First Generation  

1. George Dyer ^{1 2 3 4} was born about 1595 in England and died on 18 Jun 1672 in Dorchester, Suffolk, Ma about age 77.

General Notes: George Dyer came from England on the "Mary & John", which set sail from Pl ymouth, England 20 Mar.1630, and reached Nantasket Point, the present Hu ll on the 30th May 1630 (O.S.)
====================
Old Dorchester, Page 12:
"Dyer George, Freem, 18 May, 1631; wf. Elizabeth; will 30 Dec.1671; inven t. 29 jun.1672, L425, 4s 6d; ch. Elizabeth, wf. of William Trescott; Mar y, wf. of William Pond; son -in-law James White."
==================
ORIGIN: Unknown
MIGRATION: 1630
FIRST RESIDENCE: Dorchester, Ma.
OCCUPATION: Possibly weaver, based on bequest of looms to James White.
CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: George and Abigail Dyer were among the first admitt ed to the second church at Dorchester, between 23 August 1636 and 7 Decemb er 1636 [DChR 3]; they may well have been members of the first church al so .
FREEMAN: Requested 19 October 1630 and admitted 18 May 1631 [MBCR 1:79,3 66 ].
EDUCATION: Signed agreement of proprietors of Thompson's Island who relinq uished the island to the town of Dorchester in order to raise funds for ma intenance of a free school, 7 February 1640(1) [DTR 106]. Signed will. Inv entory included "all his books of all sorts", L2, 1s.
OFFICES: Coroner's jury, 28 September 1630 [MBCR 1:77]; constable of Dorch ester, 3 October 1632 [MBCR 1:101]; Dorchester selectman 27 June 163 6, 5 J uly 1636, 8 November 1637 [DTR 16, 17, 25]; fenceviewer (usually f or the " field behind Mr. Mather's", 16 January 1636/7, 18 March 1637/ 8, 27 Janua ry 1645/6, 11 February 1647/8, 28 February 1652/3, 13 Februa ry 1653/4, 9 F ebruary 1656/7, 8 March 1658/9, 11 March 1660/1, 4 April 16 64 (as "Goodman Dier"), 9 March 1667/8, 8 March 1668/9 [DTR 21, 32, 67, 8 6, 96, 103, 12 1, 150, 158, 294, 299, 314]; committee to lay out land, 2 J anuary 1637/ 8, 23 July 1642 [DTR 27, 29, 50]; committee to make tax rat e, 18 January 1 635/6, 2 October 1636 [DTR 15, 20].
ESTATE: On 27 June 1636 granted three acres of marsh in Dorchester [D TR 16 ]. On 18 March 1637/8 granted two parcels of nearly five acres ea ch [DTR 3 0]. Granted Lot #38, four acres, in the Meadow beyond Naponset [ DTR 321 ]. On 13 January 1667/8 included in "list of the acres of la nd at the Ne ck being rated at a half penny per acre for the plow land onl y", being rat ed 6d. (indicating a parcel of twelve acres) [DTR 149].In h is will, dated 31 December 1671 and proved 2 August 1672, George Dyer bequ eathed to "my beloved daughter Elisabeth the wife of William Tresc ot & un to her heirs forever all my dwelling house, outhouses, barn, yard, orcha rd together with my houselot & meadow adjoining to it unto the Sa lt Creek ," also "my meadow in the Calves Pasture," also "five acr es of my planti ng land at the Great Neck, the lot I bought of John Pier ce to be pa rt of it & made up five acres out of my lot adjoining," also "h a lf of my great lot both within fence & without," also "all my divisi on be yond Naponset River on the south side"; to "my beloved daughter Ma ry the w ife of William Pond & to her heirs forever a piece of marsh lyi ng betwe en two salt creeks commonly called the old harbor," also "my pie ce of mead ow lying at the entrance into the Great Neck, together with a ll the re st of my upland within the Great Neck, together with all the re st of my upland within the Great Neck not before given," also "half my gre at lot bo th within fence and without," also "my last division on the nor th si de of Naponset"; daughter Mary to have half the grass or profit ther efr om from the meadow adjoining the houselot for five years; any lands re main ing in common, whether divided or undivided, to be equally divided be twe en the two daughters abovementioned; to "my loving son-in-law James W hi te of Dorchester my looms for weaving with all the utensils thereunto b elo nging in case he the said James will make use of them in the said work "; a ll household goods to daughter Elizabeth, except linen, whi ch is to be div ided equally between Elizabeth & Mary; "my two acres of sa lt marsh that ly eth near the Mill Creek near Roxbury being part of a divi sion I have so ld to James White before mentioned & received satisfacti on to content & gi ven him possession; sons-in-law William Trescot and Wil liam Pond to be exe cutors and pay debts and funeral expenses [ SPR 7:233] .The inventory, taken 29 June 1672, totalled £425 4s. 6d., of whi ch £3 70 was real estate: "the housing, barn, orchard, houselot & mead ow at t he end unto Salt Creek," £100; "two acres of meadow on the other s ide t he creek," £14; "six acres of meadow in the Calves Pature Meadows ," £6 0; "a piece of meadow at the north of the Great Neck," £30; "elev en acr es or thereabouts of upland at the Great Neck," £46; "at the gre at lots be sides what's disposed of at each end before," £80; "t he 2d & 3d [division s] in the Cowwalks, 10 acres or thereabouts," £15; "t he last division on t he north side Naponset, 15 acres," £5; "the last div ision on the south si de Naponset, 29 acres or thereabouts," £20; and "t he common beyond the Bl ue Hills," no value given [ SPR 7:234].
BIRTH: Probably in the early 1590s. (The claim that he was 51 years o ld in 1630, and therefore born about 1579, is very likely based on the dea th record below, which if literally interpreted leads to a calculated ye ar of birth of 1579 or 1580; most claims of longevity stretching into t en decades are usually exaggerated by a decade or so, which would give t he revised estimate of birth given here, and be consistent with the assum ed ages of his know children.)
DEATH: Dorchester 18 June 1672 "being the 93rd year of his age" [DVR 28 (t his death record is given for a William Dyer, but there is no reco rd of a person of that name in Dorchester so early, and this date falls co nveniently between the dates of the making and proving of the will of Geor ge Dyer)].
MARRIAGE: By late 1636 Abigail -----, seen only at admission to church mem bership (see comments below). (If she was the mother of both of his daught ers, the marriage must have taken place a decade earlier.)
CHILDREN:i Elizabeth, b. say 1626; m. by 1646 William Trescott (eldest chi ld Samuel b. 4 November 1646 [DVR 5].ii Mary, b. say 1636; m. by 1657 Will iam Pond (eldest child Samuel d. 2 October 1657 [DVR 25].(For more informa tion, see The Great Migration Begins, NEHGS, 1995).
ASSOCIATIONS: In his will of 9 October 1638 BERNARD CAPEN names as o ne of his trustees "my brother George Dyer." Capen's wife was sist er of AQ UILA PURCHASE , who was closely related to THOMAS PURCHASE , perh aps ev en brother. On 31 May 1641 Thomas Purchase makes a letter of attorn ey to G eorge Dyer of Dorchester, planter, and three others to act for h im in an a ction of trespass [ Lechford 401-03].
COMMENTS: In 1634 Reverend John White of Dorchester, Dorset, prepar ed a li st of those adventurers who had been associated with him in the N ew England fishing trade from 1623 to 1628, and toward the end of the li st is "George Dier, living in New England" [ NEHGR 61:280]. This indicat es that George Dyer was perhaps from Dorchester in Dorset, or at least fr om one of the three counties of Dorset, Devon or Somerset.The probabili ty that George Dyer was a passenger on the Mary & Jo hn is very high, in t hat he meets the three basic criteria for inclusi on on this ship's synthe tic passenger list: West Country origin, first app earance in New Engla nd in 1630, and first known residence in New Engla nd in Dorchester.Ban ks provides three guesses for the origin of George Dyer, all based on "Ban ks Mss.": Dorchester, Dorset; Fitzhead, Somerset; and Wincanto n, Somerse t. (Some additional data, still far from conclusive, are giv en in M&JCH 2 :97, 3:56, 13:18.)The only evidence for a wife or wives for George Dyer, a side from the e xistence of his daughters, is the record of the admissi on to church of Abi gail Dyer in 1636. Savage claims that Dyer had wife El izabeth, but there is no record evidence for this, and there may be some c onfusion with the daughter Elizabeth. Related to the question of the wi fe or wives of George Dyer is the bequest to son-in-law James White. Do es this imply a thi rd daughter who married James White, or a marria ge to a widow White who w as mother of James? A careful analysis of all av ailable evidence nee ds to be carried out to answer this question. (An att empt to solve this pr oblem is the claim that George's daughter Mary marri ed first William Pond and second James White [ M&JCH 1:26], but this wi ll not do, since Po nd died in 1690, eighteen years after the writing of G eorge Dyer's willBoth of the daughters of George Dyer used the name Samu el for their eld est son, and both named a daughter Martha. These names m ay be useful in in vestigating the parentage of George Dyer, or of the mot her of his children.
George Dyer came on the "Mary & John" in 1630 with his wife, and probabl y, his two daughters, Mary & Elizabeth. Little is known about him, probab ly because he had no sons and left no namesakes. Of his fifteen grandchild ren, eleven were girls. He settled first in Dorchester, Mass. where he w as on jury duty in Sept. 1630. He became a freeman there May 18, 1631, w as Constable in 1632 and was granted land in 1634. He and his wife, Abiga il (second wife?) signed the church covenant in Dorchester in 1636. In h is will he listed, daughters, Elizabeth, wife of William Trescott and M ar y, wife of William Pond and he left his weaving looms to his son-in-la w, James White, of Dorchester.

Dyer, George
State: MA
County: Norfolk Co.
Location: Dorcester
Page #: 166
Census/Enumeration year: 1633

Dyer, George
State: MA
County: Norfolk Co.
Location: Norfolk
Page #: 391
Census/Enumeration year: 1641

Sources: [Mary & John] -105
(Suffolk County Probate Book 7:233)
(The Dyer Family)
(The Great Migration Begins; NEHGS; 1995)
!REF: Reg 75:146; 1921.

George married Abigail (nee?) Dyer before 1630 in England. Abigail was born in England and died on an unknown date.

Children from this marriage were:

+ 2 F    i. Elizabeth Dyer ^{5 6 7 8} was born about 1626 in England and died on 30 Jul 1699 in Dorchester, Suffolk, Ma about age 73.

+ 3 F    ii. Mary Dyer was born about 1636 in England and died on 16 Feb 1710/11 in Dorchester, Suffolk, Ma about age 75.

1. Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633 (New England Historic Genealogical Society. Boston. 1995, 3 Volumes), 603.

2. Search for the "Mary and John," 105.

3. Sumner, Edith Bartlett, Descendants of Thomas Farr of Harpswell, Maine and ninety allied families (Los Angeles, Calif.: American Offset Printers : 1959), 89.

4. Samuel G. Drake, Recovery of Some Materials for the Early History of Dorchester (1851 ), 12.

5. The "Mary & John" - Dyer, 105.

6. Charles Henry Pope, The Pioneers of Massachusetts (1900 Reprint, Baltimore Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1965).

7. Cooley, Mortimer E. 1855-1944, The Cooley Genealogy (Rutland, Vt.: Tuttle : 1941), 772.

8. Samuel G. Drake, Recovery of Some Materials for the Early History of Dorchester (1851 ), 18.