Job Tyler, Immigrant to American Colonies

Let's look beyond the recent records which are very sparse, (the Lovett's ancestors back to Shropshire, Eng and Montgomeryshire Wales) to those ancestors who have 17 hints under their names, and I've already got at least that many resources listed...namely Hopestill Tyler Sr, husband of Mary Ann Lovett Tyler, my 8 times great grandparents.

Having opened and considered Hopestill Tyler's 17 hints at Ancestry, I am now looking more seriously at his father, Job Tyler, who immigrated from England and was one of the first settlers of Andover MA in 1638.

As many Tyler descendants have celebrated Job Tyler's life, and there are quite a few publications about him, I'll try to give a brief summary.

Job Tyler was born in Cranbrook, Tumbridge Wells Borough, Kent, England, in 1617 or 1619.  The following is what I published on my blog many years ago.

The Tyler Homestead in West Boxford, Massachusetts, is the earliest home of the Job Tyler family. Job, the first Tyler known in America, came to Boxford in 1640 and was one of the very first settlers in the community of Boxford. The first Tyler home was built on a tract of land at the corner of Ipswich Road and Main Street. The hearth of that very early structure is still in the rear of the large white house, sometimes known as the Boxford House. (Listed as "Witch Hollow House")

He was known in Newport RI arriving on May 20, 1638.  (Source Rhode Island Collections p. 92)

He had various dates of his marriage recorded, and since he lived in different towns, it's possible each record gave the year they were notified of his marriage to Mary Horton. One record indicates she might have been a widow. But others give information of her parents the Hortons.

By 1650 he had moved to Andover, and also spent some time in Roxbury MA, according to several old records.  Earliest settlers to Andover thought he might have been the "solitary man" that was living there when they arrived in 1639-40 (by legend, since no records exist before 1650 in Andover. 

The 1650 date is when he mortgaged his property to John Godfrey of Newbury.  This apparently is considered the "beginning of his troubles." (Source: Boxford History, Andover Rec. Bk iv, p 8) This mortgage is documented several ways, including a description by Job in 1662 of it.

Most of the information I'm relating is from "North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000."  It is cited quite often in Ancestry.

However there are more legal documents about Job's troubles.  In 1658 he and his wife Mary brought a complaint of witchcraft to the same John Godfrey who held his mortgage, a suit which continued until 1665.  He also disputed his son's apprenticeship to another man, to the extent that when he lost the case, he was required to post an apology in public places.  However the apology gives very cryptic denouncements of the person he had slandered. It doesn't seem to deal directly with why he didn't want his son, Hopestill to have fulfilled his apprenticeship.  

He continued to have squabbles with his neighbors with various court documents given in "North America, Family Histories" pp 3-16.  

He also in 1662 began to be situated in Roxbury, having some documentation about that area, such as a Native American saying Job cut and carried off his hay.  He was living in the Mendon area by 1669 where a complaint was issued that he refused to help dig the cellar for the minister. In Mendon he took part in a lottery to double his land size in 1671.  He apparently gave satisfaction to those who accused him of not helping with the cellar digging, because in Dec. of that year he helps in the confirmation of the first minister for that area.

 

Job Tyler family home

He and all the inhabitants of Mendon fled (1675) at the outbreak of King Phillips War when the Native Americans killed several colonists in Mendon and the town was eventually deserted. That's also when a grandchild was born in Roxbury.  He may also have had connections still in Andover, (1681) and yet he pays for minister's fees in Mendon in 1688-91 and 1695.

In 1700 he signed a deed to his son, Moses in Mendon.  There are no further documents with his name, so it is assumed that is the year of his death.

Job Tyler honorary stone marker in Andover saying Job Tyler was the first resident of same.

But the interesting part of the treatise given in "Family Histories" is how it mentioned that there had been about 3000 Tyler descendants in the three centuries since his life.  In 1901 a memorial was erected in Andover, MA in his honor. Prof. Henry Tyler of Smith College (a Tyler descendant) gave the dedicatory address, and his comments are included in the "Family Histories"

 

Cemetery, North Andover, MA

His son, Hopestill had a daughter, Mary, who married Steven Farnham, and eventually their descendants led to my grandmother Ada Swasey Rogers.  So Job Tyler would be my 8th great grandfather.

But tomorrow I'm going back up the Tyler tree and see what information there might be about the English  roots.