THE NOBLE OR GENTLE HEART,

AND ONLY SUCH, THIS VOLUME IS CONCERNING."

(Quaint lines from l'Envoy to the Author in Guillim's Heraldrie.'-London, 1632.)

"THERE IS A GREAT DEAL MORE IN GENEALOGIES THAN IS GENERALLY .BELIEVED AT PRESENT."

CARLYLE on "Choice of Books" (reviewing 'Collin's Peerage), p. 153.

HARRISON AND SONS, PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HER MAJESTY, ST. MARTIN'S LANE.

INTRODUCTION.

(As it stood before it was resolved to print the MSS.)

THOUGH "History and Antiquity are the glass of Time," it may yet have been an idle waste of it to have collected, with no small research, bit by bit during many years, the dreary mosaics of which these pages are composed. But "what is writ is writ would it were worthier." More interesting matter might doubtless be collected by similar pains from memorials preserved in other families of our gentry; still this manuscript may be considered at least singular in tracing out so long a course of remembered succession.

For, if it is of rare occurrence that a family is, in point of fact, continued by lineal descent in the male line for several centuries, it still less often occurs that such a descent is capable of proof, unless wealth or talents, and consequent distinction, have united to make the recording it from time to time during some ages an easy and interesting task. Such cases are those of the distinguished few, and little resemble the present.

As to the family commemorated in these pages, good and evil fortune has, as usual, chequered its path. But in both a certain "middleness" (to coin a term) has prevailed, as was particularly incident to those in the position of the original English gentry, who remained, as of old, without seeking wealth in trade.

In the earlier portions of these "Notices and Remains," the halo of military service predominates. From the first gleam of adventure in the tradition of the wild champion lying wounded on a moor, at a period probably long anterior to the Norman Conquest, its light continues through the French wars of the Plantagenets, and the long struggles of the Roses in England, to the campaigns of Gustavus in the Thirty Years' War in Germany, and the gathering round the Royal Standard at York in 1642. If later years have found the lot of the family more often cast in civil stations, some of its members have always continued in their country's service. Two still serving on the Staff Corps in India were on the rolls of the Indian armies of Bengal and Bombay, and one of them was wounded at the siege of Mooltaun, in the Punjaub campaign of 1849. Another shared the fields of Alma and Inkerman as Aide-de-camp to the Royal General of Division, the Duke of Cambridge. Two others, younger, but well instructed and zealous officers served, the one now deceased, in the 36th Regiment, and the other, now a retired Commander, in H.M. ships Conqueror,' Bull Dog, and Argus.1

In wealth and consideration the family culminated about the middle of Elizabeth's reign, in the person of the Sir Robert Tyrwhitt of Kettleby, who, having succeeded to that ancient patrimony in 1548, was buried in Bigby church, in North Lincolnshire, in 1581. His massive tomb and recumbent statue remain there still. The old knightly stock, in this its elder line, merged in that of Hunloke of Wingerworth, co. Derby, about 1673, by the marriage of an heiress, Catherine Tyrwhitt, Sir Robert's lineal descendant in the fourth degree.

Its Stainfield branch, originally seated at Barton uponHumber, about the beginning of Henry VIII.'s reign, received a baronetcy of the first creation, in 1611, and continued of

1 See infra, p. 92.

importance till 1760, when it ended in Sir John de la Fountayne Tyrwhitt, sixth baronet, who died in that year, never having married, and by will gave away the Tyrwhitt inheritance to his mother's relations, the Drake's of Shardeloes, near Amersham.

The youngest and least endowed branch was that of Scotter and Cameringham, in Lincolnshire, deriving lineally from Sir William Tyrwhitt of Scotter, who died there in 1541. His father, Sir Robert Tyrwhitt of Kettleby, entertained Henry VIII. and his Court there for two days in that year, and lived till 1548, when his grandson Sir Robert, Sir William's eldest son, succeeded him at Kettleby, dying, as we have seen, in 1581. The male line of the Kettleby Tyrwhitts was not, however, destined to be carried forward by any of this Sir Robert's numerous children, or by the Stainfield Tyrwhitts, but by the descendants of this Sir Robert's brother, Marmaduke Tyrwhitt, Sir William's fourth and youngest son. These again, between 1704 and 1728, were reduced in the male line to two brothers. The elder never married, and about 1747, alienated his remaining estate, that of Cameringham. But the numbers of the family revived from the marriage of the younger brother, Dr. Robert Tyrwhitt, in 1728, and that of his youngest son, John, a lieutenant in the Navy, in 1764: while its fortunes improved by the will of a distant kinsman in 1782, and the rank of baronet retured to it in 1808, in the person of the Sailor's eldest son.

The successive marriages of three youngest sons thus effectually continued the race, whether for good or evil. Within the present nineteenth century, it has greatly expanded in numbers,' all descended from the Sailor, who died in 1812. In 1800 its members were principally persons of mature age, possessed of means fittingly proportioned to their birth and

1 In 1800 the family consisted of about seventeen persons. Fifty years after, at least fourteen of these, with several others born since 1800, were dead.

education. These were peculiarly "well connected," in its true sense,—that is, intimately acquainted with persons appreciated for worth and good qualities, as well as worldly advantages. Such were the families of Lowth, Barrington, FountayneWilson, and Bethel (of Ries, near Hull), the Houblons, &c., &c. Again, the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV., and the then Duke of Newcastle, were then its patrons and friends.'

As to the preservation of this MS.; however trifling its intrinsic value, its singularity alone should give it a claim to be handed down to those who will in future bear this name. Shakespear has as wisely as beautifully said, "There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy;" and something whispers that that past which has thus escaped the usual fate of oblivion, has not so escaped without a purpose; and that that Tyrwhitt who, with a tender "old-world" regard to the remains of his forefathers, preserves this, their fragile memorial, will from other good qualities attain, as well as deserve, that gift of Providence called "Good Fortune."

However, the degenerate or careless will disregard this "Story of a Race," and of its brighter and darker days, as much as the deep feeling and tenacity of the real English gentleman would have preserved it to the last. Time, which trieth all things, will prove this also. If, however, it shall please Providence that some worthy remnant of our name in a sunken condition shall in future possess this MS., and wish to ensure its preservation as a relic of better days, let him send it to the Trustees of the City Library, at Lincoln, who will perhaps give it a corner for the sake of its local lore. There let it perish on the dusty shelf of the stranger,—but in the old County of Lincoln, at last.

R. P. T.

1858.

1 Since the above was written, an ancient peerage has descended on the elder branch, in the person of the Baroness Berners, wife of Sir Henry Tyrwhitt, Bart.