the office of Arris and Gale lecturer on anatomy and physiology from 1838 to 1841. In 1840 he published his only independent work, that on ‘Diseases of the Eyes,’ in two volumes. He died suddenly on 23 May 1843 at the City auction mart. In 1822 he married a daughter of Samuel Lovick Cooper, a niece of Sir Astley Paston Cooper [q. v.]
Tyrrell was an admirable surgeon, and was for many years the mainstay of his surgical colleagues at the hospitals to which he was attached.
Tyrrell edited Sir Astley Cooper's ‘Lectures on the Principles and Practice of Surgery,’ London, 1824–7, 2 vols. 8vo. The publication of these lectures led to the suit of Tyrrell v. Wakley (editor of the ‘Lancet’), in which Thomas Wakley [q. v.] was cast in damages to the amount of 50l.
[A manuscript account from personal knowledge and family information drawn up by the late James Dixon, F.R.C.S. Engl.; obituary notice in South's Hunterian Oration; the Lancet for 1843–4, i. 698; ‘Pencilling of Mr. Tyrrell,’ The Medical Times, vii. 283; see also Sprigge's Life of Wakley, 1897, chap. xiii.]
TYRRELL or TYRELL, Sir JAMES (d. 1502), supposed murderer of the princes in the Tower, was the eldest son of William Tyrell of Gipping, Suffolk, by Margaret, daughter of Robert Darcy of Malden. Sir John Tyrrell [q. v.] was his grandfather. James Tyrell was a strong Yorkist. He was knighted after the battle of Tewkesbury on 3 May 1471, was appointed to conduct the Countess of Warwick to the north of England in 1473, and served as member of parliament for Cornwall in December 1477. An order to pay 10l. signed by him and dated 1 April 1478, has been preserved and is in Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 18675, f. 1. In the war with Scotland he fought under Richard, then Duke of Gloucester, and was by him made a knight-banneret on 24 July 1482. The same year, when the office of constable, held by Richard, was put into commission, Tyrell was one of those appointed to execute it. At the coronation of Richard III he took part in some capacity. His brother Thomas was master of the horse, and he just afterwards was made master of the henchmen; and, no doubt on his brother resigning what was meant to be a temporary office, also master of the horse.
The whole interest of Tyrell's career centres round the murder of the two sons of Edward IV. The story, as told by the author of the ‘Historie of Kyng Rycharde the Thirde,’ makes Richard send John Green to Sir Robert Brackenbury, the constable of the Tower, with orders that the deed should be done by him. This was while Richard was on his progress to Gloucester. On Brackenbury's refusal, Green returned to Richard at Warwick, and while the king was in a state of anxious uncertainty, a page suggested that Tyrell would do what was wanted. The writer explains that Tyrell had been kept in the background by Ratcliffe and Catesby, and was therefore likely to stick at nothing that could secure his advantage. Tyrell was then sent to the Tower with a letter to Brackenbury, commanding him to give up the keys for a night. The two princes were accordingly smothered by Miles Forest, one of their keepers, ‘a felowe fleshed in murther before time,’ and John Dighton, Tyrell's horsekeeper, ‘a big, brode, square, strong knaue.’ Tyrell, having seen that the murder was carried out, ordered the bodies to be buried at the stair foot, and rode back to Richard, ‘who gave hym gret thanks, and, as som say, there made him knight.’
This account contains much matter for dispute and involves a larger question, the character of Richard III. Sir Clements Markham has attempted to fix the guilt of the murder on Henry VII, but his contentions have been opposed by Mr. Gairdner, whose view is accepted by Professor Busch. In either case Tyrell is admitted to have been the instrument (see English Historical Review, vi. 250, 444, 806, 813; Busch, England under the Tudors, p. 319).
Tyrell's reward was certainly not in proportion to his service. He became a knight of the king's body, and on 5 Nov. 1483 received commissions to array the men of Wales against Buckingham. He was also a commissioner for the forfeited estates of Buckingham and others in Wales and the marches. On 10 April 1484 he benefited at the expense of the traitor Sir John Fogge. On 9 Aug. 1484 he was made steward of the duchy of Cornwall for life, and on 13 Sept. 1484 he became sheriff of the lordship of Wenlock, steward of the lordships of Newport Wenlock, Kevoeth Meredith, Lavenitherry, and Lanthoesant, for life. He also was allowed to enter on the estates of Sir Thomas Arundel, a relative of his wife. At some time in the reign he was made one of the chamberlains of the exchequer.
He is said to have wavered in his allegiance to Richard III towards the end of his reign, but of this there is no proof, and Richard seems to have employed him in some unknown capacity in Flanders. Just before Bosworth he was clearly in the king's confidence, as, though holding a command in
