[1][2] He was the son of John Robert Daniel-Tyssen FSA (1805–1882) of Brighton, son of William George Daniel-Tyssen whose original surname was Daniel, and his wife Harriet Caroline Hopkinson, daughter of Charles Hopkinson of Cadogan Place.
[6] He matriculated at Merton College, Oxford in 1861, where he was postmaster (senior undergraduate scholar) until 1866, graduating B.A.
[16] In the 1890s, he contributed "Notes on Bible Criticism" to The Coming Day, edited by John Page Hopps.
"[18] On the basis of his long poem The Birth of Islam (1895) and sympathetic views, he has been claimed as a convert; but he remained a member of a Unitarian congregation.
[21] Tyssen also wrote a history of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, published as papers read to the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society.