James Tyrrell (writer)

James Tyrrell (1642, London –1718) was an English author and Whig political philosopher.

Life

James Tyrrell was the eldest son of Sir Timothy Tyrrell (died 1701, aged 83) and Elizabeth Ussher, the only daughter of Archbishop James Ussher. His younger sister Eleanor married the deist Charles Blount.^[1] Educated at the University of Oxford, he became a barrister in 1666 and a justice of the peace in Buckinghamshire. His Patriarcha non monarcha (1681) was a reply to Robert Filmer's Patriarcha; it also included references to Thomas Hobbes, and was also influenced by Samuel Pufendorf.^[2] A Brief Disquisition of the Law of Nature was an English abridgment of Richard Cumberland's De legibus naturae. Bibliothetica politica was a huge compendium of Whig constitutional theory.^[2]

Tyrrell was a friend and supporter of John Locke, who stayed for a time at Tyrrell's home, at a time when he was apparently working on his Two Treatises on Government. His thinking appears to have been influential in the development of Locke's thinking, and for a time his writings were more influential than Locke's in the emergence of Whig thinking and policies.

Works

• Patriarcha non monarcha. The patriarch unmonarch'd: being observations on a late treatise and divers other miscellanies, published under the name of Sir Robert Filmer baronet. In which the falseness of those opinions that would make monarchy jure divino are laid open: and the true principles of government and property (especially in our kingdom) asserted. By a lover of truth and of his country, 1681
• A brief disquisition of the law of nature, according to the principles laid down in the reverend Dr. Cumberland's (now Lord Bishop of Peterborough's) Latin treatise on that subject. As also his considerations of Mr. Hobbs's principles put into another method, 1692
• Bibliotheca politica: or An enquiry into the ancient constitution of the English government; both in respect to the just extent of regal power, and the rights and liberties of the subject. Wherein all the chief arguments, as well against, as for the late revolution, are impartially represented, and considered, in thirteen dialogues. Collected out of the best authors, as well antient as modern ..., 1694
• The General History of England, both Eccesiastical and Civil (5 volumes, published between 1700 and 1704). In which Tyrrell demonstrates that the liberties of the people are not concessions of kings.

References

• Selected Political Works of James Tyrrell. Online collection.

Source

• Julia Rudolph, Revolution by Degrees: James Tyrrell and Whig Political Thought in the Late Seventeenth Century (Studies in Modern History), 2002.

External links

• Works by or about James Tyrrell (writer) in libraries (WorldCat catalog)