 the remainder of his life quietly, in the care of his 
 considerable property. 
 
 Dr. Dyer was a Democrat when he first came to 
 Chicago, and was elected by the Legislature to the 
 office of Judoje of the Probate Court of Cook count v, 
 in 1837. He soon after became a leading Abolitionist, 
 and supported Birney for President in 1840. There 
 were then very few Liberty party men, as they were 
 called, in Illinois ; but they had an " underground 
 railroad," and many of the passengers called upon Dr. 
 Dver and the late James H. Collins, who were under- 
 stood to be the proprietors, in passing through from 
 the South to the land of freedom, in Canada. While 
 these men stopped with the Doctor, he tried to make 
 them useful by setting them to work ; but he said
 
 74 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 they were more fond of preaching, than cutting and 
 splitting wood. Dr. Dyer used to carry a large ebony, 
 gold-headed cane, now in the collection of the Chicago 
 Historical Society, which was presented to him by his 
 admirers, as it was said, for enlightening a slave- 
 catcher after the manner in which Minerva was freed 
 from the skull of Jupiter. The Doctor was very 
 proud of this token, which he regarded as Jacob's staff 
 for freedom. About the time he received this present, 
 say in 1846, a runaway slave was arrested and taken 
 before the late Justice Kercheval, a native of Ken- 
 tucky, who had issued a warrant for his arrest, under 
 the old fugitive slave law. Mr. Collins appeard for the 
 defence and moved to quash the writ, which was done. 
 While new papers were being prepared for the re- 
 arrest of the slave, Dr. Dyer was left alone with the 
 handcuffed slave for a moment. He struck off the 
 irons and bade the man jump for dear life. In a 
 moment the others returned and, on their inquiring 
 for the slave. Dr. Dyer said : " He has sunk into the 
 bosom of the community." At an anti-slavery con- 
 vention, held in Chicago, it was resolved to start an 
 abolition paper in Washington. Dr. Dyer was made 
 chairman of the committee, and selected Bailey as 
 editor, with Whittier and Phelps as assistants. This 
 was the beginning of the National Era. 
 
 In 1863 President Lincoln appointed him Judge of 
 the Mixed Court for the Suppression of the African 
 Slave Trade, an international tribunal, holding its ses- 
 sions in Sierra Leone. In consequence of this very
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 75 
 
 appropriate honor, he spent two years abroad, when 
 not in Africa, traveling quietly with his family in 
 Switzerland, Germany, and Italy. He chanced to be 
 in Rome when the sad news of the death of Lincoln 
 fell upon the world, and he was chosen to make an 
 address in memory of his dead friend. In religions 
 belief the Doctor was a follower of Swedenbor<r, hav- 
 ing embraced the tenets of the Scandinavian philoso- 
 pher in 1854. Soon after this, he and his wife, in connec- 
 tion with the Hon. and Mrs. J. Y, Scammon and Mr. 
 and Mrs. J. E. Wheelei-, founded the New Jerusalem 
 Society of this city. The great fire of 1871, and the 
 panic, greatly straitened Dr. Dyer's circumstances, and 
 his ready pecuniary means were nearly exhausted at 
 the time of his death. He was a very peculiar man, 
 sui generis in the fullest sense of that expression. No 
 one who has ever known him well, could ever forget him. 
 He loved a joke so well that, if he had had a chance, 
 like Hood, he would have made his pun even to his 
 last breath. It is impossible to do his varied charac- 
 ter justice within the limits of a brief notice like this, 
 but he will always be remembered in the Northwest 
 as one of those vigorous men who braved the perils 
 of the old frontier to build an empire upon a wilder- 
 ness, and who held the most profound political convic- 
 tions, not for personal glory, but that he might fulfil 
 the promise of American freedom, and raise a fallen 
 race to the fold of humanity. 
 
 Charles Gifford Dyer, son of Dr. Charles Volney
 
 76 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 Dyer, was born in Chicago in 1845. Educated at 
 Lake Forest, until he entered the Naval Academy, then 
 at Newport. Shortly before finishing his studies there, 
 a strong inclination for painting, and the urgent desire 
 of his family, led him to resign. He then pursued the 
 study of art in Dresden and Munich, but at the end 
 of two years abandoned it and returned to Chicago. 
 After convincing himself that commerce was not his 
 vocation, by five years of repugnant labor, he again 
 devoted himself to the study of painting with such 
 persistency as his health, now greatly impaired by the 
 hardships and disgusts of his commercial venture, al- 
 lowed. To restore his health, he was obliged to travel 
 extensively in Italy, Egypt, and the East. Much of 
 his work in his profession was done at Munich, in 
 1876. He finally abandoned Munich for a time, and 
 studied to great advantage in the atelier of Jaquesson 
 de la Chevreuse at Paris. In the course of his study, 
 Venice and its great monuments attracted him, and 
 the best known work which he has done is to be found 
 in America, and connects itself with St. Mark's, Yen- 
 ice. A picture by him, entitled " A German Student," 
 attracted much attention in the Royal Academy at 
 London, and at Munich, where he now has his atelier. 
 His works are scattered among private collections in 
 England and America. 
 
 Louis Dyer, son of Dr. Charles Yolney Dyer, was 
 born in Chicago in 1851. Educated in Chicago — at 
 the Chateau de Lancy, near Geneva, Switzerland — at
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 77 
 
 St. Amaud-Montroud (Cher) France — at the Univer- 
 sity of Munich, and finally graduated from Harvard 
 in 1874. After leaving Harvard L.D. he matriculat- 
 ed at Balliol College, Oxford, England, where he took 
 his degree in July, 1878, and was for one year Taylor- 
 ian scholar. In September of the same year, lie was 
 appointed tutor in Greek, by the corporation of Har- 
 vard College, Mass., and at the expiration of the term 
 of this appointment he was in 1881 appointed assist- 
 ant professor of Latin and Greek, at Harvard College, 
 where he now teaches. Professor Dyer not only 
 takes high rank as a scholar, but is also a poet and a 
 man of many accomplishments. 
 
 Olin Gideon Dyer, M.D., the youngest son of Gideon 
 Dyer, was born in Clarendon, Yt,, December 5th, 
 1822. From force of circumstances, he was unable to 
 pursue a classical course of study, but nevertheless he 
 succeeded in obtaining a good common school educa- 
 tion. At an early age, becoming interested in the 
 subject of medicine, he commenced to study under the 
 guidance and tuition of the late Dr. Moses H. Ranney, 
 who afterwards became distinguished in New York as 
 a specialist in mental disease, and graduated at the 
 Castleton Medical College — then one of the most 
 flourishing medical institutions of the day — with the 
 highest honors in June, 1844. He commenced the 
 practice of his profession during the succeeding year 
 in Lexington, Ohio, where he remained but one year, 
 when he returned to Yermont. Li August, 1846, he
 
 78 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY.- 
 
 married Annah Gaines Holt, of Pittsfield, and imme- 
 diately located in Salisbury, where he remained in 
 active practice for five years. At the expiration of this 
 time, to wit, September, 1851, at the earnest solicitation 
 of the late Dr. A. G. Dana, he removed to Brandon, 
 Yt., to become his associate in practice. Owing how- 
 ever to the ill health of Dr. Dana, the partnersliip 
 terminated in two years, by his voluntary withdrawal, 
 since which time, Dr. Dyer has occupied the field 
 against all competitors, with signal ability and success, 
 until the present time. 
 
 At the close of the war he received the unsolicit- 
 ed appointment of examining surgeon for pensions, 
 which ofiice he still holds. As a man. Dr. Dyer is held 
 in the highest esteem and is above reproach, while, as 
 a physician, he possesses in a rare degree that intuitive 
 knowledge of disease which has rendered him so re- 
 markably skilful and successful that he is regarded, 
 by all, as the leading medical man in Brandon and 
 vicinity. 
 
 The Eev. Palmer Dyer, an estimable Episcopal 
 clergyman, was a son of Edward Dyer, of Rutland, Yt., 
 and was born October 24th, 1798. He graduated at 
 Union College in 1820, studied theology, and was ordain- 
 ed deacon by Bishop Brownell, of Connecticut. His 
 useful life came to an untimely end by drowning in 
 the Ausable River, August 1st, 1844, while he was en- 
 deavoring to save the life of a lady, who had slipped
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 79 
 
 on a narrow bridge, and was in great danger. She was 
 saved, and her noble rescuer perished.*^ 
 
 There are many descendants of Charles Dyre, the 
 youngest son of William and Mary Dyre, living in 
 various parts of Rhode Isand, He had two daughters 
 and five sons : Mary, Eliza, Samuel, John, William, 
 Thomas, and Charles. He died in 1727. The follow- 
 ing sketches are of some of his descendants : 
 
 Benjamin Dyer, M.D., was born in Cranston, Rhode 
 Island, July 8th, 1768. His father was the son of 
 Charles Dyer, Jr., who married Abigail Williams, 
 daughter of Thomas Williams and great-granddaughter 
 of Roger Williams. Charles Dyer, 1st, of Providence 
 came from Dartmouth, Bristol county, Massachusetts, 
 and purchased the farm now known as " Cabbage Neck," 
 Cranston, his deed being dated July 25, 1712. He 
 married Mary Lapham, and they had seven children. 
 The subject of this sketch received such education as 
 the schools of his day afforded, and at an early age en- 
 tered upon the study of medicine, under the direction 
 of Nathan Truman, who was then one of the prominent 
 physicians of Providence. Dr. Dyer engaged suc- 
 cessfully in the practice of medicine, and became as- 
 sociated with his brother, Charles Dyer, in the drug 
 business, in Providence, in whicb he continued until 
 his death. He pursued his profession with great assi- 
 duity for a period of twenty years, and then relinquished 
 his professional business, in order to devote his time to 
 mercantile and manufacturing pursuits, and to the im- 
 
 ^ YD. . fP. / ' ,
 
 80 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 provement of the extensive landed property belonging 
 to himself, and the firm of which he was a partner. 
 His apothecary business rapidly increased, and the firm 
 became large dealers in chemicals and dyestuffs, from 
 the sale of which a handsome fortune was realized. In 
 1816, in company with his brother Charles, Benjamin 
 Hoppin, Stephen Waterman and others, he became 
 interested in the purchase and improvement of lands 
 on the west side of the river, which then belonged to 
 the Field estate. They filled in and laid out Dyer, 
 Dorrance, Eddy and other streets in that vicinity, and 
 built wharves and store-houses, investing immense sums 
 of money in the enterprise, with great advantage to 
 the city, and serious loss to themselves. Dr. Dyer was 
 also one of the originators of the Providence Dye- 
 ing, Bleaching and Calendering Company and of the 
 Phoenix Iron Foundry. In 1824 he built the Dyer 
 block, on Broad street. He also built the steam-mill 
 on Eddy Street, now owned by Amos D. Smith & 
 Co. He owned a large tract of land In Cranston, 
 now Elmwood, between Broad and Greenwich streets, 
 where he had a fine country residence for a summer 
 home, and where he was interested in various agricult- 
 ural enterprises. At one time he devoted considera- 
 ble attention to the raising of currants for the manu- 
 facture of wine, and also to silk growing on his own 
 premises Some of his friends still remember seeing 
 him at an agricultural fair, dressed in a beautiful suit 
 of silk made from products of his own culture. His 
 energy and enterprising spirit, gave vigor and promised
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 81 
 
 success to every undertaking, and the deep interest 
 which he continually manifested in the public welfare, 
 caused him to be regarded as one of the most useful 
 citizens of his day. As a physician he was skilful and 
 devoted to his profession. He often sacrificed time, 
 money, and professional services for tlie relief of the 
 suffering poor. As an instance of his benevolence, it 
 is said that, during his professional career, he was 
 attending a poor woman who was dangerously ill with 
 typhoid fever, and seeing that she could not recover if 
 she remained in the unwholesome district where she 
 lived, he removed her to his own house, and cared for 
 her until her health was restored. He was noted for 
 his sociability, hospitality, and benevolence. Dr. Dyer 
 was always one of the first to promote all practical 
 charities and public institutions for good. Being of 
 modest and very retiring disposition, he never accepted 
 oflicial positions. He was a member of a sect known 
 as Sandemanians, of which it is said there is but one 
 society in this country, at Danbury, Connecticut. 
 The few members of the society in Providence met 
 with him and his family at his house, and he conducted 
 the religious services. At his death, which occurred 
 May 15, 1831, his family became members of the 
 Beneficent Congregational Church. 
 
 Hon. Elisha Dyer, ex-Governor of Rhode Island, 
 
 son of Elisha and Frances (Jones) Dyer, was born in 
 
 Providence, Rhode Island, July 20, 1811. He is a 
 
 lineal descendant of William and Mary Dyre. Their 
 
 6
 
 82 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 grandson, John, married Freelove "Williams, a great- 
 granddaughter of Roger "Williams, and John Dyer's 
 son, Anthony, was the grandfather of the subject of 
 this sketch. Governor Dyer's mother was a daughter 
 of Esther Jones, a great-granddaughter of Mary Ber- 
 non, who was a daughter of Gabriel Bernon, a Hugue- 
 not, and a refugee from La Rochelle, France. Gabriel 
 Bernon was a merchant of an ancient and honorable 
 family of Rochelle, where he was born April 6, 1644. 
 Governor Dyer enjoyed superior educational advan- 
 tages. He received early and careful training in pri- 
 vate schools in Providence, spent a short time at 
 Benjamin Greene's boarding-school, at Black Hill, in 
 Plainfield, Connecticut, and was prepared for college 
 in Roswell C. Smith's school, in Providence, from 
 which he entered Brown University, September 7, 
 1825, at the age of fourteen. He gradated from that 
 institution September 2, 1829, and September 1st of 
 the same year entered the store of Elisha Dyer & Co., 
 commission merchants. No. 5 West "Water street, 
 Providence, where he served in a clerical capacity 
 until April 1, 1831, when, Mr. Cary Dunn having re- 
 tired from the firm to engage in business in New 
 York, young Dyer became the junior partner. On 
 the 8th of October, 1838, he married Anna Jones 
 Hoppin, daughter of Thomas C. Hoppin, Esq. By 
 this marriage there were seven children, four of whom 
 — Elisha, Anna Jones, Gabriel Bernon, and William 
 Jones — are now living. In early life Governor Dyer 
 became identified with various public interests, and
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 83 
 
 has always taken an active part in promoting useful 
 enterprises and social reforms. On the 23d of Sep- 
 tember, 1833, he was tendered the appointment of 
 vice-consul of the two Sicilies, which honor he de- 
 clined. About this time he became a strong temper- 
 ance man, and by earnest persuasion prevailed on his 
 father to give up the sale of intoxicating liquors, then 
 a large and profitable part of their business, which 
 course, as was expected, proved very damaging to 
 their trade. This incident illustrates a strono; charac- 
 teristic of Governor Dyers life. He is a man of high 
 moral principle, and has always been true to his con- 
 victions. On the 30th of September, 1835, he became 
 a member of the Rhode Island Society for the En- 
 couragement of Domestic Industry, of which he sub- 
 sequently served as secretary, member of the Auditing 
 Committee, and president, and from 1859 to 1878 was 
 an honorary member, and a member of the Standing 
 Committee. Perhaps no one has done more for the 
 success of this society than Governor Dyer. He 
 worked earnestly, both at home and abroad, to pro- 
 mote its usefulness. He visited agricultural colleges 
 in Europe, and obtained valuable statistics and infor- 
 mation for the society in this country, while travelling 
 for his health. In 1835 his father built the Dyerville 
 Mill, in North Providence, and established the Dyer- 
 ville Manufacturing Company, for the manufacture 
 of cotton cloth. Mr. Dyer became the agent of this 
 company, in which position he served until the death 
 of his father, in 1854, when he became the sole owner
 
 84 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 of the property, and continued the business until 1867, 
 when, on account of failing health, being obliged to 
 retire from business, he sold the mill. During his 
 business career, he was prominently identified with 
 many of the commercial interests of the city. For 
 many years he was a member and director of the 
 Providence Athenaeum, a director of the Providence 
 Young Men's Bible Society, of which he was president 
 in 1843, and was a member of the Providence Dis- 
 pensary, being among the most generous in caring for 
 the poor and unfortunate. He became a member of 
 the Rhode Island Historical Society in 1837, and was 
 one of the Board of Trustees, from September 10, 
 1845, until the abolishment of the same in 1848. In 
 politics Governor Dyer was formerly an old line 
 Whig, and has been identified with the Republican 
 party since its organization. He was a delegate to the 
 "Whig Convention at South Kingstown, Rhode Island, 
 October 31, 1839, and secretary of the same; and a 
 delegate to the Whig Jubilee and Festival at Niblo's, 
 Kew York, in November, 1839. He was chairman 
 and first vice-president of the Young Men's Whig 
 Convention at Providence, April 2, 1840, He was a 
 delegate to the Young Men's Whig Convention at 
 Baltimore, May 3, 1840, of which he was chairman, 
 and at that time addressed ten thousand people in 
 Monument Square, Baltimore. On the 27th of June, 
 1840, he was elected Adjutant-General of Rhode 
 Island, and re-elected for five successive years, in 
 which capacity he rendered very efficient service, being
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 85 
 
 on active duty under Governor Samuel W. King, con- 
 stantly, from April 3d to July 21st, 1842, liaving 
 almost entire charge of the plans and movements of 
 the State government during the '' Dorr War." He 
 served as a member of the Providence School Com- 
 mittee, from January 3, 1843, to June 6, 1854, when 
 he resigned. In 1851 he was nominated for Mayor 
 of Providence by the Temperance party, and defeated 
 by a small majority. 
 
 On the 4th of April, 1853, he was nominated for 
 State Senator, but not elected. He was president of 
 the Exchange Bank of Providence at the time it be- 
 came a national bank, and served as a director of the 
 same from 1837 to 1879 ; was elected a director of the 
 Union Bank of Providence, September 2, 1845. and 
 became a director of the Providence and Washington 
 Insurance Company in January, 1850, but soon after- 
 ward resigned. He was second vice-president of the 
 Rhode Island Art Association in 1853. In 1854 he 
 became an annual member of the United States Agri- 
 cultural Society, and in 1857 a life member and vice- 
 president of the same. He was also a member of the 
 Windham County (Connecticut) Agricultural Society. 
 In August, 1855, he became a member of the Ameri- 
 can Association of Arts and Sciences. He was a 
 member of the Butler Hospital Corporation, and trus- 
 tee of the same from January 23, 185G, to June 5, 
 1857, when he resigned ; was vice-president of the 
 Lake Erie Monument Association ; president of the 
 Young Men's Christian Association from May 12,
 
 86 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 1857, to April 12, 1858 ; honorary member of Frank- 
 lin Lyceum in 1858, and of the Providence Association 
 of Mechanics and Manufacturers in 1860. On the 10th 
 of March, 1853, he was a delegate to the Whig State 
 Convention, and secretary of the same, and at the same 
 time was chairman of the Eastern District Convention. 
 In 1857 he was elected Governor of Rhode Island, 
 and re-elected in 1858, and declined in favor of Hon. 
 Thomas G. Turner, in May, 1859. Concerning his 
 administration as Governor, the Providence Post^ a 
 leading Democratic paper, which was opposed to him, 
 thus referred to him on the 7th of March, 1859 : " It 
 is proper to say that his retirement is wholly volun- 
 tary. It is not often that men thus voluntarily decline 
 an honorable office, and especially when the office may 
 be used as a stepping-stone to others of still greater 
 value and importance. . . . We have from the first 
 looked upon him as an honorable, high-minded oppo- 
 nent, and a straightforward, conscientious man ; and 
 candor compels us to say, that he has never failed to 
 reach the standard we set up for him. His abilities 
 have been equal to his official duties, and his integrity 
 has been equal, so far as we know or suspect, to every 
 assault which the intrigues of professed friends have 
 made upon it. He retires from an office which he did 
 not seek, wholly unscathed, and wholly uncontaminated 
 with the slime which too often clings to men who dis- 
 pense official favors." Governor Dyer was made a 
 director of Swan Point Cemetery, February 7, 1860. 
 He was one of the founders of the Providence Aid
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 87 
 
 Society, and was one of its board of managers from 
 November 16, 1855, to October 1, 1859. On the 8tli 
 of November, 1849, he was elected an honorary mem- 
 ber of the Rhode Island Horticultural Society, and one 
 of the Committee on Finance, in 1854. Governor 
 Dyer has taken a prominent part in military matters. 
 He joined the First Light Infantry Company, of Prov- 
 idence, in 1838, was made an honorary member of 
 the Newport Artillery Company in 1858, and an 
 honorary member of the Providence Marine Corps of 
 Artillery in 1859. During the civil war, he exhibited 
 in various ways his patriotic devotion to the cause of 
 liis country. On the 25th of September, 1861, he was 
 chosen captain of the Tenth Ward Drill Company, of 
 Providence, and May 26, 1862, his son Elisha having 
 been disabled and prevented from continuing in the 
 service, Governor Dyer felt it his duty to volunteer 
 himself, and accordingly went to Washington, and 
 served for three months as captain of Company B, 
 Tenth regiment of Kliode Island Volunteers. This 
 company was composed of about one hundred and 
 twenty-five students from Brown University and the 
 Providence Hidi School. President Sears, of the 
 University, allowed his students to enlist only on 
 condition that Governor Dyer should go with them. 
 He was a director of the Providence and Springfield 
 Railroad, and has been among the first in projecting 
 and promoting various railroad enterprises in the 
 State. He was the originator of the Providence and 
 Springfield Railroad, known at first as the Woonas-
 
 88 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 quatucket Railroad, and was one of the first movers 
 in the proposed Ponagansett Railroad. He drew the 
 charter of the Narragansett Yalle}^ Railroad, and was 
 one of its corporators. In 1851, he was a director of the 
 Rhode Island Steamboat Company. The same year 
 he served on a committee sent to Washington to 
 secure the removal of the Providence post-oflfice. In 
 1852, he was elected a trustee of the Firemen's Asso- 
 ciation, Gaspe Company, No. 9. He was at one time 
 one of the directors of the Rhode Island Sportsman's 
 Club. In 1863, he was a delegate from the Rhode 
 Island Society for the Encouragement of Domestic 
 Industry, to the International Agricultural Exhibition 
 at Hamburg, in July of that year, and made an able 
 report of the same. He was vice-president of the 
 Rocer Williams Monument Association, and chairman 
 of the Executive Committee. On the 24th of Sep- 
 tember, 1869, he was elected president of the First 
 National Musical Congress, in Music Hall, Boston, 
 because of his musical ability, and his extensive ac- 
 quaintance in musical circles. He was Commissioner 
 for Rhode Island to the International Exhibition in 
 London, in May, 1871, and made a valuable report of 
 the same to the General Assembly. On the 20th of 
 March, 1873, he was appointed Honorary Commis- 
 sioner to the Vienna Exposition by President Grant, 
 and while there, rendered very important service to 
 the Commission, by reason of his large and varied 
 experience, and excellent taste and judgment. His 
 patriotic zeal led him to over-exert himself at the
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 89 
 
 Exposition, so mncli to the injury of his healtli, that 
 since then, he has been obliged to retire altogether 
 from public life and from business. He is a member 
 of the Protestant Episcopal Church, being, with his 
 family, connected with Grace Church, Providence, 
 On the 8th of June, 1852, he was a delegate to the 
 Diocesan Convention. Notwithstanding his active 
 business and public career, Governor Dyer has been 
 an invalid for the last thirty years, and very much of 
 his work has been done under the burden of infirmitv 
 and suffering. Eighteen times he has crossed the 
 Atlantic in search of health, and in 1854 visited 
 Egypt. He has been in all the places of note on the 
 usual routes of European travel, and, though travelling 
 for health, always had his eyes open and note-book in 
 hand, to glean whatever of value or interest he could 
 preserve for others. He is an effective speaker, and 
 has made a large number of public addresses on politi- 
 cal, educational, musical, and miscellaneous subjects. 
 In tlie Rhode Island Schoolmaster^ of November, 
 1861, he published a charming sketch of his school-day 
 experiences at "Black Hill," and in 1864, published 
 a book, entitled " A Summer's Travel to Find a Ger- 
 man Home." Governor Dyer is a man who might 
 have succeeded in almost any chosen line of work that 
 he had selected. 
 
 Colonel Elisha Dyer, Jr., chemist, son of Hon. 
 Elisha and Anna Jones (Hoppin) Dyer, was born in 
 Providence, Rhode Island, November 29, 1839. After
 
 90 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 attending the public schools of the city, and the school 
 of Lyon and Frieze, he entered Brown University in 
 1856, taking a partial course. In 1858 he went to 
 Germany, and entered the University of Giessen, 
 where he graduated August 20, 1860, taking the de- 
 gree of Doctor of Philosophy, having pursued his 
 studies part of the time at Freiberg, in Saxony. He 
 returned home in the autumn of 1860, and at the com- 
 mencement of the civil war started for Washington, 
 D. C, April 18, 1861, as fourth sergeant of Captain 
 Tompkins's Battery of Rhode Island Light Artillery, 
 being one of the first volunteers enlisted in the 
 State, in response to the call for three months 
 men. While in charge of unloading the battery at 
 Easton, Pennsylvania, he received an injury which 
 nearly disabled him, and, persisting in continuing 
 with his company, was overcome by the heat a few 
 days later, and sent home by order of the surgeon. 
 He has never fully recovered from the shock and 
 exposure which he then experienced. In 1862 he was 
 re-elected lieutenant of the Marine Artillery, one of 
 the oldest and finest military organizations in the State, 
 having held a position on its stafi before his enlistment 
 for the war. In May of the same year the battery 
 again enlisted for three months, but lieutenant Dyer, 
 who had volunteered, was rejected from service by 
 the surgeon, on the ground of his previous disability. 
 Governor Sprague at once appointed him major, and, 
 with Lieutenant-Colonel George H. Smith, detailed 
 him to recruit and drill men for the battery, which he
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 91 
 
 continued to do for tlie remainder of tlie year. The 
 following year Grovernor James Y. Smith appointed 
 him colonel on his staff, in which position he served 
 for three years. In 1867, the Marine Artillery Com- 
 pany was reorganized, and Colonel Dyer entered its 
 ranks as corporal. In 1869 he was elected lieutenant- 
 colonel commanding the company, which office he 
 resigned after two years, and one year thereafter was 
 again made commander for another term of two years. 
 In 1875, under the new militia law, all the artillery of 
 the State was consolidated, and Colonel Dver was 
 elected to the command of the battalion. At the 
 same time, he was appointed a member of the Board 
 of Examiners of Officers of the State Militia, which 
 position he held until 1878. In 1877 he was elected 
 to the State Senate from North Kingstown, and during 
 his term of service was a member of the Judiciary 
 Committee, and chairman of the Committee on Militia. 
 In 1878 he was appointed, by a convention of militia 
 officers, one of the commission to report a new militia 
 law to the General Assembl3\ He M'as appointed by 
 Governor Van Zandt, and served as a member of the 
 Joint Select Committee on the reception of President 
 Hayes and cabinet, in 1877. He was also appointed 
 for five years a member of the State Board of Health, 
 for Washington county, in 1878. In 1881 he was 
 elected a Representative to the General Assembly, 
 from the Fourth ward of Providence. He has been 
 one of the directors of the Union Bank and of the 
 Union Savings Bank of Providence since 1870. For
 
 92 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 several years he was one of the Finance Committee of 
 the Rhode Island Society for the Encouragement of 
 Domestic Industry. His chosen profession is that of 
 a chemist, and lie has been engaged from time to time 
 in various manufacturing interests, but of late years 
 has been very busily occupied with the care and 
 management of the estate of his father. He married 
 November 26, 1861, Nancy Anthony, daughter of 
 William and Mary B. (Anthony) Yiall, of Providence. 
 They have three sons — Elisha, George R., and H. 
 Anthony. Throughout his life Colonel Dyer has 
 labored earnestly for the best interests of mankind, 
 and enjoys the satisfaction of having done worthily 
 whatever he has undertaken. 
 
 [From the Manchester (England) Examiner and Times, May 9th, 
 
 1871.] 
 
 THE LATE MB. J. C. DYER. 
 
 In our obituary on Saturday, we announced the 
 death of one whose name, almost forgotten now, except 
 as matter of history, was, a generation ago, known as 
 one of the foremost in the ranks of the advanced Lib- 
 eral party in Lancashire. Mr. Joseph Chessborough 
 Dyer, of Burnage, who died at his son's residence at 
 Henbury, near Macclesfield, on Wednesday last, was 
 from 1816, when he settled in Manchester, till after 
 the settlement of the corn-law question, one of the 
 most prominent leaders of popular movements in the 
 district, besides holding an important place in the
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 93 
 
 scientific development of the cotton industry, which 
 has elevated Lancashire into the foremost rank among 
 English counties. Mr. Dyer's democratic leanings 
 may be said to have been hereditary, for his father was 
 a leader in the struggle for American independence, 
 and is said to have been one of the signatories of the 
 world-famous documents in which the rights of the 
 colonists were declared and asserted. The subject of 
 our sketch, however, was especially proud of his Eng- 
 lish descent, and being born in 1780, tliree years be- 
 fore the acknowledgment by England of the independ- 
 ence of the United States^ although the place of his 
 birth was Stonington, in Connecticut, he was able to 
 claim that he was "born an Englishman." Upon this 
 point, he was so interested that he obtained the opinion 
 of counsel (Scarletts), which was distinctly in his favor. 
 He received the usual education of his class; and on 
 attaining manhood, established himself in Boston, as a 
 merchant importing British goods, and in that capac- 
 ity frequently visited England, in the early part of 
 the century. In 1811, in consequence of the disturb- 
 ances between the mother country and the States, 
 Jefferson's non-intercourse act was passed, with the 
 effect of ruining the American trade in English goods. 
 Mr. Dyer, thereupon, removed at once to London. In 
 1811, he married Miss Eliza Jones, daughter of Mr. 
 Somersett Jones, of Gower street, London, and Brand 
 House, Somersetshire, a nephew of Sir William Jones, 
 the well known Indian scholar. After a brief resi- 
 dence in Birmingham, where he projected the North
 
 94 SOME RECORDS OF THE DTER FAMILY. 
 
 American Review, and, along with Mr. Tudor, pre- 
 pared the first three numbers of the magazine, he 
 settled in Manchester, and in this town or its im- 
 mediate neighborhood, he lived till 1864. For two 
 years afterwards he lived with his son, Mr. F. N. 
 Dyer, at Whaley Bridge, and since then, till the time 
 of his death, at that gentleman's seat at Hen bury. Mr. 
 Dyer, shortly after his settlement in Manchester, by the 
 adaptation of several useful American inventions, gave a 
 great impetus to the cotton trade, which was then rapidly 
 developing in this district. Wheeler, in his " History of 
 Manchester," after speaking of the inventions of the 
 mule and throstle spinning, says : " Two other important 
 inventions have yet to be named — the fly frame, intro- 
 duced about 1817, which supersedes the roving frame 
 for middle and lower numbers (of yarns) ; and the tube 
 frame, which roves much faster than fly, but only for 
 low numbers. Mr. Dyer, of this town, introduced 
 them from America, and in 1825 and 1829 took out 
 patents." So rapidly was the importance of these in- 
 ventions recognized, that it is said that in a few years 
 nearly 1,000 improved frames were in operation in the 
 mills of the cotton district. Mr. Dyer was the founder 
 of one of the largest firms of machinists in Manchester. 
 Mr. Dyer was a director of the Bank of Manchester, 
 in which he was a considerable shareholder. By its 
 stoppage, during the joint-stock bank panic between 
 1836 and 1842, he suffered severe pecuniary losses. 
 Even while engaged in business pursuits, Mr. Dyer was 
 an active politician ; but after his retirement, many of
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 95 
 
 his best years were given up almost wholly to the ad- 
 vancement of the political and social condition of the 
 people. His public services embraced a very wide 
 range. In 1824 he was one of the projectors of the 
 Royal Institution of Manchester, and a liberal sub- 
 scriber. He was, also, about the same time, one of 
 the first to subscribe towards the formation of the 
 Manchester Mechanics' Institute. He was a moving 
 spirit in the counsels of those advanced Radicals, 
 through whose action, chiefly, Manchester obtained the 
 position of a borough, returning two members under 
 the reform bill of 1832, and subsequently he was 
 equally active in the movement for obtaining a charter 
 of incorporation for the city. The prominent position 
 which, at this time, Mr. Dyer held in Manchester poli- 
 tics may be judged of from the fact that in 1830, along 
 with Mr. Mark Phillips (subsequently one of the first 
 members for Manchester) and Mr. Alexander Kay, he 
 was nominated at a public meeting in the Town Hall, 
 to bear the congratulations of the citizens to the people 
 of Paris, on the success of the revolution of July. The 
 Manchester delegates were received at the Hotel de 
 Yille, and a public banquet was given in their honor. 
 Mr. Dyer was chairman of the Manchester branch of 
 the old Reform League, and took a leading part in all 
 the agitations preceding the passage of the act of 1832. 
 The influence which Mr. Dyer then obtained, was used 
 to good purpose at the flrst election for the new-created 
 borough. Mr. C. Poulett Thompson, who was nomi- 
 nated along with Mr. Mark Philips as a Liberal candi-
 
 96 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 date, being unable, in consequence of his candidature 
 for Dover, to attend personally to his canvass here, was 
 represented by Mr. Dyer, who had the satisfaction of 
 returning his candidate. Mr. Dyer was one of the 
 first, and remained to the successful close of its labors, 
 one of the leading members of the Anti-Corn-Law 
 League. He also took an active part in most of the 
 public measures which engaged attention from 1820 to 
 1850. Shortly after the latter date, being now more 
 than TO years old, he retired, almost entirely, from 
 participation in public business, in which, however, he 
 preserved till the last a keen interest. In 1818, Mr. 
 Dyer was elected a member of the Manchester Liter- 
 ary and Philosophical Society, of which he was for 
 many years a vice-president. He contributed many 
 papers, which occupy an honored place in its records, 
 and is notable as the only member who was ever al- 
 lowed to address the society on a semi-political ques- 
 tion. This was in a paper written during the height 
 of the corn-law agitation, to combat the notion, founded 
 on Goldsmith's couplet, that the growth of large towns 
 and the increase of wealth indicated the decay of the 
 nation. As a pamphleteer, Mr. Dyer was, also, very 
 prolific, and many of his papers on the political and 
 social questions of his time were of more than passing 
 value. We are informed that he has left behind him, 
 in manuscript, a History of his Own Times, a treatise 
 on health and longevity, and an autobiography extend- 
 ing to the period of his marriage. The funeral took 
 place on Saturday, and in accordance with Mr. Dyer's
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 97 
 
 express desire, frequently reiterated during his last 
 illness, was strictly private. His remains were interred 
 in Rusholme Road Cemetery. 
 
 In the year 1632, Thomas Dyer, and his wife, arrived 
 in Boston, from Shepton Mallett, in Somersetshire, 
 England. Thomas Dyer married Agnes Reed, wlio 
 was born in Butley, two miles from the beautiful 
 town of Glastonbury, in Somersetshire. Shepton 
 Mallett is a large manufacturing town ; it carries on 
 an extensive manufactory of knit stockings and woolen 
 goods. These, with its market-cross, erected in 1500 — 
 a curious structure, supported by columns and adorned 
 with sculpture — are its principal attractions. Thomas 
 Dyer was a cloth manufacturer; but whether he pur- 
 sued that line of business in this country, I have not 
 been able to ascertain. He settled in Weymouth, in 
 Massachusetts. His wife died in 1667, leaving eight 
 children, five sons and three daughters. He was made 
 freeman in 1644 — was chosen Representative in 1646, 
 — in 1650 was appointed deacon of the church. He 
 died in 16Y6, leaving a " good estate." From him are 
 descended very many of the name in this country, but it 
 is not known that there was any relationship between 
 him and William Dyre. Prominent among his de- 
 scendants, is Colonel Eliphalet Dyer of Wyndham, 
 Connecticut, who was the great-grandson of Thomas 
 Dyer. He was born September 14th, 1721, and mar- 
 ried Huldah Bowen, daughter of Colonel Jabez Bowen. 
 of Providence, Rhode Island. He commenced the 
 7
 
 98 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 practice of law when nineteen years of age, and gradu- 
 ated at Yale College in 1740, where in 1787 he was made 
 LL.D. ; from 1745 to 1762 he was representative to 
 the General Court. He commanded a Connecticut 
 regiment during the French war — was elected a mem- 
 ber of the council in 1762 and a delegate to the Stamp 
 Act Congress in 1765 — went to England, in 1763, as 
 agent of the Susquehanna Company, and was also a 
 delegate to Congress in 1774, and, excepting 1779, held 
 during the war, a seat in that body. He had much to 
 do with framing the constitution of the United States. 
 He was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court in 
 1765, and from 1789 to 1793 was chief justice. He died 
 in May, 1807. His daughter Amelia married Colonel 
 Joseph Trumbull, oldest son of Governor Trumbull. 
 The following ludicrous story is often alluded to : 
 
 " Rome had her geese and Pomfret her wolf, but 
 Windham had her frogs. Here on the historic green, 
 in sight of the pond where it occui-red, the episode of 
 the frogs assumes a very different aspect from that 
 given it by the Rev. Hugh Peters in his humorous 
 ' History of Connecticut.' It was on the night of June 
 17, 1754, that the gruesome, grotesque circumstance 
 occurred. The green was as fresh and vivid in coloring, 
 the elms arched as gracefully, the stream from the 
 pond broke over its barriers, and flowed away under 
 the rustic bridge as murinuringly then, as now, but in 
 the minds of the people there was sad foreboding, and 
 expectation of the momentary outbreak of a savage foe. 
 It was the eve of one of the bloodiest of the French
 
 SOME KECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 99 
 
 and Indian wars. Windliam county had special 
 reason for fearing vengeance, since, in acquiring some 
 parts of her recent Susquehanna purchase, the Indians 
 were known to have been aggrieved iind wronged. 
 Goodman White's negro slave. Pomp, was the first to 
 experience the terrors of the night. Having lingered 
 until a late hour beside a dusky Pliyllis, in one of the 
 outlying farmhouses, he at length started to return to the 
 village, a Youdoo charm about his neck, and a horse- 
 shoe in his hand, as a protection against spooks. Tlie 
 night was still, misty, and intensely dark. Pomp 
 went his way whistling, his fears equally divided be- 
 tween the insubstantial ghost, and the more material 
 Mohawk. He had reached the green, when all at once 
 a dire uproar burst upon him. Koar, bellow, gabble, 
 shriek, splash, gurgle were combined, and the sounds 
 came from everywhere at once — above, below, on this- 
 side and that, from field, and pond, and forest. To say 
 that Pomp fled, and shrieked, and prayed, conveys no 
 idea of the celerity of his flight, nor the intensity of his 
 groans and supplications. But before he could reach 
 the centre of the green, chamber windows were thrown 
 open, nightcapped heads were thrust forth, and femi- 
 nine shrieks, and the strong cries of men added to the 
 uproar : many swooned ; the stronger fled as they were 
 to the village green, where they huddled in a little 
 group, every eye upturned to see through the murky 
 gloom the glory of the opening heavens, and the awful 
 visage of the descending Judge. In that company, not 
 one but believed that the last great day was at hand.
 
 100 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 But the levin-stroke of judgment failed to come, and 
 soon the thought came to the stronger minds, that the 
 uproar was of terrestrial origin, and attributable to savage 
 foes. Peering into the darkness, and shrinking from 
 the possible deadl}^ tomahawk, they waited and 
 watched. At length they heard, amid the general 
 babel, distinct articulations which gradually resolved 
 themselves into the names of two of Windham's most 
 prominent citizens — Colonel Dyer, the agent, and 
 Squire Elderkin, one of the trustees of the Susque- 
 hanna Company. ' We'll have Colonel Dyer ! We'll 
 have Colonel Dyer ! We'll have Colonel Dyer ! ' the 
 mysterious voices declared ; and ' Elderkin too ! ' 
 ' Elderkin too ! ' ' Elderkin too ! ' an equally mysterious 
 chorus repeated ; not a person but trembled for the 
 fate of those two strong pillars of the commonwealth. 
 The words ' Tete,' ' Tete,' which followed, were con- 
 strued as meaning that the investing force was dis- 
 posed to treat, but as nothing could be done in the 
 darkness, the affrighted people contented themselves 
 with placing a line of sentries around the town, and 
 then withdrew to their homes. In the morning no 
 savage army appeared, nor was any cause of the strange 
 voices of the night discoverable, and the occurrence 
 would, no doubt, have been added to the long list of 
 supernatural events detailed in Cotton Mather's 
 Wonder-Book, had not Pomp, watering his master's 
 horses at the pond next morning, discovered multitudes 
 of frogs lying dead, and blackened in the water. Then 
 it came as a revelation to the people of Windham, that
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 101 
 
 an army of frogs, smitten with some deadly epidemic, 
 or, perhaps attacked by some invading army, had pro- 
 duced the afiirighting sounds. The revulsion of feel- 
 ing, it is said, was great ; the whole village assumed a 
 sheepish air. Somehow, too, the story got abroad, and 
 brought a ripple of laughter to the face of the whole 
 county. Everybody was disposed to regard the ex- 
 perience of that terrible night as a rich joke. Gibes, 
 puns, lampoons, ditties, proverbs were rained on the 
 unfortunate Windhamites. Even the clergymen poked 
 fun, as the following letter from the Rev. Mr. Stiles, 
 of Woodstock, to his nephew, abundantly shows. It 
 is dated at Woodstock, July 9, 1754, and proceeds : 
 
 '• ' If the late tragical tidings from Windham deserve 
 credit, as doubtless they do, it will then concern the 
 gentlemen of your Jurispritian order to be fortified 
 against the croaks of Tauranean legions — legions terri- 
 ble as the very wreck of matter and the crash of 
 worlds. Antiquity relates that the elephant fears the 
 mouse ; a herd trembles at the crowing of a cock ; but 
 pray whence is it that the croaking of a bull-frog 
 should so Belthazzarize a lawver ? How Dyerful the 
 alarm made by these audacious long-winded croakers ! 
 I hope, sir, from the Dyerful reports from the frog- 
 pond you will gain some instruction, as well as from 
 the reports of my Lord Coke.' " 
 
 Even the aid of the Muses was invoked on this oc- 
 casion, and a poem thirty verses long was written to 
 describe the 
 
 " Fright -which happen'd one night, 
 Caused by the bull-frog nation."
 
 102 SOME RECOKDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 The following are two of the verses 
 
 " Lawyer Lucifer called up his crew, — 
 Dyer and Elderkin, you must come too; 
 Old Col. Dyer, you know well enough, 
 He had an old negro, his name was Cuflf. 
 
 " 'Now, Massa,' says Cuflf, ' I'm now glad enough 
 For what little comfort I have ; 
 I make it, no doubt, my time is just out, 
 No longer shall I be a slave.' " 
 
 The five following articles are of interest to all 
 bearing the name of Dyer. Much of the information 
 contained in them is taken from Alexander Chalmers' 
 Biographical Dictionary — London 1813. 
 
 Sir James Dyer, Dier, or Dyre, an eminent Eng- 
 lish lawyer, was descended from an ancient and hon- 
 orable family in Somersetshire, of the same family 
 with Sir Edward Dyer, the poet, who was fourth in 
 descent from Sir James Dver's o-reat-grandfather. 
 Sir James was the second son of Richard Dyer, Esq., 
 of Wincalton and Round Hill, in Somersetshire, at 
 the latter of which places he was born about the year 
 1512. Wood says he was a commoner of Broadgate 
 Hall (now Pembroke College), Oxford, and that he 
 left it without taking a degree, probably about 1530, 
 when he went to the Middle Temple. Here he
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 103 
 
 appears to have rendered himself eonspieuoiis for 
 learning and talents, as in 1552 he performed the 
 office of autumnal reader to that society — a distinction 
 which was at tliat time conferred only upon such as 
 were eminent in their profession. He had, on May 
 lOtli preceding, been called to the degree of serjeant- 
 at-law, and in the following November his abilities 
 wei'e rewarded with the post of King's Serjeant. On 
 the meeting of the last Parliament of Edward YI., 
 1552-3, Dyer was chosen Speaker of the House of 
 Commons, (that office being considered in those days 
 as peculiarly appropriate to lawyers of eminence,) 
 and in this capacity, on Saturday afternoon, March 4, 
 made "an ornate oration before the King:." This is 
 the only particular concerning this short Parliament, 
 which sat only for one month, and the dissolution of 
 which was quickly followed by the death of that 
 excellent young Prince, whose successor, though in 
 most respects she pursued measures totally opposite to 
 those of his reign, continued the royal favor to Dj-er, 
 whom, October 19, 1553, she appointed one of her 
 Serjeants. In this office his name appears as one of 
 the commissioners on the singular trial of Sir Nicholas 
 Throckmorton, when his jury, with a freedom rarely 
 exercised in that unhappy period, ventured to acquit 
 the prisoner. Sir James's behavior on that occasion 
 was not disgraced by any servile compliances with the 
 views of the court ; yet his regard for his own char- 
 acter was tempered with so much discretion as not 
 to occasion an}' diminution of her Majesty's protec-
 
 104 SOME EECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 tion, for on May 20, 1557, being at that time Re- 
 corder of Cambridge and a knight, he was appointed 
 a judge of the Common Pleas, whence, on April 23d 
 of the next year, he was promoted to the Queen's 
 Bench, where he sat (though of the Reformed religion) 
 during the remainder of this reign as a puisne Judge. 
 In the first year of Queen Elizabeth, on November 
 18, 1559, he returned to the Common Pleas, of which 
 he was appointed in the following January chief 
 justice — an office the functions of which he con- 
 tinued to exercise for more than twenty years, with 
 eminent integrity, firmness, and ability. In the course 
 of this long period, we find him assisting at the trial 
 of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk ; on which 
 occasion he opposed that unfortunate nobleman's 
 petition to have a counsel assigned him, and with 
 propriety, as the rigorous complexion of the law was 
 at that time — it having been reserved for the milder 
 spirit of a later age, to indulge prisoners in his un- 
 happy situation with that privilege. In 1574 he 
 exhibited a singular proof of probity, courage and 
 talents, in the spirit with wliich he opposed the 
 attempt of Sir John Conway to oppress a poor widow 
 of Warwickshire, (that county being included in the 
 circuit which he usually went,) by forcibly keeping 
 possession of her farm ; and in his reply to the articles 
 preferred against him to the Privy Council, by certain 
 justices of the peace, whom he had severely repre- 
 hended in public, at the assizes, for partiality and 
 negligence in permitting so gross a violation of the
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 105 
 
 law, and whom he had caused to be indicted for the 
 same. What was the end of the dispute his biog- 
 rapher has not been able to discover, but thinks it 
 reasonable to conclude that the firmness and ability of 
 Dyer prevailed over the malice of his adversaries, as 
 he experienced no diminution of the Queen's favor, 
 but continued in the full exercise of his judicial func- 
 tions, without any other memorable transaction that is 
 known, down to his death, which happened at his seat 
 of Great Stoughton (an estate purchased by himself), 
 in the county of Huntingdon, March 24, 15S2, at the 
 age of seventy. Leaving no issue by his wife Mar- 
 garet, daughter of Sir Maurice a Barrow, of Hamp- 
 shire, a relict of the celebrated philologist, Sir Thomas 
 Elyot, his estates at Stoughton and elsewhere, with 
 his mansion-house at Charter House Church-yard, 
 descended to Sir Richard Dyer, grandson of his elder 
 brother, John. His will commences thus : " In the 
 name of the Father, the Sonne, and the Holy Ghost, 
 Amen. I, James Dyer, knight, chief justice of the 
 Common Pleas, considering with myself the incer- 
 tentye of this vaine and transitorye life, and the sud- 
 daine callinge awaie of us from the same, by deathe, 
 and for the avoidinge of discorde and strife, that com- 
 monlie I see to ensue after the deathe of such as die 
 intestate, about the trashe and pelfrye of this wicked 
 worlde, being of perfect healthe and memorye (God 
 be thanked), doe ordeyne and make this writinge 
 withe myne owne hande, this my last will and testa- 
 ment, in manner and forme followinge."
 
 106 SOME RECOKDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 He was buried at Stonghton ; in the venerable 
 church of which place is a handsome monument 
 erected to his memory, with the following inscrip- 
 tions : 
 
 Here lieth Sir James Deyer, Knight, sometimes Lord Chief 
 Justice of the Common Pleas — and Dame Margaret, his wife : 
 which Dame Margaret was here interr'd the six and twentieth 
 day of August, 1560, and the said Sir James, upon the five and 
 twentieth of March, 1582. 
 
 Deyero tumulum quid statuis, Nepos ? 
 
 Qui vivit volitaque ora per omnium, 
 
 Exegit monumenta ipse perennia : 
 
 In queis spirat adhuc : spirat in his themis 
 
 Libertas, Pietas, Munificentia. 
 
 En decreta, libros, vitam, obitum, senis! 
 
 Eternas statuas! Vivat in his themis 
 
 Libertas, Pietas, Munificentia. 
 
 Eternas statuas lias statuit sibi : 
 
 Eteruis statuis credite marmora! 
 
 Patruo majori charissimo, ejusque 
 
 Conjugi amantissimse posuit Miles. 
 
 RiCHARDus Deyer. 
 
 I am indebted to Professor Louis Dyer, of Harvard 
 University, Cambridge, Mass., for a metrical transla- 
 tion of the Latin epitaph, which contains the spirit and 
 significance of the original, admirably reproduced : 
 
 A tomb for Dyer, thine uncle, wherefore raise ? 
 "Who lives, and quickened in the words men use 
 Hath linked his memory to undying praise; 
 While speech is speech his life he cannot lose, 
 Whose righteousness must always be proclaimed 
 When Largess, Freedom, Piety are named.
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 107 
 
 If thou his lasting monument wouldst see, 
 
 His thoughts, his deeds, his life and death revere — 
 
 And bid thy soul remember it is he 
 
 When Justice, Freedom, Piety appear ; 
 
 These he his deathless counterparts hath made, 
 
 Not here, in marble mimicry, portrayed. 
 
 Unto his very dear great Uncle, and that Uncle's very loving 
 ■wife, the present Knight hath raised this tomb. 
 
 RiCHAKD Dyer. 
 
 Sir James Dyer was the author of a large book of 
 Reports, which were published after his decease, and 
 have been highly esteemed for their succinctness and 
 solidity. They were first printed in 1585, and have 
 gone through many editions. That of 1688 is en- 
 riched by the marginal notes and references of Lord 
 Chief Justice Treby, and bears the following title, 
 literally translated from the French : " Reports of 
 several select matters and resolutions of the reverend 
 Judges and Sages of the Law, &c." That eminent 
 lawyer. Sir Edward Coke, recommends to all students 
 in the law these Reports, which he calls " the sum- 
 mary and fruitful observations of that famous and 
 most reverend Judge and Sage of the Law, Sir James 
 Dyer." They are, indeed, a valuable treasure to the 
 profession. The best edition is that by John Yaillant, 
 Esq., 1794, 3 vols., 8vo, with the life of the author 
 from an original manuscript in the Inner Temple 
 Library. It is entitled " Reports of cases in the 
 reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Queen Mary and 
 Queen Elizabeth. Taken and collected by Sir James
 
 108 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 Dver, Knio-lit — some time Justice of the Common 
 Pleas." On tlie Inner Temple manuscripts of Law 
 Reports, he signs his name James Dier. He left 
 behind him, also, " A Reading upon the Statute of 32 
 Henry YIII., cap. 1, of Wills ; and upon the 34th and 
 35th Henry YIII., cap. 5, for the explanation of the 
 Statute," printed at London in 1648, 4to. By his 
 will he bequeathed to his nephew, Richard Farwell, 
 one of the editors of the " Reports," all his books of 
 the law, " as well abridgments and reports of myne 
 owne handwritinge, as other of the lawe," which 
 expression seems to countenance the assertion of Cole, 
 that he made an " Abridgment of the Law," but, as 
 nothinor of the kind has been discovered, it seems 
 more reasonable to conclude that he wrote nothing 
 except these " Reports," and the " Reading " above 
 mentioned. By these performances, and by the 
 services he did his country, he came fully up to the 
 character which Camden has given him, of being 
 ever distinguished by an equal and calm disposition, 
 which rendered him in all cases a most upright judge, 
 — as his penetration and learning made him a fit 
 interpreter of the laws of his country. Not long 
 after his death a book was published, entitled "A 
 Remembrance of the Precious Yertues of the Right 
 Honourable and Reverend Judge, Sir James Dier, 
 Knight, Lord Cheefe Justice of the Common Pleas, 
 who diseased at Great Stawghton, in Huntingdonshire, 
 the 24th of Marche, Anno 1582. The reporte of 
 George Whetstone, Gent. Imprinted at London by
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 100 
 
 John Cliarlewood, 4to. Dedicated to Sir Thomas 
 Bromley, Lord Chancellor." 
 
 Collinson, in his " History of Somersetshire," says : 
 "The manor and borough of Wincanton (formerly 
 Wincaleton, from the River Cale, which rises near) 
 has several hamlets on the outskirts. One is Barrow 
 Common. Lands in the last-mentioned hamlet be- 
 longed to the priorj' of Taunton ; after the dissolution 
 of which, these lands, with the manor of Round Hill 
 and the rectory of Wincanton, were sold to William 
 Lord Stourton, whose son, Charles Lord Stourton, 
 being attainted, the said lands came again to the 
 Crown, and were sold in 1557, at thirty years' pur- 
 chase, to John DierT This was, undoubtedly, the 
 elder brother of Sir James Dier. 
 
 Yaillant, in alluding to the various ways of spell- 
 ing the name, says that " even at a much later period, 
 orthography was very little attended to. The disputes 
 between the commentators on Shakspeare, about our 
 great poet's mode of writing his own name, are well 
 known. It is not probable that Sir James Dyer's 
 name was ever spelled Deyer, except upon his monu- 
 ment, where it was necessary, for the proper pronun- 
 ciation of the Latin, to introduce an additional e. 
 
 One very important labor of Sir James Dyer was 
 the union of Wales with England, by the abolition of 
 the feudal jurisdiction of the eldest son of the King, 
 under whose rule, fearful oppression was committed 
 on the commonalty. Sir James rendered himself so 
 beloved in Wales, by the accomplishment of the union,
 
 110 SOME RECOKDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 that, even to this day, " The Goat and Eose," hi& 
 crest, is a common inn sign all over the principality. 
 The portrait of Sir James Dyer is to be seen in the 
 picture gallery of Chirk Castle, Denbighshire, near 
 the beautiful vale of Llangollen, North "Wales. 
 
 Sir Edward Dyer, a poet of the Elizabethan age, 
 was of the same family with those of his name in 
 Somersetshire, and was born, probably, about 1540. 
 He was educated at Oxford, either in Balliol College 
 or Broadgate Hall, where he discovered a propensity 
 to poetry and polite literature, but left it without a 
 degree, and travelled abroad. On his return, having 
 the character of a well bred man, he was taken into 
 the service of the court. He now obtained consider- 
 able celebrity as a poet, and was a contributor 
 to the " Paradyce of Dainty Devyses" and " En- 
 gland's Helicon." He wrote " The Prayse of 
 Nothing. Imprinted in London in Fleete - streate, 
 beneath the Conduite, at the signe of St. John 
 the Evangelist, by H. Jackson, 1585. 4to, black 
 letter 15 leaves." Queen Elizabeth had a great 
 respect for his abilities, and employed him in 
 several embassies, particularly to Denmark in 1589 ; 
 and on his return from thence conferred on him the 
 Chancellorship of the Garter, on the death of Sir John 
 "Wolley, 1596, and at the same time she knighted him ; 
 but, like other courtiers, he occasionally suffered by 
 her caprices. He was, at one time, reconciled to her,
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. Ill 
 
 by her Majesty's being taught to believe tliat he was 
 sinking to the grave, under the weight of her dis- 
 pleasure. Sir Edward partook of the credulity of the 
 times, studied chemistry, and was thought to be a 
 Kosicrucian. He was, at least, a dupe to the famous 
 astrologers, Dr. Dee and Edward Kelly, of whom he 
 has recorded that in Bohemia he saw them put base 
 metal in a crucible, and after it was set on fire, and 
 stirred with a stick of wood, it came forth, in great 
 proportion, pure gold. He wrote pastoral odes and 
 madrigals, some of which are in " England's Helicon," 
 first published at the close of Queen Elizabeth's reign, 
 and lately republished in the " Bibliographer.'' He 
 wrote, also, a "Description of Friendship," a poem in 
 the Ashmolean Museum, where, also, from Aubrey's 
 manuscript, we learn that he spent an estate of £4,000 
 a year. There is a letter of his to Sir Christopher 
 Hatton, dated October 9, 1572, in the Plarleiun MS., 
 and another to the Earl of Leicester, dated Mav 22, 
 1586, in the Cottonian Collection, and some of his 
 unpublished verses are in a MS. collection formerly 
 belonging to Dr. Rawlinson, now in the Bodleian 
 Library. There are two sonnets of Sir Edward 
 Dyer's at the end of Sydney's '' Arcadia," 1598, 
 which are signed C. D. At the funeral of Sir Philip 
 Sydney, he was one of the pall-bearers. 
 
 Sir Edward was an intimate friend of Sir Martin 
 Frobisher, the celebrated English navigator ; and with 
 him, Sir Walter Raleigh, and another naval captain, 
 carried the canopy over Queen Elizabeth, when she
 
 112 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 went to St. Paul's, to return thanks for the defeat of 
 the Invincible Armada. 
 
 John Dyer, an English poet, was born in 1700, the 
 second son of Robert Dyer, of Aberglasney, in Caer- 
 marthenshire, a solicitor of great capacity and note. He 
 passed through Westminster school, under the care of 
 Dr. Freind, and was then called home, to be instructed 
 in his father's profession. His genius, however, led 
 him a different way, for, besides his early taste for po- 
 etry, having a passion no less strong for the arts of 
 design, he determined to make painting his profession. 
 "With this view, having studied awhile under his master, 
 he became, as he tells his friend, an itinerant painter, 
 and wandered about South Wales, and the parts adja- 
 cent, and about 1727 printed " Grongar Hill," a poem 
 which Dr. Johnson says " is not verj' accurately writ- 
 ten ; but the scenes which it displays are so pleasing, 
 the images which they raise, so welcome to the mind, 
 and the reflections of the writer so consonant to the 
 general sense or experience of mankind, that when it 
 is once read, it will be read again." Being probably 
 unsatisfied with his own proficiency, he made the tour 
 of Italy, where, besides the usual study of the remains 
 of antiquity and the works of the great masters, he fre- 
 quently spent whole days in the country about Rome 
 and Florence, sketching those picturesque prospects, 
 with facility, and spirit. Images from hence naturally 
 transferred themselves into his poetical compositions ;
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAillLY. 113 
 
 the pi-incijDiil beauties of the " Ruins of Rome" are, 
 perhaps, of this kind, and the various landscapes in the 
 "Fleece," have been particularly admired. On his re- 
 turn to England in 1740, he published the " Ruins of 
 Rome," but soon found that he could not relish a town 
 life, nor submit to the assiduity required in his profes- 
 sion. His talent, indeed, was rather for sketching than 
 finishing, so he contentedly sat down in the country 
 with his little fortune, painting now and then a por- 
 trait or a landscape, as his fancy led hira. As his turn 
 of mind was rather serious, and his conduct and be- 
 havior always irreproachable, he was advised by his 
 friends to enter into orders ; and it is presumed, though 
 his education had not been regular, that he found no 
 difficulty in obtaining them. He was ordained by the 
 Bishop of Lincoln, and had a law degree conferred 
 upon him. About the same time he married a lady of 
 Coleshill, named Ensor, "whose grandmother," says 
 he, " was a Shakspeare, descended from a brother of 
 everybody's Shakspeare." His ecclesiastical provision 
 was a long time but slender. His first patron, Mr. 
 Harper, gave him, in 1741, Calthorp, in Leicestershire, 
 of £80 a year, on which he lived ten years, and in 
 April, 1757, exchanged it for Belchford, in Lincoln- 
 shire, of £75, which was given him by Lord Chancellor 
 Hardwick, on the recommendation of a friend to virtue 
 and the muses, Daniel Wray, Esq., one of the deputy 
 tellers of the Exchequer, and a curator of the British 
 Museum. For this gentleman Mr. Dyer seems to have 
 entertained the sincerest regard. Mr. Dyer calls " good 
 8
 
 114 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 Mr. Edwards," author of the " Canons of Criticism," 
 his particular friend, and in Savage's poems are two 
 epistles to Dyer ; one of them in answer to the beauti- 
 ful little poem which begins : 
 
 "Have my friends in the town, in the gay busy town, 
 Forgot such a man as John Dyer?" 
 
 His condition now began to mend. In the year 
 1752 Sir John Heathcote gave him Coningsby, of £140 
 a year, and in 1Y56, when he was LL.B., without any 
 solicitation of his own, obtained for him, from the Chan- 
 cellor, Kirkby-on-Bane, of £110. " I was glad of this," 
 says Mr. Dyer in 1756, " on account of its nearness to me, 
 though I think myself a loser by the exchange through 
 the expense of the seal, dispensations, journeys, etc., and 
 the charge of an old house, half of which I am going to 
 pull down." The house, which is a very good one, OM'es 
 much of its improvement to Mr. Dyer. His study, a 
 little room with white walls, ascended by two steps, 
 had a handsome window to the church-yard, M'hich he 
 stopped up, and opened a less, that gave him a full view 
 of the fine church and castle at Gateshall, about a mile 
 off, and of the road leading to it. He also improved 
 the garden. In May, 1757, he was employed in rebuild- 
 ing a large barn, which a late wind had blown down, 
 and gathering materials for rebuilding above half the 
 parsonage house at Kirby. " These," he says, " some 
 years ago, I should have called trifles, but the evil days 
 are come, and the lightest thing, even the grasshopper, 
 is a burden upon the shoulders of the old and sickly."
 
 SOME KECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 115 
 
 He had then just published " The Fleece," his greatest 
 poetical work, of which Dr. Johnson relates this ludi- 
 crous story : " Dodsley, the bookseller, was one day men- 
 tioning it to a critical visitor, with more expectation of 
 success, than the other could easily admit. In the con- 
 versation the author's age was asked, and being repre- 
 sented as advanced in life, ' he will,' said the critic, ' be 
 buried in woollen.'" He did not, indeed, long outlive 
 that publication, nor long enjoy the increase of his 
 preferments, for, a consumptive disorder, with which 
 he had long struggled, carried him oflE at length, July 
 24, 1758. 
 
 Mr. Gough, who visited Coningsby, September 5, 
 1782, could find no memorial to him in the church. 
 Mrs. Dyer, on her husband's decease, retired to her 
 friends in Caermarthenshire. In 1756 they had four 
 children living — three girls and a boy. Of these, Sa- 
 rah died single. The son, a youth of the most amiable 
 disposition, heir to his father's truly classical taste and 
 to his uncle's estate of £300 or £400 a year in Suffolk, 
 devoted the principal part of his time to travelling, 
 and died in London, as he was preparing to set out 
 on a tour to Italy in April, 1782, at the age of 32. 
 This young gentleman's fortune was divided between 
 two surviving sisters — one of them married to Alder- 
 man Hewitt, of Coventry ; the other, Elizabeth, to the 
 Rev. John Gaunt, of Birmingham. Mr. Dyer had some 
 brothers, all of whom were dead in 1756, except one, 
 who was a clergyman — yeoman of his Majesty's almon- 
 ry — lived at Marylebone, and had then, a numerous
 
 116 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 family. Mr. Dyer's character as a writer has been fixed 
 by three poems : " Grongar Hill," " The Ruins of 
 Rome," and " The Fleece," in which a poetical imagi- 
 nation perfectly original, a natural simplicity con- 
 nected with the true sublime and often productive of 
 it, the warmest sentiments of benevolence and virtue, 
 have been universally observed and admired. These 
 pieces were published separately in his lifetime, but, 
 after his death, collected in one volume, 8vo, 1761, 
 with a short account of himself prefixed. 
 
 The poet, "Wordsworth, has written so sweet a tribute 
 " To the Poet, John Dyer," that I cannot resist quoting 
 it: 
 
 " Bard of the Fleece, whose skilful genius made 
 That work a living landscape, fair and bright; 
 Nor hallow'd less with musical delight. 
 Than those soft scenes through which thy childhood stray'd, 
 Those southern tracts of Cambria, deep embay'd, 
 By green hills fenced, by ocean's murmur lull'd. 
 Though hasty Fame hath many a chaplet cull'd 
 For worthless brows, while, in the pensive shade 
 Of cold neglect, she leaves thy head ungraced. 
 Yet pure and powerful minds, hearts meek and still — 
 A grateful few — shall love thy modest lay 
 Long as the shepherd's bleating flock shall stray 
 O'er naked Snowdon's wide, aerial waste ; 
 Long as the thrush shall pipe on Grongar Hill." 
 
 A modern critic compares the poet, John G. "Whit- 
 tier, to John Dyer, and says : " Unpretentious, yet an 
 enthusiastic lover of nature in her several picturesque 
 forms, nothing delights Whittier so much as to dwell
 
 SOME KECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 117 
 
 on liis favorite tlicme ; and of all the poets since Dyer's 
 time (the immortal author of ' Grongar Hill '), Whittier 
 most reminds us of that exquisite delineator of natural 
 scenery, who, while breaking out so enthusiastically, in 
 the oft quoted lines, commencing 
 
 " ' Ever charming, ever new, 
 
 When will the landscape tire the view?' 
 
 makes us feel that John G. Whittier is Dyer's legiti- 
 mate successor in song." 
 
 Samuel Dyer, a man of great learning, and the friend 
 and associate of the literati of the last age, was born 
 about 1725, and educated at Northampton, under Dr. 
 Doddridge, and for some time, had the additional ben- 
 efit of being instructed by the learned Dr. John "Ward, 
 professor of rhetoric, in Gresham College. lie after- 
 wards studied under Professor Hutcheson at Glasgow, 
 and, to complete his education, his father, an eminent 
 jeweller in London, sent him, by the advice of Dr. 
 Chandler, to Leyden, where he remained tw^o years. 
 He became an excellent classical scholar, a great math- 
 ematician and natural philosopher ; was well versed in 
 the Hebrew, and a master of the Latin, Italian and 
 French languages. Added to these endowments he 
 was of a temper so mild, and in his conversation, so 
 modest and unassuming, that he gained the attention 
 and affection of all around him. In all questions of 
 science. Dr. Johnson looked up to him ; and, in his life
 
 118 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 of Dr. "Watts, (where he calls him the " late learned 
 Mr. Dyer",) has cited an observation of his, that Watts 
 had confounded the idea of space, with that of envpty 
 space, and did not consider that, though space might 
 be without matter, yet matter, being extended, could 
 not be without space. Mr. Dyer appears to have been 
 intended, by his early friends, for the ministry among 
 the Dissenters, but discovered an averseness to the pas- 
 toral office, which Sir John Hawkins insinuates to have 
 proceeded from an unfavorable change in his religious 
 sentiments. Various literary schemes appear to have 
 been suggested to him, none of which he undertook, 
 except in 1758, the revisal of the English edition of 
 Plutarch's Lives. In this he translated anew only the 
 lives of Demetrius and Pericles. In 1759 he became 
 a commissary in the army of Germany, and continued 
 in that station to the end of the seven years' war, after 
 which he returned to England, and, on the formation 
 of the Literary Club (composed of Dr. Johnson and his 
 friends) in 1764, he was the first member elected into 
 that society, with whom he continued to associate and 
 by whom he was highly esteemed to the time of his 
 death, in September, 1772. From an excellent portrait 
 of this gentleman, by Sir Joshua Keynolds, a mezzo- 
 tin to print was scraped by his pupil Marchi, of which a 
 copy was imposed upon the public as the portrait of 
 John Dyer, the poet. Sir John Hawkins, in his Life 
 of Johnson, has given a very unfavorable sketch of Mr. 
 Dyer's character, representing him as an infidel and a 
 sensualist. These charges, Mr. Malone, in a long note
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 119 
 
 in his Life of Drj'deii, has minutely examined with a 
 view to refute them, but in our opinion is more to be 
 praised for tlie intention, than the execution of this 
 desirable purpose. Sir John Hawkins seems to have 
 drawn his facts from personal knowledge of Mr. Dyer. 
 Mr. Malone does not pretend to this, and while lie ex- 
 presses a just indignation at Sir John's charging Mr. 
 Dver with infidelity, (supposing the charge to he false), 
 he tells us that he himself had no means of knowing 
 what Mr. Dver's relisfious sentiments were. There is 
 nothing conclusive, therefore, to be expected from one 
 who is led, from whatever motive, to deny assertions 
 without being able to prove that they are untrue. Mr. 
 Malone is the first, if we mistake not, who himself as- 
 serted what he has not in the least attempted to prove, 
 viz., that Dver was the author of Junius's letters. This 
 indeed he qualifies among his errata, by saying that 
 Dyer was not the sole author, but the principal author. 
 But even here he offers no kind of proof, nor, since 
 the publication of the late edition of those celebrated 
 letters, will it probably he thought that he had any 
 to offer more worthy of attention than the conjec- 
 tures which have ascribed these letters to a Bovd or a 
 Wilmot. 
 
 George Dyer, an English author, born in a suburb 
 of London, March 15, 1755, died in London, March 2, 
 ISAl. He was educated at Christ's Hospital, where he 
 was an associate of Charles Lamb, and at Emmanuel
 
 120 SOME EECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 College, Cambridge, where he received the degree of 
 bachelor in 1788. He was successively a teacher, tutor 
 and a Baptist minister, residing most of the time either at 
 Cambridge or Oxford, till, in 1792, he removed to Lon- 
 don, where he was engaged as Parliamentary reporter, 
 teacher and writer. In 1830 his eyesight failed him, 
 and he at length became totally blind. He was a poet 
 and frequent contributor to reviews, but is better known 
 as a scholar and antiquary. He wrote " Complaints of 
 the Poor" — a work on prison discipline, from personal 
 examinations of the prisons in and about the metropo- 
 lis. He edited two plays of Euripides and the Greek 
 Testament ; Valpy's Edition of the Classics, in 141 
 volumes ; the '* Poet's Fate," a poetical dialogue, in- 
 scribed to the Society for the Establishment of a Lit- 
 erary Fund ; History of the University of Cambridge, 
 and notices of its founders and eminent men, 1814. 
 
 In the Reminiscences of Henry Crabb Robinson, 
 1799, we find the following : '' I became acquainted 
 about this time with George Dyer. He was one of the 
 best creatures morally tliat ever breathed. He was the 
 son of a watchman in Wapping, and was put to a char- 
 ity school by some pious Dissenting ladies. He after- 
 wards went to Christ's Hospital, and from there was 
 sent to Cambridge. He was a scholar, but to the end 
 of his days (and he lived to be 85) was a bookseller's 
 drudge. He led a life of literary labor in poverty. He 
 made indexes, corrected the press, and occasionally gave 
 lessons in Latin and Greek. When an undero-raduate 
 at Cambridge he became a hearer of Robert Robinson,
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 121 
 
 and, consequently, a Unitarian. This closed the Church 
 against him and he never liad a fellowship. He be- 
 came intimate with the Xashes, Fordhams, and Rutt, 
 and was patronized by Wakefield and Mrs. Barbauld. 
 He wrote one good book, the ' Life of Robert Robin- 
 sou,' which I have heard Wordsworth mention as one 
 of the best w^orks of biography, in the language. Dyer 
 also put his name to several volumes of poetry ; but on 
 his poems my friend Reid made an epigram, that I fear 
 was thought just : 
 
 " ' The world all say, my gentle Dyer, 
 Thy odes do very much want fire. 
 Repair the fault, mj' gentle Dyer, 
 And throw thy odes into the tire! ' 
 
 " Dyer had the kindest heart, and simplest manners 
 imaginable. It was literally the case with him that he 
 would give away his last guinea. He was not sensible 
 of any impropriety in wearing a dirty shirt or a ragged 
 coat ; and numerous are the tales told in illustration of 
 his neglect of little every-day matters of comfort. He 
 has asked a friend to breakfast with him, and given 
 him coarse black tea, stale bread, salt butter, sonr milk, 
 and has had to run out to buy sugar. Yet, every one 
 loved Dyer. One day Mrs. Barbauld said to me, ' Have 
 you heard whom Lord Stanhope has made executor?' 
 ' No ! Your brother ? ' ' No, there would have been 
 nothing in that. The very worst imaginable.' 'Oil! 
 then it is Bonaparte.' 'No — guess again.' 'George 
 Dyer ? ' ' You are right. Lord Stanhope was clearly
 
 133 SOME RECOEDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 insane ! ' Dyer was one of six executors. Charles 
 James Fox was another. The executors were also re- 
 siduary legatees. Dyer was one of the first to declare 
 that he rejected the legacy, and renounced the execu- 
 torship. But the heir insisted on granting liiin a small 
 annuity ; his friends having before settled another on 
 him, he was comparatively wealtliy in his old age. Not 
 many years before his death, he married his laundress, 
 by the advice of his friends — a very worthy woman. 
 He said to me, once, ' Mrs. Dyer is a woman of excel- 
 lent natural sense, but she is not literary.' Dyer was 
 blind, for a few years before his death. I used occa- 
 sionally to go on a Sunday morning to read to him. At 
 other times, a poor man used to render him that service 
 for sixpence an hour. After he came to London, Dyer 
 lived always in some very humble cliambers in Clif- 
 ford's Inn, Fleet street." 
 
 Thomas Noon Talfourd had a great regard for 
 George Dyer and refers to his " simplicity of nature, 
 not only unspotted by the world, but almost abstracted 
 from it," and speaks of him as " breathing out, at the 
 age of 85, the most blameless of lives, which began in 
 a struggle, to end in a learned dream." 
 
 In Rose's Biographical Dictionary, I find an account 
 of William Dyer, a Non-conformist ejected from his 
 living of Cholesbury, in Buckinghamshire, in 1662. 
 He turned Quaker in the latter part of his life, and
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 123 
 
 died in 1696, aged 60, and was l)uried in Southwark. 
 He wrote some sermons and theological tracts, much 
 in the style of Bunyan. They were reprinted in 1671. 
 
 Thomas Henry Dyer, historian, was born May 1, 
 1804, in the parish of St. Dunstan in the East, in the 
 city of London, and educated privately. He was en- 
 gaged, during the earlier part of his life in a "West 
 India house, and after the ruin of Jamaica, in conse- 
 quence of negro emancipation, adopted the profession 
 of literature. Mr. Dyer travelled extensively on this 
 Continent, and particularly studied the topography and 
 antiquities of Rome, Athens, and Pompeii. He was 
 presented in 1865 with the honorary degree of Doctor 
 of Laws, by the University of St. Andrews, He pub- 
 lished in 1850 a Life of Calvin, which was pirated in 
 America; in 1861, a "History of Modern Europe," 4 
 vols.; in 1865, a "History of the City of Rome;" in 
 1867 an enlarged edition of "Pompeii;" in 1868, a 
 " History of the Kings of Rome," and in 1873, "An- 
 cient Athens ; " besides many articles in the Classical 
 Museum, in Dr. Smith's Dictionaries of Biography, 
 and Geography, etc. 
 
 " From Mr. Frederick Nathaniel Dyer, of Mac- 
 clesfield, England, I have received an interesting ac- 
 count of the family. Mr. Dyer is a lineal descend-
 
 124 SOME EECORt)S OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 ant of William and Mary Dyre, and has always resided 
 in England. His father was born in Rhode Island. 
 Mr. r. N. Dyer is a great-great-nephew of Sir "William 
 Jones, the distinguished oriental scholar, and is a man 
 of culture, and literary tastes. He has had many op- 
 portunities of investigating the family history, and his 
 information is undoubtedly accurate. He says, ' The 
 Dyres were settled in Glastonbury, Somersetshire, be- 
 fore the Conquest. After the defeat of the Saxons at 
 Senlac, near Hastings, Siward Dyre and his two sons, 
 Si ward Beam and Wight, retired to Glastonbury, 
 from whence they issued to make war on the Normans 
 as occasion served, until, leaving their wives and chil- 
 dren in charge of the monks, they joined Hereward 
 in the famous Camp of Refuge. Siward Dyre (about 
 1036) was Eai-1 of Northumbria, (eai'l being then an 
 official title, and meaning military governor), and he is 
 the Siward of Shakspeare's "Macbeth." He was descend- 
 ed from Alfred the Great, and I can prove, by legal 
 proof, our descent from him and am able to bring such 
 evidence to bear on the matter as will carry conviction 
 to any sane mind.' Mr, Dyer also adds that there is 
 no doubt of the descent of William and Mary Dyre, 
 from Sir Richard Dyre, of Wincanton, Somerset- 
 shire, and gives the following account of the direct an- 
 cestors of the family : ' Sir Edward Dyre was proba- 
 bly a younger son, of no fortune. He was a poet and 
 soldier. Queen Elizabeth appointed him Chancellor 
 of the Garter. On her death, he retired from court, 
 and disappeared from history, as no record of his death
 
 SOilE RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 125 
 
 is known. His disappearance probably arose from 
 some act repulsive to James the First. As Chancellor 
 of the Garter, his loss would have been traced and 
 noted. The probability is, that Huntingdonshire and 
 Lincolnshire, being the stronghold of Puritanism, his 
 espousal of these principles ignored him at court and 
 by contemporaries. He may have been a j^roselyte 
 and follower of Cromwell, and if so, probably went to 
 Leyden, while his sons and daughters went to ISTew 
 England.' ' The last of the baronets of Great Staugh- 
 ton (descended from Sir Richard Dyre) died in 1776, 
 and by a curious coincidence the representation of the 
 baronetcy passed into the American branch of our 
 race, in the year of the Declaration of Independence. 
 The baronetcy has not been claimed, and it remains to 
 be seen whether it ever will be.' " 
 
 From a " History of the Anglo-Saxons," by Sharon 
 Turner, F.A.S., I find the following account of 
 Siward Dyre, or Digre^ as it was spelled in Anglo- 
 Saxon times. " In 1054 while Macduff, the Tliane 
 of Fife, was exciting a formidable revolt in Scot- 
 land, Siward, by some called the Giant, from his 
 large size, and whose sister had been Duncan's queen, 
 conducted his Northumbrians against Macbeth. A 
 furious conflict followed, in which thousands of 
 both armies perished ; but Siward, though he lost 
 his son and nephew, defeated the usurper. He re- 
 turned with great plunder, having made Malcolm
 
 126 SOME RECORDS OF THE DTER FAMILY. 
 
 king. The glory of a warrior was the felicity most 
 precious to Siward. On his return to York, he felt 
 that an internal disease was consuming his vitality, and 
 he sighed for the funereal trophies of a field of battle. 
 ' I feel disgraced that I should have survived so many 
 combats, to perish now like a cow. Clothe me in my 
 mail, fasten on my sword and give me my shield, and 
 my battle-axe, that I may expire like a soldier ! ' " 
 
 On Siward's death in 1055, Tostig, the brother of 
 Harold, was appointed Earl of Northumbria. 
 
 In " Camden's Remaines" it is stated that " when 
 Siward, the martial Earl of Northumberland, under- 
 stood that his son, whom he had sent against the 
 Scotchmen, was slain, he demanded whether his wounds 
 were in the fore part, or hinder part, of his body. 
 When it was answered, ' In the fore part,' he replied, 
 ' I am right glad ; neither wish I any other death to 
 me or mine.' " 
 
 Shakspeare has thus described this scene in Mac- 
 beth, act 5th, scene 7th, when the nobleman, Rosse, 
 announced the death of young Siward to his father : 
 
 ' ' Rosse. Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt. 
 He only lived but till be was a man; 
 The which no sooner had his prowess confirmed 
 In the unshrinking station where he fought, 
 But like a man he died. 
 
 Siward. Then he is dead? 
 
 Rosse. Aye, and brouglit off the field; your cause of sorrow 
 Must not be measured by his worth, for then 
 It hath no end. 
 
 Siward. Had he his hurts before?
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 127 
 
 Eosse. Aye, on the front. 
 
 Siward. Why, then, God's soldier be he! 
 
 Had I as many sons as I have hairs, 
 I would not wish them to a fairer death. 
 And so his knell is knoUed. 
 
 Malcolm. He's worth more sorrow, 
 
 And that I'll spend for him. 
 
 Siward. He's worth no more; 
 
 They say, he parted well, and paid his score; 
 And so, God be with him!" 
 
 The first record of the family name which we find 
 in Great Britain, is that of Dier or Diheuvyr, a saint 
 who flourished in the sixth century, and founded the 
 church of Bodffari, in Flintshire, North Wales. In the 
 legend of St. "Winifred, he is called Deiferus. In 1503 
 Jeffrey Dier was mayor of Carmarthen ; and in 1514, 
 Gwalter Dier filled the same ofiice. This proves that 
 the name was known in Wales before John Dyer, the 
 poet, had so identified it with the Yale of Towy, 
 through his much admired poem on Grongar Hill. 
 
 Henry II. established colonies of Flemish dyers 
 in South Wales (Little England beyond Wales) 
 as well as near Winchester and London, to introduce 
 their trade into England. Many families descending 
 from these men took their names from their trade, 
 whence the multitude of Dyers who have no connec- 
 tion with the Dyres of Somersetshire. 
 
 In a manuscript book written by the mother of the
 
 128 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 late Judge Bradford, of Wilmington, Delaware, is the 
 following interesting account of some relics of Mary 
 Dyre. Mrs. Bradford, was a descendant of William, 
 the second son of William and Mary Dyre, who went 
 to Delaware about the time of his mother's death, 
 and remained there. Mrs. Bradford says : " Several 
 reliques of Mary Dyre have been, from generation to 
 generation, preserved by my family with pious care. 
 Among them a dress, worked in manj^ colored silks, 
 with gold and silver thread, by her own hands, and 
 worn by her at the court of England. It has been 
 cut up into very small pieces, and distributed to differ- 
 ent friends of the society, to which she belonged. A 
 few remnants only of this valued garment, remain in 
 my possession. The groundwork of this dress, was rich 
 white satin — butterflies, flowers, grasshoppers, with 
 other insects, were the chosen figures. The work must 
 have been one of time, requiring much patience and 
 perseverance. A piece of this work is now in the 
 Philadelphia Museum. A still more valuable relique 
 of this venerated ancestor is her bodkin, of pure gold, 
 bearing her initials upon it — M. D. In consequence 
 of filing, its size has diminished. These precious par- 
 ticles were, from time to time, presented to friends, 
 who had them mingled with othei' gold for sleeve- 
 buttons." 
 
 I have consulted many books of heraldry, and the 
 first grant of arms to any person bearing the name of 
 Dyer, which I have been able to find, was in 1575,
 
 SOME RECORDS OF THE DYER FAMILY. 129 
 
 nndoiibtedly, granted to Sir James Dyer. On the 
 shield are three goats. The crest is a goat's head hold- 
 ing a rose in the month. Since Sir James Dyer's day, 
 the rose has, in many instances, been discarded from 
 the crest, and a goat's head rising out of a ducal coro- 
 net, is used by various members of the family. There 
 are many families in England, at the present day, 
 named Dyer, to whom arms have been granted. In 
 most cases, the goat is an emblem, showing that there 
 is more or less consanguinity between the families. 
 
 William Andrew Dyer, of London, a great-great-great- 
 ffreat-ofrandson of Oliver Cromwell, has for his crest 
 a demi-lion rampant, and the motto " Chi sera, sera." 
 
 Sir Thomas Swinnerton Dyer has the goat's head in 
 a ducal coronet and, over the crest, the motto in Welsh, 
 " O'r Hen Fonedd," meaning " Of an ancient, honor- 
 able race." 
 
 After a very careful examination at the Heralds' 
 Collesre in London, it has been ascertained and eci'- 
 tifed there, that the coat of arms of William Dyre 
 is the one depicted on the last page. The Saracen's 
 head of the crest undoubtedly denotes that some ances- 
 tors, in olden times, have taken part in the Crusades, 
 while the three goats of the shield, show that there is
 
 130 
 
 SOME EEC0ED3 OF THE DYER FAMILY. 
 
 a link between William Dyer, and tlie family of Sir 
 James Dyer, the distinguished jurist, son of Richard 
 Dyer, lord of the manor of Wincanton, Somersetshire, 
 England.
 
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