70 



Bishop Tanner, Ins Family and Writings. 



in the Cathedral, jet. 68. There is extant a letter from Tanner to 

 his uncle, Mr. Thomas Moore, of Yarmouth, dated at " Norwich 

 Aug*. 7, 1714. Had returned from Ely, whither I went to pay my 

 last respects and duty to the remains of my most kind friend, patron, 

 and father, your dear brother who was buried in the Presbytery, not 

 far from Bp. Patrick. " 



Some years before this, probably soon after the death of his first 

 wife, Tanner married his second wife Frances, daughter of John 

 Preston, Citizen of London, of a Norfolk Gentleman's family. In 

 the Preston Pedigree, this match with Tanner is duly registered : 

 and, as a friend in the College of Arms assures me, this is the only 

 reference there found to Tanner or his connexions. This second wife 

 died 11th June, 1718, aged 40 years ; she left a son, the only sur- 

 viving child, Thomas Tanner, who has sometimes been called (as in 

 the Archceologia) the Editor of his father's works ; thus confounding 

 him with his uncle, John Tanner, Rector of Lowestoft. Thomas 

 Tanner, the Bishop's son, married a daughter of Archbishop Potter ; 

 and became Hector of Monks Hadleigh ; Prebendary of Canterbury ; 

 and Dean of Booking. He was of Christ Church, M.A., June 14, 

 1740; and D.D., by Archbishop's Faculty. He died 1786, aged 

 68, and was buried at Hadleigh ; leaving only daughters. This 

 corrects Britton's account, of the Bishop's son being by his first 

 wife. It is also an error to suppose that he had only two wives, for 

 after his elevation to the bishoprick, he married a third wife, as thus 

 announced in the Gentleman's Magazine: "May 1733, Dr. Tanner, 

 Bishop of St. Asaph, married to Miss Scottowe, of Thorpe, by Nor- 

 wich; with a Fortune of £15,000." This lady survived the Bishop, 

 and married secondly, Robert Britiffe, Esq., Recorder of Norwich. 

 Bishop Tanner seems to have closed his connexion with Norfolk, 

 and to have taken up his abode in Oxford, upon being raised to the 

 See of St. Asaph. His removal was attended by a misfortune to 

 which reference is made in some of the notices of the Bishop's life, 

 and is called by himself, his et shipwreck," thus reported in the 

 - Gentleman' s Magazine, Jan. 1732 : — "About the latter end of last 

 month, the Books and MSS. of Dr. Tanner, Bp. of St. Asaph, 

 being on their removal from Norwich, to Christ Church College, in 



