Person talk:Joseph Dyer (1)

What evidence is there... [9 July 2011]

...besides Savage supposing, to believe that Joseph had two wives named Hannah? The two daughters named Hannah are born Oct 1682, and Feb 1683/84, only 16 months apart to allegedly different mothers. That's a pretty short time to mourn, remarry and go through nine months of pregnancy. Certainly possible, but quick enough to raise doubts. I can find no death record for a wife Hannah (the daughter's death record is Dec 1682), there doesn't seem to be a marriage record. Chamberlain apparently didn't buy into this, when he published 1923, even though he would have known what Savage said. In Hale, House and Related Families, Jacobus says Hannah Frary d. 1726, suggesting he agreed with Chamberlain over Savage. I have looked to find an abstract of the will of John Baxter in 1717/18, but cannot find it, or an abstract, even though plenty of people refer to it. At this point, I don't see any evidence that would even make one suppose that Joseph Dyer remarried. Am I missing something obvious? --Jrich 20:45, 8 July 2011 (EDT)

Source:Dyar, Harrison Gray. Preliminary Genealogy of the Dyar Family, p. 5, says Hannah "Frazy" Dyer d. 27 Oct 1682. Second wife Hannah Baxter Dyer d. 19 Sep 1726. Neither death is found in VR Weymouth. However, 19 Sep 1726 is the death date given by both Chamberlain and Jacobus of the person they claim is Hannah Frary Dyer. This apparently comes from a gravestone in North Weymouth Cemetery, though unfortunately Find A Grave has no photos and no quoted inscription.

Weymouth VRs show the int. of Capt. Joseph Morse of Sherborn and Hannah Dyer, wid., int. 18 Apr 1713. Their wedding is reported 17 May 1713, but I have not found it yet. Her Sherborn gravestone is found on Find A Grave. The gravestone of the widow of Capt. Joseph Morse, Hannah, d. 4 Sep 1727 in her 67th year. According to this, her birth would be after 4 Sep 1660 (but it is always ambiguous whether in her 67th year should be taken literally - her 67th year, from 66th birthday up to 67th birthday - or in the more relaxed sense of being age 67). The gravestone does not identify her previous husband.

The contributors of both pages have identified their gravestone as the wife of Joseph Dyer.

Hannah Frary was born in Medfield 22 Feb 1659-60. Medfield VRs. Will of Elizabeth, widow of Thomas Dyer, dated 20 Nov 1678, mentions Joseph Dyer (doesn't mention any of the other Dyer step-children, but Joseph had married her daughter Hannah Frary), 3 Feb 1679/80, agreements of heirs of John Frary Jr, include Hannah wife of Joseph Dyer.

Hannah Baxter was born in Braintree 6 May 1660. Braintree Church and Vital Records. Will of Joseph Dyer 1701. Will of Joseph Dyer, 1701 dated 30 Jul 1701, proved 9 Nov 1704, mentions daughter Elizabeth, child of first wife; wife Hannah; sons Benjamin, John, Thomas; daughter Mehitable; father Baxter, "brother" Joseph Baxter; brother Benjamin Dyer. Source:Holman, Mary Lovering. Ancestry of Colonel John Harrington Stevens and His Wife, Frances Helen Miller, p. 2:23, which seems to show there were two wives. QED

--Jrich 00:32, 9 July 2011 (EDT)