# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tyrrell, Thomas

1904 Errata appended.
​TYRRELL, Sir THOMAS (1594–1672), judge, third son of Sir Edward Tyrrell of Thornton, Buckinghamshire, by his second wife, Margaret, third daughter of John Aston of Aston, Cheshire, relict of Timothy Egerton of Walgrave, Northamptonshire, was born in 1594. His great-grandfather, Humphrey Tyrrell, who acquired the manor of Thornton by marriage, belonged to the Essex family [see Tyrrell, Sir John]. His eldest brother, Sir Timothy Tyrrell of Oakley, Buckinghamshire, master of the buckhounds to Charles I, died in 1633, leaving a son, Sir Timothy Tyrrell, who was governor of Cardiff under Lord Gerard in 1645 (Symonds, Diary, Camden Soc. p. 217).
Tyrrell was admitted in November 1612 a member of the Inner Temple, where he was called to the bar in 1621 and elected a bencher in 1659. On the passing of the militia ordinance he accepted from Lord Paget, 11 May 1642, the office of deputy lieutenant of Buckinghamshire, in which he was continued by Lord Wharton [see Paget, William, fifth Lord Paget, and Wharton, Philip, fourth Lord Wharton]. First as captain and afterwards as colonel of horse, he served under Bedford and Essex. His regiment bore the brunt of the severe fighting before Lostwithiel on 21 Aug. 1644. He was one of the committee for Aylesbury, for which borough he stood for parliament in 1645, but was not elected. He was also one of the commissioners appointed by ordinance of 1656 (c. 12) to assess the proportion of the Spanish war tax leviable upon the county of Buckingham. The same year (22 Dec.) a petition from the tenants of his manor of Hanslope in that county, charging him with certain invasions of their customary rights and other misfeasances, was read in parliament and dismissed, on the ground that the proper remedy was by action at law. In the parliament of 1659–1660 he represented Aylesbury, and in the former year was sworn (4 June) joint commissioner with John Bradshaw (1602–1659) [q. v.] and John Fountaine [q. v.] of the great seal for the term of five months, and voted serjeant-at-law (16 June). On 18 Jan. 1659–1660 he was reconstituted, with Fountaine and Sir Thomas Widdrington [q. v.], joint commissioner of the great seal, which in the interval had been held successively by Bulstrode Whitelocke and William Lenthall. By the Convention parliament, in which Tyrrell sat for Buckinghamshire, a fourth commissioner—Edward Montagu, second earl of Manchester, speaker of the House of Lords—was added on 5 May. The seal remained in the custody of the commissioners until 28 May, when they surrendered it to the speaker of the House of Commons. At Clarendon's instance Tyrrell was confirmed in the status of serjeant-at-law (4 July), knighted (16 July), appointed justice of the common pleas (27 July), and placed on the commission for the trial of the regicides, in which, however, he seems to have taken no active part. He was present at the meeting of the judges held at Serjeants' Inn on 28 April 1666 to discuss the several points of law involved in Lord Morley's case. He was a member of the court of summary jurisdiction established in 1667 to try causes between owners and occupiers of lands and tenements in the districts ravaged by the fire of London (18 & 19 Car. II, c. 7). In recognition of his services in this capacity the corporation of London caused his portrait to be painted by Michael Wright and placed in the Guildhall (1671).
Tyrrell died on 8 March 1671–2 at his seat, ​Castlethorpe, Hanslope, Buckinghamshire, his tenure of which had been confirmed by royal grant in June 1663 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1663–4, p. 188). His remains were interred in Castlethorpe church, where a handsome monument, supporting his effigy in robes and coif, was erected by his third wife, Bridgit, daughter of Sir Edward Harrington, bart., of Ridlington, Rutland, widow of Sir John Gore. By his second wife (m. 1654), widow of Colonel Windebank, Tyrrell had no issue; by his third wife he had one son, James Tyrrell of Caldecote, Buckinghamshire. By his first wife, Frances (born Saunders), widow of Richard Grenville, he had issue two sons and two daughters. Thomas, the elder son, incurred his grave displeasure in 1663, and seems to have been disinherited (ib. 1663–4, p. 188). The estates passed to the younger son, Sir Peter Tyrrell, bart. (created 20 July 1665), who died in 1711, leaving by his second wife, Anne, daughter of Carew Ralegh, and granddaughter of Sir Walter Ralegh, an only son, Sir Thomas Tyrrell, bart., on whose death without issue in 1714 the baronetcy became extinct.
J. M. R.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.268 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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