William Dyer (settler)
Encyclopedia
William Dyer (1609–by 1677) was an early settler of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
, and a founding settler of both Portsmouth and Newport. He is best known for being the husband of the Quaker martyr, Mary Dyer
, who was executed for her beliefs in Boston. Sailing from England as a young man with his wife, Dyer first settled in Boston
in the Massachusetts Bay Colony
, but soon became a follower of the dissident ministers John Wheelwright
and Anne Hutchinson
, and signed a petition in support of Wheelwright. For doing this, he was disenfranchised and disarmed, and with many other followers of Hutchinson, he signed the Portsmouth Compact
, and settled on Aquidneck Island
in the Narragansett Bay
. Within a year of arriving there, he and others followed William Coddington
to the south end of the island where they established the town of Newport
.
Once in Newport, Dyer was very active in civil affairs, holding a number of offices, particularly those using his clerical skills such as clerk and secretary. In 1651 he was one of three men sent to England to have Coddington's commission to govern the island of Aquidneck revoked. Being successful, Dyer returned with the news in 1653, but his wife, Mary, who had been there at the same time, remained in England. Mary returned from England in 1657 after being there for five years, and had become a zealous Quaker convert. Banned from Massachusetts
, she nevertheless defied the authorities and returned in 1659, being sentenced to hang, but getting a stay of execution while on the gallows. Her last trip to Boston in 1660 resulted in her execution and martyrdom.
Following Mary's death, Dyer remarried, and continued his public service, while having some legal entanglements with William Coddington. He was dead by late 1677, though no record for his death has been found.
, England, Dyer was baptized there on 19 September 1609. In 1625, while a teenager, he was apprenticed to Walter Blackborne, a fishmonger, and 16 years later, while he was in New England, he was taxed back in England as a member of the "Fishmonger's Company," though his profession before leaving there was that of a milliner. Dyer was married at Saint Martin-in-the-Fields in London
on 27 October 1633 to Mary Barrett
(their oldest son Samuel named a son Barrett).
In 1635, Dyer and his wife sailed from England to New England
. Mary was likely pregnant, or gave birth during the voyage, because on 20 December 1635 their son Samuel was baptized at the Boston church, the same month that the Dyers joined the church. Dyer became a freeman of Boston on 3 March the following year.
Once in Boston the Dyers became attracted to the preachings of the dissident ministers John Wheelwright
and Anne Hutchinson
, and in March 1637 Dyer signed a petition in support of Reverend Wheelwright, in it saying that "the court had condemned the truth of Christ." Half a year later, on 15 November, he was disenfranchised for signing this petition, and then on 20 November he and others were ordered to deliver up all guns, pistols, swords, powder and shot because the "opinions and revelations of Mr. Wheelwright and Mrs. Hutchinson have seduced and led into dangerous errors many of the people here in New England." In October 1637 Mary Dyer gave birth to a premature, stillborn and deformed child, which following the Dyer's departure from Massachusetts, Boston magistrate John Winthrop
had exhumed. In March 1638 Winthrop wrote the following about the Dyers and the infant: "The wife of one William Dyer, a milliner in the New Exchange, a very proper and fair woman, and both of them notoriously infected with Mrs. Hutchinson's errors, and very censorious and troublesome (she being of a very proud spirit, and much addicted to revelations) had been delivered of a child some few months before...it had a face but no head..." Winthrop went on to describe the deformities, and add his own embellishments, and declared that this was divine reaction to the sinful errors of Hutchinson, Wheelwright, and their followers.
, establishing a non-sectarian civil government upon the universal consent of the inhabitants, with a Christian focus. This document was penned by Dyer, he signing his name and then adding the title "clerk." Planning initially to settle in New Netherland
, the group was persuaded by Roger Williams
to purchase some land of the Indians on the Narragansett Bay. They settled on the north east end of Aquidneck Island
, and established a settlement they called Pocasset, but in 1639 changed the name to Portsmouth
. William Coddington
was elected the first leader of the settlement, and given the Biblical title of Judge.
A year after arriving in Portsmouth there was discord among the leadership of the settlement, and several of the leaders decided to go elsewhere. Dyer was one of nine men to sign an agreement on 28 April 1639 whereby a new plantation would be formed. The men and their families soon moved to the south end of Aquidneck Island, establishing the settlement of Newport
, once again under the leadership of Coddington. Once established in Newport, Dyer and three others were tasked in June 1639 to proportion the new lands, and within the next year he was assigned 87 acres. In 1640 the two Aquidneck Island towns of Portsmouth and Newport united under a single government, and Dyer was the Secretary for them during the entire period that the island remained under its own authority, from 1640 to 1647.
Roger Williams
, who envisioned a union of all four settlements on the Narragansett Bay, went to England to obtain a patent bringing all four towns under one government. Williams was successful in obtaining this document late in 1643, and it was brought from England and read to representatives of the four towns in 1644. Coddington was opposed to the Williams patent and managed to resist union with Providence until 1647 when representatives of the four towns ultimately met and adopted the Williams patent of 1643/4. With all of the Narragansett settlements now under one government, Dyer was elected the General Recorder for the entire colony in 1648.
Coddington was unhappy with the consolidated government, and wanted colonial independence for the two island towns, and decided to go to England to present his case to the Colonial Commissioners in London
. In April 1651, the Council of State of England gave Coddington the commission of a separate government for the island of Aquidneck and for the smaller neighboring island of Conanicut (later Jamestown, Rhode Island
), with him as governor. Henry Bull
of Newport said that Coddington was welcomed upon his return from England, and that the majority of people accepted him as governor. From 1650 to 1653, most of which time was during the island's separation from Providence, Dyer served as the Attorney General.
For reasons that are not clear in existing records, criticism of Coddington soon arose. The venerable Dr. John Clarke voiced his opposition to the island governor, and he and Dyer were sent to England as agents of the discontents to get the Coddington commission revoked. Simultaneously, the mainland towns of Providence and Warwick sent Roger Williams on a similar errand, and the three men sailed for England in November 1651. Mary Dyer had sailed to England just before the three men departed. Because of recent hostilities between the English and the Dutch, the men did not meet with the Council of State on New England until April 1652. Whether true or not, Coddington was accused of taking sides with the Dutch on matters of colonial trade, and in October 1652 his commission for the island government was revoked. Dyer was the messenger who returned to Rhode island the following February, bringing the news of the return of the colony to the Williams' Patent of 1643, while his wife remained in England. The reunion of the colony was to take place that spring, but the mainland commissioners refused to come to the island to meet, and the separation of mainland from island was extended for another year. During this interim period, John Sanford
was elected as governor of the island towns, while Gregory Dexter
became president of the mainland towns.
In May 1653 Dyer received a commission from the General Assembly in preparation for military action against the Dutch. Captain John Underhill was selected as Commander in Chief upon the land, and Captain William Dyer became Commander in Chief upon the sea. The following year he had some harsh words for Coddington and Richard Tew, who he accused of making "encroachments upon the highway." In 1655 Dyer's name appears on a list of freemen
from Newport.
In 1657, Mary Dyer
returned from England, after being away for five years. While there, she became a Quaker and a minister of that denomination, and upon disembarking at Boston she was jailed by the authorities for her beliefs and religious outpourings. Following the intercession of her husband, she was released, but Dyer was bound to not let her lodge in any town of the Massachusetts Bay Colony
nor to speak to anyone during the journey home. Though banned from returning to Massachusetts under threat of death, Mary nevertheless went back to Boston in 1659 and was condemned to hang with two other Quakers. While she was on the scaffold with the noose around her neck, her execution was halted, and she was sent back to Rhode Island, after which she traveled to Long Island
.
One more time Mary returned to Boston, and on the last day of May 1660 she was brought before Governor John Endecott
, where she was questioned. Following her responses, she was ordered to be hung the following day. On the gallows, she was encouraged to repent by Reverend Wilson, her former pastor at the Boston church, and to not be so deluded by the devil. Following her execution, the Friends' records of Portsmouth noted her death: "Mary Dyer, the wife of William Dyer of Newport in Rhode Island: She was put to death at the town of Boston with the like cruel hand as the Martyrs were in Queen Mary's time..."
Following his wife's death, Dyer remarried by about 1664, and continued his public service. In 1661 he was a Newport Commissioner, from 1664 to 1666 he was a Deputy, from 1665 to 1668 he was the General Solicitor, and in 1669 he was Secretary to the Council. In 1670 he was involved in a number of deeds with his sons, which he used to settle the terms of his estate. No death date has been found for Dyer, but he was dead by 24 October 1677 when his widow sued the widow of his son, Samuel. Also, Governor Benedict Arnold
's will, dated 24 December 1677, mentions William Dyer, Senior, now late deceased.
and Catharine Hamby, and the granddaughter of William and Anne Hutchinson
. Dyer had one known child with his second wife.
Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was one of the original English Thirteen Colonies established on the east coast of North America that, after the American Revolution, became the modern U.S...
, and a founding settler of both Portsmouth and Newport. He is best known for being the husband of the Quaker martyr, Mary Dyer
Mary Dyer
Mary Baker Dyer was an English Puritan turned Quaker who was hanged in Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony , for repeatedly defying a Puritan law banning Quakers from the colony...
, who was executed for her beliefs in Boston. Sailing from England as a young man with his wife, Dyer first settled in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
in the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions...
, but soon became a follower of the dissident ministers John Wheelwright
John Wheelwright
John Wheelwright was a clergyman in England and America.-Early life:...
and Anne Hutchinson
Anne Hutchinson
Anne Hutchinson was one of the most prominent women in colonial America, noted for her strong religious convictions, and for her stand against the staunch religious orthodoxy of 17th century Massachusetts...
, and signed a petition in support of Wheelwright. For doing this, he was disenfranchised and disarmed, and with many other followers of Hutchinson, he signed the Portsmouth Compact
Portsmouth Compact
The Portsmouth Compact was a document signed on March 7, 1638 that established the settlement of Portsmouth, which is now a town in the state of Rhode Island...
, and settled on Aquidneck Island
Aquidneck Island
Aquidneck Island, located in the state of Rhode Island, is the largest island in Narragansett Bay. The island's official name is Rhode Island, and the common use of name "Aquidneck Island" helps distinguish the island from the state. The total land area is 97.9 km²...
in the Narragansett Bay
Narragansett Bay
Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound. Covering 147 mi2 , the Bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor, and includes a small archipelago...
. Within a year of arriving there, he and others followed William Coddington
William Coddington
William Coddington was an early magistrate of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and later of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, serving as the Judge of Portsmouth, Judge of Newport, Governor of Portsmouth and Newport, Deputy Governor of the entire colony, and then Governor of the...
to the south end of the island where they established the town of Newport
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, about south of Providence. Known as a New England summer resort and for the famous Newport Mansions, it is the home of Salve Regina University and Naval Station Newport which houses the United States Naval War...
.
Once in Newport, Dyer was very active in civil affairs, holding a number of offices, particularly those using his clerical skills such as clerk and secretary. In 1651 he was one of three men sent to England to have Coddington's commission to govern the island of Aquidneck revoked. Being successful, Dyer returned with the news in 1653, but his wife, Mary, who had been there at the same time, remained in England. Mary returned from England in 1657 after being there for five years, and had become a zealous Quaker convert. Banned from Massachusetts
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions...
, she nevertheless defied the authorities and returned in 1659, being sentenced to hang, but getting a stay of execution while on the gallows. Her last trip to Boston in 1660 resulted in her execution and martyrdom.
Following Mary's death, Dyer remarried, and continued his public service, while having some legal entanglements with William Coddington. He was dead by late 1677, though no record for his death has been found.
Early life
The son of William Dyer (Dyre) of Kirkby Laythorpe, LincolnshireLincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
, England, Dyer was baptized there on 19 September 1609. In 1625, while a teenager, he was apprenticed to Walter Blackborne, a fishmonger, and 16 years later, while he was in New England, he was taxed back in England as a member of the "Fishmonger's Company," though his profession before leaving there was that of a milliner. Dyer was married at Saint Martin-in-the-Fields in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
on 27 October 1633 to Mary Barrett
Mary Dyer
Mary Baker Dyer was an English Puritan turned Quaker who was hanged in Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony , for repeatedly defying a Puritan law banning Quakers from the colony...
(their oldest son Samuel named a son Barrett).
In 1635, Dyer and his wife sailed from England to New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
. Mary was likely pregnant, or gave birth during the voyage, because on 20 December 1635 their son Samuel was baptized at the Boston church, the same month that the Dyers joined the church. Dyer became a freeman of Boston on 3 March the following year.
Once in Boston the Dyers became attracted to the preachings of the dissident ministers John Wheelwright
John Wheelwright
John Wheelwright was a clergyman in England and America.-Early life:...
and Anne Hutchinson
Anne Hutchinson
Anne Hutchinson was one of the most prominent women in colonial America, noted for her strong religious convictions, and for her stand against the staunch religious orthodoxy of 17th century Massachusetts...
, and in March 1637 Dyer signed a petition in support of Reverend Wheelwright, in it saying that "the court had condemned the truth of Christ." Half a year later, on 15 November, he was disenfranchised for signing this petition, and then on 20 November he and others were ordered to deliver up all guns, pistols, swords, powder and shot because the "opinions and revelations of Mr. Wheelwright and Mrs. Hutchinson have seduced and led into dangerous errors many of the people here in New England." In October 1637 Mary Dyer gave birth to a premature, stillborn and deformed child, which following the Dyer's departure from Massachusetts, Boston magistrate John Winthrop
John Winthrop
John Winthrop was a wealthy English Puritan lawyer, and one of the leading figures in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the first major settlement in New England after Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led the first large wave of migrants from England in 1630, and served as governor for 12 of...
had exhumed. In March 1638 Winthrop wrote the following about the Dyers and the infant: "The wife of one William Dyer, a milliner in the New Exchange, a very proper and fair woman, and both of them notoriously infected with Mrs. Hutchinson's errors, and very censorious and troublesome (she being of a very proud spirit, and much addicted to revelations) had been delivered of a child some few months before...it had a face but no head..." Winthrop went on to describe the deformities, and add his own embellishments, and declared that this was divine reaction to the sinful errors of Hutchinson, Wheelwright, and their followers.
Rhode Island
Scores of the followers of Wheelwright and Hutchinson were ordered out of the Massachusetts colony, but before leaving, a group of them, including Dyer, signed what is sometimes called the Portsmouth CompactPortsmouth Compact
The Portsmouth Compact was a document signed on March 7, 1638 that established the settlement of Portsmouth, which is now a town in the state of Rhode Island...
, establishing a non-sectarian civil government upon the universal consent of the inhabitants, with a Christian focus. This document was penned by Dyer, he signing his name and then adding the title "clerk." Planning initially to settle in New Netherland
New Netherland
New Netherland, or Nieuw-Nederland in Dutch, was the 17th-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the East Coast of North America. The claimed territories were the lands from the Delmarva Peninsula to extreme southwestern Cape Cod...
, the group was persuaded by Roger Williams
Roger Williams (theologian)
Roger Williams was an English Protestant theologian who was an early proponent of religious freedom and the separation of church and state. In 1636, he began the colony of Providence Plantation, which provided a refuge for religious minorities. Williams started the first Baptist church in America,...
to purchase some land of the Indians on the Narragansett Bay. They settled on the north east end of Aquidneck Island
Aquidneck Island
Aquidneck Island, located in the state of Rhode Island, is the largest island in Narragansett Bay. The island's official name is Rhode Island, and the common use of name "Aquidneck Island" helps distinguish the island from the state. The total land area is 97.9 km²...
, and established a settlement they called Pocasset, but in 1639 changed the name to Portsmouth
Portsmouth, Rhode Island
Portsmouth is a town in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 17,389 at the 2010 U.S. Census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which, of it is land and of it is water. Most of its land area lies on Aquidneck...
. William Coddington
William Coddington
William Coddington was an early magistrate of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and later of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, serving as the Judge of Portsmouth, Judge of Newport, Governor of Portsmouth and Newport, Deputy Governor of the entire colony, and then Governor of the...
was elected the first leader of the settlement, and given the Biblical title of Judge.
A year after arriving in Portsmouth there was discord among the leadership of the settlement, and several of the leaders decided to go elsewhere. Dyer was one of nine men to sign an agreement on 28 April 1639 whereby a new plantation would be formed. The men and their families soon moved to the south end of Aquidneck Island, establishing the settlement of Newport
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, about south of Providence. Known as a New England summer resort and for the famous Newport Mansions, it is the home of Salve Regina University and Naval Station Newport which houses the United States Naval War...
, once again under the leadership of Coddington. Once established in Newport, Dyer and three others were tasked in June 1639 to proportion the new lands, and within the next year he was assigned 87 acres. In 1640 the two Aquidneck Island towns of Portsmouth and Newport united under a single government, and Dyer was the Secretary for them during the entire period that the island remained under its own authority, from 1640 to 1647.
Roger Williams
Roger Williams (theologian)
Roger Williams was an English Protestant theologian who was an early proponent of religious freedom and the separation of church and state. In 1636, he began the colony of Providence Plantation, which provided a refuge for religious minorities. Williams started the first Baptist church in America,...
, who envisioned a union of all four settlements on the Narragansett Bay, went to England to obtain a patent bringing all four towns under one government. Williams was successful in obtaining this document late in 1643, and it was brought from England and read to representatives of the four towns in 1644. Coddington was opposed to the Williams patent and managed to resist union with Providence until 1647 when representatives of the four towns ultimately met and adopted the Williams patent of 1643/4. With all of the Narragansett settlements now under one government, Dyer was elected the General Recorder for the entire colony in 1648.
Coddington was unhappy with the consolidated government, and wanted colonial independence for the two island towns, and decided to go to England to present his case to the Colonial Commissioners in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. In April 1651, the Council of State of England gave Coddington the commission of a separate government for the island of Aquidneck and for the smaller neighboring island of Conanicut (later Jamestown, Rhode Island
Jamestown, Rhode Island
Jamestown is a town located in Newport County, Rhode Island, in the United States. The population was 5,405 at the 2010 census. Jamestown is situated almost entirely on Conanicut Island, the second largest island in Narragansett Bay.-History:...
), with him as governor. Henry Bull
Henry Bull (Governor)
Henry Bull was an early colonial Governor of Rhode Island, serving for two separate terms, one before and one after the tenure of Edmund Andros under the Dominion of New England...
of Newport said that Coddington was welcomed upon his return from England, and that the majority of people accepted him as governor. From 1650 to 1653, most of which time was during the island's separation from Providence, Dyer served as the Attorney General.
For reasons that are not clear in existing records, criticism of Coddington soon arose. The venerable Dr. John Clarke voiced his opposition to the island governor, and he and Dyer were sent to England as agents of the discontents to get the Coddington commission revoked. Simultaneously, the mainland towns of Providence and Warwick sent Roger Williams on a similar errand, and the three men sailed for England in November 1651. Mary Dyer had sailed to England just before the three men departed. Because of recent hostilities between the English and the Dutch, the men did not meet with the Council of State on New England until April 1652. Whether true or not, Coddington was accused of taking sides with the Dutch on matters of colonial trade, and in October 1652 his commission for the island government was revoked. Dyer was the messenger who returned to Rhode island the following February, bringing the news of the return of the colony to the Williams' Patent of 1643, while his wife remained in England. The reunion of the colony was to take place that spring, but the mainland commissioners refused to come to the island to meet, and the separation of mainland from island was extended for another year. During this interim period, John Sanford
John Sanford (governor)
John Sanford , was an early settler of Boston, Massachusetts, an original settler of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and a governor of the combined towns of Portsmouth and Newport, in the Rhode Island colony, dying in office after serving for less than a full term...
was elected as governor of the island towns, while Gregory Dexter
Gregory Dexter
Gregory Dexter was a printer, Baptist minister, and early President of the combined towns of Providence and Warwick in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. He was in New England as early as 1638 when he had a five-acre lot assigned to him in Providence...
became president of the mainland towns.
In May 1653 Dyer received a commission from the General Assembly in preparation for military action against the Dutch. Captain John Underhill was selected as Commander in Chief upon the land, and Captain William Dyer became Commander in Chief upon the sea. The following year he had some harsh words for Coddington and Richard Tew, who he accused of making "encroachments upon the highway." In 1655 Dyer's name appears on a list of freemen
Freeman (Colonial)
Freeman is a term which originated in 12th century Europe and is common as an English or American Colonial expression in Puritan times. In the Bay Colony, a man had to be a member of the Church to be a freeman. In Colonial Plymouth, a man did not need to be a member of the Church, but he had to be...
from Newport.
Execution of Mary Dyer
Mary Dyer
Mary Baker Dyer was an English Puritan turned Quaker who was hanged in Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony , for repeatedly defying a Puritan law banning Quakers from the colony...
returned from England, after being away for five years. While there, she became a Quaker and a minister of that denomination, and upon disembarking at Boston she was jailed by the authorities for her beliefs and religious outpourings. Following the intercession of her husband, she was released, but Dyer was bound to not let her lodge in any town of the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions...
nor to speak to anyone during the journey home. Though banned from returning to Massachusetts under threat of death, Mary nevertheless went back to Boston in 1659 and was condemned to hang with two other Quakers. While she was on the scaffold with the noose around her neck, her execution was halted, and she was sent back to Rhode Island, after which she traveled to Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
.
One more time Mary returned to Boston, and on the last day of May 1660 she was brought before Governor John Endecott
John Endecott
John Endecott was an English colonial magistrate, soldier and the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. During all of his years in the colony but one, he held some form of civil, judicial, or military high office...
, where she was questioned. Following her responses, she was ordered to be hung the following day. On the gallows, she was encouraged to repent by Reverend Wilson, her former pastor at the Boston church, and to not be so deluded by the devil. Following her execution, the Friends' records of Portsmouth noted her death: "Mary Dyer, the wife of William Dyer of Newport in Rhode Island: She was put to death at the town of Boston with the like cruel hand as the Martyrs were in Queen Mary's time..."
Following his wife's death, Dyer remarried by about 1664, and continued his public service. In 1661 he was a Newport Commissioner, from 1664 to 1666 he was a Deputy, from 1665 to 1668 he was the General Solicitor, and in 1669 he was Secretary to the Council. In 1670 he was involved in a number of deeds with his sons, which he used to settle the terms of his estate. No death date has been found for Dyer, but he was dead by 24 October 1677 when his widow sued the widow of his son, Samuel. Also, Governor Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold (governor)
Benedict Arnold was president and then governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, serving for a total of 11 years in these roles. Coming from Somerset, England, he was born and raised in the town of Ilchester, likely attending school in Limington, nearby...
's will, dated 24 December 1677, mentions William Dyer, Senior, now late deceased.
Family
Six of the eight children of William and Mary Dyer grew to maturity and married. Their oldest surviving son, Samuel, married Ann Hutchinson, the daughter of Edward HutchinsonEdward Hutchinson (captain)
Edward Hutchinson was the oldest son of the founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony William Hutchinson and the dissident minister Anne Hutchinson...
and Catharine Hamby, and the granddaughter of William and Anne Hutchinson
Anne Hutchinson
Anne Hutchinson was one of the most prominent women in colonial America, noted for her strong religious convictions, and for her stand against the staunch religious orthodoxy of 17th century Massachusetts...
. Dyer had one known child with his second wife.
See also
- List of early settlers of Rhode Island
- Colony of Rhode Island and Providence PlantationsColony of Rhode Island and Providence PlantationsThe Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was one of the original English Thirteen Colonies established on the east coast of North America that, after the American Revolution, became the modern U.S...