Person:John Dyer (10)

John Dyer first came to Braintree about 1678-9 and is of record as shown by the diary of Judge Samuel Sewal who stated last what one Dyer of Braintree shot an Indian to death as he was breaking his window and attempting to get into his house against his will "etc.". Feb. 1, 1680-1 after an inquest as shown by the court records it was determined that the Indian was starving and in weak and low condition and John Dyer of Braintree for killing Jan 31, last John Ahattawants, an Indian, by shooting him with swan shot was arraigned for murder, the jury found him guilty of manslaughter, and is to pay the widow 20 shillings for 5 years, and costs of court. Paid 20 shillings Mar. 1, 1680.

Where John Dyer was then living is not known, but perhaps on his later location on Dyer Hill, South Braintree, but made no purchase there until June 5, 1711 when he bought of Samuel White 26 acres "commonly called Ironworks land". In the meantime, he had probably returned to Dyer's Neck in Maine with his Brother Christopher as he was one of the petitioners for resettlement there in 1682 and after their deaths at the hands of the Indians in 1689 returned to Braintree where his children were baptized beginning in 1693. In his will dated March 9, 1731, mentions "having received sundry wounds from the Indians in the Eastern Wars, and have been rendered incapable of labour so that the small estat I now have was procured only by the industry of my wife and the children I had by her since my son William left me."

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Compiled by Waldo Chamberlain Sprague. Genealogies of Families in Braintree, MA (1640-1850), including the Modern Towns of Randolph and Holbrook and City of Quiincy. (Published on microfilm, in cooperation with the Quincy Historical Society, by NEHGS).