NATHANIEL & LYDIA (HUCKSTEP) TILDEN, BIOGRAPHICAL ITEMS

Contributed By

Reed Stanley Hall1

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION ABOUT NATHANIEL TILDEN & LYDIA HUCKSTEP:

Nathaniel Tilden, the son of Thomas Tilden, was baptized/christened on 28 July 1853 in Tenterden, Kent, England. The Tildens [ the name was formerly spelled Tylden and Tyldon ] had long been prominent in Kent. As early as the middle of the fifteenth century Tylden and Skeets carried on the manufacture of woolens in Tenterden. The family are said to have come from Normandy.

He married Lydia Huckstep on 13 Oct 1606 In Bethersden, Kent, England. They had a family of

eleven children, four of whom died while young.

Nathaniel Tilden apparently was a man of property and prominence in Tenderden, Kent, England, where he was mayor in 622 and was a jurat (justice of the peace) in 1624, 1625, 1627, and 1629.

In the registry of those permitted to emigrate from England, on the list for those

sailing for New England on the ship Hercules, is Nathaniel Tilden of Tenterden, Yeoman, and Lydia, his wife, together with seven children and seven servants. Certificates mentioned in the registry include one from Mr. Jno. Gee, vicar of Tenderden, dated 26 Feb 1634/1635 one from Jno. Austin, mayor of Tenterden and Tagift Stace Jurat, dated 4 Mar 16341635.

This ship Hercules apparently sailed for New England in March, 1634/5 from Sandwich, Kent, England. It was built at Dunkirk and was originally called the St. Peter. Dr. Comfort Starr of Ashford, a surgeon aged 45, made a deposition about the latter end of November 1634 in which he stated that he, William Hatch, John Witherley, Nathaniel Tilden and a Mr. Osborne had purchased the ship and thad renamed it the Hercules.

Nathaniel Tilden and his family settled in the part of Scituate, in the Plymouth Colony, now called North Marshfield and he had a house built, according to Parson Lothrop, as early as September, 1634. His was the third house on Kent street, south of Greenfield lane. He also had lands at Long Marsh and on the east side of the North River, below Gravelly Beach.

He was chosen Ruling Elder of the church in Scituate. In May 1637, with his friend Timothy Hatherly, he was appointed by the Plymouth Colony to settle a boundary dispute between that colony and the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Nathaniel Tilden was addressed as Mr. and he was one of the wealthier Scituate residents.

He died in 1641, with a will dated 25 May 1641. Under the will, he devised a house in Tenterden, Kent to his wife Lydia and made bequests to his wife; to sons Joseph, Thomas and Stephen; to daughters Judith, Mary, Sarah and Lydia; and to servants Edward Cinkins and Edward Tarse. . The inventory taken on 31 Jul 1641, which was untotalled and did not include any real estate in the the Plymouth Colony, did included "ten stocks or swarms of bees," perhaps the earliest notice of the keeping of bees in the Plymouth Colony.

His widow Lydia subsequently married his friend, Timothy Hatherly.

Children who survived to come to New England::

Mary, married, 16 Mar 1636/7, Thomas Lapham (a Tilden servant);

Sarah, married, 16 Mar 1636/7,, George Sutton (a Tilden servant);

Joseph, married, 20 Nov 1649, Elizabeth Twisden, and had the homestead;

Thomas, married, by 1654, Elizabeth Bourne;

Judith, married, by 1641, Abraham Preble;

Lydia, married, by 1638, Richard Garrett; and

Stephen, married , 25 Jan 1661/1662, Hannah Little

SOURCES INCLUDE:

(1) "The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1633-1634," compiled by Robert Charles Anderson, Vol 7, Pages 42 -, New England Historic Genealogical Society (Boston, MA: 2003).

FHL #974 w2aa (vol. 1+)

(2) Typewritten manuscript based on researches and compilation by Samuel Jones Tilden, Ex-Governor of New York and 1875 candidate for U.S. presidency, in "Notes on the Origin of the Tilden Name and Family" (1894, FHL Film #1465994, Item 9).

(3) Brief sketch in "A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England," by James Savage" (Reprint by Genealogical Publishing Co:, Baltimore, MD, 1969; originally printed by Little, Brown & Co., Boston, MA, 1860-1862)

(4) "The Pioneers of Massachusetts," compiled by Charles Henry Pope, Page 454 (Reprint by Genealogical Publishing Co.: Baltimore, MD, 1991; originally printed by C. H. Pope: Boston, MA, 1900)

(5) Article in "Genealogical Research in England," by Miss Elizabeth French (New England Historical and Genealogical Register: Vol 65, Pages 322/333, Boston, MA, 1911).

(6) "The Ancestry of Joseph Neal," by Walter Goodwin Davis, Pages 51 - 59 (Southworth-Anthoensen Press: Portland, ME, 1945) FHL 929.273 N253

(7) Sketch submitted as a Note in New FamilySearch by "bradovermeyer"