Samuel Ryder 1601-1679 of Buckinghamshire England and Yarmouth/Dennis Massachusetts and his wife Anne Gamlett

Samuel Ryder (often seen as Rider) was baptized 19 June 1601 at Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, England, to John and Helen (Smith) Ryder. [Rider, citing Newport Pagnell Church Register] The only church I find that existed at this time in the town is St. Peter and St. Paul, built in the 14th century.

St. Peter and St. Paul, Newport Pagnell

There has been a great deal of misinformation about Samuel and his descendants in print and online. Fortunately George Bowman, late editor of the Mayflower Descendant, devoted much time and print space to straightening things out. One book where he found many errors is The Pioneers of Massachusetts by Charles Pope.

Samuel Rider married Ann/Anne Gamlett on 16 October 1628 at All Saints Church, Northampton, Northamptonshire, England. [Rider, citing registers of All Saints Parish, Northampton 1560 to 1642] Anne was born about 1608 in England; her parents not yet discovered. Genealogist Richard Rider did not find any other Gamlett records in the area and he believes her name may have been Gauntlett or Gantlett. Anne and Samuel are my 11th great-grandparents on my grandmother Milly (Booth) Rollins’ side of the family.

He is called labourer and maltster (malt was used in brewing beer) in the English records of his children’s baptisms and a land record concerning his son Samuel.

The Rider/Ryder name appears infrequently in Northamptonshire records. Richard Rider’s research shows that the Samuel of Northampton is the Samuel of Yarmouth, Massachusetts. There are deeds involved his son Samuel Jr. who is called “sonne of Samuel Ryder Sr sometimes lived in the Towne of Northampton”  and that Samuel and his father lived in the Township of Yarmouth in the jurisdiction of Plymouth. [Register 79:316 at the Northampton Public Library] Samuel Jr. received a bequest of land from his godfather John Smith of Kingsthorpe in 1637, a relationship to be further explored. A 3 December 1662 document signed by William Collier, Deputy, and Thomas Southworth, Assistant, of Plymouth in reference to a conveyance of this Kingsthorpe land states that Samuel Rider of Plymouth, son of Samuel of Yarmouth, had both lived in the colony for about 30 years.  Samuel Sr is called a “moultster” in the documentation concerning this conveyance. 

Samuel was almost certainly a dissenter, which would be a major reason for him to emigrate to New England. He left England with his wife and their three young children Samuel, Jane, and John after the December 1636 baptism of John in Northampton but before 7 January 1638/9 when Samuel was one of  nine men granted permission to “take up their freedome at Yarmouth.” [Hollick] [PCR 1:108] It is said that their son Zachariah was the first white child born there but I am not certain of that. [Stevens] This area of Yarmouth is now located in Dennis which was founded in 1793. Yarmouth is now in Barnstable County, Cape Cod, but at the time Samuel lived there it was part of Plymouth Colony. 

Children of Anne and Samuel [All Saints baptisms/burial from Rider, citing church registers, 1560 to 1642]:

1. Jane Rider bp All Saints, Northampton, 4 October 1629; buried there 5 September 1631 
2. “Parvulus” [Latin for baby] Rider born 1630-31; buried All Saints 27 August 1631 [he was less than a year old, but likely a newborn since no name is given]
3. Samuel bp All Saints 25 November 1632; married 1st 23 December 1656 at Plymouth Sarah Bartlett, daughter of Richard Bartlett and Mary Warren and granddaughter of Mayflower passenger Richard Warren; married 2nd Lydia Tilden, daughter of Thomas Tilden and Elizabeth (Bourne) on June 14, 1680 at Taunton; he died 18 July 1715
4. Jane bp 23 November 1634 at All Saints; living in November 1679 when her father wrote his will; NFR
5. John bp All Saints 4 December 1636; married but wife’s name unknown 
6. Zachary/iah was born at Yarmouth about 1638; married Mary —-; killed by the accidental discharge of a gun during Yarmouth military training in 1685
7. Benjamin born Yarmouth say 1640; married Mary Gray on 13 June 1670  
8. Elizabeth born about 1642 at Yarmouth; married John Cole 21 Nov 1667 at Plymouth; alive at time of her father’s will 
9. Joseph was born about 1644 at Yarmouth; married 1st a woman whose name is not recorded; he married 2nd Sarah Matthews, widow of Thomas Matthews of Yarmouth. 
10. Mary was born 6 September 1647 at Yarmouth [MD 15:26]; named in father’s will; NFR

I descend from John. 

This large family lived on the west side of Bass Pond, later Follins Pond, near the headwaters of the Bass River. The land was fertile and there was an abundance of herring and perch. The homestead was located on what is now on Edgemere Road in the Mayfair neighborhood of Dennis. [CCGS Bulletin Spring 2001] 

Samuel's homestead located near Mayfair Rd (source: CCGS Bulletin Spring 2001)

Samuel served on juries and was appointed to various committees. He was surveyor of highways (1653, 1666), Deputy to the General Court at Plymouth [1653], Yarmouth constable (1663), collector of Minister’s Tax [1671] and one of three makers of a tax rate to fund the expenses of the war [1676]. In 1658 he was a member of the Council of War. He was taxed £5 2 shillings pence towards King Philip’s War in 1676. He was on the 1657 list, as Samuel Rider Senior, of Yarmouth men who had taken the oath of fidelity. [PCR 8:185] He is listed on the colony’s 1643 list of Yarmouth men able to bear arms. [Shurtleff 194]

Samuel was active in the Yarmouth militia:

• On 10 October 1643 Samuel was appointed by the court to a committee to select a place to fortify for the general defense in the event of a sudden assault. [Hawes] 
• He is called Sergeant when he was appointed Deputy to attend a military council at Plymouth in June 1653, necessary because of the dangers of a war between England and Holland. 
• In 1654/5 he was removed from this rank because of the abusive language he used towards constables who were sent to press men into service. Likely reason for his being reduced to the rank of common soldier was his leniency  towards the Quakers.  [Swift’s History of Old Yarmouth] 
• He was re-appointed Lieutenant on 1 June 1658. [Stratton]
• In March 1683/4 the land of "Leift Ryder Deceased" is mentioned.

The Mayfair area where Samuel lived was settled mostly by Quakers but it seems unlikely Samuel was of that faith since he was an officer in the militia and held town offices. 

In his 20 November 1679 will, Samuel Ryder mentions wife Anne, sons John, Benjamin, Samuel, Zachary, and Joseph, daughters Jane, Elizabeth, and Mary. Unfortunately he does not mention his daughter’s surnames. 

”The last Will .... of Samuell Ryder senir of Yarmouth late Deceased exhibited to the Court held att Plymouth ...; the 2cond of March Anno: Dom 1679:80: on: the oath of Mr John Thacher as followeth "In the Name of God Amen this 20th Day of November one thousand six hundred seaventy nine: I Samuell Ryder of Yarmouth .... my Will is that Anne my loveing wife shall have and Injoy all my Estate both housings and lands and Movables .... During her Naturall Life or state of Widdowhood shee paying my Just Debts and Discharging my buriall; and after the Decease of my loveing wife I Doe Give .... all my housing and lands and meddowes whersoever, belonging or Acrewing to mee; To my son Benjamine .... except that prsell of Planting land in the prime ffeild, which I Doe Give, to my son John During his Naturall life; And then to Returne to my son Benjamine .... and incase that my son Benjamine Die without heire Naturally begotten of his body; Then all my housing, land and Meddows To fall and belonge unto the Next heire male, of my family, alsoe .... Samuell my son shall have five shillings of my estate, And alsoe .... my Daughter Jane shall have three Cowes to be payed in three yeers; after my Decease, that is one Cow in each yeer; and alsoe to my Daughter Elizabeth I Doe Give ten shillings; alsoe I Doe Give to my Daughter Mary ten pounds; to be payed in Currantpay within three yeers after my Decease; And alsoe I Doe Give to my son Zachery twenty shillings; and to my son Joseph I Doe Give twenty shillings; I Doe by this my last Will .... Appoint my Loveing wife Anne and my sonne Benjamine sole executors .... I Doe alsoe Request my trusty and welbeloved frinds Mr Edmond Hawes, and John Thacher to be helpfull to my Executors, as Need may Require, Concerning this my Last Will"

Witnessed by Edmund Hawes and John Thacher. Sworn to by Edmund Hawes 25 February 1679, before Thomas Hinckley, Assistant.  [The Mayflower Descendant 11:50-51 (1909), citing Plymouth Colony Wills, 4:1:45]

Samuel Ryder died 2 December 1679, age 78, at Yarmouth. He is called “Junior” in the record but this must be a transcription error as the date matches perfectly with the date of his will and his age is a match as well. [Yarmouth VRs 1:125]

The inventory of Samuel Ryder’s estate was taken 9 December 1679 by Edmund Hawes and John Miller. It totaled £237 10 shillings. Among the items were: "10 shoates Benjamine Ryder Claime the halfe” [shoat is a young, usually weaned, pig] "4 piggs Benjamine Ryder Claimeth half of them" "I Dwelling house barne upland and meddow 150 00 0” [MD 11;51]

"Anne the Relict of the abovemensioned Sam:ell Ryder made oath to the truth of this Inventory The 17th of January 1679 before mee Thomas Hinckley Assistant"

[MD 11:51]

Anne Ryder died 14 December 1695 at Plymouth recorded as “An rider the mother of Samuel Rider deceased.” Samuel died in 1715 so perhaps the record should read wife or widow of Samuel Rider which would be expected. She was likely living with her son Samuel and his family in Plymouth as she was quite aged, about 87 years old. [Plymouth VR 135]

Sources:

Nancy Thacher Reid, Dennis Cape Cod From Firstcomers to Newcomers 1639-1993, 1996

Richard G. Rider, The American Genealogist, “Rider Notes: The European Generations,” 43:120-21 (1967)

Marion Vuillieumier, The Town of Yarmouth Massachusetts: A History, 1989

Eugene Stratton, Plymouth Colony, Its History and People, 1986

Cape Cod Genealogical Society Bulletin, Spring 2001, page 8-10, map showing locations of homes of "Dennis First Comers”

Charles W. Swift, History of Old Yarmouth, 1884

Torrey’s New England Marriages Prior to 1700, pg. 625

Charles W. Swift, Library of Cape Cod History and Genealogy, No. 66 "The Rider Family of Yarmouth,” 1913

James W. Hawes, Library of Cape Cod History and Genealogy, No. 98, "Ryder Genealogy,” 1912

Simeon Deyo, editor, History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1890

Martin E. Hollick, NEHGS Register, “The John Riders of Yarmouth, Massachusetts,” 80:128-139 (2005)

Torrey’s New England Marriages to 1700, 2:1276

Percival Hall Lombard, Mayflower Descendant, “The Seal of the Plymouth Colony,” 29:6

Robert Croll Stevens, Ancestry of the Children of Robert Croll Stevens and Jane Eleanor (Knauss) Stevens, Vol. II: The Genealogy of John Christian Croll 1707-1758, 1985

Nathaniel Shurtleff & David Pulsifer, eds., Records of the Colony of New Plymouth, in New England, 12 volumes, pub. 1855-1861