Thomas Eyre, son of Rowland Eyre and Mary Teresa Widdrington, was the last of eleven generations of the Eyre family who had passed down the Hassop estate from father to son in direct succession. He was born on 29 September 1743, the only child of parents so retiring that genealogists have assumed Rowland predeceased his father (d.1749); in fact he lived until 1777 and appears to have taken considerable personal interest in the Hassop estate. Large scale maps of the manors of Hassop and Calver made for him in 1752, and a carefully written book of the Hassop evidences compiled in 1768, have survived among the muniments. The only record of his participation in public affairs in Derbyshire is the appearance of his name as one of the signatories to a Notice of an Association for prosecuting poachers, made in 1751 by the leading landowners of the county. Rowland was survived by his wife, who died in 1785.