Ancestors

Job Tyler

Job Tyler was born about 1619. In a deposition of 1659 his age is given as "about 40 yeares". A tradition made him a native of Shropshire, England, but Willard Brigham, who compiled The Tyler Genealogy: The Descendants of Job Tyler, of Andover (1912), never found "a scintilla of evidence upon which to base" it.

The first record of him in New England is at Newport, Rhode Island: "Inhabitants admitted at the Towne of Nieu-Port since the 20th of the 3rd 1638 . . . Job Tyler." A "Widow Tyler" received a lot at Providence the same year and signed its compact as Joan in 1640. Savage thought her "possibly his mother". Brigham was inclined to think her the widow of a brother.

He is said to have been found at Andover, Massachusetts, about 1639 or 1640, "a solitary squatter". By 1646 he was at Roxbury, where the church recorded "A lit infant also a twinn of Job Tilers dyed." He was back at Andover by 1650.

He married Mary, whose surname is not known. Their children included Moses, born in 1641 or 1642, the son through whom the Andover family continued; Mary, born about 1644; the twins of 1646; and Hopestill.

Job spent much of the 1650s and 1660s in court. In 1658 his wife accused John Godfrey, a money-lender who held Job's mortgage, of witchcraft. In 1659 the family swore that a bird had come in at their door with Godfrey at night. Godfrey sued Job in 1661 and 1662 over wheat Job owed him. A quarrel with Thomas Chandler over his son Hopestill's apprenticeship ran for more than ten years and ended with Job nailing a public apology to the meeting houses of Andover and Roxbury.

In 1662 he paid his last minister's rate at Andover, ten shillings, and sold his land there. Mary joined in the deeds to Thomas Abbott and George Abbott, signing by her mark and giving up her thirds. A wife's thirds were her dower, her right to a third of her husband's land for life if she outlived him. One conveyance, to Godfrey, names no price at all. On 28 May 1665 Mary was dismissed from the church at Roxbury to the church at Mendon. Job's death "is nowhere recorded." Brigham thought he probably died and was buried at Mendon, but "no proof is at hand to confirm the supposition."

If Job Tyler is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "Job Tyler (b. 1619)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/job-tyler-1619-a57bc2.