TYRELL, Charles
Charles Tyrell was born at Gipping and baptised at Stowupland, Suffolk on 4 February 1776, only son of Revd Charles Tyrell (1741-1811), vicar of Thurston and rector of Thornham Magna and Thornham Parva in Suffolk under the patronage of Lord Henniker, and his wife Elizabeth née Baker of Stowupland. His father had inherited Gipping from his cousin Edmund Tyrell in 1799. Young Charles was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge 1793. He married at Haughley, Suffolk on 8 June 1801, Elizabeth Ray (1778-22 August 1826), only daughter and heiress of Richard Ray of Plashwood, Haughley near Stowmarket and had two sons and three daughters. His wife Elizabeth died at Plashwood on 22 August 1826 and on the 9 September 1828, he married secondly at St George's Hanover Square, London, Mary Anne Cooke (1774-20 December 1849), daughter of John Matthews of Wargrave, Berkshire, the widow of Thomas William Cooke of Polstead, Suffolk. Charles was High Sheriff of Suffolk 1815-1816 and MP for Suffolk 1830-1832 and for Suffolk West 1832-1834. Charles took pride in family paintings by Sir Peter Lely and Vandyke and built up a collection of early books. In 1811 he inherited Gipping, which was then let to Sir John Shelley, with the major part of his father’s personal estate being then valued at under £10,000. In 1821, a founder member of the Suffolk Pitt Club and a member of the Ipswich Society of Professional & Amateur Artists from 1832. After his second marriage in 1828, he moved to Polstead Hall near Hadleigh, which his bride had inherited, together with a personal estate worth almost £20,000, from her first husband in 1825. Following his second wife’s death at Polstead Hall on 20 December 1849, Charles Tyrell moved back to Plashwood, where he died on 2 January 1872, ‘shortly before his 96th birthday’. He was succeeded in his estates and manors by his elder son Charles Tyrell (1805-1887) to whom, by a deed of gift dated 8 May 1871, he had previously bequeathed his personal estate. The minutes of the Ipswich Society of Professional & Amateur Artists clearly state Tyrell, MP, as his son could have been construed as the member. Several painting of Charles Tyrell and his father are listed in Farrer's 'Pictures in Suffolk Houses West' and a painting of Tyrell and his family in 1805 by Henry Walton was sold for £48,000 in 1981.