Sarah Tanner is my next 4x great grandparent to be presented in this 52 Ancestor Challenge. She was baptized 31 Dec 1758 at Tilshead daughter of John Tanner and Ann Stratton who were themselves married 27 Jan 1752 at Little Cheverell. Sarah's parent were a brick wall for me for a number of years. A researcher for whom I did a transcription (three pages) spent a little time with the Little Cheverell records at the Wiltshire Record Office but did not find any records for John Tanner or Ann Stratton other than their marriage in this village. A stroke of good luck occurred when I uploaded a new tree to Find My Past and I received hints. There was a pointer to Joseph Stratton and Rachel Whitley as the parents of Ann Stratton and that she was baptized 8 Oct 1731 at Winterborne Stoke. I have been a long time utilizing the power of the search engines at Find My Past and can now say that they are terrific. I am slowly following through on the hints which number nearly 600!
It has always been a mystery to me that Jeremiah Rawlings and Sarah Tanner married at Tilshead. The priest noted in the register that Jeremiah was from Enford thus locating him very neatly in my Rawlings family there. Jeremiah is a rather unusual forename in the Rawlings family thus making it doubly easy to connect him with his birth family. But why was Jeremiah in Tilshead? That is a story for another 52 Ancestor Challenge as Jeremiah will be next.
Sarah had one known brother John who was baptized 10 Mar 1756 at Tilshead. These are the only two births that I have found for this couple and the researcher mentioned earlier had looked for births at Little Cheverell where the parents had married in 1752 as four years is a long gap before children in this time period. Ann, mother of John and Sarah, was buried at Tilshead 2 Oct 1779 so plenty of time for more children. I do not however have any information on John Tanner her husband. Although there are hints I can not separate my John Tanner from any of these hints with any sense of correctness. I do not know when or where he died.
This day will be spent looking at possibilities for John Tanner to see if I can locate his baptism and the names of his parents. Since this family moves about a great deal I shall set my checking over a larger area than I might in general.
Possibilities for John Tanner
John Tanner baptized 26 Feb 1726 at Chisledon (21 miles from Little Cheverell) son of John Tanner and Elizabeth King
John Tanner baptized 29 Jun 1729 at Kington Saint Michael (20 miles from Tilshead, 16 miles from Little Cheverell) son of John Tanner
John Tanner baptized 30 Jul 1718 at Kington Saint Michael son of Thomas Tanner
John Tanner baptized 20 Sep 1717 at Bemerton (17 miles from Little Cheverell) son of William Tanner and Mary
John Tanner baptized 17 Nov 1728 at Draycot Cerne (16 miles from Little Cheverell) son of Isaac Tanner and Mary
John Tanner baptized 29 Nov 1717 at Colerne (16 miles from Little Cheverell) son of Benjamin Tanner
John Tanner baptized 18 Sep 1726 at South Burcombe (15 miles from Little Cheverell) son of John Tanner and Constant
John Tanner baptized 29 Nov 1717 at Box (14 miles from Little Cheverell) son of Gideon Tanner and Jane
John Tanner baptized 27 Nov 1729 at Downton (24 miles from Little Cheverell) son of George Tanner and Jane
John Tanner baptized 25 Jun 1727 at Clyffe Pypard (16 miles from Little Cheverell) son of William Tanner and Elizabeth
John Tanner baptized 23 Aug 1724 at North Bradley (9 miles from Little Cheverell) son of John Tanner and Jane
John Tanner baptized 8 Jul 1727 at Melksham (9 miles from Little Cheverell) son of Townsend Tanner
John Tanner baptized 21 Sep 1719 at Maddington (8 miles from Little Cheverell) son of Thomas Tanner and Christian
John Tanner baptized 20 Nov 1716 at Maddington son of William Tanner and Alice
John Tanner baptized 13 Apr 1725 at Southbroom St James (6 miles from Little Cheverell) son of Edmund Tanner and Susana
Fifteen possibilities for John Tanner who married Ann Stratton at Little Cheverell. One item of interest is the naming of their first child John. Ann's parents were Joseph and Rachel. The children were named John and Sarah. Only four of the baptisms above have John as the father. Sarah does not occur at all. It does seem somewhat strange that Ann would name her first daughter Sarah with her mother named Rachel. Little Cheverell is fifteen miles from Winterborne Stoke but only six miles from Tilshead.
Rachel Strotton was buried 22 Oct 1734 at Winterbourne Stoke. Ann would have been just three years old and would have only known Jane as her mother as a child. Her younger sister Mary must have died as two children are named Mary by Joseph and Jane. Joseph Strotton married Jane Ganger at Winterborne Stoke 12 Jan 1734 and baptisms for children of Joseph and Jane Stratton at Winterbourne Stoke:
Mary baptized 28 Jan 1735
Mary baptized 31 Aug 1737
Rachel baptized 17 Mar 1746
The Tanner family is a large one just in Wiltshire and finding the correct John Tanner will need some other evidence. I do have the marriage registration for John Tanner and Ann Stratton married 27 Jan 1752 at Little Cheverell but it does not provide any further information. Interestingly enough there is a will written by a Nicholas Tanner of Little Cheverell in the year 1565 where he mentions his wife Alice Tanner, his son Thomas Tanner, his son Hugh Tanner. His overseers are friends or neighbours. No mention of other relatives in this will. There is a Thomas Tanner father of John Tanner baptized 21 Sep 1719 at Maddington just eight miles from Little Cheverell.
It would appear that I need to do more work in Little Cheverell in case the Tanner family is simply not showing up in this area in the FamilySearch or FindMyPast records. Looking at other wills for the Tanner family in this area there is a will for Hugh Tanner dated 1600 and for a Christopher Tanner, husbandman, circa 1639 but neither of these two wills have been scanned to date. There are no wills for the Stratton/Strotton family at Winterbourne Stoke on the Wiltshire Record Office Search. However there are over 200 on the National Archives site for Stratton with 17 from Wiltshire, none appear to be useful. There is one will for Strotton on the National Archives website but again not in a useful time frame.
It would appear that my brickwall continues for John Tanner the father of Sarah Tanner my 4x great grandmother.
Ancestry of Sarah Tanner:
1. Elizabeth BLAKE
2. Ernest Edward George BLAKE (b 20 Aug 1904) - Eastleigh Hampshire England
3. Edith Bessie TAYLOR (b 1 Apr 1875) - Kimpton Hampshire England
4. Elizabeth RAWLINGS (b 19 Oct 1853) - Enford Wiltshire England
5. William RAWLINGS (b 1825) - Enford Wiltshire England
6. Thomas RAWLINS (b 20 Sep 1783) - Enford Wiltshire England
7. Sarah TANNER (b 31 Dec 1758 - Tilshead Wiltshire England
8. John TANNER
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