Person:Richard Tilden (1)

The Eldest Proven Ancestor of the New England Tildens

"In the western portion of the county of Kent, known as 'the Weald,' near the Sussex border and some twenty miles from the sea lies the parish of Benenden which in the early fifteenth century and possibly for generations before was the home of the yeoman family of Tilden. From Tenterden, the next parish to the east, and a substantial town, came Nathaniel Tilden who founded a family in New England, while other scions of the Benenden stock were London merchants. While earlier testamentary records of the Benenden Tildens survive [see material gathered by Elizabeth French (Mrs. J. Gardner Bartlett) in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 65:322] the proven pedigree of the New England family begins with (this) Richard Tilden."^[1]

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4} Davis, Walter Goodwin, Compiler, and Introduction by Gary Boyd Roberts. Massachusetts and Maine Families in the Ancestry of Walter Goodwin Davis (1885-1966): A Reprinting, in Alphabetical Order by Surname, of the Sixteen Multi-Ancestor Compendia (plus Thomas Haley of Winter Harbor and His Descendants). (Baltimore, Maryland, United States: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1996)
   III:409-410.

   Richard Tilden, yeoman, born probably at Benenden between 1510 and 1520. He married Elizabeth -----, possibly a sister of Thomas Glover who was called brother-in-law in his will. He died between January 22, 1565/6, and May 15, 1566, the dates of the making and proving of his will