TYRWHITT, Sir Edward (1577-1628), of Stainfield, Lincs.

Tyrwhitt came from a cadet branch of a Lincolnshire family established at Kettleby since 1322, which produced a knight of the shire in 1416.Lincs. Peds. (Harl. Soc. lii), 1018. Although during Elizabeth’s reign the family were suspected of adhering to Catholicism, Tyrwhitt himself married into the godly St. Paul family, and his second cousin was Sir Thomas Grantham*, a leading puritan. In 1603 both Tyrwhitt and his brother-in-law, Sir Walter Chute*, were knighted during James I’s stay at Belvoir Castle on his journey south.J.W.F. Hill, Tudor and Stuart Lincoln, 107, 112, 117. Tyrwhitt was returned to the first Jacobean Parliament for Lincoln; however, he left no trace on the records of the first three sessions. Meanwhile he had become involved in a feud between the 2nd earl of Lincoln (Sir Henry Clinton†) and the crypto-Catholic allies of Sir Edward Dymoke†, as it was alleged in Star Chamber in 1605 that Lincoln’s son, Lord Clinton (Thomas Clinton*), had hired men to attack Tyrwhitt in London.STAC 8/279/27. In the following year, the 3rd Lord Willoughby of Parham, an adherent of the Clintons, accused Tyrwhitt and his father of trespass and assault.STAC 8/310/29. Tyrwhitt possibly received one committee appointment in the fourth session (as Sir Timothy Tirhitt), to consider a bill against clerical pluralism (19 Feb. 1610); if so this was his only appearance in the parliamentary records.CJ, i. 396b.

Tyrwhitt and his son Philip obtained permission to travel abroad in May 1612.SO3/5, unfol. (May 1612). On the death of Sir George St. Paul* in 1613 he laid claim to the Snarford estate on behalf of Philip, St. Paul’s nephew and heir. This brought him into conflict with the 3rd Lord Rich (Sir Robert Rich*), who married the widowed Lady St. Paul in 1616. Tyrwhitt persuaded a local commission and the Court of Wards to disbelieve Lady Rich’s evidence that her former husband had executed a conveyance in her favour, and to accept that the will in which this was confirmed had been made under duress. Lord Rich retaliated in 1617 by accusing Tyrwhitt, his father, and his uncle, Sir John Thorold, in Star Chamber of perjury and riot.STAC 8/245/18; C. Holmes, Seventeenth-Cent. Lincs. 98. This and other litigation including a suit against Sir Nicholas Saunderson* over title to various lands in Skegness, proved a disastrous drain on Tyrwhitt’s finances.C2/Jas.I/T4/25, C2/Jas.I/S32/36. His father, who died in 1624, left his estate entirely to Philip, presumably in order to protect it from the depredations of numerous creditors.PROB 11/153, f. 279. Tyrwhitt’s mounting financial difficulties caused the outlawry for debt of his brother-in-law, Sir Francis Baildon*, who had stood as his surety.W.P. Baildon, Baildon and Baildons, iii. 1-35. In 1627 Tyrwhitt was obliged to petition the king for a year’s protection from his creditors. However, before it expired, he died intestate on 4 Mar. 1628.APC, 1627, p. 237; C66/2438. His grandson, Sir Philip Tyrwhitt, 4th bt.†, represented Great Grimsby in 1667.