was too vivacious and eccentric to confine himself to the law. ‘He therefore,’ says Boswell (Life of Johnson, 1788), ‘ran about the world with a pleasant carelessness,’ amusing everybody by his desultory conversation and abundance of good-natured anecdote. He was a great favourite with Dr. Johnson, who used to call him Tom Tyers. Johnson has described him in the ‘Idler’ (1759, No. 48) as ‘Tom Restless,’ the ‘ambulatory’ student who devoted little time to books, but wandered about for ideas to the coffee-house and debating club. Tyers was in reality a considerable reader, and Johnson confessed that Tyers always told him something that he did not know before; it was he who said of Johnson that he always talked as if he were talking upon oath.
Tyers had a villa at Ashtead, near Epsom, and apartments in Southampton Street, Covent Garden, and he used to drive backwards and forwards: ‘just as the humour hits, I'm there or here.’ In a character sketch, supposed to be by himself, he is described as ‘inquisitive, talkative, full of notions and quotations, and, which is the praise of a purling stream, of no great depth.’ He had some knowledge of medicine, and rather posed as a valetudinarian.
Tyers sold his share in the Vauxhall Gardens in 1785, leaving the management to his brother Jonathan. He died at Ashtead, after a lingering illness, on 1 Feb. 1787, in his sixty-first year. He was unmarried.
A good likeness of him was drawn by I. Taylor and engraved by J. Hall.
Tyers was a timid and dilettante author. Of his essay on Addison (see below) he at first printed only fifty copies, and distributed the twenty-five copies of ‘Conversations, Political and Familiar,’ with the request that ‘this pamphlet may not be lent. A very few copies are printed for the perusal of a very few friends.’ His ‘Political Conferences,’ imaginary conversations between statesmen, had not a little repute in its day, and his essays on Pope, Addison, and Johnson contain some curious anecdotes.
His publications are: 1. ‘Political Conferences between several great men in the last and present century,’ 1780, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1781. 2. ‘An Historical Rhapsody on Mr. Pope,’ 1781 (cf. Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. viii. 456); 2nd edit. 1782: each edition of 250 copies. 3. ‘An Historical Essay on Mr. Addison,’ 1782, fifty copies; 1783, one hundred copies. 4. ‘Conversations, Political and Familiar,’ 1784, 8vo, twenty-five copies. 5. ‘A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Johnson,’ (published in ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ 1785, liv. 899, 982).
[Obituary in the London Chronicle for 1–3 Feb. 1787; Boswell's Johnson, ed. G. B. Hill, ii. 434, iii. 308–9; Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, viii. 79 ff.; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
TYLDEN, Sir JOHN MAXWELL (1787–1866), lieutenant-colonel, born on 25 Sept. 1787, was the eldest son of Richard Tylden of Milsted, Kent, by his second wife, Jane, daughter of Samuel Auchmuty, D.D., rector of New York, and sister of Lieutenant-general Sir Samuel Auchmuty [q. v.] William Burton Tylden [q. v.] was his younger brother. He was commissioned as ensign in the 43rd foot in the summer of 1804, and was promoted lieutenant on 23 Nov.
In 1807 he served in the expedition to Monte Video and Buenos Ayres as brigade major to his uncle, Sir Samuel Auchmuty [q. v.] He became captain on 28 Sept. 1809. In 1810 he went to Madras as aide-de-camp to Auchmuty. He accompanied him to Java, was present at the capture of Fort Cornelis, 26 Aug. 1811, and was sent home with despatches. He received a brevet majority, and was knighted in 1812, when he acted as proxy for Auchmuty at the installation of knights of the Bath.
He joined the 1st battalion of the 43rd in the Peninsula in 1813, and was present at the battles of the Nive, Orthes, and Toulouse. In 1814 he went with his regiment to America, and took part in the unsuccessful attack on New Orleans. In the later stages of it he acted as assistant adjutant-general, Colonel (Sir) Frederick Stovin [q. v.] having been wounded on 23 Dec., and he was praised in General Lambert's despatch of 28 Jan. 1815.
In February 1816 he obtained a majority in the 3rd buffs, and was placed on half-pay. On 16 July 1818 he became major in the 52nd, and on 12 Aug. 1819 he was made brevet lieutenant-colonel. He went to Nova Scotia in 1823 in temporary command of the 52nd, but returned to England on leave in the following year, and retired from the army in June 1825. He afterwards received the silver medal for Java, and for Nive, Orthes, and Toulouse.
He was one of the leaders of the liberal party in East Kent. He was J.P., and was made D.L. in 1852. He married, first, in 1829, Elizabeth, only daughter of the Rev. H. L. Walsh of Grimblesthorpe, Lincoln, by whom he had one daughter; secondly, in 1842, Charlotte, daughter of Sir Robert Synge, bart. He died at Milsted on 18 May 1866.
[Gent. Mag. 1866, i. 928; Royal Military Calendar, v. 161; Ann. Reg. App. p. 149;
