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Library of Congress
W021775
Signed on p. 27: E.D. Attributed to Dyer by Evans. Advertised in the Connecticut courant, Dec. 4, 1769, as "Just published, and to be sold at the Heart and Crown at Hartford." -.
Hartford : Printed by Green and Watson, anno 1769. 27,1p. ; 8°
Eliphalet Dyer was a lawyer, jurist, and statesman from Windham, Connecticut. He was a delegate for Connecticut to many sessions of the Continental Congress.
Background
Eliphalet Dyer was born on September 14, 1721 at Windham, Connecticut, United States. He was descended from Thomas Dyer, a cloth manufacturer of Shepton Mallet, Somersetshire, England, who in 1632 arrived in Boston and settled in Weymouth, Massachusetts, where he was prominent in public life. His grandson, Col. Thomas Dyer of Windham, Connecticut, married Lydia, daughter of John Backus, and gave birth to their son, Eliphalet.
Education
He graduated at Yale College in 1740, then studied law.
Career
Having been admitted to practise before the Connecticut courts in 1746, he opened an office in Windham, which remained his home during the whole of his life.
Taking a lively interest in public affairs, he was in 1747 elected to represent his district in the General Assembly of which he remained a member by repeated réélections for fifteen years.
In 1753 he was prominent in the organization of the Susquehannah Company, the object of which was to found a Connecticut settlement in the Wyoming Valley, west of the province of New York; and he was a member of the committee which purchased the necessary lands from the Six Nations in 1754.
Further progress was blocked by the outbreak of war between England and France and in August 1755 he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of a Connecticut regiment, taking part in the Crown Point operations.
In 1758 he commanded a regiment in the expedition which was directed against Canada in that year. In 1762 he was elected a member of the governor’s council, a position which he retained for twenty-two years. In 1763 the Wyoming land scheme again came to the front, settlers having commenced to take possession and the proprietaries of Pennsylvania having put forward an adverse claim under a previous Crown grant to William Penn of the area involved. In consequence of this Dyer was sent to England as agent of the Susquehannah Company to procure a confirmation of the title acquired from the Indians, but he was unsuccessful. After his return, he took a prominent part in the rising opposition to the colonial policy of the British government and was a Connecticut delegate to the Stamp Act Congress of 1765.
In 1766 he was elected an associate judge of the superior court of Connecticut, continuing, after his elevation to the bench, in close association with the leaders of the colonial cause. In the meantime, efforts were made to settle the Wyoming controversy, and he visited Philadelphia twice with this object in view, going in June 1769 as agent of the Susquehannah Company and in October 1773 as one of three commissioners appointed in that behalf by the Connecticut legislature, but nothing was effected.
In 1774 he was appointed delegate from Connecticut to the First Continental Congress, and in 1775 was a member of the first Connecticut Committee of Safety. Throughout the Revolutionary period he rendered valuable services, acting as a member of Congress and attending the Hartford Convention in 1780 as one of the Connecticut commissioners.
He had in 1776 declined an appointment as brigadier-general in the Continental Army, considering that he could serve the cause more effectually in Congress than in the field.
In 1781 the dispute as to the Wyoming land title finally came before Congress, and a board of commissioners was appointed to settle the question of jurisdiction as between Pennsylvania and Connecticut. At its session, which was held at Trenton, New Jersey, November 12, 1782, Dyer appeared as counsel for Connecticut, and after a hearing extending to forty-one judicial days, a unanimous decision was rendered adverse to Connecticut.
In 1789 he became chief justice of Connecticut and held that office till 1793. On leaving the bench he retired into private life, residing at Windham till his death. Another side of his character is exhibited in the record of expenses incurred by him as congressman in 1777 as rendered to and paid by Connecticut.
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The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration...)
Membership
In 1774 he was appointed delegate from Connecticut to the First Continental Congress, and in 1775 was a member of the first Connecticut Committee of Safety.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
John Adams said of him: “Dyer is long winded and roundabout, obscure and cloudy, very talkative and very tedious, yet an honest worthy man, means and judges well. ”
Connections
He married Huldah, daughter of Col. Jabez Bowen of Providence, Rhode Island.