Samuel Tyler

Of Attleborough. Born at Mendon to Samuel and Hannah Tyler ten months before his father died. On 13 June 1715, aged twenty, he bought land of Matthew Short for £100. Brigham calls him “far the most important early Tyler of the locality.”

In 1720 Willett’s Farm, a grant on the Seven Mile River first laid out to Capt. Thomas Willett, was divided into two parts between him and Joyce Newell, widow of Jacob Newell. Daggett notes that the farm “was originally laid out with great regularity, in parallel lines.” He was a selectman of Attleborough in 1724, 1728, 1732, 1737-39, 1747-51 and 1753, and the town’s representative to the General Court in 1737, 1745 and 1747-49 (Brigham 1:67). On 3 Jan 1750/1 the town chose “Col. Thomas Bowen, Maj. John Foster and Capt. Sam. Tyler a committee” to petition the General Court for a straight boundary line from the middle of Accord Pond westward, part of the long-disputed old line between Plymouth and Massachusetts (Attleborough town records, printed by Daggett). On 9 Apr 1757 he was made captain of the First (“South Town”) company of the Attleborough train band (Massachusetts Archives, per Brigham).

His will is dated 16 May 1759, the day before he died, and was proved 11 June 1759 (Brigham 1:67; not seen). Brigham: “all his three sons becoming Revolutionary veterans, one being a lieutenant, and another major-general of militia; five of his grandsons also served in the Revolution, thus making eight all told, from this immediate family, of the ten Tylers furnished by the town to that cause.” The major-general was his son Ebenezer.

Children per Brigham and Holden. The first two were born Jan 1718/19 and May 1720. The Attleborough deaths confirm a Mary (d. 28 June 1724) and a Samuel (d. 27 Apr 1724). Ebenezer, b. 1740, is the ancestor.

Open questions

• Check the printed Attleborough records for the 1717 marriage and the children’s births.