Extracts from the JOURNAL OF JOHN DYER, OF DYERSTOWN, BUCKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, 1763-1805, a copy of which is in possession of The Bucks County Historical Society’s Library, transcribed from a manuscript copy in the library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
The JOHN DYER who kept a journal over a period of forty-two years was a grandson of John Dyer, the immigrant, of whom General W. W. H. Davis writes in his History of Bucks County, Second Edition, Volume I., Chapter XXIV, Plumstead, p. 381:
“The first to settle upon the retirement of Thomas Browne was John Dyer, a minister among Friends, an immigrant from Gloucestershire, England, with his family, 1712. He first settled in Philadelphia, then came out to what was known as the ‘five-mile mill’ on the York Road, and thence removed to the township of Plumstead. On the 16th of June, 1718, he purchased one hundred and fifty-one acres of Cephas Child, including the Dyer property, Dyerstown.
He is said to have likewise purchased the tract of Thomas Ross, who removed farther back into the woods about where Plumstead Meeting House now stands. The Dyer property only passed out of the family a few years ago, when Doctor John Dyer, a descendant, removed to Philadelphia… He died the 31st of the 11th month, 1738, and was buried at the Friends’ Meeting House in Plumstead. He owned in all about six hundred acres. When John Dyer came into the township, wild animals were so plenty the settlers took their guns with them to Meeting, and beavers built their dams across Pine Run. The Indians were numerous, but friendly.”
This Journal is printed in the Publications of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania for January 1906, and appended thereto is the following note:
“John Dyer, the writer of the foregoing, was the son of Josiah and Esther (Brown) Dyer, of Plumstead Township. His death occurred in 1811.
A full copy of the diary is in possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
John Dyer, the writer of this diary, was born September 1, 1736, and died April 15, 1811. A genealogical history of the Dyer family may be found in the Library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (MS. I #49).
Marriages, Births and Deaths
Source
Dyer, John, Marriages, births and deaths : extracts from the diary of John Dyer, 1763-1805, transcribed from the original manuscript, Doylestown, Pa. : Bucks County Historical Society, 1940.