By the late Rev. Edward Wilton, M.A. 61 



Tanner assumed (I believe I use that word fitly) when he became 

 Chancellor of Norwich. To this I shall allude hereafter. 



As regards the Cornish and Devonshire Family of the name, there 

 are five descents given in the last Visitation of the West of England. 

 The enrolled Pedigree records Marriages with the families of Whiting, 

 Tregarthen, Tilley and Roscannock; at that date 1620 Richard, eldest 

 Son, was ag'ed 26; Lawes was 2nd. Son; Arthur 3rd Son; John 4th 

 Son; all duly registered as the then existing generation. There is 

 no mention throughout the entire Pedigree of any member who had 

 migrated into Wiltshire; and the name of Bryan Tanner certainly 

 does not appear, a Person we know then to have been living; and 

 therefore we may venture to say that he was unconnected with the 

 Cornish Tanners, by descent from a common ancestor. 



The only printed Pedigree of Bishop Tanner's ancestors with 

 fidiich I am acquainted is that found in Blomefield's Norfolk. He 

 was intimate with the Bishop, who speaks of him as a very able and 

 accurate County Historian: Blomefield therefore must have had the 

 opportunity of carrying up the Bishop's Pedigree, had he been en- 

 abled so to do; but he commences it with his Father, the Vicar of 

 Market Lavington. I can account for this; and can rise one step 

 higher in the Bishop's genealogy, through the kindness of the Rev. 

 J ohn Griffiths, keeper of the Archives at Oxford. There can be no 

 doubt that his Grandfather, was Bryan Tanner of Erchfont; and 

 that he was a man in a humble condition of life. Certain it is that 

 such a Person was then residing at Erchfont ; for I find in the Bap- 

 tismal Register of that Parish, under the year 1635, "Elizabeth 

 Daughter of Bryan Tanner." I expected to find under 1640, (the 

 known date of the Bishop's Father's birth) the entry of a Son of 

 Bryan Tanner, baptized Thomas : but I sought in vain. At, and 

 about that date, the ink has faded from the surface of the coarse and 

 greasy parchment; and it would require some chemical application, 

 to make most of the entries of that period legible. When in 1635, 

 Bryan Tanner's name is mentioned, there is no addition, as in some 

 other cases, of the words "Mr." "Gent." or "Esq."; nothing lead- 

 ing us to suppose that he was any thing more than an ordinary 

 Parishioner; the evidence of this fact, will presently appear from 



