Whittington families » William (Gen) DYOTT (1761-1847)

Personal data William (Gen) DYOTT 

• He was born on April 17, 1761 in Freeford Hall, Nr Whittington.
• He was baptized on May 22, 1761.

  St Giles, Whittington.At New Font Given By Father Richard D

  yott.

  
  Age at this event:0

• He died on May 7, 1847 in Freeford Manor, Lichfield, Vol 17, P 64. Or L/6/16, he was 86 years old.

  Age:86

• He is buried on May 14, 1847 in Vault Of St Mary's Lichfield.By Torchlight (Family Custom).
• A child of Richard 5 DYOTT and Catherine HERRICK (DYOTT)
• This information was last updated on July 30, 2015.

Household of William (Gen) DYOTT

He is married to Eleanor THOMPSON (DYOTT).

They got married on January 11, 1806 at Leeches Hotel, Dublin, he was 44 years old.

CHAN: NOTE 13:25

Child(ren):

1. Eleanor (Ned) DYOTT  1807-± 1877
2. Richard 7 (Dick) DYOTT  1808-1891
3. William Henry DYOTT  1809-????
4. William Herrick (Bill)(Vicar) DYOTT  1810-1883

Notes about William (Gen) DYOTT

(Research):Flu. 4th Kings Own, 14 Mar 1781. General.Col 63rd foot.1783. 2nd son of Richard b 1723. He was educated at Clifford's Pr ivate Scho ol in Lichfield. Then Princes. Later he went t o Ashbourne Grammar Schoo l. He lived at Hanch Hall. wrot e diaries. A William Dyott lent his broth er Richard £150 t o buy a lieutenancy in 1781, there are a couple of genera t ions who these persons COULD be? He died after a bout of In fluenza. He se rved in Ireland, Nova Scotia, West indies an d Egypt. He took part in the d isastrous Walcheren Expediti on, in which the British tried to help the Aus trians defen d themselves against Napoleon on what was then an Island i n t he mouth of the Scheldt estuary. He met Prince William , later William t he IV. and later he was an aide to Geor g III. He kepta diary from the a ge of 20, until a year be fore he died, filling 16 volumes. He wrote of h is visit t o Birch Town,-Sunday October ?1788.walked through the wood s abo ut two miles,from the barracks to a negrotown calle d Birch Town.At the eva cuation of New York there were a gr eat number of these poor devils given l ands and settled he re- The place is beyond description wretched, situat ed on the coast, in the middle of barren rocks and partly surro unded by th ick impenetrable wood- their huts miserable t o guard against the inclemen cy of a hard Nova Scotia winte r.and their existencealmost depending on wh at they coul d lay up in summer I think I never saw wretchedness and pov er ty so strongly perceptible in the gard and countenance o f the human speci es as in these miserable outcasts. I cann ot say I was sorry to quit so mel ancholy a dwelling. He le ft a will dated 7 Jun 1847.

«b»Dyott, William (1761– 1847),«/b» army officer, born on 17 April 1761, was the second son of Richard Dyott (1723– 1787) of Freeford Hall, near Lichfield, Staffordshire.

The head of a family there since Elizabeth I's reign, many members of which were Lichfield MPs— and his wife, Katherine, daughter of Thomas Herrick of Knighton, Leicestershire.

He was educated at private schools (Clifford's in Lichfield, and then Price's), Ashbourne grammar school in Derbyshire— which he later described as 'such a school as fitted youth for no pursuit in life beyond a retail shop-board' («b»Dyott's Diary«/b», 1.xi)— and at Nottingham. In 1781, for four months, he attended a private military college, Locke's academy, near London.

«b»Dyott«/b» entered the army as an ensign in the 4th (King's Own ) regiment on 14 March 1781, was promoted lieutenant on 9 May 1782, and was placed on half pay in late 1783.

In February 1785 he rejoined his regiment in Ireland as adjutant, and in 1787 he accompanied it to Nova Scotia, where he met Prince William (later William IV), then commanding the/"Andromeda". The prince became his personal friend, and they played practical jokes and drank together.

«b»Dyott «/b»was promoted captain on 25 April 1793, and in June 1793 he returned to England to take up the post of aide-de-camp to Major-General Hotham, commanding the Plymouth district.

He purchased a majority in the 103rd (Bristol) regiment on 19 May 1794, and, after acting as brigade major in the wester n district, was promoted lieutenant-colonel on 18 February 1795.

After two exchanges he took command of the 25th regiment in November 1795, when under orders for the West Indies, and after being driven back by 'Christian's storm' he reached Barbados in February 1796.

He served at the capture of Grenada but soon had to return to England because of ill health.

He was appointed assistant adjutant-general for the south-western district in 1799, promoted colonel on 1 January 1800, and appointed aid e-de-camp to George III in 1801: his duties, which he took up in 1804, included accompanying members of the royal family to the theatre, and playing cards with the queen and princesses.

In 1801«b» Dyott«;/b» was given command of a brigade in the army in Egypt, and he arrived there in July, at which time he was appointed to George Ludlow's division before Alexandria.

He commandedhis brigade in the action of 22 August which led to the capture of Alexandria, and following the peace of Amiens on 27 March 1802 he returned to England.

In 1803 he was appointed to command a brigade in the West Indies, and after commanding at Waterford and Dublin was transferred to the English staff and commanded in Sussex until his promotion to major- general on 25 April 1808.

In December 1808 he was appointed to command a brigade in Spain, but never sailed, and in July 1809 he took command of a brigade, of the 6th, 50th, and 91st regiments, in the unsuccessful Walcheren expedition in the Netherlands.

His brigade was attached to the marquess of Huntly's division, which occupied the island of South Beveland, and owing to the return of many of his superior officers heacted as second in command there for a month, from September to October 1809, when he returned to England.

He never again went on active service, but commanded at Lichfield from August 1810 until promotion to lieutenant-general on 4 June 1813.

In 1811 he commanded a force of 15th dragoons and Berkshire militia to suppress Luddism in Nottingham.

In 1813 he succeeded to the family estates on the death of his brother, and after the death in 1826 of his brother's widow he resided at Freeford Hall.

He was made colonel of the 63rd regiment in 1825, and general on 22 July1830.

On 11 January 1806, at Dublin, «b»Dyott «/b»had married Eleanor, daughter of Samuel Thompson of Green Mount, co. Antrim; they had two sons and a daughter.

n 1813 his wife became ill, diagnosed as suffering from disease of the spine, and in 1814 she wanted to separate from him.

He attempted a reconciliation, but in September 1814 she eloped with a Mr Dunne, and «b»Dyott«/b» never saw her again.

In 1815 he divorced her by act of parliament.

She died in London in December 1841 and was buried in the new Highgate cemetery.

As a country landowner«b» Dyott «/b»was much concerned with agricultural pursuits and politics, and was an active JP and deputy lieutenant.

Robert Peel was his neighbour and friend.

«b»Dyott«/b» was a 'Tory of the old school' («b»Dyott's«/b» Diary, 1.xxi) and in 1819, after the Peterloo massacre, joined other tory landowners in calling for more yeomanry and for town armed associations against popular unrest.

He opposed Roman Catholic emancipation, parliamentary reform— breaking with his neighbour and close friend the marquess of Anglesey over the latter's support for the Reform Bill— slave emancipation, corn-law repeal, and, initially, railways.

Following a bout of influenza, «b»Dyott«/b»; died at Freeford Hall on 7 May 1847 and, in keeping with ancient family custom, was buried by torchlight in the vault of St Mary's Church, Lichfield, on the night of 14 May.

From 1781 to 1845 he had kept a journal, which filled sixteen volumes of various sizes. Extracts from this, edited by Reginald W. Jeffery, were published as«b» Dyott's Diary,«/b» 1781– 1845 (2 vols., 1907).

horn. A house was part of the manor in 1500, (fn. 198) and by the late 16th century it was the home of the Astley family. Walter Astley was Edmund Mytton's bailiff at Tamhorn from c. 1590 and was still living there as bailiff in 1605. (fn. 199) He was presumably the Walter Astley who was tithingman for Tamhorn by 1603 and continued in the office from year to year until at least 1642. (fn. 200) In1657 the manor house was still held by a Walter Astley, and he or another Walter Astley was assessed on seven hearths there in 1666. (fn. 201) A Walter Astley who died in 1710 conveyed the house in 1690 to his son Matthias, and in 1692 Matthias paid £95 1s. 9d. as six months' rent for the manor. (fn. 202) He was succeeded in 1725 by a younger son Arthur, who died in 1742 or 1743 with an infant son Matthias as his heir. Matthias was succeeded in 1751 by his uncle Christopher Astley, who was already living at Tamhorn and continued there until his death in 1780. (fn. 203) His daughter and heir Mary married her cousin Richard Dyott in 1783. (fn. 204) Dyott went to live at Tamhorn, and although he moved to Freeford in 1784, he renewed his lease of the Tamhorn estate in 1785 and 1807 and continued to farm there. (fn. 205) On his death in 1813 the lease passed to his brother «b»Gen. William Dyott,«/b» who moved to Tamhorn from Lichfield in 1815. Although he soonsublet the farm, he retained the house until 1817. (fn. 206) He believed that it was as a result of his persuasion that Peel bought the Tamhorn estate. (fn. 207)

The present house, known as Tamhorn Park Farm, dates from the early 18th century and was built as an L-shaped structure with a south entrance front of five bays. In the mid 18th century it was enlarged by a block which squared offthe existing house and projects to the east and south; remains of a dovecot are visible on the west side. A large 17th-century barn stands to the south-west. It was originally timber framed, but the walls have been rebuilt in brick, with the east gable in stone.

7-252. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42360. Date accessed: 18 November 2008.

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Timeline William (Gen) DYOTT

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