Hugh Tilley, alias Hillyer, of Yarmouth

Biography

From Anderson’s The Great Migration Begins

Hugh Tilley aka Hillier was born about 1617 (based on estimated marriage year) most likely in England. He died in 1647 in Barnstable. By his wife Rose (whom he married about 1642 based on age of oldest child) he had two children, Deborah and Samuel. His widow married as his second wife Thomas Huckens by whom she had additional children.[1][2][3]

• MIGRATION: 1629 in Lyon's Whelp
• FIRST RESIDENCE: Salem
• REMOVES: Yarmouth by 1638
• OCCUPATION: Fisherman. (On 17th June 1641 Plymouth Court ordered that "Will[ia]me Lumpkine & Hugh Tilly shall pay to Gabriell Wheildon 15s. for his third part of the skiff or boat they were partners in, & his damage sustained in the want thereof to fetch fish to fish his corn withal, and the boat or skiff to be theirs" [PCR 2:21].)
• CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: Admission to a Massachusetts Bay church, presumably Salem, prior to 3rd September 1634 implied by freemanship.On 1 March 1641/2 "Heugh Tilley" of Yarmouth was one of four men "complained of to be scoffers & jeerers at religion, &c., and making disorders in their town meetings, &c.; are to be sent for to answer the next Court" [PCR 2:36, 41].
• FREEMAN: "Hugh Hillyard" admitted freeman 3rd September 1634 (between John Sibley of Salem and Moses Maverick of Marblehead) [MBCR 1:369]. In the Yarmouth section of a 1639 Plymouth Colony list of those who have taken the oath of fidelity is "Hugh Tillie, al[ia]s Hillier" [PCR 8:185].
• EDUCATION: On 9th February 1638[/9] Hugh Tilly witnessed the will of Peter Werden, making his mark [MD 3:75-76], and on 5th March 1638/9 he swore to the will in court [PCR 1:117].
• OFFICES: "Heugh Hillier" was highway surveyor for Yarmouth, 5th June 1644 [ PCR 2:73]. In Yarmouth section of the 1643 Plymouth Colony list of men able to bear arms is "Heugh Tilly, al[ia]s Hillier" [PCR 8:194].
• ESTATE: None found.
• BIRTH: By about 1613 based on date of freemanship.
• DEATH: Yarmouth 28th January 1647[/8] [PCR 8:4, 289-90; MD 15:25-26].
• MARRIAGE: By 1643 Rose ____; she m. (2) Eastham 3rd November 1648 Thomas Huckens/Huggins ("Thomas Huckens ... married with Rose Hollier" [PCR 8:4 5]; "Thos. Huckens & Rose Hyllier vid." [MD 6:139]; "Thomas Huggins and Widow Tillye marryed at Nocett by Mr. Prince" [NEHGR 9:286]); she died at Barnstable "being aged about 71 years in the year 1687" [MD 6:139]. ( See MD 24:179-84 for the estate of Thomas Huckens.)
• CHILDREN:
  • DEBORAH, b. Yarmouth 30th October 1643 [PCR 8:45; MD 6:139]; m. Barnstable 19th March 1662/3 John Sergeant [MD 12:154, 24:9-14].
  • SAMUEL, b. Yarmouth 30th July 1646 [PCR 8:45; MD 6:139]; m. by about 1679 Mary _____ [NYGBR 104:130]. (A Samuel Tilley m. Oyster Bay (lic.) 26th September 1678 Mary Simpkins [Names of Persons for Whom Marriage Licenses Were Issued by the Secretary of the Province of New York Previous to 1784 (Albany 1860), p. 392 (her surname given incorrectly as "Limkins "); John Cox Jr., ed., Oyster Bay Town Records (New York 1916) 1:397-99 ; see MD 18:137]. This is just the right time for Samuel of Plymouth Colony, and the groom of Oyster Bay does not seem to have remained in that town, but why the Plymouth man would have been on Long Island at this time has not been explained. The identification seems likely, but not proved.)
• COMMENTS: The 28th May 1629 letter from the Massachusetts Bay Company in London to John Endicott at Salem included a recommendation to "show all lawful favor and respect unto the planters that came over in the Lyon's Whelpe out of the counties of Dorset and Somerset," with the specific instruction "to appoint Hugh Tillie and William Eedes for servant to Sir Richard Saltonstall" [MBCR 1:401]. (Pope's claim that Tilly was "appointed to help in setting up a saw-mill" derives from a misreading of this letter.)
• Hugh Tilley is placed first at Salem because of his passage on the Lyon's Whelp in 1629, and his appearance as a freeman of 1634 between a Salem man and a Marblehead man. He does not, however, appear in any Salem or Essex County record, and he must have moved away from Salem before December 1636 when the Salem church was reorganized and the list of church members as of that date was compiled. This was too early to be at Yarmouth, and so he must have had some other residence than Salem prior to the move to Cape Cod; this may have been Marblehead.
• The births of the children of Hugh and Rose, and the record of Rose's remarriage, are from the Barnstable vital records, where they are recorded with the family of Rose's second husband, and where Hugh's surname is given variously as "Hollier" and "Hillies" [PCR 8:45].
• BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE: In 1973 Maclean McLean published an account of "The Hiller, Hilliard, Hillier Family of the Plymouth Colony" which covered Hugh Tilley/Hillier and his family [NYGBR 104:129-40, 215-24].

Sources

• link to Vital Records of Barnstable Page 139

Links

• link to “Hugh Tilley” in Great Migration Begins, Vol 3, P-W Source Information Ancestry.com. New England, The Great Migration and The Great Migration Begins, 1620-1635 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.
• Genealogical notes of Barnstable families Author Otis, Amos, 1801-1875. [from old catalog],Swift, Charles F., [from old catalog] rev
• https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LYCB-K4K