DYER, Eliphalet,
Legislator, Jurist.

Eliphalet Dyer was born in Windham county, Connecticut, September 28, 1721. He was graduated from Yale College in 1740, and received his Master of Arts degree in 1744. He studied law and was admitted to the practice of law in 1746. He was a representative in the General Court by repeated elections between 1743 and 1762. In '753-55 he projected and promoted the establishment of a Connecticut colony in Pennsylvania. He served as lieutenant-colonel of a regiment of volunteers sent from Connecticut to reduce Crown Point, New York, in August, 1755, and was colonel of a regiment in the expedition against Canada in 1758. He was an assistant to the Governors of Connecticut at times between 1762 and 1784, and went to England in 1763 to procure from the crown confirmation of title to lands selected by the Connecticut colony in the Wyoming region. He was the first of the commissioners sent to the Stamp Act Congress from Connecticut, in 1765. In 1784 he withdrew from the Governor's Council rather than aid in enforcing the stamp act. He was Associate Judge of the Superior Court, 1766-89, and Chief Justice, 1789-93. He was a delegate to the Congress from Connecticut, 1774-79 and 1780-83; a member of the state Committee of Safety, 1775-76; and declined an appointment as brigadier-general of militia in December, 1776. Harvard College conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts in 1744, and Yale College gave him that of Doctorate of Laws in 1787. He died in Windham, Connecticut, May 13, 1807.