Rev. Michael Tyson

The son of a Lincolnshire clergyman, Michael Tyson was a fellow of Corpus Christi College Cambridge (B.A. 1764; M.A. 1767, bursar 1774; B.D. 1775). In 1766 he toured Scotland with Richard Gough; he was ordained in 1773 and was Vicar of St. Benet's Cambridge (1773-76), Vicar of Sawston, Cambridgeshire (1772-76), Whitehall Preacher (1776), and Rector of Lambourne, Essex (1778-80). Tyson was a painter and engraver, FSA, FRS, and assisted with Mason's life of Gray. William Cole's memoir of Tyson in Nichols's Anecdotes (1812-15) graphically depicts the tribulations of college life.

TEXT RECORDS:

1761[Untitled, "Hence pale Grief and anxious Care."]
1762[Untitled, "Breathe with soft melody, ye Dorian flutes."]
1763[Untitled, "The gayly-gilded stream of light."]

PUBLICATIONS:

An account of an illuminated manuscript in the library of Corpus Christi College. 1770.
Correspondence with Richard Gough, in Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, vol. 8. 1814.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Anglican

Corpus Christi College Cambridge
Bachelor of Arts
Master of Arts
Bachelor of Divinity
Fellow of the Royal Society
Fellow of Society of Antiquaries

clergyman
antiquary
painter
poet

Gentleman's Magazine

William Cole
Rev. Richard Farmer
Richard Gough
Thomas Gray
George Hardinge
Rev. George Huddesford
Rev. William Mason
Horace Walpole

REFERENCE:

DNB; not NCBEL.

James Granger, Biographical History (1769; 1824) [portrait]; John Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); Nichols, Literary Anecdotes (1812-15) 8:204-10; letters in Nichols, Illustrations of the Literary History of the XVIII Century (1817-58); Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Venn and Venn, Alum. Cant. (1940-54).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Rev. Michael Tyson:

1.	1769  Horace Walpole to William Cole, 12 August 1769; Nichols, Literary Anecdotes of the XVIII Century (1812-15) 4:708.
2.	1769  James Granger, in Biographical History of England (1769; 1824) 5:336n.
3.	1779  Horace Walpole to William Cole, 16 November 1779; Letters, ed. Cunningham (1906) 7:280.
4.	1814  George Hardinge to John Nichols, 29 June 1814; Nichols, Illustrations of the Literary History of the XVIII Century (1817-58) 3:35.
5.	1814  George Dyer, in History of the University and Colleges of Cambridge (1814) 2:131.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Rev. Michael Tyson:

1.	1780 ca.  William Cole, Collectanea for Athenae Cantabrigienses; in Restituta or ... English Literature Revived 4 (1816) 236-39.
2.	1812  Alexander Chalmers, in General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17) 30:141-42.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1772  Rev. Richard Farmer:   Michael Tyson to Richard Gough, 2 October 1772; Nichols, Literary Anecdotes of the XVIII Century (1812-15) 8:597.