[1] He was the son of Francis Tunstall of Wycliffe Hall, Yorkshire, England, and Cicely, daughter of John Constable, second Viscount Dunbar.
He formed a large collection of books and manuscripts at Burton Constable, and in other ways was a constant patron of Catholic literature, assisting Bishop Richard Challoner by lending him documents for the Memoirs of Missionary Priests, and Charles Dodd, by contributing to the expenses of the History of the Church of England.
He also maintained friendly relations with non-Catholic scholars; and among the Burton Constable papers are two volumes of his correspondence with Francis Nicholson (1650–1731), a Catholic convert, formerly of University College, Oxford, and the well-known antiquary, Thomas Hearne.
[2] His only publication is a life of Woodhead prefixed to his edition of The Third Part of the Brief Account of Church Government, written by that author (London, 1736).
Constable was twice married, first to Amy, daughter of Hugh Clifford, 2nd Baron Clifford of Chudleigh, by whom he had three children, William, Cicely, and Winifred, and secondly to Elizabeth Heneage, by whom he had one son, Marmaduke, who inherited the estate of Wycliffe and resumed the family name of Tunstall.