[1] He was the eldest son of Charles Lyell of Kinnordy, Forfarshire, Scotland, and Mary Beale of West Looe; his sister Anne married Gilbert Heathcote.
[3] Lyell concentrated on botany, especially the study of mosses; several species of these plants bear his name, besides the genus Lyellia of Robert Brown.
[2][7] In 1835 Lyell published, at his own expense, a translation The Canzoniere of Dante ... including the poems of the Vita Nuova and Convito.
In 1842 another edition of The Vita Nuova and Convito was published in London, and in 1845 a collection of translations, The Lyrical Poems of Dante.
In 1847 he issued in Paris Notes to J. Hardouin's "Doutes proposées sur l'âge du Dante".