James Tunstall

James Tunstall (1708?–1762) was an English cleric and classics scholar.

Life The son of James Tunstall, an attorney at Richmond, Yorkshire, he was born about 1708. He was educated at Slaidburn grammar school under Bradbury, and was admitted a sizar at St John's College, Cambridge, on 29 June 1724, aged over 16, being supported at university by an uncle. He graduated B.A. in 1727, M.A. in 1731, B.D. in 1738, and D.D. on 13 July 1744. His act for the doctor's degree was much applauded. On 24 March 1728–9 he was elected to a fellowship at his college, and ultimately became its senior dean and one of the two principal tutors. He was known as a "pupil monger", for his classical knowledge and manner. Brennand's Endowed School, Slaidburn today. The endowment by John Brennand was from 1717, so that in Tunstall's time the school was new. Tunstall, on the presentation of Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford, was instituted on 4 December 1739 to the rectory of Sturmer, Essex, and held it until early in 1746. In October 1741 he was elected to the post of Public Orator at Cambridge, polling 160 votes against 137 recorded for Philip Yonge, and held it though absent from the university, until 1746, when his grace for a continuance of the permission was refused. This absence was caused by his appointment about 1743 as domestic chaplain to John Potter, the archbishop of Canterbury. Catherine, the sixth daughter, married, first, the Rev. Edward Chamberlayne, and, secondly, Horatio, Lord Walpole; Jane, the seventh daughter, married, first, Stephen Thompson, and, secondly, Sir Everard Home.