Descendants of John Tanner Born August 15, 1778, at Hopkintown, 'R .. I. Died April 15, 1850, at South Cottonwood, Salt Lake County, Utah COMPILED BY MAURICE TANNER (his Great Grandson) PUBLISHED BY THE TANNER FAMILY ASSOCIATION 1923 Introductory The genealogy of the Tanner family by reason of its preparation and size may be divided into three parts. The fir.st is the most ancient records we have of the Tanner family and has already been.prepared by Reverend George C. Tanner, D.D., of Fairbault, Minnesota. His book is a 'marvelous work of pains-taking care and devotion. The: second part is the first division of the genealogy of John Tanner, born July 2, 1810, in Greenwich, New York. Most of his descendants are found in the West, John Tanner having joined the Mormon Church in September, 1832. The third part is the second division of the gen­ ealogy of John Tanner's posterity. It will remain for future prepara­ tion. The present volume includes "2,562 names and it is estimated that ,vhen completed his descendants will riumber something like 3,500. The Mormon Churclt has been noted for the numerous posterity of its early scions. No one c-0mpares in number of his posterity with John Tanner who arrived in Utah in 1848 and died in 1850. The Reverend George C. Tanner 'has given us_ a brief statement of the manner in which the data for ibis book was collected. Following his explanation there is included brief excerpts from his book. These excerpts connect the earliest family record with John Tanner. The responsibility for t4e large undertaking in writing the gene­ alogy of John Tanner ·is due to his great grandson Maurice Tan­ ner, whose pains-taking care and persistent c;letennination has brought the present Genealogy to its completion. · The Genealogy has been years in the course of preparation. Replies to letters of inquiry have not always been ungrudgingly ·given, and -but for the love and pride for his ancestor:s by the author of this book, its ·c6mpletion might have been postponed for many years. · Maurice Tanner has repeatedly expressed his acknowledgments to Apostle Francis M. Lyman for the latter's ac~umulation of data respecting.the descendants of John Tanner. 1'Iuch of this data has been collected during visits that President F. M. Lyman made across the continent. At a meeting of the Tanner association an executive committee consisting of J. M. Tanner, Rollin R. Tanner and Nathan ...~. Tanner was chosen. Maurice T·anner was chosen president of the as­ sociation, Earl Pingree Tanner its genealogist and Nathaniel H. Tan­ ner its secretary and treasurer. Some names of the descendants of John Tanner the president was unable to secure and all the branches of the family could not be includea in this volume without great extra ,vork. It was quite impossible to obtain them as this volume goes to press. A volume of considerable size will be made from the names al- 1 11 - , 1 ,,...1 f' • 1 • • 4 4 . reaoy couecreu. .L ne names or tne rema1n1ng oescenaants may at a future time be obtained when the association appoints ,someone for the duty of completing the work of the Genealogy of John Tanner. · Genealogy of John Tanner LETTER OF GEO·RGE C. TAN-NER In 1893, the Reverend Elias F. Tanner, A.B., of Grand Ledge, Michigan, published the Genealogy of Thomas Tanner, Jr. He tells us that about 'three years before, he began collecting information concerning his ancestry on his father's or the Tanner side. It was during this period that I received a communication from him ask­ ing for the record of my own line, to ascertain if there were any immediate connection hetween the familie·s. He had also written to other members of my family, and thus had collected a consider­ able mass· of material and information, which, being of no practi~al use to him in the work he was doing, excepting as it _made it un­ necessary for him to pursue that branch of the family tre~ any further, he most kindly presented to me. The motto of his book· is "The Fathers, ·Where Are They?" The title was a suggestive one, and it very naturally appeals to every one who has a pride in his ancestry. My grandfather who was born in 1770;- was an only son. As he had five sons, with all of whom I was personally acquainted, my knowledge of the Tan­ ner family was restricted to the families· of my four uncles and three aunts. The· descendants of my great grandfather's two broth­ ers had all gone up country, is the phrase of my boyhood, or as we say, "gone west," in the wave of emigration soon after the war of the Revolution, and we had lost all trace of them in· the lapse of time. The movement indeed, began even earlier,. as early as 1769. A.. s my grandfather's grandfather had settled in West Greenwich, R. I., as early as 1735, it was easy to go to the town records, where town records were kept, and they were at first religiously kept after the old English custom, and get such records, and trace out the old wills and deeds. But this did not often give me the connection between those who had removed and those who re­ mained behind, unless, as sometimes happened, one who had r·ef moved to another town in a distant state sent back a power of attorney for the sale of land in his native town, which thus became a matter of record and an indication of the residence of other members of the family. In New England the town is the unit. in the states west of New England, the unit is ·the county. The latter simplifies the 6 GENEALOGY ,vork of the genealogists. Rhode Island, the original home of the Tanners in the North, being a small state with five counties, and having exact knowledge of the original town where William Tan­ ner the immigrant settled, about 1680, and that state being my na­ tive home, my work was made more simple. I knew every town and could cross the state in half a day. Mr. Arnold, the historian of Rohde Island,. had done a great work for the state. There is a printed list of the births, marriages and deaths, and the church membership of every town in the state. This was a great help for the earlier families. Genealogy printing is a faculty, it requites a keenness of mind, as it were to trace out step by step in our changing popula­ tion a family line. I have followed the Tanners from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In some instances there has been a romance about results that thrills one with the unexpected. I cannot go into this at length. I have visited many town records, historical societies, and have examined several hundred other genealogies to find inter­ married Tanners. I have examined genealogical registers and every available means of information during the fifteen years or so in which I have been enga~ed in this work. The work is not per­ fect, occasionally information is received of value and incorporated in my private copy, I am now too far advanced in years to pub­ lish a second edition. Such as it is, the result is a· contribution to genealogical history, and has been a labor of love, a record of a family truly · democratic in its sympathies, content to do their duty in that state of life in which their lot has fallen. I may here add as a result of my later study, that I would think that William Tanner, Senior, came to Rhode Island about 1678, when he was not far from twenty-one year.s of age, that he ("ame over as an atten~nt of Mr. Francis Houlding who at t!:a! time went to England on Colonial business. In. his History of New England matters. Mr. Fisk says that the early settlers of New England came largely from the East of England, and the name of William Tanner in Great Coggerhall in the East of Eng-­ land, seems to agree in date with the subject of our genealogy. There is much to favor this opinion. thoug-h nothing that is of record beyond the fact given. We are certain from character, etc., that the Tanners were of what we may call the great middle class of England, of good intellect and high ideals, devoted there, as always here, to their country in peace as in war, as indicated by the "coat of anns·' against the Saracens, or Turks '"Three ~foors." HISTORY AND GENEALOGY OF THE TANNER FAMIL~r FROM WILLIAM TANNER TO JOHN TANNER The name Tanner appears in history as early; as the reign of Ed­ ward the III, and it is said dates from the time of William the Con­ queror. They had estates in the Counties of Cornwall, Devon, Wilts, Surrey, and the name is found in other parts of England. The Will of Governor Haynes of ·Connecticut speaks of a William Tanner of Cophall, England. One was the founder of· a school, and another Thomas Tanner, writer and Archaeologist, was bishop of St. David's of Wales. The name is clearly of English origin, though found in \Yales, Ir~land, and even in Switzerland, and among our Scandina­ vian cousins. It would take considerable time and research'. to be able to con­ nect the immigrant William Tanner with his English ancestors.