He came from a Quaker family based in Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His great grandfather, the first Tyson ancestor in America, was among the first settlers of Pennsylvania. He was a German who was converted to the Quaker religion by George Fox. Tyson followed William Penn to England, after which he sailed for the colonies and settled near what is now Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He married an English woman, whose father was a settler, and they had sons and daughters.
