Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tanner, Thomas (1630-1682)
TANNER, THOMAS (1630–1682), historian, son of a London citizen, was born in the parish of St. Matthew in 1630. He was educated at St. Paul's school, and Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1649–50. He was incorporated at Oxford in the degree of B.A. on 4 Feb. 1650–1, and was made a fellow of New College by the parliamentary visitors in the same year. He took the degree of M.A. at both Edinburgh and Oxford in 1652. In 1660 he was chosen senior proctor of the university of Oxford, but soon afterwards, being ejected from his fellowship, he left the university. He was called to the bar from Gray's Inn in 1663. After travelling in Italy and in Flanders, where he served as a volunteer, he became vicar of Colyton, Devonshire, in 1666. Becoming afterwards chaplain to Dr. George Morley [q. v.], bishop of Winchester, he obtained from him the rectory of Brixton in the Isle of Wight in 1676. In 1679 he was transferred to Winchfield, Hampshire, and exchanged Brixton for North Waltham. He died in October 1682, and was buried in the church at Winchfield.
He was the author of: 1. ‘The Entrance of Mazzarini; or some Memorials of the State of France between the Death of the Cardinal of Richlieu and the beginning of the late Regency,’ Oxford, 1657; a second part, entitled ‘The Entrance of Mazzarini, continued through the first year's Regency of Anna Maria of Austria, Queen Dowager of France and Mother of the present Monarch Louis XIV,’ Oxford, 1658. 2. ‘Euphuia; or the Acts and Character of Good Nature,’ London, 1665. 3. ‘Primordia; or the Rise and Growth of the first Church of God described,’ London, 1683; and several single sermons.
[Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iv. 59–61.]