William Dyer | |
|---|---|
| 1st Attorney General of Rhode Island | |
| In office May 1650 – 1651 | |
| Governor | Nicholas Easton |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | John Cranston in 1654, following repeal of Coddington Commission |
| Personal details | |
| Born | baptized 19 September 1609 Kirkby Laythorpe, Lincolnshire, England |
| Died | before 24 October 1677 Newport, Rhode Island |
| Spouse | Mary Barrett |
| Children | William Dyre, Samuel, stillborn daughter, Henry, William Dyre, Mahershallalhashbaz, Mary, Charles, Elizabeth |
| Education | significant based on lifelong appointments as clerk and secretary |
| Occupation | Milliner, Secretary, General Recorder, Attorney General, Commissioner, Deputy |
William Dyer (also Dyre; 1609 – by 1677) was an early settler of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, a founding settler of both Portsmouth and Newport, and Rhode Island's first Attorney General. He is also notable for being the husband of the Quaker martyr Mary Dyer, who was executed for her Quaker activism. Sailing from England as a young man with his wife, Dyer first settled in Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, but like many members of the Boston church, he became a supporter of the dissident ministers John Wheelwright and Anne Hutchinson during the Antinomian Controversy, and signed a petition in support of Wheelwright. For doing this, he was disenfranchised and disarmed, and with many other supporters of Hutchinson, he signed the Portsmouth Compact, and settled on Aquidneck Island in the Narragansett Bay. Within a year of arriving there, he and others followed William Coddington to the south end of the island, where they established the town of Newport.
Once in Newport, Dyer was very active in civil affairs, holding a number of offices, particularly those using his clerical skills such as clerk and secretary. The political alignment of the island towns of Portsmouth and Newport was in flux for the first decade of government there, and Coddington had gone to England to obtain a commission to keep the island independent with him as governor. By 1651 Dyer and others had greatly tired of Coddington's rule, and he was one of three men who went to England to have Coddington's commission revoked. Being successful, Dyer returned with the news in 1653, but his wife, Mary, who had been there at the same time, remained in England. Mary returned from England in 1657 after being there for five years, and had become a zealous Quaker convert. Banned from Massachusetts, she nevertheless defied the authorities and returned in 1659, being sentenced to hang, but getting a stay of execution while on the gallows. Her last trip to Boston in 1660 resulted in her execution and martyrdom.
Following Mary's death, Dyer remarried, and continued his public service, while having some legal entanglements with William Coddington. He was dead by late 1677, though no record for his death has been found.