The Tryon Family In America

Author: Wesley Tryon

FIRST GENERATION

WILLIAM TRYON 1.1, son of William Tryon and Rebecca ( --- ) Tryon, was born at Bibury, Gloustershire, England, about 1645. He married quite young, name of his wife unknown, and fathered by her two sons:
William and
Rowland.
After the death of his young wife, he left his two small sons with his brother Thomas in England, and came to America, and settled at Wethersfield, Conn. He must have recouped some of the family fortune, because according to Rev. J. Herbert Brown, of Waco, Texas, "William purchased the finest estate of the Connecticut River in 1663, in the township of Wethersfield.'' A Biographical Record of Hartford, Conn., published by J. H. Beers & Co., in 1901, says: "William was assigned a grant of land at Wethersfield in 1673."

We have been unable to find a record of the mother of his first eight children in this country, and are inclined to accept the strong circumstantial evidence that she was Mary Steele, first daughter of Samuel Steele, about 1670. Samuel Steele, in his will, mentions his four daughters without naming them. We have learned from other sources that they were:
Mary, born 1652;
Rachel, born 1655, who married Jonathan Smith;
Sarah, born 1656, who married Samuel Boardman; and
Hannah, who married a Mr. Hart .
Date of Mary's death is not known, but it was likely in childbirth with her youngest daughter, or shortly thereafter. Since William's first two sons never came to America, and this work concerns the "Tryon Family in America," we start numbering with the eight children of William and Mary:
Joseph 2.1a,
David 2.1b,
Sarah 2.1c,
Thomas 2.1d,
Abel 2.1e,
Ziba or Zybah 2.1f,
Elizabeth 2.1g,
Mabel 2.1h.

William named his two oldest sons in America Joseph and David, and James Steele and Sarah (Steele) Boardman also named sons Joseph and David, although neither of these were Steele or Boardman names. Later, Ziba, son of William, named his eldest son James, which was not a Tryon name. And when William died in 1711 in his 66th year, administration of his estate was granted to James Steele, son of Samuel, "by request of the children of William Tryon," thus indicating that he was a near relative.

After the birth of his first eight children in America by Mary Steele, and after her death,
William married third, in about 1688, a young widow named Sarah Saint (Robinson) Lattimer, daughter of Thomas Robinson and Mary (Welds) Robinson, and widow of Bezaleel Lattimer. There are several ways of spelling Robinson: Robbinsson, Robbards, Robbins. Correspondence with L. B. Atwood of Quitman, Ga., and Illa Atwood, of Corvallis, Oregon, in 1960 and 1961, disclosed that when William married the widow at Windsor, Conn., she was the mother of two small children. She was born at Wethersfield in 1646, and at the age of 15, married her first cousin, Begaleel or Bezaleel Lattimer, son of John Lattimer. The wives of Thomas Robinson and John Lattimer were sisters, making Bezaleel and Sarah Saint first cousins. They were the parents of a boy Jonathan and a girl called Bathsheeba, the girl being only three months old at the time of her father's death. Bezaleel was born at Wethersfield July 26, 1657, and married Sarah Saint on Aug. 18, 1661. William died at Wethersfield on Oct. 2, 1711, aged 66 years, and Sarah Saint died there on Dec. 7, 1711, aged 65 years. Their one son was
Abiel 2.1i.

Stile's History of Wethersfield gives the family of William and Sarah Saint as follows: "Joseph, David, Abel, Ziba or Zybah, Rachel, Thomas, Sarah, Elizabeth, Mabel, and Abiel, in addition to Saint's two, Jonathan and Bathsheeba," making a total of twelve children. We find no mention in any other place of Rachel. From the same book, page 717, we find this court record: "William Tryon, Inv. (llbs. ) 209-08-08, taked (no date) by Joshua Robbins, Sen., Joseph Belden, Thomas Wells.--Ct. Rec. 7 January 1711-12. Adms. gr. to Capt. James Steele. Joseph and David Tryon now exhibit invtr.--the children of William Tryon chose Capt. James Steele for that office and trust 7 April, 1713. James Steele no exhibit account of his adm.--allowed order to distribute to Joseph Tryon, to David, to Thomas, to Abell, to Zybah, to Abial, to Sarah Gillitt, eldest dau., to Elizabeth Hill, to Mabel Tryon, 4 Aug. 1712. Abial Tryon, 17 years of age, chose Abraham Kilbourn to be his guardian.

The two children of Bezaleel Lattimer and Sarah Saint (Robinson) Lattimer were: Jonathan Lattimer, born Wethersfield, Conn., Sept. 24, 1681, and Bathsheeba Lattimer, born Wethersfield, Feb. --, 1688. These two children were half brother and half sister to Abiel 2.1i, but no blood relation to the eight children of William and Mary, although they were all raised in the same household.