No. XLIV.

SIR WILLIAM INNES, BART.

OF BALVENIE, NORTH BRITAIN.

THE family of Innes is supposed to have been originally of Flemish extraction, and, if we are not greatly misinformed, first settled under Beroaldus Flandrensis in that fertile tract of country situate between the Spey and the Lossie, in the county of Moray. Of this line the (now ducal) house of Innes, of Innes, near Elgin, was always considered as the chief, in consequence both of tradition and records. The large possessions attached to this stem, and also the title of Baronet of Nova Scotia, which was conferred in 1628, soon after the institution of that order, serves to confirm this statement.

Sir James Innes, of Balvenie, having died in 1722, was succeeded by Robert his eldest son, who lived until 1758, when his younger brothers Charles and William, became Baronets in succession.

Sir William Innes, of Balvenie, the last of these, of whom we now treat, appears to have been the patriarch of baronets, as he was born about the year 1718. Being desirous of military fame, he served as a volunteer in the Life Guards, when they attended King George II. at the battle of Dettingen, in 1743. Mr. Innes afterwards obtained a cornetcy of horse, and rose through the successive steps of Lieutenant, Captain of a troop, and Major, until he at length attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel of the 2d regiment of Dragoon Guards, when he seems to have retired from the service.

After this he settled at Ipswich, where he succeeded to his family honours, and resided until his death, which occurred

March 13th, 1817. Sir William had then fully completed his 100th year; and the title was generally supposed to be extinct but a respectable gentleman of Bamffshire, where his ancestors had considerable possessions, lately laid claim to this title; and presented such an uniform and authentic series of documents, that a jury, of which the Right Hon. James Earl of Fife was chancellor, to adopt the language of the Scottish law, "unanimously served him heir to the title."

No. XLV.

RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH, Esq.

OF EDGEWORTH TOWN, IN IRELAND.

THIS gentleman greatly distinguished himself as a man of letters, and was fortunate in possessing a daughter worthy of himself. He died at his seat in the sister island, June 13, 1817, at the age of seventy-four.

[We intend to give a detailed account of Mr. Edgeworth's life and labours, in our next volume, for which materials are now collecting.]

No. XLVI.

THE REV. ROBERT TYRWHITT.

LATE FELLOW OF JESUS-COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

THE HE Tyrwhitts spring from an ancient and respectable family which has been long settled in the west of England. The subject of the present article is descended from, and actually was representative of them, being uncle of the Right Hon. Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt, who has been in succession Private Secretary, and Secretary Extraordinary to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, Auditor and Lord Warden of the Stannaries, Steward of the Duchy of Cornwall, Vice-Admiral of the same, one of the members of parliament for Plymouth, &c.

The late Mr. Robert Tyrwhitt was the son of a Residentiary of St. Paul's; and his maternal grandfather, Dr. Gibson, was Bishop of London. After receiving a prefatory education, he was sent to Jesus-College, Cambridge, where he soon distinguished himself, not only by his talents and application, but also by a certain seriousness of speech, conduct, and behaviour, that gained him the esteem of all. Ecclesiastical honours and preferment now lay before him, but he refused them all.

"With such connections as his," observes one of his friends," he had every reason to expect high preferment in the church; but his conscience forbad him to make use of such advantages, and he resigned his fellowship, and all his expectations from the church, on the deliberate conviction of his mind, that one God only-who is emphatically stiled in Scripture the Father and the God and Father of our Lord

Jesus Christ, is the only object of religious worship. On the resignation of his fellowship he was reduced to a very narrow income, on which he lived cheerfully and contentedly; but by the death of his brother, clerk to the House of Commons, he came into possession of a property which enabled him to act up to the dictates of a generous heart.

"It will be incredible to the generality of readers how little he spent upon himself, and how much upon others. In every profession, divinity, law, physic, navy, army, are many to lament his loss, and to remember the kindness of a most liberal benefactor. His benevolence was not confined to any sect or party. He looked upon all as children of one common parent, and himself as a steward merely, under Providence, for what remained to him after the gratification of his natural wants, and very moderate desires.

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Notwithstanding his separation from the church, he lived. in College, highly respected by that society, and by the most distinguished members of the university. For the last eight or ten years he was confined by the gout chiefly to his rooms, and he had not slept out of College for twenty or thirty years. He was particularly well acquainted with the Statutes of the University, was associated with Jebb in his plan for the improvement of education, was a friend of the late Bishops Law and Watson; and a more strenuous advocate for liberty, civil and religious, as distinguished from anarchy and misrule, never existed. He published two sermons, preached before the University of Cambridge, the one on the Baptismal Form *, the other on the Creation of all things by Jesus Christ; and whoever reads them will lament that the author has not explained his sentiments more fully on many parts of Scripture."

Mr. Tyrwhitt expired in so easy a manner, as almost to be imperceptible to his attendants, at his apartments in Jesus College, Cambridge, March 25th, 1817.

Baptismal Faith explained," a sermon, 4to. 1804.

He

He endeavoured to re

to every inhabitant whose taste has not been vitiated by habits of profligacy. He was ever ready to render the temporal condition of his parishioners more comfortable. This, however, was not the whole of his worth. He never forgot the principal object of his vocation, the eternal happiness of his flock. For this he took the utmost pains in the composition of his sermons; that they might forcibly inculcate Christian principles, expose vice, cherish hope, and be intelligible to every member of that humble peasantry committed to his care; for to persons of this condition in life, it was his lot to minister in sacred things, except in the short intervals of his residence at Bristol; where to the last he was honoured with a crowded auditory, whenever he ascended the cathedral pulpit. But it was not to preaching that his pastoral labours were confined. He was observant of the duty of catechising youth. He paid children. out of his own pocket for the education of poor visited the sick as an instructor. strain the profligate; and not only countenanced the sober and industrious, but endeavoured to help them forward in their worldly concerns, as well as to further their religious improvement. With all this, there was no sectarian mixture. Of the necessity of making his parishioners rightly understand the present state of human nature, and the remedies which infinite wisdom and mercy has provided for the evils to which it is exBut this end he purposed, he showed himself fully aware. sued in such a manner, as never presented him to the world under any other aspect than that of a clergyman of the Church of England. A's a husband, a master of a family, a friend, he was not only respected, but beloved, by those who had the greatest interest in his possessing the virtues which adorn these relations. Nor was it on these only that the benevolence of his nature flowed. His charities to the poor of his neighbourhood were much beyond what his means of relieving their wants would encourage us to expect. In addition to these, he generally had some case of foreign distress in hand; in the management of which, he was often laboriously employed, by writing a number of letters, and by applying in other forms to the humane, in behalf of his client. To which expense