Reynear Tyson & Margaret Strypers
Where Did They Live?
On the 11th of Jun, 1683 (William), Penn conveyed to Govert Remke, Lenart Arets, and Jacob
Issace Van Bebber one thousand acres of land each, providing that a
certain number of families should go to Pennsylvania within a specified
time.
Very soon thirteen men, with their families, comprising
thirty-three persons, nearly all of whom were relatives, were ready to embark
from Rotterdam for London. Through James Claypoole, a Quaker merchant in
London, passage had been engaged for them and the money paid in advance. |
| Krefeld, Germany |
The ship "Concord" sailed from
England 7 mo. 24, 1683, and arrived in Philadelphia on 10 mo. 6, 1683.
One member of this little band was Reynier Tyson, a young man, and believed to
have been unmarried.
With his companions he settled in Germantown, and later
removed to Abington.
When in Germantown, under the Penn Charter, he was
one of the Burgesses, 1692, 1693, 1694, 1696.  |
Base of Founder's Statue, annotated
|
He was one of the signers
of the certificate, issued by the Quarterly Meeting in Philadelphia, addressed
to the London Yearly Meeting, which Samuel Junnings bore with him to London,
1693, concerning the Keith controversy.
In Abington he was a large
landowner and an active businessman.
In a memorial published in the "Friend,"
Vol, XXX., page 229, it is recorded that:
"Reynier Tyson was born in Germany
in the year 1659.
He was convinced of the truth whilst living there, and
for his faithfulness thereto suffered persecution.
He removed to Pennsylvania a few years after William Penn
first obtained the Province, and settled himself within the limits of Abington
Monthly Meeting, then called Dublin.
He continued faithful to the manifestations of truth
received, and grew in the esteem of his friends to a father in the
church. In the year 1725 he was appointed an elder, and continued
faithful in fulfilling the duties of the station until prevented by age and
indisposition. His friends say he was innocent and inoffensive in life
and conversation, and diligent in attending his religious meetings.
He lived, beloved and honored, to a good old age, dying on
the 27th of the seventh month, 1745, aged about eighty-six years."
----------------------------
In the drawing for lots which took place in the riverbank
cave of Pastorius, Reynier Tyson drew No. 5.
He had purchased fifty acres in
the Germantown township and lot No. 5 was laid out along the east side of the
Main Street of Germantown, extending southwardly from where Bringhurst Street
has since been opened. It reached in front of the highway 231 feet and extended
back to the township line. It contained about 18 acres, undoubtedly his first
home was erected on this lot.
To the north of him was the home of Leonard
Arets, from whom he had bought, and next towards the city was the lot of Jan
Lucken.
Toward his fifty acres he was also given the corresponding
No. 5 of the “side lots towards Bristol,” which contained twenty-two acres,
lying just north of the present Washington Lane, and extending from the present
Chew Street to Stenton Avenue, which was the township line. (See Map in History
of Old Germantown).
To complete the fifty acres there were 18 ¾ acres “broad
thirteen perches and twelve feet” in the side land towards Pymouth betwixt the
said inhabited part and the land of Jonas Potts.
This land Tyson held by virtue of a deed of sale from
Leonard Arets, a first purchaser of 250 acres.
 |
Tyson's Lot in Germantown, PA
|
The deed was dated October 10,
1683, and acknowledged in open court in Germantown, held Eighth Month 8th 1692. These three tracts Tyson sold in 1708 to one Isaac Van Sintern of
Philadelphia for one hundred pounds (Philadelphia Deed Book E 5, Vol 7, p. 78).
Reynier Tyson, as he prospered, bought other lands in
Germantown.
1st: Two parcels of land adjacent one to the other
being both in breadth 14 perches and four feet and in length 11 perches and
fifteen feet, being bounded southeasterly with the lot once of John Streipers
and now Reiner Tison, westerly with the land of the liberties of the City of
Philadelphia, and northward with the lot formerly of Herman op den Graeff and
eastward with the eleven acres of Dirck op den Graeff. (Bought November 20,
1692, and November 13, 1683, and sold to John Henry Kuston, April 30, 1709.)
2nd: Two other pieces: “One situated in the inhabited
part of the said town, being the very first lot of the same on the west side,
containing 23 1/2 acres, making both 50 acres. (Bought of the Trustees of John
Streipers, Crefeld, Germany, confirmed on open court in Germantown 12th Mo. 8th, 1703/4.
Sold April 30, 1709, to John Henry Kuston. (Philadelphia Deed Book E 5, Vol. 7. p 205, etc.)
3rd: Two tracts in Crefeld in the German
township, fifty acres of which he bought of Herman op den Graeff 3rd Mo. 1684, and sixty-six acres likewise in Crefeld which he bought of Dirck op
den Graeff, 9th Mo. 27th, 1683.
These were sold to
William Strepers, "Leather Dresser" for 35 pounds, January 16,
1699 (Recorded Philadelphia Deed Book G, Vol. 10, p. 301, etc.)
Reynier Tyson
Moves to Abington
On Holmes Great Map of 1684, in the section which is easily
identified as the modern Abington Township, is a five hundred acre tract
extending from the Cheltenham Township line to the Susquehanna Street Road and
labeled “Isaac Hobbs.”
This is roughly described as being along certain lines of
marked trees 480 perches, just a mile and a half in length, and 167 perches, or
a little over one-half mile in width. This was patented to Hobbs in 1684
(Patent Book A, Vol 1, p. 259)
This tract Hobbs sold in 1699 to John Colley, a
hatter of Philadelphia, and he, in the following year, sold the half of it lying
next to Cheltenham Township to “Reynier Tyson of Germantown, Yeoman.” (Penna.
Archives, Second Series, Vol XIX, Minute Book “G,” p. 423.)
Just when Reynier Tyson moved from Germantown to Abington is
not clear.
It was not until 1708 and 1709 that he sold his home and the
considerable other property he had accumulated in the Germantown Township, and
the presumption would be that he moved to Abington about that time.
He
continued to live on his Abington farm the remainder of his years.
His family
became closely identified with the social life of Abington Meeting and most of
his children intermarried with the members and attenders of that Meeting.
In 1727 he and his wife Margaret conveyed the Abington farm
to their son Isaac, reserving to themselves, in the quaint language of the
deed, “One room, commonly called the stove room, and also the kitchen, and free
ingress and egress to the rest of the rooms in the said messuage, during the
remainder of their lives.”
This home farm descended from Isaac to his son
Isaac (see Partition proceedings, Orphans Court, June 11, 1770), and again to
an Isaac and his sister Sarah who in 1830 sold it out of the family to Samuel
Schofield.
This land may be roughly identified as lying north of the Germantown
and Willow Grove Turnpike (or the Plank Road), and extending from Cheltenham
Township line on the northwest to the road leading from Jenkintown to
Fritzwatertown, called in some of the deeds, Jenkintown Road, on the southwest.
The growing village of Glenside was spread over its western portion, and old
property lines have long since disappeared. The land lay gently to the south on
the lower slopes of Edgehill, and is underlaid with limestone.
The lime which
was used to build the State House in Philadelphia is said to have come from the
kilns on the Tyson place, whether this is some other Tyson farm in Abington is
unclear. A little stream crosses it southwestwardly, flowing eventually into
Frankford Creek.
In the tax
list of 1734 are the following assessments in Abington Township:
John Kirk
-----250 acres
Isaac
Tyson---100 acres
Rynier
Tyson 100 acres
John Tyson
-----60 acres
Peter Tyson
----200 acres
Abraham
Tyson—60 acres
In Upper
Dublin, Dirick Tyson –100 acres
In Northern
Liberties, Richard Tyson—100 acres
In Perkiomen
& Skippack, Matthias Tyson ---200 acres
Rynear Tyson’s
Will
I, Rynear Tyson, of Abington in ye County of Philadelphia in
ye Province of Pennsylvania, yeoman, being tho’ the Divine Mercy in Health of
Body and of sound Mind and Memory & calling to mind that is is appointed
for men once to die do make this my last Will and Testament, revoking &
hereby disannulling all & every will & wills, Testament &
Testaments heretofore by me made & declared either by Word or Writing and
this only to be taken for my Last Will & Testament and none other &
touching such Temporal Estate as it has pleased God to bless me with. I do
hereby order, give & dispose of ye same in manner & form following.
That is to say: First I will that all my Just Debts & funeral Expenses be
honestly paid & discharged out of my Estate by my Excr, hereinafter named.
Then I give, devise & bequeath unto my Grandson Matthew Tyson (son of my
son Matthias Tyson) the sum of six Pounds current money of Penna. to be paid
unto him out of my Estate by Executors at ye end or expiration of one full year
after my decease which said Six pounds shall be in full Barr against all or any of my said son
Matthias Tyson’s Heirs claiming any further right to any other part of my
estate.
My Said Son Matthias Tyson having allredy in his life received of me
his full share of my Estate.
Then I give, devise, and bequeath unto my sons
John Tyson, Abraham Tyson, Derick Tyson & Peter Tyson ye sum of Six pounds
current money of Penna to each of them to be paid unto each of them, their
Heirs or Assigns out of my Estate by my Executor at ye End and Expiration of
one full year after my decease.
Item. I give unto my son Henry Tyson the sum of
Eight pounds of like lawfull money the aforesaid which said Eight pounds is to
be allowed by him to be the Eight pounds that I answered for him to Benjamin
Lay.
Item. I give unto my Daughters Elizabeth Luken and Sarah Kirk ye sum of
Six pounds Lawfull money of Pennsylvania to each of them to be paid unto them
or their assigns by my Executor at ye Expiration of one full year after my
Decease and over and above what is above Devised I give unto my daughter
Elizabeth Luken all my Dutch [Deutch?] books.
Also my mind and will is that all
goods Remaining in ye Stove Roome (except ye stove) shall be equally divided
between my sons John, Abraham, Derick, Peter and Henry and my Daughters
Elizabeth Lukens and Sarah Kirk.
Share and Share alike and further it is in my
mind and will that on ye receipt of the aforesaid legacies or sums by me
bequeathed hereby, that all and all manner of writings that in any wise
belongeth to me or that is in any wise relating to any affairs of mine being in
ye hands or keeping of any of my aforesaid Children shall without delay be
given and delivered up unto the hands of my Executor.
Item. I give unto my
Granddaughter Abigail Tyson my Riding hors to ye use of her and her assigns
forever and my mind and will also is that what Remains of my estate over and
above ye aforesaid Legacies by me here in before bequeathed that the same shall
be and continue in ye hands of my Executor to be ye use of him and his Heirs
and Assigns forever.
And lastly, I do hereby nominate, constitute and appoint my
son Isaac Tyson to be my Executor of this my Last Will and Testament. In
Witness Whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal the twenty first day of
December in ye year of our Lord 1741.
Be it known y’t: it is ye mind of y testator that no more of
his goods but what is in ye Stove Rooms is to be divided among ye above
Legatees inserted before signing.
His
Reynour ✘ Tyson
(seal)
Mark
Published
pronounced and declared
by ye sd.
Reynour Tyson
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