Fr Cyprian Tyrer 1799-1871

Richard Tyrer was born in 1799 at Ulnes Walton, near Leyland. He went to Ampleforth in 1814 and took the habit and the name of Cyprian 31 May 1820. He was professed 2 July 1822. Birt's Obit Book gives these dates for his Orders:- Minor Orders 11 July 1825; Subdiaconate (at Douay), of which there is no record; Diaconate (Ampleforth) 20 January 1827; Priesthood 27 June 1828. Of these items there appears to be no record at Ampleforth. It would appear that at least one of the dates is incorrect, viz. the date of his ordination to the Priesthood. For Fr Cyprian appears in the old Register of Baptisms at Ampleforth as performing a Baptism on January 10th. 1827, and signs the entry 'Richard Tyrer, M.Ap.' (Missionarius Apostolicus) Moreover Allanson, in his account of the Missions of the Congregation, makes Fr. Cyprian incumbent of Craike in 1825 and of Easingwold in 1827. He says further,

In 1827 Provincial Robinson with the sanction of Bishop Smith authorized Fr. Cyprian Tyrer, the Incumbent, to remove from Craike and erect a new house and chapel in the neighbouring town of Easingwold. A plot of ground was then purchased and a new establishment consisting of a good chapel and an excellent house was erected. But though the contributions of the faithful in different parts of the country were collected, yet the sum raised was inadequate to the cost of the buildings and a debt was incurred of Ł530

The log book of the mission, after quoting this passage, gives the amount of the debt as about Ł1050, and adds: -

In 1836[amended from 1835] Fr Cyprian Tyrer was transferred to Birtley (Durham), but did not stay there long, moving in 1836 to Lawkland in West Yorkshire. From Lawkland he passed in 1840 to Standish, where he worked for 22 years. In 1863, after a brief stay at Hindley, he was placed at St. Anne's, Liverpool. From there he passed in 1870 to Lee House, where he died 6 July 1871, aged 72.

It was Fr. Cyprian's lot, both at Easingwold and at Lawkland, to suffer much from poverty of resources. Nor would he seem to have altogether escaped this condition even at Standish. From some letters preserved in our archives (MS.262, Nos.44 & 59) of dates 23 Nov 1846 and 10 Jan 1847, it appears that he was in debt and had for two and a half years applied to his own purposes the rents of a farm appertaining to Ampleforth for which he was agent. Prior Ambrose Prest, in the first letter, takes him to task for this. In the second letter he writes:-

The agency was naturally taken out of his hands and arrangements made for direct payment of the rents to the Prior. It is not recorded that Fr Cyprian made good the deficiency or succeeded in living within his means.

Troubles of another kind, in no way discreditable to him (see below) befell him in the closing year of his incumbency at Standish. (See Abbot Allanson's Provincial Letters, MS.168, p. 25ff). Malicious and unfounded charges, it seems, were listened to and reported to the Provincial by Mr. Lionel Standish, son of the Squire of the time. The Provincial wrote to Fr. Cyprian 14 April 1862, submitting the charges and asking for his comments upon them. He then continued:-

I presume if this gentleman failed in removing you for the present, we should have to make up our minds to lose Standish Mission as soon as his father dies, for he would certainly have the power of removing you. Will it be prudent to expose ourselves to this at his father's age? I cannot say Standish is worth preserving in itself, but as long as we have Wrightington it is advisable to retain it in order to have two Benedictines near together...I wish to give every attention to your views of the case before us, and shall await your answer before I move in the business.

The second letter, dated Swinburne 13 May 1862, is addressed to Mr. Lionel Standish. It states three charges brought against Fr. Tyrer: (1) that he interfered with matters belonging to the estate that had no connection with his religious duties. (2) That he had laid a curse upon a certain Mr. Taylor, and that that was the reason why he had lost so many cattle on the farm and why misfortunes happened at the Pits; and that he did this to prevent Irishmen from working for the Taylors. (3) That he had residing in his house a tenant of the estate whose habits were very intemperate.

After rebutting the first and second charges, upon the basis of the replies given him by Fr. Tyrer,and courteously questioning the right of a Patron to interfere authoritatively in the domestic arrangement of his Chaplain, the Provincial concludes:-

I am well assured few gentlemen have a Chaplain so devoted as Mr. Tyrer is to your family, and especially to your father, on whose property he has resided for two and twenty years. I really believe this attachment to the interest of your family is the real cause of the conspiracy which has existed for years against him. I must therefore beg you to reconsider your application for his removal. I certainly cannot see any cause why you should press it after he has met the charges alleged against him so satisfactorily.

Yet, as has already been recorded, Fr. Cyprian Tyrer left the mission of Standish, either in this same year (1862) or at the beginning of 1863. So Mr. Lionel Standish prevailed. In the latter year he was transferred to St. Anne's Liverpool, where he laboured for six years. Finally, when seventy years of age, he found quiet and rest at the small country mission of Lee House, where he died July 6, 1871.

He entered his noviceship in June 1820, but owing to a defect he had in reading fluently President Brewer would not give his consent to his profession as long as he lived, but after his death he was professed by Prior Burgess on the second of July 1822. He proceeded to the new Convent of St. Edmund, lately revived at Douay, in the spring of 1826, where he was soon promoted to the priesthood by Dr. Marsh and was sent to assist Fr. Birdsall at Cheltenham. At the ensuring Chapter in July 1826 he presented a petition to the assembled Fathers to be allowed to return to his own Convent of St. Laurence to complete his course of theology. This petition was granted and he returned there shortly after. In the following year he was appointed the Incumbent of Craike, a few miles from the College. But he had not been there long before Provincial Robinson determined to remove from Craike and erect a new house and chapel in the neighbouring town of Easingwold. Fr. Tyrer entered heartily on this arduous undertaking.

Above the average in preaching. Of a melancholy disposition and did not mix much with his brethren. Given to imprudent friendships with young men and spending money extravagantly on them, so involving himself in debt. Rather meddlesome, so that he made enemies. Hence his removal from Standish. At Hindley also got into debt. As assistant at St. Anne's gradually recovered from his pecuniary embarrassments; but got into debt again at Lee House. In his last months suffered from a complication of diseases. Died unexpectedly of bronchial asthma, without the last Sacraments. Buried at Lee House.

CYPRIAN TYRER

Details from the Abbey Necrology