TYRWHITT, Τhomas, a distinguished scholar, was born in London on the 29th of March 1730. His father Dr Robert Tyrwhitt, descended from an ancient baronet’s family in Lincolnshire, was at that time rector of St James’s, Westminster; but this benefice he resigned in 1732, on being appointed a canon residentiary of St Paul’s. With this preferment, he held the prebend of Kentishtown, and the archdeaconry of London. In 1740 he became a canon of Windsor; and, if his life had been prolonged, he might perhaps have attained to a higher station in the church; but he died on the 15th of June 1742, at the early age of forty-four. By his wife, the eldest daughter of Bishop Gibson, he left a numerous family, with only a moderate provision. His eldest son Thomas was sent to a school at Kensington, after he had completed the sixth year of his age. In January 1741 he was removed to Eton, where he first displayed that ardent love of literature for which he continued through life to be eminently distinguished. It was said of Tyrwhitt that he never was a boy, his calm and contemplative disposition always leading him to manly and scholar-like pursuits. After residing at Eton for six years, he was in 1747 entered of Queen’s College, Oxford. He took the degree of A. B. in 1750; and having been elected to a fellowship of Merton in August 1755, he took that of A. M. in the ensuing year.

He had previously hired chambers in the Temple, and applied himself to the study of the law; but in December 1756 he was appointed under secretary at war, the principal secretary being his friend and patron Lord Barrington. In August 1762 he obtained the more lucrative office of clerk of the House of Commons, and he then resigned his fellowship. “If the fatigues of the clerkship,” says one biographer, “had not proved too much for his constitution, it is thought that some of the higher offices of the state were within his reach.” He resigned his office in January 1768, and passed the remainder of his life in learned retirement. In 1784 he was elected a curator of the British Museum, and was zealous in discharging the duties connected with this honourable appointment. To the Museum he bequeathed a portion of his valuable library, comprehending such books as it did not already possess. His constitution had never been robust; and having been attacked by two violent disorders, he expired on the 15th of August 1786, in the fifty-seventh year of his age. He died at his house in Welbeck-street, Cavendish-square, and was interred, as his father had also been, in St George’s Chapel, Windsor. He left behind him the character of a learned and amiable man. “In private life,” we are informed, “he was a man of great liberality, of which some striking instances are given. In one year it is said he gave away L.2000, and for such generous exertions he had the ability as well as the inclination, for he had no luxuries, no follies, and no vices to maintain. Of such a man it is unnecessary to add, that he died lamented by all who knew the worth of his friendship, or enjoyed the honour of his acquaintance.”

Tyrwhitt was a man of solid as well as extensive erudition; well acquainted with the modern, and eminently skilled in the ancient languages. He was an able Grecian; and his name is held in much respect by the scholars of the continent. He distinguished himself by his sound judgment and critical sagacity; nor was he less distinguished by the modesty and candour which he carried into all his inquiries. He bore no resemblance to those verbal critics who seem to have dipped their pens in gall whenever they enter upon the discussion of a controverted point, however minute.

His earliest publication was “An Epistle to Florio at Oxford.” Lond. 1749, 4to. This was followed by “Translations in Verse.” 1752, 4to. Here Pope’s Messiah and Philips’s Splendid Shilling appear in Latin, and the eighth Isthmian ode of Pindar in English. His next work, which is but of small extent, is entitled “Observations and Conjectures on some Passages of Shakspeare.” Oxford, 1766, 8vo. On the same poet he afterwards communicated various annotations to Steevens and Reed, for their editions of 1778 and 1785. His edition of another English poet brought him a considerable increase of reputation: “The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer. To which are added, an essay on his language and versification; an introductory discourse; and notes.” Lond. 1775-8, 5 vols. 8vo. Oxf. 1798, 2 vols. 4to. Lond. 1830, 5 vols. 8vo. He afterwards lent his aid to the publication of “Poems, supposed to have been written at Bristol, by Thomas Rowley and others, in the fifteenth century; the greatest part now first published from the most authentic copies, with an engraved specimen of one of the MSS. To which are added [7:21:443]a preface, an introductory account of the several pieces, and a glossary.” Lond. 1777, 8vo. This volume was twice reprinted in 1778, with the addition of an appendix, tending to prove that the poems were all written by Chatterton. Tyrwhitt’s opinion, which is now sufficiently confirmed, was opposed by several writers, one of whom was Mr Bryant, and another Dr Milles, dean of Exeter. The former published an elaborate volume of nearly six hundred pages. He returned an able and temperate answer, under the title of “A Vindication of the Appendix to the Poems called Rowley’s, in reply to the Answers of the Dean of Exeter, Jacob Bryant, Esquire, and a third anonymous writer; with some further Observations upon those Poems, and an Examination of the Evidence which has been produced in support of their Authenticity.” Lond. 1782, 8vo. The word authenticity, it may be remarked, is here improperly used instead of genuineness. On this controversy, several other tracts were produced. Tyrwhitt’s opinion was adopted by Warton, and was opposed by Mathias.

These were the principal works of literature which he published in English. He was however the editor of other two works which deserve to be mentioned. “Proceedings and Debates in the House of Commons in 1620 and 1621; from the original MS. in the library of Queen’s College, Oxford: with an appendix.” Oxf. 1766, 2 vols. 8vo. “The Manner of Holding Parliaments in England. By Henry Elsynge, Cler. Par. Corrected and enlarged from the author’s original MS.” Lond. 1768, 8vo. He likewise superintended the posthumous publication of his learned friend Dr Musgrave: “Two Dissertations. I. On the Grecian Mythology. II. An Examination of Sir Isaac Newton’s Objections to the Chronology of the Olympiads.” Lond. 1782, 8vo. For this work a very liberal subscription had been raised, entirely by the exertions of Mr Tyrwhitt, who had previously relinquished to the author’s widow a bond for several hundred pounds, which he had lent to her husband.

His classical labours, though not very extensive, have secured him a high reputation as a scholar. In 1773 he published from a Harleian manuscript “Fragmenta duo Plutarchi and after an interval of three years appeared his “Dissertatio de Babrio, Fabularum Aesopearum Scriptore. Inseruntur Fabulae quaedam Aesopeae nunquam antehac editae, ex cod. MS. Bodleiano. Accedunt Babrii Fragmenta.” Lond. 1776, 8vo. Of Babrius, otherwise called Babrias or Gabrias, the personal history is altogether obscure. Tyrwhitt supposes him to have flourished during the age of Augustus, or somewhat earlier. Avianus states that he compressed two volumes of fables into Greek iambics: “quas Grecis iambis Babrius repetens, in duo volumina coartavit.” Suidas informs us that he changed ten books of Aesopean fables into choliambic verse. His seazons appear to have been afterwards reduced to prose; and Tyrwhitt considers it probable that all the prose fables now bearing the name of Aesop have been fabricated from Babrius. “Mihi sane haec cogitanti verisimile videtur, collectiones omnes, quas hodie tenemus, fabularum Aesopearum ab opere Babriano originem suam duxisse, differentias autem earum scriptorum multitudini imputandas esse, qui diversis temporibus, et locis, et ingeniis, et studiis, metrorum ele-gantissimorum partes varias, pro libitu suo quisque, in prosam traducendas sumpserunt.” In the Bodleian Library he found a MS. which, being inaccurately described, had escaped the notice of Dr Hudson, although he was keeper of that library when, in 1718, he published his edition of Aesop. Various fragments of Babrius are yet to be found in their original state; and the learning and sagacity of Bentley, Tyrwhitt, and other critics, have frequently enabled them to restore his verses from their transposed form. The merits of this dissertation are duly acknowledged by Knoch, the most recent editor of Babrius. A sequel to it was soon afterwards published. “De Lapidibus poema, Orpheo a quibusdam adscriptum, Gr. et Lat. ex editione J. M.Gesneri. Recensuit notasque adjecit Thomas Tyrwhitt. Simul prodit Auctarium Dissertationis de Babrio.” Lond. 1781, 8vo. Both the dissertation and the auctarium were reprinted under the superintendence of Harles, Erlangae, 1785, 8vo.

Tyrwhitt had contributed various notes on Euripides, which appeared in Musgrave’s edition, published at Oxford in 1778 in 4 vols. 4to. He afterwards produced his·“Conjecture in Strabonem.” Lond. 1783, 8vo. Erlang. 1788, 8vo. The last work which he lived to publish was an edition of the oration of Isaeus “De Meneclis Hereditate.” Lond. 1785, 8vo. He had bestowed no small labour in the preparation of another work, which was conducted through the press by Dr Burgess, afterwards bishop of Salisbury: “Aristotelis de Poetica liber Graece et Latine. Lectionem constituit, versionem refinxit, animadversionibus illustravit Thomas Tyrwhitt.” Oxonii, 1794, fol. 4to&8vo. These animadversions, which may be regarded as his principal work, are very able and elaborate. Another posthumous publication appeared after a considerable interval: “Thomae Tyrwhitti Conjecture in Aeschylum, Euripidem, et Aristophanem. Accedunt Epistolae diversorum ad Tyrwhittum.” Oxon. 1822, 8vo. (x .)