Daniel Tryon

     Daniel Tryon was born circa 1725 at Connecticut.¹ He married Ellenor Vaughan, daughter of Benjamin Vaughan and Rose (?), before 1755; While we know that the Vaughans lived in New Fairfield, and so did Daniel Tryon at one point, that whole area is lacking good records. Quaker Hill, New York was very close and records are almost non-existant. It is no surprise that so much is missing on these families.² Daniel Tryon died on 3 March 1800 at possibly New Milford, Litchfield Co, Connecticut; Daniel may have been living there, visiting, or simply wished to be buried back in Connecticut. The stone says he was 75 years old. His stone is among others who married into the Vaughan family, including William Vaughan, brother of his wife, Eleanor.^1,2 He was buried at New Milford Village Cemetery, New Milford, Litchfield Co, Connecticut.¹
     There is little evidence to the life of Daniel Tryon other than several land documents. The list of petitioners, dated 22 Jan 1760 shows Daniel "Troyon" along with 39 others, including Joseph and William Vaughn, and Zaccheus Towner.
     He appears again on a petition dated 11 Feb 1760, and 31 Mar 1762. A land patent dated 20 May 1762 in the town of Queensbury, New York lists him among 22 grantees headed by Daniel Prindle, coming out of Connecticut. Along with our Daniel Tryon were several others names, including Samuel Hungerford and Amos Leach, who were also of New Fairfield, Connecticut in 1763. A great many of these grantees never actually settled there. Many took up in Vermont.
     Zacheus Towner was the surveyor for the individual land plots in Aug 1762. He was our Daniel Tryon's brother-in-law, since Ellenor Vaughan and Zacheus' wife Sarah were sisters, and that they ended up in Noyan as well.
     On the 23d of February, 1763, the proprietors met in Beekman precinct, Duchess county, and appointed William Smith, Nehemiah Merritt and Abraham Wing, trustees to partition out the remaining undivided lands. In the summer of 1763, some progress had been made in the settlement, but out of all the petitioners, only about a half dozen settled there.^3,4,2,5      Land records definitely associated with our subject can be located at the Bennington County Courthouse. The first record dated 19 Aug 1766 involved James Babcock of Shaftsbury selling 100 acres, called Lot #56 "of ye first Division in ye town of Shaftsbury" to Daniel Tryon of New Fairfield. This was not recorded in Shaftsbury until 22 Jun 1786.
     The second document was a land sale from Daniel Tryon of Shaftsbury to David and Jacob Galusha dated 14 April 1791, recorded there 24 November 1800.
     More important is the third document which is dated 13 February 1795 and lists Daniel Tryon of Shaftsbury initially, but the writer went back and crossed out Shaftsbury and wrote in "Caldwell Manor in the Province of Canada". This particular land sale involved the majority of Lot #56 going to David Galusha. However, 16 acres of that parcel had previously been deeded to Henry Adams, husband to his daughter, Joanna. From these documents the assumption can be drawn that Daniel Tryon, with or without his wife Ellenor, must have moved to Quebec to be with his son David between the 1791 census and 1795. The first census of Vermont does show Daniel "Trial" and a woman of about the same age residing at Shaftsbury at this time. Perhaps his wife died between these same years of 1791 and 1795 and he decided to leave to be with his son. No record of Daniel or his wife has been uncovered in Caldwell's Manor..² He appeared on the census of 1790 at Shaftsbury, Bennington Co, Vermont; as Daniel "Trial."⁶
     On 6 Nov 1800, Daniel Tryon was among 23 men who were granted land in Hereford, Compton Co, Quebec.There had been earlier petitions, as early as 1760. However, Daniel passed away earlier.⁷