Ebenezer Dyer (1697 - 1777)

Born 3 Apr 1697 in Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts Bay

Ancestors

Husband of Sarah (Doane) Dyer — married 9 Jun 1720 in Eastham, Barnstable, Ma

Husband of Ruth (Snow) Dyer — married 25 Feb 1761 (to 1 Nov 1765) in Truro, Barnstable, Massachusetts Bay, New England

Husband of Phebbediah (Smith) Dyer — married 6 Nov 1766 in Eastham, Barnstable, Ma

Husband of Mercy (Freeman) Dyer — married 5 Dec 1771 in Truro, Barnstable, Ma

Descendants

Died 23 Jul 1777 at age 80 in Truro, Barnstable, Massachusetts, United States

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Biography

As an "adult," Ebenezer Dyer was baptized Feb. 18, 1727-28, in the church at Truro; he was admitted to membership on the same day. On March 4, following, his three children were baptized.XXX Nov. 19, 1756, a committee of three was chosen "to enquire the reason of Ebenezer Dyer absenting himself from the Lord's table." Violet, "negro servant to Ebenezer Dyer," was baptized, in 1760, with her daughter Nellie, and later, Violet's son Ezra and daughter Peggy.

Ebenezer Dyer lived on the homestead of his father, Doctor Dyer; he also owned land at East Harbor. In 1740, he was appointed by the Proprietors on a committee, with two others, "to view Eastern Harbor beach, and flat ground below Cedar Island, to see if it be needful to fence them to preserve Eastern Harbor meadow from being destroyed by the sands, and to make report to said proprietors of what they think proper to be done." He also was on a committee of three, chosen June 6, 1748, by the Proprietors, "to view the highway that goeth up the head of ye Long Nook to the back sea," and to see if Mr. Jonathan Paine and Mr. Samuel Dyer would consent to "turn the road a little higher up on the northerly side of the valley." Ebenezer Dyer was selectman of Truro three years subsequent to 1750. The shifting sands becoming still more troublesome, in 1760, Messrs. Barnabas Paine, Joshua Atkins, and Ebenezer Dyer were appointed to petition the Great and General Court that the Provincial tax be abated, "on account of great losses sustained by the town in consequence of the blowing of the sand upon the cultivated lands and meadows the winter past."(*)

It is not probable that Ebenezer Dyer was in active military service, but he was chosen at the town-meeting held Oct. 14, 1757, "to assist the military officers in drawing the claim List." Jan. 9, 1758, Ebenezer Dyer, Ensign Ambrose Dyer, and others, were a committee "to consider the business inserted in the warrant respecting the soldiers."(+)

His will, signed "Ebenezer Dyer," was witnessed by Isaiah Atkins, Solomon Dyer, and Joshua Freeman; it was dated June 2, 1773, and presented Aug. 12, 1777.XXX He gave and bequeathed "to Mercy Dyer my wife agreeable to the Instrument given the Day of our marriage." To his daughter "Sarah Collings," six shillings; to daughter Dorcas Gross, twenty pounds; and to daughter Keturah Kinney, twenty pounds. To "my Son in law Thomas Aray at the age of twenty-one," œ26:13:4.

To his son Ebenezer Dyer, Jr., he gave all the land he bought of "Humphry Purrington Called purrington homestead Lying at Eastern Harbour In the township of Said truro together with the dwelling house Standing thereon where my said son now lives." To his son "Fulk Dyer," he gave "my Dwelling house wherein I now live and all the lands adjoining thereto formerly Called Doct. Dyers homestead together with all my Buildings and fencing," also the "Sheep lots that was Called the Atkins's on East harbour in Truro." The residue of the estate, both real and personal, was to be divided equally between the sons, Ebenezer and Fulke. (This name of Fulk, says Rich, appears to have been derived from the Fulke, or Foulke, family in England, a family of some prominence.(*))

(Descendants of Edward Small)

Intention 4 Apr. 1720

He of Truro, she of Eastham.

by Rev. Edward Cheever

Birth

3 APR 1697 Barnstable, Barnstable, Mass.^[1][2][3]

Marriage

9 JUN 1720 Eastham, Barnstable, Mass.^[4]

5 DEC 1771 Truro, Barnstable, Mass.^[5]

6 NOV 1766 Eastham, Barnstable, Mass.^[6]

25 FEB 1761 Truro, Barnstable, Mass.^[7]

Death

23 JUL 1777 Truro, Barnstable, Mass. ^[8][9][10]

Burial

1777 Old North Cemetery, Truro, Barnstable, Mass.

Sources

1. ↑ Mayflower Descendant, Vol. 4
2. ↑ Vital Records Index
3. ↑ Doane
4. ↑ Mayflower Descendant, Vol. XV
5. ↑ NEHGR Vol. 104
6. ↑ Mayflower Descendant, Vol. 32
7. ↑ Marriage Index
8. ↑ Berry
9. ↑ Dyer
10. ↑ Gravestone

• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/32305500/ebenezer-dyer
• Dyer, John. Inscriptions From Gravestones in the Old North Cemetery, Truro, Mass. (Advocate Press, Provincetown, Mass., 1897) Page 11
• Boston Evening Transcript
• Torrey, Clarence Almon. Torrey’s New England Marriages Prior to 1700 (Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. Baltimore, 1985)
• Pack, Charles Lathrop Thomas Hatch of Barnstable & Some of His Descendants (Pack, Newark, New Jersey, 1930)
• Underhill, Lora Altine Woodbury. Descendants of Edward Small of New England (Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston & New York, 1934) Vol. 1.
• Berry, Marcelia Dyer Rennard. The Dyers from England to Cape Elizabeth 1557-1987, Desc. of Henry 3rd son of Dr. William Dyer
• NEHGR (Boston, July 1950) Vol. 104, Page 56: Stephen Hopkins and His Descendants
• Bowman, George Ernest. Vital Records of Truro, Barnstable County, Mass.
• Gravestone, Old North Cemetery, No. Truro, Barnstable, Mass., Jeanne Gonzales, April 18, 1998. st 541
• Vital Records Index, North America, 1631-1888
• Marriage Index: Massachusetts, 1633-1850, CD 231
• The Mayflower Descendant (Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants) Vol. IV, Page 225: Barnstable, Mass., Vital Records
• The Mayflower Descendant (Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants) Vol. XII.
• The Mayflower Descendant (Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants) Vol. XV, Page: 231: Eastham & Orleans, Mass., Vital Records
• The Mayflower Descendant (Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants) Vol. XXXII, Page: 44: Eastham & Orleans, Mass., Vital Records
• Dana, Harold Ward. John(5) Billings of Deer Isle, Maine, NEHGR, Vol. 97, October 1943.
• Doane, Alfred Alder. The Doane Family (Boston, MA, by A. A. Doane, 1902) Page: 45.
• 'Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War (Wright & Potter Printing Co., Boston, 1899)
• Cutter, William Richard. Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Boston and Eastern Massachusetts (Lewis historical Publishing Company - Boston, Mass., 1908) Vol. 1, Page 461.