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Judy Canon, journalist and author, has written a book about the many people who have shared our name over almost a millenium: from 1150.
The Tytherleigh surname has been spelt in many ways over the centuries, including Titherly, Tidderleye and Tedderleye, not forgetting vagabond Friar Tyderle of 1390 and witness Richard de Tuderlege, of 1201.
The family was once prominent in the West Country, an area which experienced the rough and tumble of changing society - often at the centre of the making of English history. Granted arms by Queen Elizabeth I, alas the temptations and the vicissitudes of life once brought the Tytherleigh family down low but only for it to bounce back to better things, if not always to distinction. And the Tytherleighs managed not to get executed unlike some of their in-laws. Members later wandered far and wide, many migrating in the 19th century to what are now America, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.
In times of war a significant number served in the armed forces and the family can boast two Military Medals, now known as the Military Cross, and a DFC, Distinguished Flying Cross.
There are still some family mysteries to be solved, in particular the puzzle about a forebear’s skeleton found walled up in a stone coffin within a church wall. Eleventh century spurs were still attached to the legs but the coffin also included a 15thC warrior’s helmet. And there is the story about the future Charles II in flight from Parliamentarian troops who was hidden by a relative under her skirts.
The author's distant cousin Pat Tytherleigh, of Cowley, Devon, first suggested a book about the Tytherleigh family story. Telling the story has been greatly aided by Pat’s impeccable genealogical research up to 1837. From 1837 onwards the family’s genealogy has been compiled with equal dedication by Jane Tytherleigh of Ingateston, Essex. Their work is the spine on which this story turns.
The result; The Tytherleigh Tribe 1150-2010 and Its Remarkable In-laws has now been published and is available from mid November 2014 as an attractive hardback by Ryelands, Wellington, Somerset.
People like to know about their forebears: what were their first names, whom they married, where they lived, how they lived, and what happened to them. This book attempts to tell their story – a story which may well be your story.
A family biography, the book is also likely to appeal to history teachers and people who like to read social history and glimpse history through more personal eyes.  |
