Dyer was first educated in an unknown school in the countryside before attending Westminster School under Dr. Robert Freind. Dyer's dislike for Westminster was chronicled in a 1714 entry in his "Journal of Escapes": "Ran from school and my father, on a box of the ear being given me strolled for three or four days – found at Windsor." He retained little of what he learned, as evidenced later by his unfamiliarity with the Latin authors that were a school staple.