User:Wattana2/Alfred Lyall, Rev.

Rev. Alfred Lyall (1795-1865) new article content ... Philosopher and traveller, youngest son of John Lyall, of Findon, Sussex, and his wife, Jane Comyn. Among his brothers were George Lyall, M.P., and William Rowe Lyall, Dean of Canterbury. He was educated at Eton, where his name appears in the lists of the fifth form, next to that of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Lyall went on to Trinity College, Cambridge (B.A. in 1818). He edited the 'Annual Register' from 1822-1827. He passed the winter of 1825-6 travelling to Madeira, and on his return published his account anonymously, as 'Rambles in Madeira and Portugal, in the Year 1826' The book was accompanied by a folio volume of lithographic sketches by Lyall's friend and fellow-traveller, Mr. (later Rev.) James Bulwer. On his return to Findon Lyall applied himself to metaphysical studies. He produced, again anonymously, a thin volume entitled 'Principles of Necessary and Contingent Truth' (1830). In 1829 Lyall took holy orders, as curate to his old friend Dr. Hind, rector of Findon, and in 1832 he married. In 1837 he was appointed vicar of Godmersham, Kent, and at the request of the publishers, resumed the editorship of the 'Annual Register', which he soon had to give up due to illness. In 1848 he was appointed rector of Harbledown, near Canterbury. In 1856, under the title 'Agnostes, or Philosophical Strictures', Lyall published his maturer views, which resemble those of Sir William Hamilton (1788-1856). In collaboration with R. D. Hampden (Bishop of Hereford), J. H. Rose, Smedley, and others, Lyall contributed to the 'History of the Mediaeval Church,' part of the 'Encyclopedia Metropolitana', an ambitious project started by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Lyall died at Llangollen on 11 Sept. 1865, and was buried at his parish church of Harbledown. There is a tablet to his memory in the church. Lyall married in 1832 Mary, daughter of James Shudi Broadwood of Lyne House, Sussex. His children included the eminent Indian Civil Servants, Sir Alfred Lyall, P.C., K.C.B., and Sir James Lyall, K.C.S.I., lieutenant-governor of the Punjab (1887-1892).


References

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Burke's Landed Gentry, 1886; Dictionary of National Biography; Clive Dewey, 'The Passing of Barchester'; Mortimer Durand, 'Life of Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall'

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