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TYNDALL, Thomas.
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This Member has not been identified. He was returned for St. Ives after Sir Anthony Mayney chose to sit elsewhere, but his election indenture does not survive, nor does he feature in the Parliament’s proceedings. During this period the borough normally reserved one of its parliamentary seats for a candidate representing local interests, but no one of Tyndall’s name has been identified either as a resident of Cornwall or as an associate of St. Ives’s major local patrons, the Killigrews and Godolphins. The other seat was invariably allotted to a nominee of the absentee lord of the manor, the 4th marquess of Winchester. As Mayney was Winchester’s client it seems reasonable to infer that Tyndall also owed his election to the marquess’s backing, although no direct link between the two has been established. Winchester frequently selected his nominees after consulting members of his immediate circle, and it is feasible that Tyndall was brought to the marquess’s attention by Mayney, who apparently proposed Sir William Parkhurst in 1625.1 If Tyndall did indeed rely on Mayney to act as his intermediary with Winchester, it might indicate that he came from Gloucestershire, where Sir Anthony owned land. Plausible candidates are Thomas Tyndall or Tyndale of Thornbury, Gloucestershire (d.1619) and his like-named son (still living in 1638), who held property in a parish adjoining one of Mayney’s estates. They were also on intimate terms with (Sir) Tobie Matthew*, who by 1625 was a close friend of Mayney, but no firmer connection than this has been established. Another possibility is that Tyndall lived in Kent, Mayney’s main base, but the Kent Tyndalls were figures of uncertain status who did not feature among Mayney’s known acquaintances.2
