Mathematical Tripos Cambridge. Was rector of Oxburgh and vicar of Foulden in the 1851 census of England.

Had one surviving child, Willie, who studied medicine but apparently never graduated, became an atheist, was married and divorced, went to South America c. 1900, and eventually returned to England.

Left a personal estate of £8770/9/2.

My Ain Folk says:


The Rev Alexander Thurtell had a most creditable record, being a scholar, senior fellow, Hebrew lecturer and Moderator. Entering Holy Orders, he was appointed His Majesty’s Inspector of Schools in 1847. He became Rector of Oxborough and is buried in Oxborough Churchyard.

As a medical student at St Bartholomew’s Hospital George (Dr G Murray) often stayed with him at Oxburgh Rectory — Stoke Ferry — Norfolk. In a letter (28 Sep 1880) George writes … he is of a cheerful disposition and very kindhearted.

In a letter from the Rev. Lionel Gedge to Maggie Evans dated 1898, he says Your dear Uncle Alexander was one of the most attractive and impressive personalities of my boyhood … My father’s living was in his rural deanery … Looking back on that generation of country clergy, the cultivated, courteous old school of College Dons, the country gentlemen who lived before these days of fiery publicity, acrid professionalism and dire poverty, one feels that whatever their faults they constituted a type, and a gracious one too, now irrevocably lost.

Alexander published a posthumous volume of wife’s poetry.

The Doomsday survey shows the Manor of Oxburgh as held by Thurketel the Danish Earl of East Anglia.

Desmond McAllister’s Collaborated Genealogy says:


Alexander Thurtell was admitted sizare, aged 19, at Trinity College, Cambridge on the 6th April 1825 and had formerly been educated at the Yarmouth Academy by Mr. Bowler (formerly of Norwich Theatre). He went on to Caius College, returned 4th Wrangler 1829; MA 1832; Fellow of Caius 1830-1849. Went on to Oxford in 1842. Ordained deacon 1830, priest 1837; Rector of Oxborough and Faulden 1848-1884. Married Mary Gordon Bartrum 1854, and was father of William Ellis (1856- 1923). Alexander died on the 21st October 1884.