Thomas, a distinguished scholar, was born in London on the 29th of March 1730. His father, Dr Robert Tyrwhitt, descended from an ancient baronet's family in Lincolnshire, was at that time rector of St James's, Westminster, and sent him to a school at Kensington after he had completed the sixth year of his age. In January 1741 he was removed to Eton, where he first displayed that ardent love of literature for which he continued through life to be eminently distinguished. It was said of Tyrwhitt that he never was a boy, his calm and contemplative disposition always leading him to manly and scholarlike pursuits. After residing at Eton for six years, he was in 1747 entered of Queen's College, Oxford. He took the degree of A.B. in 1750; and having been elected to a fellowship of Merton in August 1755, he took that of A.M. in the ensuing year.

He had previously hired chambers in the Temple, and applied himself to the study of the law; but in December 1756 he was appointed under secretary at war, the principal secretary being his friend and patron Lord Barrington. In August 1762 he obtained the more lucrative office of clerk of the House of Commons, and he then resigned his fellowship. He resigned his office in January 1768, and passed the remainder of his life in learned retirement. In 1784 he was elected a curator of the British Museum, and was zealous in discharging the duties connected with this Tyrwhitt, honourable appointment. To the museum he bequeathed a portion of his valuable library, comprehending such books as it did not already possess. His constitution had never been robust; and having been attacked by two violent disorders, he expired on the 15th of August 1786, in the fifty-seventh year of his age. He died at his house in Wellbeck Street, Cavendish Square, and was interred, as his father had also been, in St George's Chapel, Windsor. He left behind him the character of a learned and amiable man. "In private life," we are informed, "he was a man of great liberality, of which some striking instances are given. In one year it is said he gave away L2000; and for such generous exertions he had the ability as well as the inclination, for he had no luxuries, no follies, and no vices to maintain. Of such a man it is unnecessary to add, that he died lamented by all who knew the worth of his friendship, or enjoyed the honour of his acquaintance."

Tyrwhitt was a man of solid as well as extensive erudition; well acquainted with the modern, and eminently skilled in the ancient languages. He was an able Grecian, and his name is held in much respect by the scholars of the continent. He distinguished himself by his sound judgment and critical sagacity; nor was he less distinguished by the modesty and candour which he carried into all his inquiries.

His earliest publication was An Epistle to Florio at Oxford, Lond. 1749, 4to. This was followed by Translations in Verse, 1752, 4to. Here Pope's Messiah and Philip's Splendid Shilling appear in Latin, and the eighth Isthmian ode of Pindar in English. His next work, which is but of small extent, is entitled Observations and Conjectures on some Passages of Shakespeare, Oxford, 1766, 8vo. On the same poet he afterwards communicated various annotations to Steevens and Reed, for their editions of 1778 and 1783. His edition of another English poet brought him a considerable increase of reputation: The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer; to which are added, an Essay on his Language and Versification, an Introductory Discourse, and Notes, Lond. 1775–8, 5 vols. 8vo; Oxf. 1798, 2 vols. 4to; Lond. 1830, 6 vols. 8vo. He afterwards lent his aid to the publication of Poems, supposed to have been written at Bristol, by Thomas Rowley and others, in the Fifteenth Century; the greatest part now first published from the most authentic copies, with an engraved specimen of one of the MSS.; to which are added a Preface, an Introductory Account of the several pieces, and a Glossary, Lond. 1777, 8vo. This volume was twice reprinted in 1778, with the addition of an appendix, tending to prove that the poems were all written by Chatterton. Tyrwhitt's opinion, which is now sufficiently confirmed, is that they were written by writers, one of whom was Bryant, and another Dr Milles, dean of Exeter. The former published an elaborate volume of nearly 600 pages. He answered an able and temperate answer, under the title A Vindication of the Appendix to the Poems called Rowley's, in reply to the Answer of Mr Dean of Exeter, Jacob Bryant, Esquire, and a third anonymous writer; with some further Observations upon those Poems, and an Examination of the Evidence which has been produced in support of their Authenticity, Lond. 1782, 8vo. The word authenticity, it may be remarked, is here improperly used instead of genuineness. On this controversy several other tracts were produced. Tyrwhitt's opinion was adopted by Warton, and was opposed by Mathias.

These were the principal works of literature which he published in English. He was, however, the editor of other two works which deserve to be mentioned: Proceedings and Debates in the House of Commons in 1620 and 1621, from the original MS. in the Library of Queen's College, Oxford; with an Appendix, Oxf. 1766, 2 vols. 8vo. The Manner of holding Parliaments in England, by Henry Elsynge, Cler. Par.; corrected and enlarged from the author's original MS., Lond. 1768, 8vo. He likewise superintended the posthumous publication of his learned friend Dr Musgrave: Two Dissertations, I. On the Grecian Mythology, II. An Examination of Sir Isaac Newton's Objections to the Chronology of the Olympiads, Lond. 1782, 8vo. For this work a very liberal subscription had been promised, entirely by the exertions of Tyrwhitt, who had previously relinquished to the author's widow a bond for several hundred pounds, which he had lent to her husband.

His classical labours, though not very extensive, have secured him a high reputation as a scholar. In 1777 he published, from a Harleian manuscript, Fragments de la Pantocrator; and after an interval of three years appeared his Dissertation de Babrio, Fabularum Excerptorum Scriptores, Interimatur Fabulae quaedam Graecae num-