OLD PLYMOUTH . UK
www.oldplymouth.uk
 

©  Brian Moseley, Plymouth
Webpage created: March 15, 2020
Webpage updated: March 15, 2020

        

WHO WAS WHO IN OLD PLYMOUTH

THOMAS TYRWHITT (1762-1833)

Thomas Tyrwhitt was born at Wickham Bishops in Essex, on August 12th 1762.  His father, Edmund, was the local rector.  His mother was Margaret, the daughter of Mr Thomas Gilbert.

He studied at Eton College; and Christ Church College, Oxford, at which he gained degrees in MA and DCL.  He became private secretary to the Prince of Wales until 1796, when he gained entry to the House of Commons as Member for Okehampton, just on the northern edge of Dartmoor.  Between then and 1802, when he lost the seat, he enclosed a farm on Dartmoor which he named Tor Royal.  There he managed to raise flax of such a high quality that it won him the Bath and West Agricultural Society's gold medal.   He was also instrumental in having several roads constructed across the Moor and for the creation of a hamlet which he named Prince's Town, in honour of the Lord of the Manor, the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall.  He became Lord Warden of the Stannaries in 1805.

It was his intention to turn what was then a desolate waste, Dartmoor, into a thriving place to live and work.  His first project was to persuade the government to erect a prison at Prince's Town to house prisoners-of-war captured during the Napoleonic Wars.  This he succeeded in doing and he himself the laid the first stone on March 20th 1806, the same year in which he became Member of Parliament for Plymouth.  He was knighted in 1812 as a result of being appointed Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod.

He realised that one thing that his beloved Prince's Town lacked was good communication with a port such as Plymouth.  Thus his next project was to propose to the Plymouth Chamber of Commerce, on November 3rd 1818, that a railway between the two places would be an excellent idea.  Dartmoor would be of benefit to Plymouth just as much as the reverse, he argued.  He also promised shareholders a 18% return on their investment.

More details of that proposal appears on the Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway Company webpage.   Suffice it to say that Sir Thomas laid the first rail on August 12th 1819 and the line was opened on Friday September 26th 1823.

After that, Sir Thomas seems to have led a quieter life.   In 1832 he resigned from his post because of failing health and went to the Continent.  He was on his way back to England when he died at Calais on February 24th 1833, at the age of 71.  He never married.