James Tyrrell (British Army officer)

Lieutenant-General James Tyrrell (c. 1674 – 30 August 1742) was an officer of the British Army and Member of Parliament.

Background

He was born the only son of James Tyrrell of Oakley, Buckinghamshire by his wife Mary, daughter of Sir Michael Hutchinson.

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

On the accession of King George I in 1714 he was made a Groom of the Bedchamber, serving as a member of the royal household until the King's death in 1727.

In 1722 he was returned to Parliament for Boroughbridge, one of the Duke of Newcastle's pocket boroughs, sitting until his death. He also served as Governor of Pendennis Castle, of Gravesend and Tilbury and of Berwick-upon-Tweed.

References

• Richard Cannon, Historical Record of the Seventeenth, of the Leicestershire Regiment of Foot (1848) p. 50-51.
• Romney Sedgwick, TYRRELL, James (c.1674-1742), of Shotover, Oxon. in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754 (1970).