Richard Child, 1st Earl Tylney

Richard Child, 1st Earl Tylney (5 February 1680 – March 1750), was an English politician who sat in the

Richard Child was baptised at Wanstead Church of the Virgin Mary on 5 February 1680, the third son of the wealthy Sir Josiah Child (1630–1699) Governor of the East India Company, who had been created 1st Baronet of Wanstead in 1678, by his third wife Emma Barnard (died 16 October 1725), daughter of Sir Henry Barnard, of Bridgnorth, Shropshire, Turkey merchant of London.^[5] He was appointed as residuary legatee and executor under the will of his father, whose death occurred before Richard's majority. Richard then on 12 February 1700 petitioned Parliament for a bill, to vest certain lands in trustees, so that settlements made upon the marriage of his half-brother Josiah could be honoured.^[6]

In 1703 Richard married Dorothy Glynne, daughter and co-heiress of John Glynne, younger son of

Following the first Baronets's death, his heir Josiah had leased Wanstead to his half-brother Richard. Coming into full possession of it, Sir Richard Child, 3rd Baronet, commissioned in 1715 the Scottish architect

In spite of this and the Hanoverian succession which favoured the Whigs, Child was again elected MP for Essex at the 1715 general election. Returned as a Tory he began to support the Whig government, voting for the Septennial Bill in 1716. His main concern was to obtain a peerage and although he purchased an Irish peerage from the Duchess of Munster in 1715, he had to wait until 1718 before he was created Baron Newtown and Viscount Castlemaine. As these were Irish peerages, he was still able to sit in the House of Commons. He voted for the repeal of the Occasional Conformity and Schism Acts, and against the Peerage Bill in 1719. He was defeated in the contest for Essex at the 1722 general election but was returned unopposed for Essex at the 1727 general election. He voted consistently for the government and by Act of Parliament on 13 June 1733 assumed name of Tylney. At the 1734 general election, he stood down from parliament in favour of his son John Tylney who failed to be elected.^[8]

First elevation to the Peerage

In June 1711 a rumour emerged that Child was about to purchase a peerage for £10,000 from the administration under

Inheritance of Tylney estates

United Kingdom legislation

Descendants of William Lord Craven's Names Act 1723
Act of Parliament
10 Geo. 1. c. 13
Dates
Royal assent	24 April 1724

In 1730 Child's wife Dorothy Glynne inherited the Tylney estates in Hampshire from her cousin Ann Tylney (died 5 Feb. 1729/30), Lady Craven, wife of

In 1629 Richard Tylney purchased the manor of Rotherwick from Richard More. Tylney was already by then a local landowner. His descendant Frederick Tylney, who stood as MP for Whitchurch in January 1708, built a great mansion on the estate in 1700, called Tylney Hall. It was rebuilt in 1898 in the Victorian style, and is now a country hotel. A marble monument exists in the north aisle of Rotherwick church to Frederick Tylney (d. 1725), erected by his widow Anne, which displays their combined coats of arms, of which Tylney is: "Argent, a chevron between 3 griffons' heads erased gules".^[13]

Creation of Tylney Earldom

Lord Castlemain's Name Act 1732
Act of Parliament
6 Geo. 2. c. 27
Dates
Royal assent	13 June 1733

On 11 June 1731, Viscount Castlemaine was created Earl Tylney, of Castlemaine in the County of Kerry, a title in the

Child was the main patron of the Flemish painter Joseph Francis Nollekens, known as Old Nollekens to distinguish him from his better known sculptor son Joseph Nollekens. The following pictures by him were some of the 16 by Nollekens included in the great sale by auction held at Wanstead House in 1822 shortly before its demolition (source: catalogue, with prices realised):^[16]

• Lot 10. "A pair—the Juvenile Artists and Companion, a Boy spinning his Top," £25.
• Lot 16. "A pair—the Juvenile Parties; Card-builders and Players at Tetotum," £17.
• Lot 138. "Dancing Figures, a sketch, in a French carved frame", £1 2s.
• Lot 225. "Rural Recreations, painted with all the taste and elegance of Watteau," £6 6s.
• Lot 307. "A Boy beating a Drum, and a small Landscape, and two curious models of the Stag and Fox in wax," £8, 15s.
• Lot 308. "The Wine-Traders, painted with the tasteful elegance of Watteau," £31 10s.
• Lot 3ll. "Females Bathing, in a Landscape, with a distant view of Wanstead-house," £8 18s 6d.
• Lot 314. "Landscape, Buildings," &c. £7.
• Lot 316. "Landscape and Figures, with a youth playing the guitar."

Other Nollekens paintings associated with Wanstead are:

• Music Party at Wanstead House
• Lord and Lady Tylney at Wanstead House (Longleat House Coll.)
• Music Party before the Lake at Wanstead. (Sold by Christie's 25/6/1965)

Succession

Earl Tylney and his wife Dorothy Glynne had seven children:

• Emma (1707-1758), twin. Married Sir Robert Long, 6th Baronet (d. 1767), of Draycot, Wiltshire.
• Elizabeth (1707-1710), twin.
• Frederick (1709-1715)
• Richard (1711-1734), predeceased his father.
• John (1712-1784), 2nd Earl Tylney (see below).
• Dorothy (1717-1786), unmarried.
• Josiah (1718-1760),^[17] a Lieutenant or Captain in the Royal Navy, likely to be the officer depicted by Nollekens seated dressed in a blue coat.^[18] He seems never to have changed his surname to "Tylney". He married Mrs Henrietta Wymondsold (1729–1763), divorced wife of Charles Wymondsold of Lockinge, Berkshire, only daughter of Robert Knight, 1st Earl of Catherlough. They had a son, Josiah, born shortly before their marriage, who was brought up by his uncle, but died in Florence on 5 July 1774, aged 20.^[19] Both Josiah and Henrietta had their portraits painted by Francis Cotes, which are now in the collection of Lydiard Park, Swindon.

On the Earl's death in March 1750, he was succeeded by his eldest surviving son

References

• Hayton, David (ed.), The House of Commons 1690-1715, vol.2, p. 526. Biography of Richard Child.
• Lysons, Daniel. The Environs of London, 1796. Vol.4,pp. 231–244, Wanstead. Contains details from parish records of Wanstead Church.
• Victoria County History, Hampshire, vol.4, pp. 99–101, Tylney in Rotherwick parish. Contains genealogy of Tylney family.
• Lundy, Darryl. "FAQ". The Peerage.^{[unreliable source]}
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages [
  better source needed
  ]
• Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807) [2]

Notes