Extracted from volume 176 Whole Number 701 Winter 2022, The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, The Journal of American Genealogy. (NEHGR 176:40)
I did not include footnotes in the family notes below.
https://www.americanancestors.org/sites/default/files/2022-03/nehgr... Pp 40-55
Stotts, Clifford L. Rev. William Tilley of Broadwindsor, Dorset, and His Sons in New England: John, Nathaniel, and William.
Dorset Company associate William Tilley was a 20-year-old Devonshire man when he matriculated from Broadgates Hall, Oxford, on 11 October 1583. He took orders as curate of Lillington, Dorset, in 1593, then vicar of Broadwindsor in 1598, which position he held until his death in 1634.
After Rev. William’s death, the family seems to have left Broadwindsor. None of his sons appear in the parish register after 1630, and none of their names appears on the Protestation return of Broadwindsor in 1641–42.
What happened to these men? The following presents a strong circumstantial case for the later history of John, William, and Nathaniel Tilley. ...
William Tilley married twice and fathered children. The ten children of his second wife, Alice Devenish, included the following sons baptized in Broadwindsor:
- Nathaniel, bp. 17 Feb. 1599/1600 age 32, was enrolled for passage to New England aboard the Abigail in 1635. In England a Nathaniel Tilley was in London on 22 May 1639 ... Nathaniel Tilley “Esq” executed his will in 1685 from his new home in Shenley, Hertfordshire, north of London, mentioning wife Mary, a daughter Susan, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and lands in Shenley and Spitalfields. Most important to this study, he provided a lifetime annuity for his sister Tryphena, apparently the daughter of Rev. William Tilley who was baptized in Broadwindsor in May 1611.
- John, bp. 24 Feb. 1601/2. In 1624 the Dorchester Company appointed a John Tilley to manage the fishery at Cape Ann. Married on 24 May 1630 in England to Edith (Moorecock) Garland. John Tilley had a brother in Dorchester, Massachusetts, who held a home lot adjacent to his own property in 1636. This supports the theory that John was the brother of William and Nathaniel who came to America in 1635. Killed by Indians near Saybrook in October 1636 in the events leading up to the Pequot War. "Eady" Tilley was later a widow in Windsor, Connecticut. She married 3rd to Nicholas Camp.
- William, bp. 8 Feb. 1606/7. Passenger of the Abigail from London in 1635. Married in New England in 1640 to Alice (Frost) Blower. He was a wine merchant living in Cape Porpoise (now in Kennebunkport, Maine) on 16 April 1649 when he petitioned for the abatement of a fine of £4 for illegally selling wine. William was living as late as 27 March 1668 when he was mentioned in a Massachusetts court record.
The three Tilley immigrants were of the same socioeconomic class. All of them were gentleman merchants who carried the honorific title “Mr.” John was a coastal trader and a former overseer of the Dorchester Company’s fisheries. William was a wine merchant. Nathaniel was a wire drawer and merchant involved in the high-value textile trade. He was a captain in the Parliamentary army, held property in London, and was styled “Esq” in his last will. Their sister Tryphena married Thomas Harrison, a gentleman, according to their marriage bond ...
Possible American Descendants
No evidence had been found that William or Nathaniel left progeny in America. There is, however, a circumstantial case to be made that John and Edith Tilley had a daughter Elizabeth who married and left many descendants in America. Elizabeth Tilley married in Springfield, Massachusetts, on 21 October 1653, Thomas1 Merrick, as his second wife. ...
