Tylden (family)

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The Tylden (or Tilden) family line is an ancient landholding dynasty with its origins in England around the time of the Middle Ages.

A branch of the family emigrated to the United States in the early 17th century and established the Tilden family line in America, forming one of the early American dynasties.[1]

Contents

[edit] History

During the reign of Henry II, there are records of a Sir Richard Tylden who was seneschal (or steward) to Hugh de Lacy, Constable of Chester.

Henry's son, Richard I (or Richard the Lionheart) who led the Third Crusade with Philip II of France in 1190, was accompanied by a Sir Richard Tylden. His son was probably Sir Richard of Sittenbourne who married Gertrude daughter of Sir William Vernon of Fordsham, Cheshire. Their son, Sir Henry Tylden married Phillipa de Boteler (daughter of Sir Richard Boteler of Lancashire). Their son, Sir William Tylden, married Constance daughter of Rodolphus Gannett who in turn produced Sir William Tylden who served under the Black Prince in the Battle of Poitiers in 1356.

The Tyldens possessed the parishes of Brenchley, Kennington, Otterden, Milstead, Tilmanstone and Wormshill.

The line extends through numerous generations and branches out in three lines - the eldest remained possessed of its lands in Kent, one branch went to Sussex (with one of its members migrating to America) and one moved to Ifield.

Descendants of the Tylden line continued to reside in Milsted until the 19th century.[2]

[edit] American Tildens

The Tilden families of America derive their lineage from John Tilden, a clothier of Benenden, born around 1400. A descendant, Nathaniel Tilden, sailed with his family (his wife Lydia, seven children and seven servants) in March 1634 on the Hercules, from Sandwich, Kent to New England.

Nathaniel Tilden, the first name on the passenger list of the Hercules, had been mayor of Tenterden in 1622 and his immediate family had held similarly official roles in Tenterden and the surrounding community. Nathaniel Tilden was chosen ruling elder of the first church of Scituate within a year after his arrival in the colony of Massachusetts Bay. His name is recorded in the first conveyance of land recorded in Scituate in 1634: "of all that land which I have of Goodman Byrd lying within the fence at the north end of the third cliffe, unto the land of Nathaniel Tilden."

The connection of the Tildens to the earliest days of settlement in New England are numerous. Nathaniel's brother Joseph, two years his junior, was one of the merchant adventurers of London who fitted out the Mayflower. Similarly Nathaniel Tilden's youngest son, Stephen married Hannah Little of Plymouth, Massachusetts, whose father had married the daughter of Richard Warren, a passenger on the Mayflower.[3]

[edit] Notable people of Tilden descent

  • Bill Tilden, tennis player
  • George Thomas Tilden, Boston architect
  • Samuel J. Tilden, candidate for President of the US in 1876
  • William Tilden, a Boston Unitarian clergyman and the father of George Tilden.
  • Commodore Edward Preble, Commodore of the American fleet in 1804 when it bombarded Tripoli, was a great-great-grandson of Nathaniel Tilden, whose daughter, Judith, married Abraham Preble.

[edit] References

  1. ^ The British Gazetteer, Political, Commercial, Ecclesiastical, and Historical by Benjamin Clarke (1852), page 226, Published by H.G. Collins at Google Books
  2. ^ A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain by Sir Bernard Burke (1863)
  3. ^ The Life and Letters of Samuel Jones Tilden by John Bigelow (Harper Bros.)

[edit] See also

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