Dr. Rev. Edward W. Syle, father of Rev. Henry Winter Syle, was born in England in the year 1816.

Edward Syle was ordained to the priesthood around the 1830’s and was also a Sunday school teacher. He met and married Jane Davis, whose brother, Henry Winter Davis, was a senator from Baltimore, Maryland. Edward Syle joined the missionary to Shanghai, China, where his son, Rev. Henry Winter Syle was born. He was a professor of History and Moral Theology at the Imperial University in Japan. He was also involved in missionary to Japan.

He and his wife, Jane, had five children, only the oldest-Henry Winter Syle and the youngest-Louis Dupont Syle, survived. Jane Davis Syle died around 1859 and Dr. Rev. Edward W. Syle married Rebecca Washington, who was the cousin of Jane Davis Syle. Rebecca Washington’s family was the descendants of George Washington. She had four children.

Dr. Rev. Edward W. Syle died in October 1890, just 9 months after his son, Henry Winter Syle, died.