Editing Royall Tyler

{{Short description|American judge}}
{{about|the playwright|the translator|Royall Tyler (academic)|the historian|Royall Tyler (historian)}}
{{More citations needed|date=July 2020}}
{{Infobox person
|name          = Royall Tyler
|image         = Royall Tyler - Dichter und Richter.jpg
|caption       = 
|birth_name    = 
|birth_date    = June 18, 1757
|birth_place   = [[Boston]], [[Province of Massachusetts Bay]], [[British America]]
|death_date    = {{death date and age|1826|8|26|1757|6|18}}
|death_place   = [[Brattleboro, Vermont]], United States
|body_discovered = 
|resting_place = Brattleboro's Prospect Hill Cemetery
|resting_place_coordinates = <!-- {{coord|LAT|LONG|display=inline,title}} -->
|nationality   = American
|other_names   = 
|citizenship   = 
|education     = [[Roxbury Latin School]]<br>[[Harvard University]]
|alma_mater    = 
|occupation    = {{flatlist|
* Jurist
* militiaman
* playwright
}}
|years_active  =
|employer      = 
|known_for     = 
|height        = 
|title         = 
|term          = 
|predecessor   = 
|successor     = 
|party         = 
|opponents     =
|boards        = 
|spouse        = Mary Palmer
|partner       = 
|children      = 11
|parents       = 
|callsign      = 
|awards        =
|website       = 
|signature     = 
|footnotes     = 
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}}
'''Royall Tyler''' (June 18, 1757&nbsp;– August 26, 1826) was an American [[jurist]], teacher and [[playwright]]. He was born in Boston, graduated from [[Harvard University]] in 1776, and then served in the [[Massachusetts Army National Guard|Massachusetts militia]] during the [[American Revolution]].  He was admitted to the bar in 1780, became a lawyer, and fathered eleven children.  In 1801, he was appointed a [[Judge|Justice]] of the [[Vermont Supreme Court]].  He wrote a play, [[The Contrast (play)|''The Contrast'']], which was produced in 1787 in [[New York City]], shortly after [[George Washington]]'s inauguration.  It is considered the first American comedy.  Washington attended the production, which was well-received, and Tyler became a literary celebrity.

==Early life==
Born in [[Boston, Massachusetts]], on June 18, 1757, he was the son of wealthy merchant and political figure Royall Tyler (died 1771) and Mary (Steele) Tyler.  He attended [[Boston Latin School]] and [[Harvard University]], where he earned a reputation as a quick-witted joker.  His roommate at Harvard was [[Christopher Gore]].

==Military service==
After graduating from Harvard in 1776, Tyler briefly served in the [[Massachusetts Army National Guard|Massachusetts militia]] during the [[American Revolution]], including taking part in [[John Hancock]]'s [[Battle of Rhode Island|Rhode Island expedition]].

==Start of career==
In late 1778, he began to study law with [[Francis Dana]]. He was admitted to the bar in 1780 and practiced in [[Portland, Maine]], before moving to [[Braintree, Massachusetts]].

In Braintree Tyler lodged with Mary and Richard Cranch. Mary Cranch was the sister of [[Abigail Adams]], and Tyler soon met [[John Quincy Adams]], with whom he became friendly, and [[Abigail "Nabby" Adams Smith|Abigail ("Nabby")]], whom he courted.  Tyler had developed a reputation as a [[wikt:profligate|profligate]] while in college, supposedly squandering half his inheritance on parties, in grog shops and pursuing women after the death of his father.  In a letter to her husband [[John Adams]], Abigail noted that despite having "a sprightly fancy, a warm imagination and an agreeable person," Tyler was "rather negligent in pursueing (sic) his business ... and dissipated two or 3 more years of his Life and too much of his fortune to reflect upon with pleasure; all of which he now laments but cannot recall."  John Quincy Adams apparently enjoyed Tyler's company, but questioned his integrity and did not think him suitable marriage material.  Nabby Adams eventually ended the relationship, to the approval of her parents and brother.

Tyler served again in the militia in 1787, as [[aide de camp]] to [[Benjamin Lincoln]] during the suppressing of [[Shays's Rebellion]].  After the rebels fled he was dispatched to [[Vermont]] to negotiate for the arrest of the rebels.

Tyler was friendly with Joseph Pearce Palmer (a son of the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]] [[brigadier general]] [[Joseph Palmer (American Revolutionary War general)|Joseph Palmer]]) and Palmer's wife Elizabeth Hunt, and resided in their Boston boarding house.  In 1796 Tyler married their daughter Mary, who was eighteen years younger, and they moved to [[Guilford, Vermont]].  They moved to [[Brattleboro, Vermont|Brattleboro]] in 1801, and were the parents of eleven children: Royall (Born 1794, died in college); John (b. 1796); Mary (b. 1798); Edward (b. 1800); William (b. 1802); Joseph (b. 1804); Amelia (b. 1807); George (b. 1809); Charles Royall (b. 1812); Thomas (b. 1815); and Abiel (1818–1832).  Several Tyler children had prominent careers, including four who became members of the clergy.

Mary Palmer Tyler lived to age 91.  She died in Brattleboro on July 13, 1866, and was buried next to her husband.

==Later career==
A [[Federalist Party|Federalist]], Tyler served as [[Windham County, Vermont|Windham County]] [[State's Attorney]].  In 1801, he was appointed a [[Judge|Justice]] of the [[Vermont Supreme Court]], even though the [[Vermont House of Representatives]] was controlled by the [[Democratic-Republican Party]].  In 1807 he became Chief Justice, and served until 1812.

In 1812 he ran unsuccessfully for the [[United States Senate]] as a [[Democratic-Republican Party|Democratic-Republican]], losing the legislative election because by then the Federalists controlled [[Vermont General Assembly]].

From 1811 to 1814 Tyler was a Professor of Jurisprudence at the [[University of Vermont]].

From 1815 to 1821 he was Windham County's Register of [[Probate]].

==Career as author==
In 1787, his comedy [[The Contrast (play)|''The Contrast'']] was performed in [[New York City]], the first American comedy to be performed by professional actors.  The play's first public showing was shortly after [[George Washington]]'s inauguration and Washington and several members of the [[1st United States Congress|First Congress]] attended.  The play was well-received, and Tyler became a literary celebrity.<ref name="New Yorker">{{cite news|last=Lepore|first=Jill|author-link = Jill Lepore |title=Prior Convictions|url=http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2008/04/14/080414crat_atlarge_lepore?currentPage=all|accessdate=8 October 2012|newspaper=The New Yorker|date=14 April 2008}}</ref>

Tyler continued to write, and frequently collaborated with his friend [[Joseph Dennie]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Westbrook |first=Perry D. |title=A Literary History of New England  |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dLxZAAAAMAAJ&q=A+Literary+History+of+New+England |publisher=[[Lehigh University Press]] |year=1988 |pages=100 |isbn=0-934223-02-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Richards |first=Jeffrey H. |title=Early American Drama  |url=https://archive.org/details/earlyamericandra00rich |url-access=registration |publisher=[[Penguin Classics]] |year=1997 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/earlyamericandra00rich/page/1 1] |isbn=0-14-043588-3}}</ref> including co-writing a satirical column which appeared in Dennie's newspaper ''The Farmer's Weekly Museum''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tyler |first1=Royall |author-link=Royall Tyler |last2=Wilbur |first2=James Benjamin |title=The Contrast: A Comedy in Five Acts  |url=https://archive.org/details/contrastacomedy00wilbgoog |quote=Joseph Dennie Royall Tyler. |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin]] |year=1920 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/contrastacomedy00wilbgoog/page/n167 119]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Ellis |first=Milton |title=Joseph Dennie and His Circle: A Study in American Literature From 1792-1812 |publisher=AMS Press |year=1971 |pages=66–67 |isbn=0-404-02308-8}}</ref>  He published ''[[The Algerine Captive]]'' in 1797 and wrote several legal tracts, six plays, a musical drama, two long poems, many essays, and a semifictional travel narrative, 1809's ''The Yankey in London''.

==Personal life==
In later life Royall Tyler admitted to his youthful arrogance and profligate conduct, but said he regretted only the limitations which his past placed upon his career and later ambitions.

He was believed to have fathered a child with Katharine Morse, the cleaning woman in the Harvard College buildings when Tyler was a student.<ref>{{cite book |last= Valenti |first=Patricia Dunlavy |date=2004 |title=Sophia Peabody Hawthorne: 1809-1847 |volume= 1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ORvg0AeVLxQC&q=%22royall+tyler%22+%22morse%22+%22child%22&pg=PA2 |location=Columbia, MO |publisher=University of Missouri Press |page=2 |isbn=978-0-8262-1528-4}}</ref>  This son, Royal Morse, was born in 1779 and came to public attention as a leader of the 1834 anti-Catholic riots in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]].

According to Palmer family descendants{{citation needed|date=March 2015}}, Tyler fathered one daughter, and possibly two, with his landlady and mother-in-law Elizabeth Palmer while her husband, Joseph Pearse Palmer was away. The girls were Sophia, born in 1786, and Catherine, born in 1791.

Tyler was accused{{by whom|date=March 2015}} of starting a sexual relationship with Mary Palmer before she was old enough to marry.  In her version of events, her neighbors believed that she was pregnant before she married Royall Tyler because the neighbors didn't know that they had married in secret.{{citation needed|date=March 2015}}

==Death and burial==
Tyler died in [[Brattleboro, Vermont]], on August 26, 1826, as the result of facial cancer that he had suffered from for ten years.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dame |first=Frederick William |date=2014 |title=America's Indomitable Character: From the Height of Colonialism to Revolutionary America |volume=II |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TUeCBAAAQBAJ&q=%22royall+tyler%22+%22cancer%22+%22face%22&pg=PA334 |location=Hamburg, Germany |publisher=Norderstedt Books on Demand |page=334 |isbn=978-3-7357-4627-6}}</ref>  He was buried in [[Prospect Hill Cemetery (Brattleboro, Vermont)|Brattleboro's Prospect Hill Cemetery]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=D9UbAQAAMAAJ&dq=royall+tyler+prospect+hill&pg=PA101 ''The Vermont Historical Gazetteer'']</ref>

==Legacy==
Tyler has been identified as the model for [[Jaffrey Pyncheon]] in [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]]'s ''[[The House of the Seven Gables]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://hawthornessevengables.com/ |title=Nathaniel Hawthorne On Beacon Hill |last=St. John |first=Thomas |website=Nathaniel Hawthorne: Studies In The House Of The Seven Gables |publisher=Brattleboro History |access-date=October 17, 2015}}</ref>  Hawthorne's wife [[Sophia Peabody]] was a daughter of [[Nathaniel Peabody (Boston)|Nathaniel Peabody]] and Elizabeth “Eliza” Palmer, and a granddaughter of Joseph Pearce Palmer and Elizabeth Hunt.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Judge Royall Tyler, Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon - Hawthorne's Seven Gables|url=http://hawthornessevengables.com/chapters/judge-royall-tyler-in-the-house-of-the-seven-gables.html|access-date=2021-10-23|website=hawthornessevengables.com}}</ref>  The Palmer family preserved stories of Tyler's sexual misbehavior as a young man, some of which were known to Hawthorne, and which he used in his novel.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cima |first=Gay Gibson |date=2008 |title=Early American Women Critics: Performance, Religion, Race |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3o7-m0duYcYC&q=%22royall+tyler%22+%22hawthorne%22+%22palmer%22+%22pyncheon%22&pg=PA222 |location=New York, NY |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=222 |isbn=978-0-521-09056-8}}</ref>

The main theater at the [[University of Vermont]] is named for him.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.uvm.edu/~campus/royalltyler/royalltyler.html |title=Royall Tyler Theatre |publisher=University of Vermont |access-date=October 17, 2015}}</ref>

His great-grandson [[Royall Tyler (historian)|Royall Tyler]] (1884–1953) was a prominent historian.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.arthistorians.info/tylerr|title=Biography: Royall Tyler (1884-1953)|website=Biographical Dictionary of Historic Scholars, Museum Professionals and Academic Historians of Art|publisher=Dictionary of Art Historians|access-date=October 17, 2015}}</ref>

His descendant [[Royall Tyler (academic)|Royall Tyler]] (born 1936) is a well known scholar and translator of [[Japanese literature]].

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Additional sources==
* Carson, Ada Lou, "Thomas Pickman Tyler's 'Memoirs of Royall Tyler': An Annotated Edition," University of Minnesota Ph.D. (University Microfilms), 1985.
* Carson, Ada Lou and Herbert L. Carson, "Royall Tyler," Twayne Publishers: 1979.
* Lauter, Paul, Ed. ''The Heath Anthology of American Literature.''  [http://college.hmco.com/english/lauter/heath/4e/students/index.html] Vol. 1. 4th ed. Houghton Mifflin Co.: Boston, 2002.
* Dame, Frederick William, ''Roots of American Character Identity'', Volume 2, Chapter 9: ''The Role of the American Dramatist-Jurist Royall Tyler (1757-1826) in Developing American National Identity'' (pages 261-325), The Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston NY: 2009.

==Further reading==
* Jarvis, Katherine Schall. Royall Tyler's Lyrics for "May Day in Town", Harvard Library bulletin, Volume XXIII, Number 2 (April 1975).

==External links==
{{wikisource author}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=284| name=Royall Tyler}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Royall Tyler}}
* [http://www.historicvermont.org/markers/markers2.html Tyler's Historical Marker]
* [http://hawthornessevengables.com/chapters/judge-royall-tyler-in-the-house-of-the-seven-gables.html Judge Royall Tyler in The House of the Seven Gables]
* [http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2008/04/14/080414crat_atlarge_lepore Prior Convictions, a New Yorker article that discusses The Algerine Captive and Royall's life]


{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tyler, Royall}}
[[Category:1757 births]]
[[Category:1826 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century American dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:18th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:18th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:American male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:American male novelists]]
[[Category:Burials at Prospect Hill Cemetery (Brattleboro, Vermont)]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in Vermont]]
[[Category:Chief justices of the Vermont Supreme Court]]
[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]
[[Category:Lawyers from Boston]]
[[Category:Maine lawyers]]
[[Category:Massachusetts militiamen in the American Revolution]]
[[Category:People from Braintree, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Writers from Brattleboro, Vermont]]
[[Category:Novelists from Maine]]
[[Category:Novelists from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Vermont Democratic-Republicans]]
[[Category:Vermont Federalists]]
[[Category:Vermont lawyers]]
[[Category:State's attorneys in Vermont]]
[[Category:Writers from Boston]]
[[Category:Writers from Portland, Maine]]
[[Category:19th-century American lawyers]]
[[Category:American columnists]]
[[Category:American satirical columnists]]
[[Category:American satirists]]