Samuel Rider

Formerly of the parish of All Hallows, Northampton, England, then of Yarmouth and Plymouth in Plymouth Colony. He was at Yarmouth by 7 Jan 1638/9, when his name was on the list of those "pposed to take up their freedome at Yarmouth" (PCR 1:108; Bowman, MD 11:49). A colony certificate of 3 Dec 1662, preserved at Northampton, says his son Samuel Jr. "is the Reputed sonne of Samuell Ryder senor; which said Samuell Ryder senior sometimes lived in the Towne of Northampton in the Countey of Northampton in the Parish of Alhallowes in old England," and that the son had lived with him at Yarmouth and Plymouth "the space of thirty yeares or thereaboutes."

The colony records show him as deputy from Yarmouth (PCR 3:23) and on the council of war (3:103). He was a sergeant in April 1653 and became lieutenant of the Yarmouth company in June 1653 (MD 11:49). In 1654 he was summoned "for his affronting the cunstable of Yarmouth" and "for vsing words vnto him tending to sedition" when the constable came "in the name of his highnes the Lord Protector," Oliver Cromwell, "to presse men for an entended expedition" (PCR 3:68-69). On 6 Mar 1654/5 the court put him out of office "for resisting the cunstable ... and for expressing threatening speeches," and ordered that he "beare armes as a common soldier." In 1655 the company was divided, "some being for him and som against him," and Robert Dennis produced a writing "shewing great abuse done vnto himselfe by the said Rider in many vnsufferable and provoking speeches" (PCR 3:74, 87, 91). He was made lieutenant again on 1 June 1658 (Bowman).

King Philip's War. His son Benjamin, probably, was in Yarmouth's first levy, which "went to Mount Hope ... and took their first march June 24" 1675, and in its third and fourth expeditions; the town's list of "Horses lost" includes "Benj. Ryder" (Freeman, History of Cape Cod 2:193n). Samuel himself, it seems, helped make Yarmouth's rate "towards the charge of the late war": it was "made this year, April 29 [1676], by Messrs. Edmund Hawes, Samuel Rider, and James Matthews," and it charges his sons Samuel, Joseph, Zachary and John (HCC 2:194, quoting the town record). The "Samuell Ryder" on a Plymouth town list of May-June 1676 (Plymouth Town Records 1:148) was probably his son Samuel Jr., the Plymouth cooper.

Shortly before he died, his son Zachariah sent his brother Joseph and John Thacher to ask about a meadow he had bought from his father without a deed. The old man, "very weake," said "I sould it to him longe agoe," that Zachariah had paid "very honestly," and, asked whether he should have assurance of it, answered "yes God forbid else" (depositions of 4 Mar 1679/80, MD 11:52-53).

His will (20 Nov 1679) names his wife Anne and children Benjamin, John, Samuel ("five shillings"), Zachery, Joseph, Jane, Elizabeth and Mary (MD 11:49-52). It gave his daughter Jane "three Cowes to be payed in three yeers ... one Cow in each yeer" and left the housing and lands to Benjamin, passing, if Benjamin had no heir, "unto the Next heire male, of my family." His inventory, taken 9 Dec 1679, valued his "Dwelling house barne upland and meddow" at £150 and noted "10 shoates Benjamine Ryder Claime the halfe" (MD 11:50-51).

Mollie Pfeiffer and Davis (2:216) made him the husband of Sarah Bartlett; it was his son Samuel Jr. who married her.

Open questions

• The Rider baptisms and the 1628 Rider-Gamlett marriage reported by Roser (Mayflower Increasings, 1995): the All Hallows, Northampton, registers.