Lieutenant-General James Tyrrell (c. 1674 – 30 August 1742) of Shotover, Oxfordshire, was a British Army officer and Whig politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

from 1722 to 1742.

Background

Shotover House and Garden, 1750 engraving

Tyrrell was the only son of

James Tyrrell Sir James Tyrrell (c. 1455 – 6 May 1502) was an English knight, a trusted servant of king Richard III of England. He is known for allegedly confessing to the murders of the Princes in the Tower under Richard's orders. William Shakespeare ...

Oakley, Buckinghamshire Oakley is a village and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England. It has an area of and includes about 400 households. The 2011 Census recorded the population as 1,007. At one time it was thought Oakley held a rare (and possibly unique) dou ...

and his wife Mary Hutchinson, daughter of Sir Michael Hutchinson. His father began construction of Shotover Park in Oxfordshire in the early 18th century and James completed it after his father's death in 1718. Tyrrell joined the army and was an ensign in a regiment of foot on 6 February 1694 and served under King William III in the Netherlands. He distinguished himself in the wars of Queen Anne and was promoted to the colonelcy of a newly raised regiment of foot in April 1709. At the

peace of Utrecht The Peace of Utrecht was a series of peace treaties signed by the belligerents in the War of the Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht between April 1713 and February 1715. The war involved three contenders for the vacant throne ...

his regiment was disbanded, and in 1715 he raised a regiment of dragoons for the service of King George I, which was disbanded in November 1718. On 7 November 1722 the King gave him the colonelcy of the

17th Regiment of Foot 17 (seventeen) is the natural number following 16 and preceding 18. It is a prime number. Seventeen is the sum of the first four prime numbers. In mathematics 17 is the seventh prime number, which makes seventeen the fourth super-prime, as s ...

. Tyrrell was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general in 1727, to that of major-general in 1735, and lieutenant-general in 1739.

Richard Cannon Richard Cannon (1779–1865) was a compiler of regimental records for the British Army. Career On 1 January 1802 Cannon was appointed to a clerkship at the Horse Guards, and attained the grade of first-clerk in 1803. Under a Horse Guards order ...

, ''Historical Record of the Seventeenth, of the Leicestershire Regiment of Foot'' (1848
p. 50-51
/ref> On the accession of King George I in 1714 Tyrrell was made a

Groom of the Bedchamber Groom of the Chamber was a position in the Household of the monarch in early modern England. Other ''Ancien Régime'' royal establishments in Europe had comparable officers, often with similar titles. In France, the Duchy of Burgundy, and in En ...

, serving as a member of the royal household until the King's death in 1727.Romney Sedgwick
TYRRELL, James (c.1674-1742), of Shotover, Oxon.
in ''

The History of Parliament The History of Parliament is a project to write a complete history of the United Kingdom Parliament and its predecessors, the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of England. The history will principally consist of a prosopography, in w ...

: the House of Commons 1715-1754'' (1970) At the

1722 British general election The 1722 British general election elected members to serve in the House of Commons of the 6th Parliament of Great Britain. This was the fifth such election since the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. Th ...

, Tyrrell was returned as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for

Boroughbridge Boroughbridge () is a town and civil parish in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is north-west of the county town of York. Until a bypass was built the town lay on t ...

, one of

the Duke of Newcastle Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle upon Tyne and 1st Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne, (21 July 169317 November 1768) was a British Whig statesman who served as the 4th and 6th Prime Minister of Great Britain, his official life extended ...

pocket borough A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or constituency in England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom before the Reform Act 1832, which had a very small electorate ...

s. He voted consistently with the Government in that parliament and after he was returned in

1727 Events January–March * January 1 – (December 21, 1726 O.S.) Spain's ambassador to Great Britain demands that the British return Gibraltar after accusing Britain of violating the terms of the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht. Britain ...

1734 Events January– March * January 8 – Salzburgers, Lutherans who were expelled by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Salzburg, Austria, in October 1731, set sail for the British Colony of Georgia in America. * February 16 – ...

and

1741 Events January–March * January 13 – Lanesborough, Massachusetts is created as a township. *February 13 – Sir Robert Walpole, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, popularizes the term "the balance of power" in a speech ...

. He was appointed as

Governor of Pendennis Castle The Governor of Pendennis Castle was a military officer who commanded the fortifications at Pendennis Castle, part of the defences of the River Fal and Carrick Roads, on the south coast of Cornwall near Falmouth. Originally fortified under Henry ...

and Gravesend and Tilbury in 1737 and as Governor of Berwick-upon-Tweed in May 1742. Tyrrell died unmarried on 30 August 1742.

References

1670s births 1742 deaths British Army generals Royal Leicestershire Regiment officers Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1722–1727 British MPs 1727–1734 British MPs 1734–1741 British MPs 1741–1747 {{England-GreatBritain-MP-stub