The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Tyler, Royall

TYLER, Royall, an American author, born in Boston, July 18, 1757, died in Brattleboro, Vt., Aug. 16, 1826. He graduated at Harvard college in 1776, and studied law under John Adams. He was for a short time aide to Gen. Lincoln. In 1790 he commenced the practice of law in Guilford, Vt. From 1800 to 1806 he was chief justice of the state supreme court, and he published "Reports of Cases in the Supreme Court of Vermont" (2 vols., 1809). He was also known as a dramatist, his play "The Contrast," produced in New York in 1786, being the first American play acted by a regular company, and the first also in which an attempt was made to portray the conventional Yankee character. It was followed by "May Day, or New York in an Uproar" (1787), and "The Georgia Spec, or Land in the Moon" (1797). He also published "The Algerine Captive," a novel (2 vols., 1799).