TYRWHITT, Sir Robert (by 1504-72), of Leighton Bromswold, Hunts.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Apr. 1554

Family and Education

b. by 1504, 2nd s. of Sir Robert Tyrwhitt (d.1548) of Kettleby, Lincs. by Maud, da. of Sir Robert Tailboys, de jure 8th Lord Kyme, of Kyme, Lincs.; bro. of Philip. m. (1) Bridget, da. and h. of Sir John Wiltshire of Stone Castle, Kent, wid. of Sir Richard Wingfield of Kimbolton, and Sir Nicholas Harvey (d.1532) of Ickworth, Suff.; (2) by 1540, Elizabeth (d.1578), da. of Sir Goddard Oxenbridge of Brede, Suss., at least 1da. d.v.p. Kntd. 1543.

Offices Held

Esquire of the body by 1525; chamberlain, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumb. 13 Sept. 1525; j.p. Hunts. 1536, 1544, 1554-d., Lincs. (Lindsey) 1538, Northants. 1554, Beds. 1554-d.; keeper, manor of Dytton, Bucks. 1536; sheriff, Lincs. 1540-1, Cambs. and Hunts. 1557-8; master of the hunt, Mortlake, Surr. 1540; gent. privy chamber by 1540; subsidy commr. Hunts. 1563, eccles. commr. diocese of Lincoln and Peterborough 1571; servant, household of Queen Catherine Parr July 1543-8, master of the horse by 1544, steward by 1547; constable, Kimbolton castle, Hunts. 1544; steward, duchy of Lancaster, Higham Ferrers, Northants. by 1546; steward, unknown property for Thomas, Baron Seymour of Sudeley by 1548; jt. ld. lt. Hunts. in 1551; numerous other minor offices.

Biography

By 1559 Tyrwhitt’s active career was over, and he had retired to his estates, where, for the last 14 years of his life he lived as a Huntingdonshire country gentleman, an active justice of the peace, ‘earnest in religion’. He died on 10 May 1572, and was buried at Leighton Bromswold, where there is a monument in the parish church to him, his wife and their daughter Katherine. Katherine had married Sir Henry Darcy, and after her death in 1567 Tyrwhitt, ‘being aged and not having nor being like to have’ any more children, had demised Leighton Bromswold and other parts of his property to his son-in-law. His will, made in February and proved in June 1572, mentions also a London house. Tyrwhitt stipulated that he was to be buried ‘without pomp or pride’. He left bequests to his son-in-law, his nephews Thomas Wingfield, Goddard Tyrwhitt and Robert Monson, and to his ‘especial good friend’ Sir Walter Mildmay, the executor.

LP Hen. VIII, passim; Harl. 890, f. 38; Lincs. Peds. (Harl. Soc. lii), 1019-10; VCH Hunts. iii. 86, 89, 91; CPR, 1547-8, p. 172; 1555-7, pp. 69-70; 1569-72, pp. 222, 277-8; R. P. Tyrwhitt, Fam. Tyrwhitt, 22; APC, iii. 259; iv. 49; Cal. Feet of Fines, Hunts. ed. Turner (Cambs. Antiq. Soc. Pubs. oct. ser. xxxvii), 138, 160; Cam. Misc. ix(3). p. 29; C142/87/22, 164/113; PCC 21 Daper.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: N. M. Fuidge

Notes