This is a remarkable picture of a family settling and being successful for five generations and then dying out completely.

The Tyrwhitt family appears to have arrived in Arksey some time before 1567 when Thomas married Ann Hurst.

Arksey is particularly fortunate in having an almost complete set of Registers from 1557, with just four years between 1646 and 1650 missing, no doubt because of the turmoil of the Civil War.

It does mean that almost every member of the Arksey family can be traced through birth, marriage and death.

The TYRWHITTs may originally have come from Coquetdale in Northumberland, with branches of the family travelling south down the Great North Road and settling in Kippax, Ledsham, Doncaster, Arksey, and down into Lincolnshire, at Scotter, Barton upon Humber and Kettelby. On the other hand, the name could well predate 1066, with mentions more widely spread - "Notices and Remains of the Family of Tyrwhitt" (1862) is available on-line and had much interesting information.

Some of these families were very distinguished - some notorious even.  So far, though, I have found no mention to the Arksey family in any of the Tyrwhitt genealogies.

We have obtained a copy of the will made by (Sir) Philipp TYRWHYTE of Barton upon Humber (29 miles from Arksey) shortly before his death in 1558, and his second son, Thomas, born c. 1536 could well have been a match for the Thomas of our line who married Anne HERSTE at Arksey in 1567. But Philip's widow Margaret made her own will in Feb. 1591-2, and she again mentions her son Thomas.  'Our' Thomas, on the other hand, had died at Shaftholme in 1576.

Note that there are many variations in the spelling of the name, only a few of which are mentioned in this outline.

I hope these are of interest - pdf file updated June 2010 <<TYRWHITT OUTLINE>> - for the first time Thomas's marriage at Maltby in 1714 has been listed.  (The spelling of his name here is TIRWAIT.)

Note that Agnes, born 1574, is not otherwise mentioned in the Arksey registers - BUT ... Anna TRIWHIT married Henry COULSON in 1604, and died as Anna COLSON in 1641.   This is the only Tyrwhitt of that generation for whom no baptism can be traced, so perhaps Agnes and Anna are one and the same person.  I have not seen the original 1574 baptism entry, so cannot say whether there might have been a transcription error.    Perhaps Agnes just changed the name she went by!