interest member for Sudbury 29 June 1841, but after sitting until 14 April 1842 was unseated for ‘gross, systematic, and extensive bribery,’ and the borough was soon after disfranchised, mainly in consequence of the proceedings at the 1841 election (Barron and Austin's Cases of Controverted Elections, 1844, pp. 237–52). He lived with his wife until March 1843, when a separation took place in consequence of his being put under restraint as a lunatic at the Clarendon Hotel, 169 New Bond Street, London; thence he was removed under the care of a keeper to Hanover Lodge, Regent's Park. On 31 July 1843 a commission de lunatico inquirendo was held at Hanover Lodge before Francis Barlow and a special jury, when a verdict ‘of unsound mind from 27 Oct. 1842’ was returned. However, in September 1843 he was allowed to travel under the care of Dr. Grant for the benefit of his health, but escaping from his attendant at Liverpool, he left England and arrived in Paris on 22 Sept. Mr. Frere, who was ‘the solicitor of the committees of the person,’ followed him to Paris, but an application that Dyce-Sombre should be delivered up to him to be sent back to England was refused by the French government. During the succeeding seven years the unfortunate man was several times in England (with safe-conduct passes from the lord chancellor). Many inquiries were made as to the state of his mind, with varying results, and he lived on the surplus income of his property allowed him by the lord chancellor after deducting an annuity of 4,000l. for the support of his wife. In August 1849 he published in Paris ‘Mr. Dyce-Sombre's Refutation of the Charges of Lunacy brought against him in the Court of Chancery: published by Mr. Dyce-Sombre, 1849.’ This is a large and well-written work of 592 pages, in the compilation of which he is said to have been assisted by a Mr. Montucci. He also wrote another work called ‘The Memoir,’ brought out in English, French, and Italian, in which he grossly abused his brother-in-law, Baron Solaroli. In the summer of 1851 he came to England to petition against the decisions of the court of chancery and with the hope of obtaining a supersedeas, but died at his lodgings, Davies Street, Berkeley Square, London, on 1 July 1851, and was buried in the catacombs at Kensal Green cemetery on 8 July. His will, dated 25 June 1849, which was disputed by his widow and by his two sisters, Ann Mary Dyce, wife of Captain John Troup, and Georgiana Dyce, wife of Baron Peter Solaroli, was before the law courts for more than five years. At last, on 26 Jan. 1856, after the case had been argued nineteen days, Sir John Dodson gave judgment against the will, which judgment on appeal was confirmed by the judicial committee of the privy council on 1 July (Deane and Swabey's Cases in Ecclesiastical Courts, 1858, pp. 22–120). His widow married, 8 Nov. 1862, the Right Hon. George Cecil Weld Forester, who in 1874 became third Baron Forester.
[Gent. Mag. August 1851, p. 201; Illustrated London News, 12 July 1851, p. 42; Sleeman's Rambles of an Indian Official (1844), ii. 377–99; Malleson's Recreations of an Indian Official (1872), pp. 438–59; The Heirs of Mr. Dyce-Sombre v. The Indian Government, 1865, p. 18; Macnaghten and Gordon's Reports of Cases in Chancery (1850), i. 101–2, 116–37; Law Mag. and Law Rev. August 1856, pp. 356–68, and November, p. 182.]
DYCHE, THOMAS (fl. 1719), school-master, was educated at Ashbourne free school, Derbyshire, under the Rev. William Hardestee (dedication of Vocabularium Latiale, 5th edition). He subsequently took orders, and removed to London. In 1708 he was keeping school in Dean Street, Fetter Lane, but some time after 1710 he obtained the mastership of the free school at Stratford Bow. In 1719 he rashly attempted to expose in print the peculations of the notorious John Ward of Hackney ‘in discharge of his [Ward's] trust about repairing Dagnam Breach.’ Thereupon Ward sued Dyche for libel, and at the trial, 18 June 1719, was awarded 300l. damages (Post Boy, 19 June 1719, cited in Robinson, Hist. of Hackney, i. 124). Dyche seems to have died between 1731 and 1735. No entry of his burial occurs in the Bow register from 1728 to the end of 1739. No will or letters of administration are to be found in the calendars of the prerogative court of Canterbury. He left a family (dedication of the Spelling Dictionary). His compilations are as follows: 1. ‘Vocabularium Latiale, or a Latin Vocabulary, in two parts,’ 8vo, London, 1708 or 1709; 5th edition, 8vo, London, 1728; 6th edition, 8vo, London, 1735. 2. ‘A Guide to the English Tongue, in two parts,’ 8vo, London, 1709; 2nd edition, 8vo, London, 1710; 14th edition, 12mo, London, 1729. This, the forerunner of similar compendiums by Dilworth, Fenning, and Mavor, had the honour of being ushered into the world with lines addressed to ‘my ingenious Friend the Author’ by laureate Tate. Another less famous poet, by name John Williams, enthusiastically declares
This just essay you have perform'd so well,
Records will shew 'twas Dyche first taught to spell.
3. ‘The Spelling Dictionary, or a Collection
