Person:Mary Lyon (5)

Mary Lyon inherited from her mother a delicate constitution, and because of "sad condition" of health she was sent in 1668 to visit her uncle, Governor John Winthrop, Jr. (Gov. CT) who was living at that time in Hartfort. She received by her father's will only an equal share with her sisters in the moveable property. She believed that since a portion of the land her father owned came to him through his marriage with Martha Winthrop, she was entitled to more than that. This seems to have been an after thought, for on Nov. 4, 1691, John Willson and Mary Willison gave quit claim to the executors and administrators of the estate of Thomas Lyon for "any demands by reason of any legacy due by the will of the deceased, or any other demand which is or may be [made] by us on said estate." (Greenwich Town Records, p. 78.)Mary pushed her claims in the courts, appealing at last to the general Assembly of Connecticut. The petition was for a restitution of three hundred acres of land claimed to have been originally the property of Mrs. Feake, Martha Winthrop's mother , Elizabeth (Fones) [Winthrop] [Feake] Hallett. The record reads: "This Court having heard and considered said petition doe order that the sons of said Llyon, viz: Samuel and Joseph Lyon doe pay the sume of fiftie pounds in currant money of the Colony, to be paid within the space of one year unto said John and Marie Willson, the said John and Marie Willison giving them quitt claim to land aforesaid, and in failure thereof said john and Marie Willson may take out and execution against so much of the land aforesaid as may satisfie the said sume." (Colonial Rec. Conn. IV. p. 424: date May 13, 1703). Oct. 11, 1705 there is record of the issuing of such execution (Col. Rec. Conn. IV. p. 531). A more amicable transaction is recorded June 24, 1737, when certain lands at Horseneck (now Greenwich) were transferred by Thomas Lyon, John Willson, Jonathan Lyon, David Lyon and John Lyon, all of Greenwich, to Thomas Close (Greenwich T R. V. p. 13.)Sources: The Lyon Memorial, #3, Descendants of Thomas Lyon, pp. 44-45. The Winthrop Family in America by Lawrence Shaw Mayo (1948) p. 61.