Edward Tyng was born in Boston, Massachussets in 1683. He was the son of Edward Tyng, who, during King William's War, was the commander of Fort Loyal, Fort William Henry and later became Governor of Acadia, only to be taken prisoner in the Naval battle off St. John (1691).
Career
Edward Tyng went to sea at an early age. He sailed as a merchant seaman and engaged in mercantile pursuits in Boston. In 1736 the General Court of Massachusetts granted him a tract of land on the Merrimack River, in consideration of his father’s services and tragic demise in a French prison.
On 16 April 1740 Governor Jonathan Belcher appointed Tyng captain of the batteries and fortifications of Boston, and on 26 August Tyng assumed command of the province’s new snow, Prince of Orange. For the next two years he cruised the New England coast in search of Spanish and French privateers. In the spring of 1744 Captain Tyng was sent to Annapolis Royal with news of the outbreak of war with France. He returned to Boston on 27 May, carrying 26 women and children refugees, as the Annapolis garrison feared an attack by the French and their Indian allies. In June Tyng set out in search of French privateers off the New England coast. While cruising off Cape Cod he met a French sloop, commanded by Captain Joannis-Galand d’Olobaratz, and after a 12-hour engagement disabled the smaller vessel and brought it into Boston as a prize. In July he carried reinforcements to Annapolis Royal, breaking the siege of that fortress by Micmac and Malecite Indians. The rest of the year he spent in convoy duty between Boston and the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.
On 27 January 1744/45, Captain Tyng was elevated to the command of a new, larger vessel, the Massachusetts. He sailed from Boston on 16 March 1745 as commodore of the colonial flotilla of 13 armed and about 90 transport vessels engaged in the expedition against Louisbourg, Île Royale (Cape Breton Island). During this campaign he performed blockade duty and was involved, along with ships commanded by Peter Warren, in the early stages of the chase that led to the capture of the French man-of-war Vigilant, commanded by Alexandre de La Maisonfort Du Boisdecourt. He participated in the destruction of Port-Dauphin (Englishtown, N. S. ) and in June went to relieve Annapolis Royal which had been briefly besieged by the French and Indians in May. Tyng was still commanding the Massachusetts in April 1747.
Tyng died in Boston on 8 September 1755, after suffering for six years the effects of a paralytic stroke.
Achievements
Connections
His first wife, whom he married January 8, 1725, was Elizabeth, daughter of Capt. Cyprian Southack and widow of Francis Parnel; his second, a sister of Gen. Samuel Waldo, Ann Waldo, to whom he was married January 27, 1731, and by whom he had seven children.
His son was Col William Tyng who was a soldier in the British army.