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Genealogy of Mary (Babcock) Tanner (1673 -1705)

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Location: Kingston, South Kingstown, Kings, Rhode Islandmap
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Study of Mary (Babcock) Tanner wife of William Tanner.

By Randolph R. Beebe, © May 2023

Contents

Biography

Summary

Mary (Babcock) Tanner (abt.1673-abt.1705), daughter of Job Babcock (abt.1646-bef.1718) and Jane (Crandall) Babcock (1653-abt.1712), was born about 1673 at Westerly, Rhode Island. Mary Babcock was married to William Tanner Sr. (abt.1657-abt.1740) of South Kingstown, Rhode Island, as his second wife, probably in early 1692. There is good evidence that Benjamin, John, Mary, Avis and Jane Tanner were the children of William Tanner Sr. and Mary (Babcock) Tanner. William and Mary Tanner lived on and operated a family farm at South Kingstown, Rhode Island (the land which is presently used by Laurel Lane Country Club as a public golf course) during her lifetime which was prematurely ended about 1806 when Mary was only about 33 years of age.

Basis for Identification

There are no known primary vital records which directly establish the exact birth date, marriage date, death date; or the identities or birth dates for any of the children of Mary (Babcock) Tanner. However, there is one (and only one) critical, primary source document known to identify and connect Mary Babcock to a particular set of family relationships and to provide a precise date anchoring her life to the timeline of human existence, and that document is the last will and testament of her father, Job Babcock. [1] From this 26 March 1715 document we find the following entry:

Item I Give unto my daughter Mary Tanners: HEIRS one Shilling

From this bequest and the will itself, the following observations may be made with 100% certainty:
  1. ) Mary Tanner was a real person, and the daughter of Job Babcock.
  2. ) Her Babcock family was rooted in the Town of Westerly, Rhode Island.
  3. ) Mary (Babcock) Tanner was deceased on 26 March 1715. {Editorial, to be precise, this assertion is not 100% certain, as there could be an extremely remote chance that Job Babcock bypassed his daughter Mary, and only Mary, and granted her inheritance to her children while she was still living.}
  4. ) Mary Babcock was married to a Mr. Tanner at the time of her death.
  5. ) Mary Babcock was the mother or more than one child prior to her death.
  6. ) Mary Babcock had eight named siblings whom had reached the age of adulthood, who were alive, and were named as co-heirs in the 26 March 1715 will. On the date of the will she had three brothers Job, John, and Benjamin, and five sisters; Jane Braman, Sarah Hall; Elizabeth Brand, Hannah Babcock, and Mercy Babcock.
  7. ) Job Babcock was NOT a wealthy man at the time of his death; his cash bequests to his children were for a single shilling to each child or their heirs.
  8. ) Her two youngest sisters were unmarried. {With the uncertain implication that they may have been under the age of 18 in 1715. }

In addition, the structure of the will suggests that Mary was the third daughter of Job Babcock, and this is highly probable, because it would be natural for a father to list his daughters in their birth order as Job did for his sons. The balance of this biography is devoted to applying an iterative analysis to the information offered in this will, coupled with information found in other related genealogical data, in order to arrive at a more complete and evidence based picture of the life of Mary (Babcock) Tanner.

Birthdate of Mary Babcock

The starting point in the analysis is to place boundaries on the date of Mary's birth. It may be inferred from the will data that Mrs. Mary (Babcock) Tanner would have been born at least 21 years prior to the Job's 1715 will date; this assertion is based on an assumption that she was at least eighteen years of age at the time of her marriage, then adding another three years needed to produce at least two children. Hence the will itself coupled with a few common sense assumptions, establishes a "born-not-later-than" birth date of 1694 for Mary Babcock.

The earliest birth date for a range of birth dates for Mary Babcock, may be estimated using the vital data of her parents and siblings who are identified in Job's will. A quick inspection of the Wikitree profiles for the parents and siblings of Mary Babcock reveals that NONE of the dates offered for their births and marriages are presently substantiated by a primary source record; all these vital dates are estimated. However, the birth date of her father Job, is bracketed in a narrow time window by two well documented historical events; specifically Job's father, James Babcock, states in an 18 Jan 1670 Connecticut Court deposition [2] that Job's next older brother, John, was 26 years of age at the time of the 1670 hearing date, hence born in 1644. This information when coupled with a second Rhode Island Court record in which Job Babcock is granted status as a freeman on 18 May 1669, [3] provides a high degree of certainty that Mary's father, Job Babcock, was born between 1646 and 1648. The birth date of her mother Jane Crandall is much less certain, and is presently estimated to have been in 1653 by her Wikitree profilers; furthermore, the birth of Job and Jane's first child Jane (Babcock) Braman (1670-) is estimated to have been about 1670. As previously noted, Job Babcock's will infers that Mary was his third daughter, so if one assumes an estimated 1669 marriage date for her parents is correct, and she was born prior to her brothers; then Mary Babcock's very earliest birth date would have been about 1673. But if she was born after her brothers, this would delay her earliest possible birthdate to around 1681. Thus the range of birthdates for Mary Babcock, based on presently known information, lies within 1673 to 1694 with the most probable years being between 1673 and 1681 (inclusive). As a side note, observe that the estimated dates given for her parents are likely to be within a few years of the correct numbers, though Jane (Crandall) Babcock's (1653-abt.1712) estimated marriage date, and the corresponding birth dates for her oldest daughters seems to be unnecessarily compressed, by this present 1653 birthdate estimate. The vital dates for Jane Crandall's parents and the birth order for her siblings are estimated as well, and the event compression in her marriage and her daughter's marriages makes it seem probable that Jane Crandall may have been born a few years prior to this presently estimated 1653 date, to enable the possibility that she was married to her husband, Job Babcock a few years prior to 1670.

Identity of the Husband of Mary Babcock

The 1715 Job Babcock will [1] tells us that his daughter Mary was married to a Mr. Tanner, but does not reveal the identity of her husband. This, of course begs the question, "who then was her husband?" In the 1600s there were very few Tanners in North America, and it may be possible to identify her husband using a process of elimination. Starting with her latest possible birth date of 1694 and the assumption that she was married at the age of eighteen, and also noting that the overwhelming majority of men waited until they were 21 to marry; then the hypothetical husband for this Mary Babcock marriage (at age 18) would have been born prior to 1691. An exhaustive search of the existing on-line genealogical databases reveals that there are two and only two male Tanner identities known to be living in the state of Rhode Island in this time era and whom satisfy this constraint criteria, and they are William Tanner Sr. (abt.1657-abt.1740), and his son William Tanner Jr. (abt.1686-aft.1757). Therefore, from Job's will and a number of internet searches, the identity of the husband of Mary Babcock may be narrowed to have been either William Tanner Sr. or his son, William Tanner Jr.

Now if Mary was actually was born in 1673, the earliest date in the range of her possible birth dates, then she would have been 13 years older than William Tanner Jr. who was born in 1686, and it may be stated with a near certainty she would NOT have married Wm Jr., but would nearly certainly have been the wife of William Tanner Sr. However, if she was born in 1681, she would have only been five years older than Wm Tanner, Jr. and though this birth date would still favor a marriage to Wm Tanner Sr., it would be less obviously so, and if she was born in 1694, she would would have been a peer of Wm Jr. Therefore, the analysis to this point indicates that Mary (Babcock) Tanner, daughter of Job Babcock, was born sometime between 1673 and 1694, and that there is a high probability that she was married to either William Tanner Sr. or William Tanner Jr., though the odds would significantly favor her marriage to have been to the elder Wm Tanner.

The will of Job Babcock also establishes, as fact, that his daughter Mary (Babcock) Tanner was the mother of at least two children prior to her death, and as she was married to a Tanner at the time of her death; the will implies the children were also surnamed Tanner, though this is not explicitly stated. The next step in building a biography for Mary Babcock is to search for evidence, hopefully primary evidence, linking William Tanner and Mary Babcock to a marriage date and/or providing a clear identification and direct link to these offspring. As noted earlier, the result of a search for this direct evidence, presently (as of April 2023), as well as for all previous generations of published Tanner genealogists is zero; there is no known direct primary evidence explicitly linking Mary Babcock in a marriage to either William Tanner Sr. or William Tanner Jr. (or anyone else for that matter) nor has any direct primary evidence been found to directly link Mary (Babcock) Tanner as the mother of an explicitly named child. However, there is an ample body of indirect evidence from primary sources and documented family lore sufficient to weave together a highly probable representation of Mary Babcock's family.

Before examining the evidence potentially connecting Mary Babcock to either William Tanner Sr. or Junior as husband and wife, it should be noted that there is primary source evidence which establishes, as fact, that William Tanner Sr. was married to a ____ Tibbetts, the daughter or Henry Tibbetts, and they were the parents of a son William Tanner Jr. The information basis for this assertion is the 27 Nov 1708 Last Will and Testament of Henry Tibbetts which states the following: [2]

"To grandson William Tanner, land purchased of Thomas Stanton of Stonington, and five loads of hay."

Furthermore as Wm Jr. was the only heir named for this daughter, the will bequest infers that William Tanner Jr. was the only child of Wm and ___ (Tibbetts) Tanner Sr.; hence the first wife of Wm Tanner Sr., i.e. the daughter of Henry Tibbetts, likely died at the time of Wm Tanner Jr.'s birth or shortly thereafter. Henry Tibbett's will also infers that William Tanner Jr. was an adult, and engaged in farming operations at the time the will was written and thus benchmarking the birth date of Wm Tanner Jr. to about 1686. The essential point of this discussion is that William Tanner Sr., was born circa 1657 was a good bit older (16 years) than Mary Babcock who would have been born, at the earliest in 1673. Furthermore, a marriage between William Tanner Sr. and Mary Babcock would have been Wm's second marriage, it could not have occurred until sometime after 1687, and would have been at a time when Wm Sr. would have been in great need of a partner to nurture his young son William Tanner Jr.

Next, let's examine what is available to connect Mary Babcock as a possible first wife of the younger Wm Tanner, i.e. William Tanner Jr. As noted earlier, the 1694 latest-possible-birth for Mary Babcock would place her as a contemporary of Wm Tanner Junior. If this were true then William Tanner Jr. and Mary Babcock could have been married as soon as 21 years after 1686 or about 1707. There are no known records linking Mary Babcock in marriage to Wm Tanner Jr.; however, there are North Kingstown, RI birth records for the children born of William Tanner Jr. and a wife, Hannah Tanner, starting with a son William Tanner III (1712-abt.1778) born on 22 Sep 1712. Therefore, there is a five year gap between the date Wm Jr. and Mary Babcock potentially could have been married (1707) and the recorded birth date of William Tanner Jr.'s first documented child in 1712, allowing for five years of time for Wm Tanner Jr. to have hypothetically been married to Mary Babcock and for them to have produced at least two children, in accordance with the information in the will of Job Babcock. Hence the opportunity for this scenario to have happened is clearly plausible. The antithesis of this proposition is that there is no evidence to be found to substantiate this hypothesis; no direct evidence, no indirect evidence, no lore, and, in particular, no evidence of the children that Job Babcock tells us were born of this union and that had survived to at least 1715. A quick examination of the same page of the North Kingstown birth records surrounding the birth of William Tanner (III), previously noted, shows that the North Kingstown birth records go back to at least 1687 for the Sweet family; thus it would seem probable that if William Tanner Jr. and Mary Babcock had children between 1708 and 1712 in North Kingstown, they would appear in this record, but they do not. Note that the bequest of North Kingstown land to William Tanner Jr. by his grandfather Henry Tibbetts, that is to say, that thing which drew William Tanner Jr. to live in North Kingstown, was not written until 1708 nor was this will proven until 13 July 1713. So Wm Tanner Jr. may or may not have been a resident of North Kingstown during the time period of this hypothetical marriage. However, it may also be noted that William Tanner (III) was recorded as having been born in North Kingstown on 22 Sept 1712, ten months prior to the proving of the Henry Tibbitts will, suggesting that Wm Tanner Jr. was already living on and tenant farming the property of Henry Tibbetts prior to receiving the land as an inheritance (probably as early as 27 Nov 1708 the date the will was written). Furthermore, William Tanner Jr. wrote his own will on 13 June 1757 and this will does NOT include any children born prior to William Tanner III, that is to say he names no children of a hypothetical marriage to Mary Babcock as heirs. Thus, an examination of the records of Wm Tanner Jr reveals that IF it was he who married Mary Babcock, and whom fathered at least two children with her; then it was an entirely stealth event to history leaving no trace of the marriage nor of the (at least) two children born to the union. This, of course could be partially explained if the children died young, viz shortly after the will of Job Babcock was written. Therefore, although an examination of the records for Wm Tanner Jr. does NOT eliminate a hypothetical marriage between Wm Tanner Jr. and Mary Babcock as a possibility, the complete absence of any supporting circumstantial evidence renders this interpretation of Job's will bequest to his daughter Mary as having a near zero probability of being correct. With William Tanner Jr. eliminated as a probable husband for Mary Tanner, William Tanner Sr. remains the only viable and probable candidate to have been her husband.

Marriage date and children

This brings us to the point to now examine the circumstantial evidence available to support the assertion that the marriage and children cited in Job Tanner's will were of William Tanner Sr. and Mary Babcock. The first, and most compelling piece of evidence is the West Greenwich, Rhode Island birth record of Benjamin Tanner, [4] which states;

Tanner, Benjamin; born 24 Dec 1692.

this birth record provides irrefutable evidence of another male Tanner born and living in the western portion of Rhode Island during the time period of interest. There are several interesting observations that may be made regarding this birth record
  • The birth record does not name the parents of Benjamin Tanner, whereas every other birth record in the surrounding pages of the Arnold vital records document explicitly names one or both parents of the cited birth. The proximate cause for this deviation from the normal structure of the West Greenwich birth records is that Benjamin Tanner didn't live in West Greenwich until after he purchased his W. Greenwich farm from Clement West 1733, hence he and his family did not move into the West Greenwich area until long after he and his children were born and the town birth records for Benjamin were recorded not at the time of their birth, but rather when Benjamin and his family moved into the community. {Refer to the profile of William Tanner Sr. (abt.1657-abt.1740) for more detail.} This was common practice in this time era and was evidence of the tight control the West Greenwich town government chose exercise over admission to the community subject to the jurisdiction of their town council. There is evidence (to be presented later) that the West Greenwich town council was particularly overbearing in this regard, hence more inclined to document and authenticate the birth bona fides of incoming migrants.
  • Benjamin Tanner's 24 Dec 1692 birth date makes it impossible for him to have been a potential son of William Tanner Jr. who was born in 1686; this leaves the only known, and possible father candidate of Benjamin Tanner to have been William Tanner Sr.
  • This West Greenwich Vital Record also identifies seven (and only seven) children as offspring of this said Benjamin Tanner and an unspecified mother, with the birth of his first child, Sarah to have occurred on 19 May 1716.
  • Revisiting the latest possible birth date of 1694 for Mary Babcock opens the possibility that she could have been the wife of Benjamin Tanner as early as 1713, and had two births or twins prior to the writing of Job Babcock's Will, but as with the hypothetical marriage to Wm Jr. both children of this hypothetical marriage would have to be alive at the time of Job's will in 1715, but in this case, deceased prior to the time Benjamin moved to West Greenwich sometime after 1730, as they are not mentioned in this town vital record.
  • On the other hand this 1692 birth of Benjamin establishes a birth record having primary sourced reliability for a Rhode Island Tanner offspring, almost certainly a son of William Tanner Sr., but just as certainly not that of his first wife ____ Tibbetts, because Benjamin is not named as an heir in the Henry Tibbetts will as is the case for his half brother, Wm Tanner Jr. Therefore, this birth record is a highly correlated fit to the established search criteria for an heir of Mary (Babcock) Tanner based on the the Job Babcock will. That is to say, here is the documentation to confirm a Tanner spouse and a Tanner child-birth compatible with the previously postulated union of Mary Babcock and William Tanner Sr. Benjamin's 1692 birth occurs six years after the 1686 birth of William Tanner Jr. and would benchmark Mary Babcock, if his mother and born in 1673, to have been nominally nineteen years of age on the date of his birth. Hence the proposition that William Tanner Sr. married Mary Babcock, as his second wife, and that they had a son Benjamin Tanner on 24 Dec 1692 is fully viable, and fully compatible with every piece of evidence heretofore identified.
Consequently there is a very high probability that Benjamin Tanner is indeed the son of William Tanner Sr. and Mary Babcock. The question then becomes whether there is any other evidence to affirm this assertion, and the answer is a resounding yes, but with caveats. First, there is a 4 March 1723 land deed archived in the South Kingstown Town Records which declares: [5]
William Tanner of Kingstown for love, good will, and affection towards my son, Benjamin Tanner of Kingstown, gives tract in Hall's Purchase of sixty acres... Witnessed by William West, and signed by Wm and Elizabeth Tanner on 4 March 1723.

which establishes the father-son relationship between William and Benjamin Tanner as 100% certain, and links William West, the husband of Jane (Tanner) West, in this legal document regarding the father to son transfer of real estate. Unfortunately, this 1723 deed does not mention Mary Babcock, because she was long deceased and Wm Tanner had been remarried to another wife named Elizabeth. There is a second piece of affirming evidence to be found in the Memorandum of Samuel West (1766-), grandson of Jane (Tanner) West, [6] a documented piece of family lore in which he states:

My fathers mother was Jane Tanner Daughter of Frances Tanner hur mother was a Babcock hur Brothers names ware William Benjamin John Frances & Nathan hur sisters names ware Mary Avis Abigail Rechel Ann & Dorcas.

This quote provides a bit of documented family lore, which introduces another Tanner child, Jane, as a sibling to William Jr. and Benjamin, etal., and the daughter of a Babcock and Frances Tanner, all of which fits the prior narrative with the exception of the name of the father. If the name William is substituted for Frances as the children's father, then this family genealogy is highly correlated to the primary source based narrative previously outlined. Note the naming alignment of several of the "Memorandum" named children to the family ancestry of the asserted Tanner family: William Tanner Jr. after his father William Sr.; Benjamin Tanner after Benjamin Babcock (brother of Mary), John Tanner after his great grandfather Rev. John Crandall; Mary Tanner after her mother, Mary (Babcock) Tanner; and Jane Tanner, after her grandmother Jane (Crandall) Babcock. The name given the father, Frances Tanner, then appears to be an information transmission error in which the oral transmission of family genealogy unfortunately conflated the name of the son, Frances with that of the actual father William. Hence, when the data from the land deed is woven together with the Job Babcock will, and the Samuel West "Memorandum" a clear family "fabric" with William Tanner Sr. and Mary (Babcock) Tanner as the parents of Benjamin emerges. To further substantiate the brother and sister connection between Benjamin and Jane (West) Tanner, the Mayflower Descendants records the following: [7]

On 27 July 1741 The Charlestown RI Town Council ordered William West (1681-aft.1742), wife and children" be transported to No. Kingstown, William and some of his family were in W. Greenwich as guests of Benjamin Tanner by July 1742 when the town Council asked Benjamin Tanner for an explanation.

which further substantiates a family link between Jane (Tanner) West and Benjamin Tanner as being close kin, presumably brother and sister. So the source information examined to this point strongly supports the assertion that the husband of Mary Babcock was William Tanner Sr. and that the they were the parents of Benjamin and Jane (Tanner) West, thus fully satisfying the information previously observed in Job Tanner's Will. The noted 1723 land transfer from William Tanner Sr. to Benjamin was signed by the then wife of Wm Tanner named Elizabeth, which is another affirmation of the early decease of Mary Babcock as noted in the 1715 Job Babcock will. This introduces two new questions, when did Mary Babcock Tanner actually die, and did she have any other children? A partial answer to the first question may be answered by the second of only two official town birth records for any of the children of William Tanner. There is a South Kingstown, Rhode Island birth record [8] which declares:

Nathan Tanner, son of William and Elizabeth Tanner was born 20 Feb 1709.

and consequently benchmarks a much earlier boundary date (than 1715) for the decease of Mary Babcock; setting a hard not-later-than date of June 1708 for the death of Mary Babcock; if one allows for a year of grieving and adjustment, then this would suggest Mary Babcock was likely deceased by mid-1707. So deductions based on primary source information gathered to this point suggest that Mary Babcock was married to William Tanner Sr. not later than March 1692, and that she died by mid 1707; furthermore it is certain that any children born to William Tanner from February 1709 and thereafter could not be the children of Mary Babcock but were by William Tanner Sr's. third wife Elizabeth. It is possible, that Wm Sr and Mary's marriage date and Mary's death date happened earlier than these postulated dates, but the cited primary records constrain these to be not-later-than dates.

As the next iteration in this study, the subject turns to identifying and verifying the children of William Tanner, in general, and those by Mary (Babcock) Tanner, in particular. The preferred starting point for this topic is the principal secondary source for North American Tanner family history; the 1910 Tanner genealogy entitled William Tanner, Sr. of South Kingstown, Rhode Island and his Descendants, by Dr. George C. Tanner. [5] This text has proven to be a reasonably reliable and durable information source for the Tanner family and provides a pre-vetted enumeration of the children of William Tanner and his second wife Mary Babcock page 6, as well as the children of William Tanner and his other wives. Dr. George C. Tanner's notes that his information source identifying the children of William Tanner Sr. and his third wife, Elizabeth, was provided by Rev Francis Brown Tanner (1793-1874), the great grandson of Wm and Elizabeth, and the information was derived from family records documented in a now-lost Tanner Family Bible. The family structure Dr. George C. Tanner documents for William Tanner Sr. in his 1910 Tanner genealogy is as follows:

  1. ) Child of William Tanner & ____ Tibbetts:[5]
    1. ) William, b about 1687, S Kingstown, RI; d 1757, N Kingstown, RI
  2. ) Children of William Tanner & Mary Babcock, order uncertain:[5]
    1. ) Benjamin, b 24 Dec 1692 [4]
    2. ) John
    3. ) Avis m. 18 April 1723 Thomas Barber.
    4. ) Mary
  3. ) Children of William Tanner & Elizabeth (maiden name unknown, possibly Colgrove): [5]
    1. ) Francis, b 3 Jul 1708;
    2. ) Nathan, b 20 Feb 1710
    3. ) Anna, b 14 Mar 1712
    4. ) Rebecca, b 2 Jul 1714
    5. ) Elizabeth, b 14 Nov 1717
    6. ) Abigail, b 17 Oct 1719
  4. ) Children of William Tanner and Elizabeth ____ Gardiner Cottrell (maiden name possibly Gardiner):
    1. ) None.

The first order of business is then to identify and reconcile differences between this list of children and other information sources heretofore identified. Exceptions are as follows

  1. ) Nathan was born in 1710 vs 1709. {This date difference is likely an artifact of Julian vs Gregorian calendar dating, with 1710 likely the more correct date.}
  2. ) Francis is identified as the first child of Wm's third wife Elizabeth, and his 3 Jul 1708 birth date resets Mary (Babcock) Tanner's latest possible death date backward in time to sometime on or before 1706. Note that the information source to substantiate this birth date is presently (May 2023) uncertain.
  3. ) John, Avis and Mary are introduced as children of Wm Sr. and Mary (Babcock) Tanner, and are corroborated by the Samuel West Memorandum.
  4. ) Jane, Rachel, and Dorcas cited in the Samuel West Memorandum are absent from George Tanner's list of children. The best explanation for this difference is that the discovery and publication of Samuel West's Memorandum did not happen until 1924 and George Tanner was simply unaware of this document in 1910, hence, the information was not part of his knowledge base. It has been previously demonstrated that there is good evidence that Jane Tanner is indeed the daughter of Wm Sr. and Mary and should be added to George Tanner's list of children. Rachel and Dorcas are another matter, as no evidence other than Samuel West's Memorandum has been found to corroborate their existence. There could be a number of explanations for this anomaly, but one probable explanation is that they were known to Jane (Tanner) West as sisters, but died young and are buried in one of the four "child" size graves at the foot of William and Mary in the Tanner cemetery plot:
Map of the William Tanner family cemetery plot.

The preceding analysis has established, with a reasonable probability, that Mary Babcock wife of William Tanner Sr. was born on or about 1673, was married to Wm on or about 1691/2 and died on or about 1705/6. If William and Mary produced a child every two years as was typical for the era, then with these boundary dates they may have had as many as seven to eight children prior to her death. The foregoing analysis has presented an evidence based case that Benjamin, and Jane were indeed children of Wm and Mary, and following will examine the evidence that John, Mary, and Avis Tanner were also children of William and Mary Babcock. It seems probable that Rachel and Dorcas were also children of William Tanner Sr. but the naming sequence in the Samuel West Memorandum casts doubt as to whether they were the children of Mary Babcock or his third wife, Elizabeth.

As a preliminary observation, it may be noted that John, Mary, and Avis are specifically excluded from the list of children of William and Elizabeth in the Frances Tanner cited family Bible, likewise they are specifically excluded from the Will of Henry Tibbetts, hence if there is evidence they are children of Wm Tanner Sr. and born between 1692 and 1706, then by default it becomes nearly certain that their mother was Mary Babcock.

John Tanner

As with all of the children of Mary (Babcock) Tanner, there are no primary records directly linking her as the mother of John Tanner. However, there are primary records for John Tanner and the first of these appears in the Western Rhode Island historical record database with a set of Charlestown, Rhode Island birth records documented for his family. There are two key pieces of information to be extracted from these documents which figure into the Mary (Babcock) Tanner narrative, in particular the birth of his first child: [9]

Joseph Tanner, of John and Jane, was born 2 Feb 1719 at Charlestown, Rhode Island.

establishes a timeline stake and geographic location for John Tanner from which his birth date may reliably be estimated to have been between 1694 and 1698. Furthermore, it places John Tanner at the right time and place to have been a child of William Tanner Sr. and Mary (Babcock) Tanner. The second piece of relevant information in the Charlestown records may be found in the following marriage record: [9]

John Tanner married Susannah West of Frances, by William Hall, Justice, 9 May 1723.

which is significant because Susannah West is the niece of William West, husband of Jane Tanner, and the first cousin of Thomas Barber husband of Avis Tanner, both asserted to have been daughters of Mary Babcock. Thus, three of the five probable children of William Tanner Sr. and Mary Babcock married closely related (first or second generation) descendants of Susannah (Soule) West (abt.1642-aft.1684). The third primary document to link John Tanner to William Tanner Sr. and by the preceding argument also Mary Babcock, is a 23 Dec 1730 land deed in which William Tanner Sr. gifts a 75 acre parcel of his real estate to John Tanner:

William Tanner of South Kingstown, for love good will , etc., to son John Tanner of Westerly, blacksmith, ... land lying in Westerly ... Seventy five acres, bounded ... west on land once Thomas Winterton's, north on land of Peleg Mumford, east on Mumford Mill River, south on land of Nathan Tanner. Signed William Tanner, Elizabeth (X) Tanner (her mark). In the presence of Francis Tanner and Isaac Sheldon.

Thus providing irrefutable primary evidence that John Tanner was indeed the son of William Tanner Sr. and strong circumstantial evidence that his mother was Mary Babcock. These primary records also provide a circumstantial link between John Tanner and his siblings, Jane, Avis, Francis and Nathan.

Avis (Tanner) Barber

Dr. George C. Tanner [5] lists Avis Tanner as a daughter of William Tanner Sr. and Mary Babcock, offering two primary sources which place Avis Tanner in the South Kingstown, Rhode Island area from 1723 to 1762 and provide circumstantial evidence that Avis Tanner grew up in the South Kingstown, RI farm community where the only known Tanner household, at the time, was that of William Tanner Sr. Note these sources do not explicitly link Avis to either William nor Mary. The first reference is a 18 April 1723 South Kingstown marriage record between Avis Tanner and Thomas Barber. Here it should be noted that Thomas Barber is a son of Moses Barber and Susannah West; and this lineage provides substantiation for a link between Avis (Tanner) Barber to William and Mary Tanner in the following manner: first of all Moses Barber was a long time, next door to William and Mary Tanner, therefore Avis Tanner and Thomas Barber would have known each other due solely on the basis of physical proximity from the earliest days of their childhood. Secondly, the marriage of Avis Tanner to Thomas Barber is one of three marriages between the children of William Tanner and the descendants of Susannah West, adding affirmation of a tight coupling of these two families by marriage. Third, the Hopkinton Seventh Day Baptist Church records Avis Barber, daughter of Thomas and Avis (Tanner) Barber, in the 1780 Hopkinton Seventh Day Baptist Church membership roll, affirming a link between Avis (Tanner) Barber and William Tanner by association in the same tight knit church. The second reference lists Avis (Tanner) Barber as the executor of her husband's Exeter, RI estate in 1762, confirming Avis to have remained a resident of the Southwest Rhode community for the duration of her lifetime.

As a final note the Samuel West Memorandum [6] also documents Avis Tanner to have been a sister to Wm, Benjamin, John, Mary and Jane, and a daughter of Francis Tanner and ____ Babcock, where the conflation of the names Francis and William as her father have been previously addressed. Thereby providing an independent confirmation of the previously asserted parent-child-siblings links between Avis Tanner and her birth family.

Mary (Tanner) Willett

Dr. George C. Tanner attributes a second daughter, Mary, to the marriage union of William Tanner Sr. and Mary Babcock, but as before there is no primary birth document to substantiate this assertion. However, George Tanner's research and writing creates a strong circumstantial case of fact-based evidence to support this assertion. George Tanner's 1910 Tanner Genealogy [5] offers abstracts from three primary information sources to establish the family connection. The first of these is a gut-wrenching tale of tragedy to be found in the town records of North Kingstown, Rhode Island:

April 8, 1728, Benjamin Tanner appears before the Council and declares that his sister Mary Willett, deceased, gave him her son Lawrence Willett, then four years old, to be kept free of charge to the estate of Lawrence Willett (North Kingstown Records).

This narrative, authenticates a number facts: first Benjamin Tanner and Mary Tanner were siblings, hence confirming Mary (Tanner) Willett to have been a daughter of William Tanner Sr. Second, in order to have had a four year old son on 8 Apr 1728, Mary (Tanner) Willett would have been born or before 1705; assuming she was at least 18 years of age when she married. This, of course, sets the latest date of her birth within, but toward the end of the time period previously established to have been the years in which William Tanner Sr. and Mary Babcock were married, ergo providing strong circumstantial evidence to identify her as the daughter of both William Tanner Sr. and Mary Babcock.

Sabbatarian Baptist Church

The Sabbatarian Baptist Church of Westerly Rhode Island was the vital societal structure in seventeenth century western Rhode Island, and Mary Babcock, from the time of her birth, was of the third generation in this faith, and fully immersed in the life of this church. The Babcock, Crandall, and Tanner surnames are prominent among the membership rolls of the Sabbatarian or Seventh Day Baptist Church of Hopkinton, Rhode Island. The roots of Mary Babcock's association with the Sabbatarian Baptist Church of Rhode Island begin with her grandfather, John Crandall (bef.1618-1676), who was sent out by the original Newport Sabbatarian Baptist church, to occupy and establish a possession claim to the western border of Rhode Island. The free exercise of religious expression had emerged as a major issue in the Colonies from the earliest days of settlement. The Puritans of Massachusetts and Connecticut, had established a society where their churches were central to the religious and civic activity of their communities, a reflection of the traditional organizational structure of their Anglican, English roots. That is to say, the Puritans had set up a theocratic form government whereby the church was also in control of the government and civic law. Furthermore, as the New England Puritans had been oppressed by their Anglican brethren in England, and had sacrificed much to establish what they considered a right and correct practice of their faith in New England, they jealously guarded their power structure which had enabled them to establish and control a religious order in accordance with their understanding of true faith; competing religious ideologies were outlawed and dissenters were zealously suppressed. The Baptists, who advocated for the baptism of only professing believers by immersion, stood in contrast to the Puritan's tradition of baptizing infants by sprinkling and as the Baptist view was logically more aligned with numerous scriptural descriptions of the sacrament, they were a threat to the Puritan theocracy. The Puritans had codified their method of baptism into the civil law and made it illegal for anyone other than the authorized Puritan clergy to perform the rite of baptism in their communities; anyone who dared violate this edict was subject to fines, beatings, and/or imprisonment. Hence the Baptists and other dissimilar religious sects were driven from the Massachusetts and Connecticut Puritan communities and sought shelter elsewhere. This, of course, was the impetus that prompted Roger Williams (abt.1606-1683) and John Clarke (bef.1609-1676) to set up a literal island of religious freedom on Rhode Island in 1643 and drove them to press the English monarchy for an operational charter authorizing free expression of religious conviction within the Rhode Island territory. Their efforts were successful and in 1663, King Charles II, was intrigued by and agreed to this experiment in conscience-based expression of religious faith, and signed the Royal Charter of Rhode Island which established Rhode Island as the first Colony to grant its citizens the right to free expression of their religious conscience without interference from the government. Needless to say, the safe-harbor charter did not solve the problem as it gave the the dissenters a territorial toe-hold, but was relevant only to the small island called Aquidneck and they were surrounded by their Puritan adversaries in Massachusetts and Connecticut. The size and location of the territory covered by the charter was of doubtful sustainability, nevertheless the island quickly became a thriving melting pot of Baptists, Quakers, Jews and Catholics. Meanwhile, the Rhode Islanders immediately recognized the danger of the charter's limitations binding this freedom only to main island, motivating an investor group (made up of mostly Baptists), to pool their funds in order to expand their territory. In 1660, while John Clark was still in England negotiating for the Island's Charter, this group purchased a large tract of land from the sachem Sosoa known as the Misquamicut Purchase, which includes the present day town of Westerly, and parts of Hopkinton, Richmond, and Charlestown. (Thorngate, page xxxvii) It is this purchase that brings the story back to Mary Babcock, as it was this purchase that motivated the church to send out a group of emissaries to consummate the purchase and occupy the property in order to set and protect their western frontier border from territorial claims and incursion by their Puritan adversaries in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Mary's grandfathers John Crandall (bef.1618-1676) and James (Badcock) Babcock (1612-1679) (along with her father Job Babcock) were prominent among the group who resettled at Westerly around 1662 on this dangerous mission, critical to the survival of the Baptist ideology in New England. For a period of about 10 years the Crandalls and Babcocks were on the front line of a contentious border dispute between Conn, Mass and RI, until the officially recognized western border was established by the English Crown in 1671. A more in-depth account of this story may be found in the dedication message, delivered by Rev. William Clarke Whitford to the faithful gathered on August 28, 1899 to remember and honor the work of their early leadership with the unveiling of a enduring monument created for that purpose. A copy of this oration is published in the booklet entitled, Dedication of Ministers' Monument. [10]

Dr. John Clark was the founder of the Baptist Church in Rhode Island, and the Sabbatarian Baptists were an offshoot of John Clark's church; they were set apart from other Christian sects of the day, not only by their by their method of Baptism, but also by their choice to observe the Sabbath day as their day of worship, rather than Sunday. These distinctives set the denomination apart from their Puritan Christian peers who had enacted so-called "blue laws" in their communities prohibiting servile work on Sunday, and this was the backdrop for Mary's 1673 introduction to the world. From the perspective of an investigating genealogist, their association with the Seventh Day Baptist Church is very significant as there is overwhelming evidence that the distinctives of the sect introduced an element of isolation for members of this denomination whom then exhibited a long and strong propensity to marry within their own church membership. Here it should be noted that, William Tanner had also associated himself with the same Sabbatarian Baptist church community, hence providing another circumstantial affirmation for the connection between William Tanner Sr. and Mary Babcock as husband and wife. Furthermore, this legacy is clearly repeated in the descendants of Mary Babcock, who continued to intermarry within the church membership, often three to four generations after her demise.

There are several Sabbatarian church documents which shed light onto the family of Mary (Babcock) Tanner, though they do not specifically mention her by name; hence the information regarding Mary (Babcock) Tanner must be inferred or deduced (based on the prior narrative) from these sources. The first of these documents is the previously mentioned August 28, 1899 pamphlet entitled, Dedication of Ministers' Monument,] [10] which in addition to providing a historical narrative of the Sabbatarian Baptists at Westerly and Newport, it also provides a list of names of individuals associated with the SDBC church in Westerly during the second half of the seventeenth century, that is the period prior to the official start of the church charter in 1708. From this list the following subset of SDBC names are connected to Mary Babcock and or her husband, William Tanner, in the specified manner:

Around the turn of the nineteenth century, under the auspices of the General Assembly, James Newell Arnold published a twenty-one volume set of Vital Records of Rhode Island. Included within these publications are the early membership rolls of the Newport, RI Seventh Day Baptist Church in Volume Seven, [11] and the Hopkinton, RI Seventh Day Baptist Church in Volume Ten. [12] From the initial missionary placement of Newport Baptists into Westerly in 1661 until the formal founding of the Westerly Church in 1708, the two locations operated as a single church organization whereby the Newport Church membership included congregants from both locations. The following list includes Westerly-based members related to Mary Babcock name in the Newport membership roll [11]:

  • Job Babcock,1692; probably the father of Mary Babcock.
  • John Crandall, 1692; probably Mary Babcock's uncle; a brother to her mother Jane (Crandall) Babcock.
  • John Tanner, 28 Aug 1737; this John Tanner was almost certainly NOT the son of William Tanner and Mary Babcock as their son John Tanner (abt.1694-aft.1777) was living and having children in Charleston, Rhode Island concurrent with this membership date. Dr. George Tanner, on page 7 of his 1910 Tanner Genealogy, states that this John Tanner was likely a nephew of William Tanner Sr.

In a similar fashion, Arnold's Volume Ten [12] publishes the earliest membership roll of the Hopkinton (Westerly) Rhode Island Seventh Day Baptist Church. As a precautionary note, these Sabbatarian Church Membership Records lack detail, offering merely a name and the years logged in the membership rolls. However, given the limited population, the specific locale, individual names with birth and death dates, and the propensity for membership clusters to coalesce from a single family group, this is often enough information to deduce a high probability cross reference placement for the name on the membership roll to a particular Wikitree identity, and a best effort attempt to provide this cross reference information for the early Hopkinton Church is available in the following free space profile: Hopkinton RI Sabbatarian Membership Roll Cross Reference. A word of caution, the cross reference correlation is not definitive, and may or may not be correct, but is very useful as a starting point for evaluating the identities of the individuals named in the Hopkinton membership roll. Arnold's Hopkinton Sabbatarian Baptist Church membership roll [12] contains numerous individuals previously cited as family members, by name and membership dates, connected to Mary (Babcock )Tanner as follows: There are two entries in this Hopkinton, RI., SDBC membership roll for a Mary Tanner; of all of the cited primary references for Mary (Babcock) Tanner, these entries are perhaps the most difficult to reconcile with the heretofore evidence-based narrative thus far presented. Dr. George Tanner cites this membership roll in his 1910 Tanner genealogy, but he does NOT offer his opinion regarding the identity of these two Mary Tanners, nor do any of the other published Tanner genealogies. The Mary Tanner identities on the Hopkinton SDBC membership roll are as follows:

  • Mary Tanner Jr.,: Membership dates: Charter member (1708), 1712; 5 Sep 1712.
  • Mary Tanner: Membership dates: 5 Sep 1712; 1718; and 1740.

So the question becomes who were these two Mary Tanners? One possible answer might be that Mary Tanner Jr. was Mary (Babcock) Tanner, wife of William Tanner, and the other Mary Tanner was her daughter. If this identity assertion is correct, then Mary (Babcock) Tanner would have to have been alive until at least 5 Sep 1712; and this result stands in direct conflict with the prior observations that the mother of William Tanner's sons Francis, born in 1708, and Nathan, born in 1710, was a woman named Elizabeth and NOT Mary. Furthermore, why add the Jr. differentiator suffix to the membership identity if it was Mary (Babcock) Tanner? She was the eldest known Mary Tanner and if this membership record was for her, then the suffix would be expected to be Sr. NOT Jr. Furthermore, if this interpretation is correct, then it would be expected that the second Mary Tanner on the membership would have been her daughter Mary (Tanner) Willett. This too has a number of issues if the second Mary Tanner membership identity is for her daughter: 1) it then is this identity that should have a suffix Jr. (but does not); 2) daughter Mary Tanner was married to Lawrence Willett circa 1718 and thus would have been Mary Willett, not Mary Tanner in 1718, and 3). Mary (Tanner) Willett died in 1728, but by this identity association would appear to still be a member in 1740. Therefore, this interpretation seems improbable. Consider an alternative assignment of the identities; assuming the analysis offered in this essay is correct, then Mary (Babcock) Tanner was deceased prior to the 1708 date of charter membership and identity of Mary Tanner Jr on the membership roll, is by default almost certainly Mary (Tanner) Willett, the daughter of Mary (Babcock) Tanner. This would then correctly explain the Jr. designation, explain why Mary Jr. was not on the 1718 roll (because she was married and thence Mary Willett), and as her birth date appears to have been about 1796 (or so) a 1708 charter membership date would be plausible, but does seem to be a bit young for membership, though a profession of faith and baptism by a twelve year old would certainly have been possible. Therefore, the evidence supports daughter Mary (Tanner) Willett as the correct identity association with the Mary Tanner Jr. membership identity; but the other Mary Tanner in membership roll is another matter entirely. Having assigned daughter Mary Tanner as the Mary Tanner Jr. member, there is then no other known Mary Tanner identity in the William Tanner family that could reasonably correlated to this Mary Tanner membership identity. Son, Wm Tanner Jr., is married to a Hannah in 1712; son, Benjamin, is married to a Joanna, but not until 1715; and son John is married to Jane Shelley also in 1715. Therefore, there is no available daughter-in-law (of Wm Tanner Sr.) named Mary Tanner to correlate to the membership, leaving the unsatisfying result that the identity of this second Mary Tanner member is unknown with no probable connection to any known member of the William Tanner family.

  • Mary Tanner Jr., probable ID; daughter Mary (Tanner) Willett, daughter of Wm Tanner and Mary Babcock. This membership identity fits prior to her marriage to Lawrence Willett in circa 1718.; the absence of name on the 1718 membership roll suggests that she was married, hence then Mary Willett, prior to this whereafter she would have been Mary Willett.
    • Membership dates: Charter member (1708), 1712; 5 Sep 1712.
  • Mary Tanner, probable ID: unknown.
    • Membership dates: 5 Sep 1712; 1718; and 1740.

Other HSDBC members related to Mary (Babcock) Tanner:

  • William Tanner, probable ID: husband of Mary (Babcock).
    • Membership dates: Charter member (1708), 1712; 5 Sep 1712; 1718; and 1740.
  • Mary Tanner J, probable ID; daughter Mary (Tanner) Willett, daughter of Wm Tanner and Mary Babcock. This membership identity fits prior to her marriage to Lawrence Willett in circa 1718., whereafter she would have been Mary Willett.
    • Membership dates: Charter member (1708), 1712; 5 Sep 1712.
  • Benjamin Tanner, probable ID: son of William Tanner and Mary Babcock.
    • Membership dates: 5 Sep 1712; 1718; and 1740. {Note this would suggest Benjamin would have retained his membership in the Hopkinton Church even after moving to West Greenwich circa 1734.}
  • Mary Tanner, probable ID: unknown.
    • Membership dates: 5 Sep 1712; 1718; and 1740.
  • Jean Tanner, probable ID: daughter Jane Tanner, daughter of Wm Tanner and Mary Babcock (prior to her marriage to William West, circa 1722), or possibly daughter-in-law Jane (Shelley) Tanner, wife of John Tanner.
    • Membership date: 1718.
  • Elizabeth Gardiner Tanner, probable ID: fourth wife of William Tanner, married in 1722 or 1723.
    • Membership date: 1740.
  • Joannah Tanner, probable ID; daughter-in-law Joanna (Lewis) Tanner wife of son Benjamin.
    • Membership date: 1740.
  • Mary Vilett, probable ID: grand daughter of Mary (Babcock) Tanner, daughter of Mary (Willett) Tanner.
    • Membership date: before 1750.
  • Mercy Babcock, probable ID: sister of Mary (Babcock) Tanner.
    • Membership dates: 5 Sep 1712; 1718.
  • Francis West, possible ID: grandson of Wm and Mary (Babcock) Tanner. Son of William West and Jane Tanner. As this Francis West was only age ten in 1740, it may be more probable that this Francis West (abt.1706-abt.1786) was a brother to Susannah (West) Tanner (abt.1697-aft.1742) the wife of John Tanner (abt.1694-aft.1777).
    • Membership dates: 1740, July 1768.
  • Avis Barber, probable ID: granddaughter of Wm and Mary (Babcock) Tanner. Daughter of Thomas Barber and Avis Tanner.
    • Membership dates: 19 Aug 1780

King Philip's War

In addition to the battle for the free practice of religious expression, a second major historical conflict of this era to impact the life of Mary Babcock was King Phillip's War of 1675 and 1676. This was a war for regional domination fought between the Wampanoag tribe led by Metacomet, also known as Philip, who managed to also entangle the Narragansetts and the Nipmucs in his campaign against the English Colonists. King Philip's war strategy was to wage a terror campaign on outlying English settlements designed to eradicate the English from of the region and re-establish exclusive tribal power over the territory. It was undoubtedly the deadliest and most costly war, on a per capita basis, ever fought in US history; both sides suffered heavy casualties but ultimately the Wampanoag and Narragansett tribes were decimated and the colonists were left to claim New England as the spoils of war. Nevertheless, during this 1675-1676 period, the outcome of the war was uncertain and had forced the colonists to consolidate and unite in order to improve their probability of survival. For Mary Babcock, perhaps three years old at the time, the war meant the Baptist settlement at Westerly was endangered and indefensible, and all of the Westerly settlers (including Mary) at Westerly abandoned their homes and became refugees at Newport from whence they came. It wasn't until xxxx that the Westerly settlers returned and rebuilt the town.

Death

As a recap of the evidence previously offered in this essay, it may be stated with a high degree of certainty that Mary (Babcock) Tanner was deceased prior to 1707. The 26 March 1715 will of her father establishes, with near 100% certainty, that she was deceased prior to the date this will document was written. In addition, evidence linking Francis Tanner, born in 1708 and Nathan Tanner, born in 1710 as the sons of William Tanner Sr. and a subsequent wife Elizabeth, pushes the date of her death to some time in or before 1707.

Mary (Babcock) Tanner was buried on the family farm and a field stone bearing the mark M. T. presently preserves the location of her burial on their family farm, presently the property of the Laurel Lane Country Club.

Mary Babcock in Published Genealogies

Research for this essay has managed to identify and collect eleven published genealogies offering a glimpse into the life of Mary (Babcock) Tanner. The first four from this list, i.e. Bartlett (1857), Austin (1887), Wheeler (1900), and Babcock (1903), are pre-1905 genealogical publications in which Mary Babcock is briefly mentioned as a child of Job Babcock whom married a Tanner. In 1905 Dr. George C. Tanner published what has become the "gold standard" of Tanner Genealogies entitled William Tanner, of North Kingstown, Rhode Island and His Descendants, followed by an updated, upgraded, and enhanced version in 1910, in which Dr. Tanner provides an in-depth look at the life and family of William Tanner Sr. including his second wife Mary Babcock along with a library of allusions to the source material he had gathered to substantiate his narrative. The information offered in these publications have weathered well the erosive effects of the last 113 years and most subsequent and modern family genealogies have uncritically copied the information offered in the 1905 edition of Dr. Tanner's work. It should be stated here that the 1905 edition of Dr. Tanner's work has historically been far more well-known and accessible than his later 1910 edition, which has only recently become more available on through the internet. With the benefit of 113 years of hindsight and generations of genealogical scrutiny and subsequent research, it is now possible to provide the following information errata list, with regard to Mary Babcock, from Dr. Tanner's original publications:

Errata in the 1905 edition:

  1. ) page 10: Thomas Tanner Sr. (abt.1694-bef.1750) was not the son of William Tanner and Mary Babcock as asserted by Dr. Tanner. Refer to the profile of Thomas Tanner where evidence is offered to affirm that Thomas was the son of John Tanner. It is possible John and William Tanner are brothers, but there is no evidence to support this possibility. Dr. Tanner corrected this in the 1910 edition of his genealogy.
  2. ) page 11: Dr. Tanner's list of Wm Tanner's offspring, identifies Francis, Nathan, Anna, Rebecca, Elizabeth, and Abigail to have been the offspring of Wm and Elizabeth Cottrill, this is incorrect as Wm and Elizabeth Cottrell were not married until 1722. His assertion that Elizabeth Cottrill was the third wife of Wm Tanner, and mother of Francis, Nathan, etc. was addressed and corrected in the 1910 edition. {viz Elizabeth Cottrell was Wm Tanner's fourth wife and that she had no children with William.} From the footnote to list of Wm Tanner's children:

    It appears that William Tanner 1st m., 1st, the dau. of Henry Tibbitts; 2nd, Mary Babcock, dau. of Job Babcock of Westerly; 3rd, Elizabeth Cottrill. To the 1st we assign William of North Kingstown; to the 2nd, Benjamin, Thomas, John, Avis and Mary; to the 3rd, the remaining ch.

Errata in the 1910 edition:

  1. ) page 6: Dr. Tanner asserts in this edition, that Thomas Tanner Sr. (abt.1694-bef.1750) is the son of Benjamin Tanner. This assertion is also INCORRECT. Thomas Tanner was the son of John Tanner (abt.1650-). Refer to the profile of Thomas Tanner for evidence supporting this correction.

As previously noted, Dr. Tanner is the first published genealogist to identify

Genealogical Records

The following section of this profile provides detailed information found in the collected information sources. The purpose of this section is to provide the reader access to the information contained within the cited sources; to examine the genealogical record for areas of data corroboration and conflict, and to establish a hierarchy of reliability for the cited information. In addition, this section provides a platform to analyze, cross-correlate, and comment on important aspects of the cited historical data record.

Vital Records

  1. ) South Kingstown, RI Births; Page 57: Nathan Tanner, son of William and Elizabeth Tanner was born 20 Feb 1709.
  2. ) South Kingstown RI Marriage Records; Page 32: Nathan Tanner married Mary Cottrell, by Isaac Sheldon, Justice on 28 May 1734. {Editorial Mary Cottrell was Nathan's step sister, the daughter of John Cottrell II and Elizabeth Gardiner Cottrell, the fourth wife of his father William Tanner}

It is generally accepted (but not proven) that Mary Babcock was the birth mother of Benjamin Tanner, if this is correct, then the following Birth Record benchmarks an approximate marriage date for William Tanner and Mary Babcock to have been in 1691 or 1692:

  1. ) Kent County Vital Records, Vol 1; West Greenwich, Kent County, RI., Births and Deaths; Page 98: Benjamin Tanner was born 24 Dec 1692. {It is well known that early town clerks would record the vital data of citizens into the town record when they moved into the community. This appears the be the case of Benjamin Tanner, as it is known that his father Wm Tanner was a lifelong resident of South Kingstown (whence he was settled from his immigration), hence in all likelihood Benjamin was born in South Kingstown and did not move to West Greenwich until he was married and purchased land in said locale. The birth date of Benjamin Tanner was likely a data anchor in the record books for the births of his children in West Greenwich.}
    1. ) Children of Benjamin Tanner:
      1. ) Sarah, of Benjamin, 19 May 1716.
      2. ) Mary, of Benjamin, 21 Feb 1719..
      3. ) Joanna, of Benjamin, 3 July 1721.
      4. ) Content, of Benjamin, 8 Nov 1726.
      5. ) Benjamin {Jr.}, of Benjamin, 20 Aug 1730.
      6. ) James, of Benjamin, 5 April 1733.
      7. ) Deborah, of Benjamin, 22 Jan 1741.
  1. ) Charlestown, RI. Births; Page 27: Children of John and Jane Tanner:
    1. ) Joseph Tanner, of John and Jane, was born 2 Feb 1719 at Charlestown, Rhode Island.
    2. ) Jane Tanner, of John and Jane, was born 24 Jan 1721 at Charlestown, Rhode Island.
  2. ) North Kingstown, RI Marriages; Page 45: John Tanner married Susannah West of Frances, by William Hall, Justice, 9 May 1723.
    1. ) Charlestown, RI. Births; Page 27: George Tanner, son of John and Susannah, was born 9 Nov 1723 at Charlestown, Rhode Island.
    2. ) Sarah Tanner, of John and Susannah, was born 7 Oct 1720 {5?} at Charlestown, Rhode Island.
    3. ) William Tanner, of John and Susannah, was born 28 Feb 1727 at Charlestown, Rhode Island.
    4. ) John Tanner {Jr.}, of John and Susannah, was born 11 Nov 1730 at Charlestown, Rhode Island.
    5. ) Susannah Tanner, of John and Susannah, was born 18 Feb 1732 at Charlestown, Rhode Island.
    6. ) Mary Tanner, of John and Susannah, was born 9 Jan 1734 at Charlestown, Rhode Island.
    7. ) Esther Tanner, of John and Susannah, was born 22 Aug 1738 at Charlestown, Rhode Island.
    8. ) Job Tanner, of John and Susannah, was born 5 April 1740 at Charlestown, Rhode Island.

Church Records

  1. ) First Sabbatarian Church of Hopkinton, ; Page 114: Tanners listed on the Hopkinton Sabbatarian Baptist Membership Roll: The dates are from the revised list of members at the time given.
    1. ) Charter Members 1708: William and Mary Jr. {Editorial these name entries have traditionally been interpreted as being William Tanner Sr. and Mary Babcock. However, as it is highly probable that Mary (Babcock) Tanner died at least a year prior to the birth of Francis, son of Wm and his 3rd wife Elizabeth, in 3 July 1708; it follows that Mary Babcock was deceased at least a year prior to the 1708 Charter Membership date and this entry could not be for her. At present, (21 Sept 2019) a scanned image of the original membership document has not been found to review; and this is important because if the original document is written as "William and Mary Tanner Jr.," then it would be certain that these charter members were William Tanner Jr. and a heretofor unknown first wife Mary (Unknown) Tanner, rather than his father William Tanner Sr. and Mary Babcock. It seems intuitively obvious that Mary Jr. is an artifact of Arnold's transcription process as it is highly unusual to find the Jr. designation used with a female first name, not to mention that Jr. has no meaning in the context of female descendancy; nevertheless Mary Tanner is not the only Mary Jr. to be found in this Arnold record as there is at least one other, Mary Witter Jr. on page 116. As William Tanner Jr. was born in 1686, he would have been 22, fully of age for church membership and marriage, in 1708; and thus this membership roll would also identify Mary ____ as his first wife. As a further argument that this Wm Tanner is Wm Tanner Jr., there is no record of an Elizabeth Tanner, the 1707-1719 third wife of Wm Tanner Sr. in the SDB Church rolls, but in 1740, Elizabeth Gardiner Tanner the fourth wife and widow (post 1730) of Wm Tanner Sr. appears on the roll after his death. }
    2. ) 5 Sept 1712: Benjamin, Mary Jr., Mary, William. {Editorial: based on the comments for the charter members: Benjamin, Mary and William {Jr.} would be the children of William & Mary (Babcock) Tanner Sr.; and Mary Jr. would be the first wife of William Tanner Jr. The assertion that Mary Jr. is the wife of Wm Tanner Jr. is made stronger being present in the 1712 roll, as the 20 Feb 1709 birth [8] (Page 57:) of Nathan Tanner, son of Wm Sr. and Elizabeth benchmarks, with certainty, the demise of Mary Babcock prior to this date, i.e. Mary Babcock was not alive to be on the church roll in 1712.}
    3. ) 1712: William, Mary Jr. "{William and Mary Tanner Jr.}
    4. ) 1718: Benjamin, Mary, William, Jean. {Benjamin, Mary, William, Jean--is probably the Jane Tanner in Soule [7] , children of Wm Tanner Sr. Note in 1718, Mary Jr. asserted here as the first wife of William Tanner Jr. is missing from the church membership roll and presumed deceased sometime between 5 Sept 1712 and 1718.}
    5. ) 1740: Benjamin, Mary, William, Elizabeth Gardiner, Joannah, Joannah (2nd), Joseph, Nathan. {Benjamin, Mary, Nathan, and William Jr., are children of William Tanner Sr. Elizabeth Gardiner Tanner, is almost certainly the widow of William Tanner Sr. and John Cottrell; this three name SDB church membership identification provides a strong indication that her maiden name was Gardiner. Her three name identification, i.e. Elizabeth Gardiner Tanner, in the church membership roll was clearly a device to distinguish her from another, contemporary Elizabeth Tanner; who, in all likelihood, would have been Elizabeth (Reynolds) Tanner (not a listed SDBC member), the 1740 wife of SDBC member William Tanner Jr. Joannah, was probably Joanna (Lewis) Tanner, first wife of Benjamin Tanner, and Joseph & Joannah 2nd, were probably Joseph Tanner, son of John and Jane Tanner and his wife Joannah }
    6. ) before 1750: Content (by her father John Maxson), Francis, ____ wife of Francis, Mary.
    7. ) July, 1768: Content, Mary.
  1. ) First Sabbatarian Church of Newport; page 623 -634: List of Members, Dec 12, 1671 - 1836. Members related to Mary (Babcock) Tanner:
    1. ) Job Babcock, 1692 {Father?}
    2. ) John Crandall, 1692 {Grandfather?}
    3. ) John Tanner, Aug 28, 1737 {Son? or a different John Tanner?}
    4. ) This Newport RI Sabbatarian Baptist church membership roll, the "mother church" of the Hopkinton Sabbatarian Baptist Church, contains no reference whatsoever to William Tanner nor Mary (Babcock) Tanner.
  1. ) Hopkinton SDBC Cross Reference member:
  • Secondary Source, Dedication of Ministers' Monument, August 28, 1899, [10] Data Extract; The following information has been extracted from a footnote on page 26 and 27 of the pamphlet commemorating the Dedication of the Ministers' Monument on August 23, 1899 at the First Hopkinton (Conn.) Cemetery. This footnote identifies a list of 133 men who were known (to the Sabbatarian Baptist Church) to have been associated with the SDBC movement in southwestern Rhode Island prior to the formation of the Hopkinton SDBC in 1708. These men have been identified as the progenitors of 5/6 of the Hopkinton SDBC membership, and their descendants comprised 2/3 of the ensuing church plants spawned by the Hopkinton church. The following is an abridged version of the list, limited to individuals known (from other documents) to have been either a business associate of William Tanner or to have been an ancestor of an individual known to have married a descendant of Wm Tanner.
  1. ) List of pre-1708 Seventh Day Baptist Church Progenitors: Source footnote presents a tentative list of male immigrants and a few others, nearly all of whom settled in Rhode Island, especially in its Southwestern portion, and also in Southeastern, Connecticut, prior to the formation of the Westerly (now Hopkinton) church in 1708; and who themselves largely and very many of their descendants were, during the period occupied by the early pastors, connected with the Hopkinton SDB church, making in all fully five-sixths of its membership; furthermore, the descendants of these men account for over two-thirds of the membership of churches planted by the Hopkinton church in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York. The booklet does not specify how the author was informed of the SDBC association of the named individuals:
    1. ) SDBC Men with descendants married into the family of William Tanner Sr. and his descendants: tJohn Allen, Arthur Aylesworth, neighbor to Wm Tanner and his great grand daughter married Wm's Grandson; James Babcock, grandfather of Wm Tanners second wife Mary Babcock; William Bailey, Moses Barber, son Thomas married Avis daughter of Wm Tanner; Elijah Berry, George Bliss, Edward Bliven, Edward Boss, Thomas Brand, John Briggs, James Barker, William Bassett, Samuel Beebe, Robert Bennett, George Brown, Robert Burdick, Peter Button, Abiah Carpenter, Robert Carr, Bryant Cartwright, Jeffrey Champlin, Benjamin Chase, Christopher Chester, Jeremiah Clarke, Joseph Clarke, Francis Colgrove, possibly the father of Wm Tanner's third wife Elizabeth, Elizur Collins, Nicholas Cottrell, great grandfather of Wm Tanner's Cotrell step-children, Hope Covey, John Crandall, grandfather of Mary Babcock, wife of Wm Tanner, Sr.; John Sheldon Sr., neighbor to Wm Tanner, and grandfather of Elizabeth Sheldon, wife of Wm Tanner's son Francis
    2. ) SDBC men who were known business associates of William Tanner Sr.: Henry Hall, sold South Kingston land to Wm Tanner; son James was a brother-in-law to Wm Tanner through the Babcock sisters; John Lewis, Thomas Stanton, original owner of Kingston land deeded to William Tanner by Grandfather Henry Tibbetts Jr.
  2. ) Minister's Monument Dedication Address; page 10 - 31: Contains a reproduction of the oration given by Rev. William Clarke Whitford, D.D., President of Milton College, to the gathering of Seventh Day Baptists to commemorate the contribution of the church forefathers on 28 Aug 1899 at the site of the monument honoring their work. This narrative provides a remarkable, in-depth history of the Seventh Day Baptist Church in Westerly Rhode Island from the very beginning of the story.

Death Records

  • Primary Source, (burial); Tertiary Source (biography), Find A Grave Index [14] Data Summary:
  1. ) Find A Grave: Memorial #77356754: Mary (Babcock) Tanner was born in 1678 at USA, and she died 1696 (aged 17–18). {Editorial (RRB) Apr 2023: the best evidence available suggests Mary was born about 1672 or 3 and died about 1705, see narrative text.}
    1. ) Marriage. Mary Babcock married William Tanner (1660–1736) in 1690.
    2. ) Children:
      1. ) Benjamin Tanner (1692–1767)
      2. ) John Tanner (1694 – unknown)
  2. ) BURIAL. Mary (Babcock) Tanner was buried in the Tanner Cemetery, South Kingstown, Washington County, Rhode Island, USA
    1. ) Find a Grave Notes: "Mary (Babcock)daughter of Job & Jane (Crandall) Babcock of Westerly, in South Kingstown, Washington County, RI. Mary was born in Westerly, Washington County, RI. 1696 burial in the cemetery on their farm in South Kingston, RI. Her stone was photographed in 10/2011. "
    2. ) Tombstone Photo: Inscription, "M T"

Probate Records

  1. ) Scanned image of Job Babcock Will; Last Will and Testament of Job Babcock: The following is a full transcription of the Last will and Testament of Job Babcock, derived from a copy of the original text archived in the Town Records of Westerly, Rhode Island, followed by a scanned image of that original document.

    "In the name of God amen. I Job Babcock of the Towne of Westerly in ye Colony of Rhoad Island & being att this present time in good helth and in my perfect Sound minde and memory blessed be God for itt. Due upon mature Consideration for Cause to make this Instrument my Last will & Testament as followeth:

    Imprimis:

    I Give unto my Son John Babcock my now dwelling house and my Grist mill with all that tertially belonging to said mill with the Streeme dame and all that small matter of Land and privilidges I have on and about said mill whoe I Doo apointt executor to this my Last will.
    * Item: I Give unto my oldest Son Job Babcock one Shilling
    * Item I Give unto my youngest Son Benjamin Babcock one Shilling ~~
    * Item I Give unto my daughter Jane Braman one Shilling ~~
    * Item I Give unto my daughter Sarah Hall one Shilling ~~
    * Item I Give unto my daughter Mary Tanners: heirs one Shilling ~~
    * Item I Give unto my daughter Elizabeth Brand one Shilling ~~
    * Item I Give unto my daughter Hannah Babcock my fether Bed: with all the beding unto it with all my pewter and potts kittles dishes and spoons with all the Rest of my household stuff whether mentioned or omitted in this will or Instrument; ~~
    * Item I Give unto my daughter Mercy Babcock one Shilling.
    * Item I Doe order my Son John babcock who is hereby made executor to pay all my debts which are justly due from me and to resive what is Due to me and to pay all my funeral charges and to pay every one of the Legasys above mentioned forthwith after my decease and in Token that this is my Last Will and Testament thence hereunto sett my hand and a Seale this Twenty Sixth day of march one Thousand Seven hundred and fifteen.
    Signed Sealed (the words & delivered obliterated before Signing) in presence of John Babcock, Samuel Clarke.... Job Babcock {his seale} "


Scanned image of the original Will of Job Babcock archived in the Town Records of Westerly, Rhode Island:

Last Will and Testament of Job Babcock.
  1. ) Transcription of Francis Tanner's Will The preceding hot link connects to a full, eleven page transcription of Will of Frances Tanner, Hopkinton, Rhode Island, 22 October 1776. This transcription is free and freely available, hence, in the interest of brevity, an abridged subset of the information is presented here; please click on the hot link for access to the full transcript:
    1. ) Bequeaths to son Josias my farm in South Kingstown... boundary which is the NW corner of the land I bought of my brother Benjamin Tanner, then to the land I bought of my brother Nathan Tanner.
    2. ) Bequeaths to son Isaac Tanner my farm I formerly bought of my brother Nathan Tanner. In addition, I give...
    3. ) Bequeath to son William Tanner the north part of my land in Hopkinton.
    4. ) Bequeath to son Joshua Tanner, the south part of my Homestead in Hopkinton partially bounded the land of Nathan Tanner and Francis West.
    5. ) Bequeath to sons William and Joshua Tanner my saw mill.
    6. ) My will is that my wife Elizabeth Tanner shall have the use of a defined portion of my dwelling house, defined furnishings and provision.
    7. ) Bequeath to my 3 daughters Amy, Dorcas, and Susannah, remaining lands, not already given away.
    8. ) Witnessed by William?, Francis West, and Abel Tanner.
    9. ) William West?, Francis West and Abel Tanner appeared in at the town Council 20 January 1777 to swear to the authenticity of the will.

Biographic and Genealogical References

1857:

  1. ) RI Records; page 238: The names of such as inhabitt at Misquamacott, who have formerly presented their names to be made free of this Collony, doe now againe [present them] to this present Assembly, sitting this 28th of October, 1668, and are admitted, viz.: Joseph Clarke, John Maxson, James Badcocke, Jun'r, John Badcocke, Job Badcocke, John Randall, Daniell Crome, John, John Lewis, John Tharpe, Jonathan Armstronge, Daniell Stanton, Nicolas Cottrell, Jun'r, and James Case.
  2. ) RI Records; page 388; Job Badcock swears to the Oath of Loyalty: Signed 18 May 1671 at Westerly.
  3. ) Rhode Island Records; Index, RI Records; page 599: Job Badcocke appears two places.

1887:

  1. ) Genealogical Dictionary of RI; at Archive.org, Page 8: or at Genealogical Dictionary of RI; at Family Search, Page 8: BABCOCK, page 8: Job Babcock, son of James and Sarah Babcock, was born ____ at Westerly, RI. and he died in 1718. Job Babcock married Jane Crandall, daughter of John. Job was a blacksmith and a miller. On 26 March 1715, the will of Job Babcock was proved; Summary of Will: Executor, son John. To son John my now dwelling house, grist mill, etc. To eldest son Job 1s. To youngest son Benjamin 1s. To daughters Jane Braman, Sarah Hall, Mary {Babcock} Tanner, and Elizabeth Brand 1s each. To daughter Hannah Babcock, a feather bed, pewter, and the rest of household stuff. To daughter Mercy Babcock, 1s. To son John all that is due after payment of debts and legacies.
    1. ) Under James Babcock entry (left-hand column): 1670, Jan 18: He was warned by warrant from the Commissioners of Connecticut to appear before them to make answer for seizure of three Connecticut men, on a warrant issued by Tobias Sanders. He was released on bail. He gave testimony this year calling his age fifty eight years, his son James twenty-nine, and his son, John twenty-six years.
  2. ) Genealogical Dictionary of RI; at Archive.org, Page 202 also at Genealogical Dictionary of RI; Family Search, Page 202: Henry Tibbitts (____ - 1713) married 1661, Sarah Stanton (____- 1708) daughter of Robert & Avis Stanton. Kingstown, RI. The Will of Henry Tibbitts written 27 Nov 1708 was proved 13 July 1713: Execs, wife Sarah and son George. To wife half of certain land.... To grandson William Tanner, land purchased of Thomas Stanton of Stonington, and five loads of hay.

1900:

  1. ) History of Stonington; Page 212: Job Babcock (No. 4) m. Jane, daughter of John Crandall. He d. 1718 and she d. 1715.
    1. ) CHILDREN of Job Babcock and Jane Crandall:
      1. ) JOB, b____ ,
      2. ) JOHN, b____ .
      3. ) BENJAMIN, b____ .
      4. ) JANE, b.____ , m.____ ____ Braman,
      5. ) SARAH, b.____ , m.____ ____ Hall,
      6. ) MARY Babcock, b.____ , m.____ ____ Tanner,
      7. ) ELIZABETH, b.____ , m.____ ____ Brand.
      8. ) HANNAH, b.____ , m. ____
      9. ) MERCY, b.____ , m.____ .

1903:

  1. ) Babcock Geneaology: page 13: Biography of Job Babcock:

    Job Badcock (4.), third son of James, Sr., and Sarah Badcock, b. Portsmouth, R.I., 1646 (?); d. Westerly, 1718; m., at Westerly, Jane Crandall, dau. of Rev. John Crandall, a S.D.B. minister. She d. Westerly, 1715 (?).

    Job Badcock settled at Westerly. R. I. He owned a blacksmith shop and a grist mill on the Pawcatuck River. He was made a freeman May 18, 1669. He took the oath of allegiance May 17, 1671, and again Sept. 17, 1679. He was elected Constable of Westerly Oct., 1680, and Feb. 15, 1693. His wife, Jane, had a deed of one hundred acres of land made to her by Samuel Lewis, and Job Babcock, husband of said Jane, declared that he had given his wife full power to purchase the land. May 24, 1703, he bought land of the Sachem Ninecraft for £6. He deeded to his son Job, for love, etc., one hundred and ten acres Oct. 31, 1706.

    In 1678 Job and his wife were members of the S.D.B. Church of Newport, and Westerly, R. I.; Job Badcock, Indian interpreter, 1680. (Newport Hist. Register, vol. vii, p. 39.)

    Job Badcock with his brother John received verbally the will of their father, James Badcock, June 12, 1679. (See copy of will in Appendix.) By the will, Job received all his father's "smith tools of what sort or kind he died possessed."

    Job Babcock made his will Mar. 26, 1715; d. 1718; will proven Apr. 7, 1718, son John executor. He gave to his sons Job and Benjamin and to daughters Jane, Sarah, Mary, Elizabeth, and Mercy one shilling each; "to daughter Hannah a feather bed, pewter, and rest of household stuff; to son John my now dwelling house, grist mill, etc., and all that is due after payment of debts and legacies."Westerly had returned to their homes, the Colony of Rhode Island must have resumed its jurisdiction over Westerly, for John Badcock was elected, by the General Court of Rhode Island, Conservator of the Peace for Westerly, June 12, 1678. (C.R. of R.I., vol. iii, pp. 10-13.)

    Sept. 17, 1679, "The inhabitants of Westerly being by warrant required to appear at this Court to give the oath of allegiance to his Majesty, and of fidelity to his Majesty's authority, for this Colony," John Badcock and thirty-two others, including his brothers James and Job, appeared and took the oath. (C. R. of R.I., vol. iii, pp. 68, 69.) This event occurred three months after the death of his father.

    John Badcock was Deputy from Westerly to the Colonial Legislature in 1682 and 1684. (C. R. of R. I., vol. iii, pp. 107, 150.) The exact date of his death has not been ascertained, but it probably occurred in May or June, 1685. He died intestate and a will disposing of his estate was made by the Town Council, June 25, 1685. In the Appendix of this volume can be found a copy of the will, also the inventory of the personal property, dated June 4, 1685, which amounted to £790 3s., and was the largest recorded in the town for many years. By the law of primogeniture the oldest son, James, received all the real estate, one half of which he conveyed by deed to his mother, June 26, 1685. A copy of the deed will be found in the Appendix.

    By the will the widow received one third of the personal property, the remaining two thirds being divided equally among the nine younger children. Mary, the widow of John, was by the Town Council, made executrix of the will, and guardian of the minor children, which included all except James.

    When the will of James Badcock, Sr., was written, June 12, 1679, the first syllable of the family name was written Bad, and had been so written up to that time. Six years later, when the will of John Babcock was made by the Town Council of Westerly, June 26, 1685, the first syllable was spelled Bab, and has been so spelled ever since.

    Mary Babcock made an agreement December 26, 1689, with John Fairfield and wife to maintain them in meat, drink, clothing, etc., they binding themselves to her in all their estate to be entirely hers. (W. T. R., vol. ii, p. 129.) Dec. 26, 1696, she deeded to her son George, for love, etc., one hundred and six acres of land." (W. T. R.)

    1. ) Children of Job and Jane (Crandall) Babcock, all children born in Westerly — their names are mentioned in the will in the order here given. While the dates of birth {??}
      1. ) Job Babcock; b.
      2. ) John. b. .
      3. ) Benjamin, b.
      4. ) Jane, b. ____; m. Braman.
      5. ) Sarah, b. ____; m. James Hall.
      6. ) Mary. b. ____; m. Tanner.
      7. ) Elizabeth, b. ____; m. Brand.
        1. ) Hannah, b. ____; unm. when her father's will was written.
        2. ) Mercy Babcock (16.); b. ____; m. Daniel Stanton

1905:

  1. ) Tanner 1905 Tanner Genealogy; Page 7-8: Early Records for William Tanner:
    1. ) The first mention of William Tanner of Rhode Island appears in the Fones Record, Vol I, Pg 70, as a witness to a deed of Frances Houlding of Warwick. " I Frances Houlding, doe consent to ye deed of sale, and forever will quitt clayme, etc. Witness my hand and seale ye 12th day of May 1682. {Witnessed by} William Tanner, Peter X (his mark) Wells.
    2. ) The next mention of William Tanner is on the tax roll of the town of Rochester (Kingstown), under Gov. Andrus. for 1687, where he is taxed for one pole, 1 1-2d. {Examination of full transcription this record reveals a more correct transcription of this record would be that Wm Tanner was assessed a pole (poll) tax of 1s and an estate tax of one and a half pence.}
    3. ) In 1693, Wm Tanner bought a tract of land of one hundred acres more or less, of Henry Hall of Westerly, weaver, the deed bearing date July 4th, 1693. This deed is on record in the town of Westerly and was not recorded in South Kingston until 1 August 1728. In the deed he is said to be of Kingstown, "planter." This parcel of land lies on the east side of the River, about a mile below the village of Usquepaugh, and is described as follows:
      1. ) "Lying westerly from John Sheldon's dwelling house as followeth: beginning at the brook at John Sheldon's bounds and so up his bounds six score poles (rods) more or less to a white oak tree marked on three sides, and so from thence south and by west nearest six score poles to a walnut bush and from thence west nearest to the river to an ash tree marked on four sides and so up stream to the furthest that I have under the hand and seal of Coianaquanto as appeareth more largely upon the general records of Rhode Island."
      2. ) This "Hall Purchase" contained about two square miles, and "the house of John Sheldon appears to have been one of the first, if not the very first, built on this purchase, being referred to as a well known land mark in the oldest deeds." (Early history of Narrangansett, by Judge E.R. Potter, page 226) {From the deposition of Capt John Devol, it is known that all the lots, including John Sheldon's were surveyed at the same time in 1693. Hence, as the John Sheldon house was cited as a landmark in this Tanner deed it would clearly have to have been built prior to the execution of the Hall purchase deeds. Therefore, either the house was built on land adjacent to the Hall purchase, or John Sheldon was squatting on land owned by the Indians, then Henry Hall, then purchased in the Hall Purchase in 1693.}
      3. ) On this land, near the river, and hard by an enclosed burial place may still be seen the graves of two or three generations, including the grave of William Tanner and two of his wives. {The the best way to find this land today, is to use the address of the cemetery from Wm. Tanners find a grave profile where the cemetery, hence farm, may be found here or near the Golf Course clubhouse in this Google Earth Image. Note the Usquepaug River on the Western portion of the golf course, hence the Laurel Lane Country Club is built over much, if not all of the William Tanner Farm. NOTICE: you will need to use the Google Chrome browser and install the Google Earth app. in order to see the later image, but it is spectacular and well worth the effort }
  2. ) 1905 Tanner Genealogy; Page 10-11: William Tanner, of South Kingstown, RI, born in the west of England.
    1. ) Children of William Tanner and ____ Tibbitts:
      1. ) William {Jr.}; settled in North Kingston, RI on land given to him by his grandfather Henry Tibbetts.
    2. ) Children of William Tanner and Mary Babcock:
      1. ) Benjamin ; b. 24 Dec 1692, in South Kingstown, RI. Settled in West Greenwich, RI, where many of his descendants were living as late as 1905.
      2. ) Thomas Tanner; assumed to be a son who settled about 1730 in Litchfield, Conn. and in Cornwall. He had three sons: William, Thomas, and John. (See Genealogy of Thomas Tanner, by Elias F. Tanner, 1893). {Editorial; this assumption has been demonstrated to be incorrect, Thomas Tanner is NOT the son of Wm Tanner. Thomas Tanner was raised in Lyme, Conn., and lived in the Lyme/East Haddam Conn. area near his father John Tanner. John Tanner may possibly have been the brother of Wm Tanner of this profile.}
      3. ) John; settled in Richmond, RI, (or Charleston from which Richmond was taken)
      4. ) Avis; m. Thomas Barber 18 April 1723.
      5. ) Mary m. Lawrence Willett of North Kingston, RI. Surname is also rendered as Vilet, Violett, and Vilate in various records. Children:
        1. ) Lawrence Willett, probably d. young.
        2. ) Mary (unmarried)
        3. ) Grace (Willett) Brand
        4. ) Thankful (Willett) Clarke
    3. ) Children of William Tanner and Elizabeth Cottrill: {Important editorial Note, the revised 1910 Tanner Genealogy provides new source information which explicitly eliminates Elizabeth Cottrill as the mother of these children. It should be noted that all post 1905 William Tanner Genealogical literature which identifies only three wives for William Tanner and declares the following children as the offspring of Elizabeth Cottrell is INCORRECT and was generated from this 1905 Genealogy without the benefit of the knowledge found in the additional cited source information in the 1910 edition}
      1. ) Francis; b. 3 July 1708; bought 1200 acres in Hopkinton, RI and settled there. His descendants are located in RI, NY and beyond.
      2. ) Nathan; b. 20 February 1709-10; settled in Hopkinton RI., descendants in RI and NY.
      3. ) Anna; b. 15 March 1712; no further record.
      4. ) Rebecca; b. 2 July 1714; m. Benjamin Brand of Westerly RI (which, at that time included Hopkinton).
      5. ) Elizabeth, b. 14 Nov 1717; m. Benjamin Burdick.
      6. ) Abigail. b. 17 Oct 1719; No further record.
    4. ) It appears that William Tanner married first the daughter of Henry Tibbitts; second Mary Babcock, daughter of Job Babcockof Westerly; and 3rd Elizabeth Cottrill. {George Tanner proves this three-wife assertion to be INCORRECT in his revised 1910 edition of the Tanner Genealogy. In the 1910 edition, he cites the Wm Tanner - Elizabeth Cottrill 1722/3 marriage record; a marriage which occurs 3-4 years after the birth of Abigail, daughter of Elizabeth, and thus (with other supporting information) establishes that over the course of his life, Wm Tanner was married to four different women.}

1910:

  1. ) 1910 Tanner Genealogy; Page 6:
  2. ) 1910 Tanner Genealogy; Page 9: The following Record is from the Clerk's office in South Kingstown, RI:

    William Tanner of Kingstown for love and good will and affection towards, my son Benjamin Tanner of Kingstown, gives tract in Hall's purchase of sixty acres, bounded beginning at a red oak bush by ye river by ye old wading place near ye Tan-fats and so to begin ye said red oak bush which is marked on two sides and to rn from said bush near eastward to a red oak tree marked on two sides for a corner tree and from thence northerly on a straite line to a Nother red oak tree marked on two sides and to run on a strait line till it comes to John Sheldin's land and so bounded eastward on ye land of John Sheldin, Isack Sheldin and Job Badcock and southward bounded on ye land of job Badcock and westward bounded on ye river and so bounded on ye river till it comes to ye first mentioned bounds, etc. Dated ye 4th day of March 1723. William Tanner, Elizabeth (X) Tanner (her mark).

  3. ) 1910 Tanner Genealogy; Page 10:
    1. ) Inventory and disposal of Wm Tanner Estate: An inventory of the estate of William Tanner of South Kingstown, Rhode Island is presented, noting that the inventory was "Taken and disposed of ye twenty-third day of December Anno Domini 1730." {This document has all of the earmarks of a probate record and, if so, benchmarks the death of Wm Tanner at or just slightly prior to this date. However the 23 Dec 1730 is the same date as the land deed transferring land from Wm to son John (shown below). So how could he sign a land deed if he was deceased. }
    2. ) Land deed to son John: Next a land deed transferring ownership of 75 acres of land from Wm Tanner to John Tanner, Blacksmith, on 23 Dec 1730, signed by Wm and Elizabeth Tanner and witnessed by Francis Tanner, and Isaac Sheldin is presented.
    3. ) Seventh Day Baptist Church Membership Roll: Also the 1910 text provides a full account of the information in the membership roll of the Westerly (Hopkinton) Seventh Day Baptist church [12] and asserts that William Tanner was a founder and constituent member of the SDB Church. {Editorial note: refer to the SDB membership roll data extraction [12]; Analysis of the SDBC membership data suggests the members were Wm Tanner Jr. and his siblings, rather than William Tanner Sr.}
  4. ) 1910 Tanner Genealogy; Page 14-15: Plan of the William Tanner burial place in South Kingstown RI.
    1. ) The burial place of the early Tanners is on the original farm owned by William Tanner Sr. and is in an open field near the "Great River" and a short distance from the walled grave yard. The most north westerly grave is that of William Tanner, marked with a rude granite field stone, engraved with the letters W. T. Adjacent are two graves marked M. T and E. T. {Note: only two of Wm's four wives are noted to be buried here. There is no grave identified for ___ (Tibbitts) Tanner and there is only one Elizabeth Tanner grave. It is likely that Elizabeth Cottrill Tanner was buried at the side John Cottrill (location unknown) as it is customary for a wife to be buried beside the husband with whom she bore children.} At the foot of these graves are four small graves, probably the children of William Tanner as the custom was to bury young children at the foot of their parent's graves. {From the list of children, having no adult records are Anna, Abigail, Rachael, and Dorcas. Perhaps buried here}
    2. ) Eastward of these short graves are three graves, the middle one marked J. T., the one to the right indistinct, but may be J.T., and the one on the left clearly S. T. These are undoubtedly the graves of John Tanner, son of William, and his first and second wives, Jean and Susannah.
    3. ) About sixteen paces west of the northwest corner of the walled enclosure and about twenty three paces to the north are the graves of Josias Tanner, and at the right one marked A.T., Amy Tanner, and at the left one of the one marked J.T., is one marked P.T for Phebe Tanner, the wives of Josias. {The detailed description of locating graves by a number of paces from a walled enclosure provides powerful evidence that the author George Tanner visited this graveyard and that he made a detailed record of his observations from the time of his visit. It also affirms that he was physically present in South Kingstown to collect genealogical evidence from town records.}
  5. ) 1910 Tanner Genealogy; page 16: Avis Tanner:

    AVIS Tanner, daughter of William and Mary (Babcock) Tanner probably born in South Kingstown, RI; m. 18 April 1723, Thomas Barber.
    The following appears in the town records of South Kingstown, RI: Thomas Barber and Avis Tanner were joyned in marriage this 18th day of April Ano. Dom. 1723 before me, Rowse Helme, Just.

    In 1762 Avis Barber, widow of Thomas is appointed administrator on the estate of Thomas Barber, deceased. [Exeter Records.)
  6. ) 1910 Tanner Genealogy; page 16: Mary Tanner:

    MARY Tanner, daughter of William and Mary (Babcock) Tanner probably born in South Kingstown, RI; m. Lawrence Willett of North Kingstown, yeoman. Name spelled also Violett, Vilate, and Vitet.

    Children: Lawrence, Mary, Grace, and Thankful.

    April 8, 1728, Benjamin Tanner appears before the Council and declares that his sister Mary Willett, deceased gave him her son Lawrence Willett, then four years old, to be kept free of charge to the estate of Lawrence Willett (North Kingstown Records).

    Benjamin Tanner of South Kingstown is appointed administrator on the estate of Lawrence Vilet, late of North Kingstown, Husbandman, deceased. Court Records, Superior Court of Judicature , Newport, RI., pp 215, and 244.

    The will of Mary Vilate (single Woman) made August 25, 1743, names Sister Grace Brand, Sister Thankful Clark, Mary Clark, dau. of Sister Thankful Clark, when she comes of eighteen; Nathan Clark, son of Sister Thankful; Lawrence Brand, son of Grace; names her uncle Francis Tanner as executor. Will witnessed by Isaac Sheldon, Isaac Sheldon, Jr., and Sarah Tanner. Approved Dec 12, 1743. Legacy paid Mary Clark Sept 1, 1760.

1924:

  • Secondary Source derived from Primary Source, Samuel West, "Samuel Wests Memorandum Book," [6] Data Extract:
  1. ) "Samuel Wests Memorandum Book," page 10: Samuel West (1766-) wrote a journal which was discovered in an attic in the 1920s; it was published in 1924 with the title Samuel West's Memorandum. In this text, Samuel defines the maternal line of his father as follows:

    My fathers mother was Jane Tanner Daughter of Frances Tanner hur mother was a Babcock hur Brothers names ware William Benjamin John Frances & Nathan hur sisters names ware Mary Avis Abigail Rechel Ann & Dorcas.

1949:

  1. ) Crandall Genealogy; Page 16: Cites the 1905 Tanner Genealogy [18] as the information source. Mary Babcock, b. Westerly, RI., daughter of Job and Jane (Crandall) Babcock, married as the 2nd wife of Wm Tanner Sr., b. 1660 in England, resident of So. Kingston, RI.
    1. ) Children of William Tanner Sr. and Mary Babcock;
      1. ) Benjamin Tanner, b. 24 Dec 1692; m. (1st) Joanna Lewis 2 and (2nd) Deb. Stillman
      2. ) John Tanner; (b. ca. 1694); m. (1st) Jane Shelley, and (2nd) Susannah West, daughter of Francis West and Sarah (Meakins) West
        1. ) Eleven of 14 children named with birthdates.
      3. ) Avis, and
      4. ) Mary.

1985:

  • Secondary Source, Clarence Almon Torrey, U.S., New England Marriages Prior to 1700, [20] Data extract:
  1. ) Image 742 of 1022: Marriage records for William Tanner:
    1. ) William Tanner and first wife ____ Tibbett, daughter of Henry; ca. 1685?; ?Stonington, CT. (references: Stonington Hist. 212; Babcock 13; Tanner (1905) 8,11; Bordwell Anc. 20; Reg 14:23)
    2. ) William Tanner and second wife Mary Badcock; b. 1692?; Stonington, CT. (references: Briggs-Degroff 220; Austin's Dict. 202; Tanner (1905) 9,11; Bordwell Anc. 20; NYGBR 50; 355) {Editorial, notation in this book: b. 1692 means there was a child born in 1692 as a result of this marriage. 1692 would correspond to the date of birth presently assigned to Benjamin Tanner.  ? means the data is uncertain.}

2015:

  1. ) Soule Genealogy, Page 28, 29: William West, son of Susanna (Soule) West, was born 31 May 1681. He married first Abbiah Sprague who died sometime prior to April 1721. William married second, before 1723 Jane Tanner, daughter of Frances and ____ (Babcock) Tanner. {Editorial dau. of Wm and Mary Babcock?}
    1. ) 27 July 1741. William West, wife and children were ordered by the Charlestown RI town Council to be transported to No. Kingstown. In July 1742, Benjamin Tanner was ordered to provide an explanation to the town council regarding his guests William West and Family.
  2. ) Soule Genealogy, Seventh Edition, 2015 Page 41(available in print only): Jane Tanner, second wife of William West, b. Westerly ca. 1702; d. perhaps at Dutchess Co., NY after 31 Jan 1758 William Tanner was a 1730 head of house in South Kingstown, nine whites; Benjamin Tanner head of house in adjacent enumeration, eleven whites. William and Benjamin are on the 14 July 1730 rate bill at South Kingstown and William is on the 1 Dec 1735 rate bill.
  3. ) Soule Genealogy, Page 28, 29: 22 June 1733 Clement West, son of Susannah (Soule) West and his wife Sarah sold 140 Acres of land in East Greenwich to Benjamin Tanner. {If this was West Greenwich it would explain the post 1730 move of Benjamin Tanner to West Greenwich}
  4. ) Soule Genealogy, Page 99, 100: Susannah West, daughter of Francis West Jr., and grandaughter of Susanna (Soule) West, born ca. 1700 at North Kingstown, RI.; died priot to 14 Aug 1759. On 9 May 1723 married John Tanner (1694-1777), son of William and Mary (Babcock) Tanner. John Tanner probably married first Jane Shelley, and third Susannah Hall on 14 Aug 1759 at Richmond, RI.
  5. ) Soule Genealogy, Page 106, 107: Thomas Barber (b. 19 Oct 1699 at So. Kingstown, RI - d. ~9 Nov 1762 at Exeter, RI), son of Susannah (West) Barber, and grandson of Susannah (Soule) West married 18 April 1723 at South Kingstown, RI Avis Tanner, daughter of William and Hannah (Tibbetts) Tanner. {Editorial: George Tanner assigned Avis as a daughter of Wm and Mary Babcock, but the assertion that she was the daughter of ____ Tibbetts is a better namesake fit as Avis (Almy) Stanton was the grandmother of ____ Tibbetts; but, this assertion seems very unlikely to be correct, as it creates date conflicts with Avis' 1700 birthdate and the Wm and Mary Babcock marriage.}

Research Notes

  1. ) The following syntax conventions and definitions of terms apply to the preceding text of this profile:
    1. ) Braces {Editorial Note Example} are used to insert editorial comments; that is to say, information or clarification that is not contained in the original, cited source material.
    2. ) A Primary Source contains data that was recorded by the person in the profile; or by someone known to or with first hand knowledge of that person, during the person's lifetime, death or within two generations thereafter.
    3. ) A Secondary Source is a genealogical reference created as the result of a extensive study of available source material and it provides some evidence of the source documentation used to generate the text data.
    4. ) A Tertiary Source is a genealogical data source which is a collection of genealogical information that does not cite Primary or Secondary information sources, and the data may be factual or hearsay.
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Sources

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Babcock, Job; Last Will and Testament of Job Babcock of Westerly, Rhode Island; Town Records of Westerly, Rhode Island; 26 March 1715.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Austin, John Osborne. Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island: Comprising Three Generations of Settlers Who Came Before 1690 : With Many Families Carried to the Fourth Generation., Albany, NY., Joel Munsell's Sons, 1887. Public Domain. {Note there are two on-line sources offering scanned images of this text; archive.org and the book library of Family Search. The scanned image quality of the archive.org copy is poor, in some places unreadable. Family Search has three scanned copies of the book with good scanned image quality.]
    1. ) Archive.org: Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island, Title Page
    2. ) Family Search book library: Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island; Title Page
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Bartlett, John Russell; Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in New England, Vol II, 1664 to 1677; Printed by the order of the General Assembly; Providence, RI.; A Crawford Greene and Brothers, State Printers. 1857.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Arnold, James N.; Vital Records of Rhode Island 1636-1850 Vol 1, West Greenwich Part III {Kent County}, Printed by E.A Johnson & Co., Providence, RI., 24 Nov 1890.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 Tanner, Rev George C. DD; William Tanner, Sr. of South Kingstown, Rhode Island and His Descendants; Faribault, Minn., Self published by the author, 1910 revised and updated edition. Public Domain
    1. ) Also available at Tanner Genealogy; at Family Search, Title Page:
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Bowman; George Ernest; Mayflower Descendant: A Journal of Pilgrim Genealogy and History; Vol. 26, No.1; 1924; pp 1- 11. Boston, MA: Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1899- . (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2010). "Samuel Wests Memorandum Book," page 10.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Soule, John; Terry, Milton; and Wakefield, Robert;George Soule of the Mayflower and his Descendants for Four Generations, Second Edition, Plymouth, Massachusetts: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1995.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Arnold, James N., Editor of the Narragansett Historical Register, Vital Record of Rhode Island, 1636-1850, Providence, RI., Narragansett HIstorical Publishing Co., 1894. Twenty one Volume set of Early Rhode Island Vital records compiled by from James Arnold. Vital Record of Rhode Island. 1636-1850, Volume 5. Washington County--Title page Archive.org
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Arnold, James N., Editor of the Narragansett Historical Register, Vital Record of Rhode Island, Vol 5, 1636-1850, Providence, RI., Narragansett HIstorical Publishing Co., 1894. Twenty one Volume set of Early Rhode Island Vital records compiled by from James Arnold. Vital Record of Rhode Island. 1636-1850, Volume 5. Washington County--Title page Archive.org
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Dedication of Ministers' Monument, August 28, 1899, Published for the Association by The American Sabbath Tract Society, Plainfield, NJ., 1899.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Arnold, James Newell; Vital Records of Rhode Island. 1636-1850, Volume 7; Friends and Ministers; published under the Auspices of the General Assembly, Providence, RI.; Narragansett Historical Publishing Co.; 1895. Available at:
    1. ) Archive.org--free: Vital Records of Rhode Island. 1636-1850, Volume 7; Friends and Ministers--Title page.
    2. ) Ancestry.com--fee required Vital Record of Rhode Island. 1636-1850, Volume 7; Friends and Ministers Title page. Newport, RI., Sabbatarian Church Records (Arnold Vol. VII):
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 Arnold, James A., Rhode Island, Vital Extracts, 1636-1899, Vol 10, Town and Church Published under the Auspices of the General Assembly, Providence, R.I., Narragansett Historical Publishing Co., 1898.
  13. ↑ Beebe, Randolph R.; Cross Reference: 1708-1785 Hopkinton, RI SDBC members to Wikitree Profiles; Published in Wikitree Free Space profile, 2022.
  14. ↑ * Find a Grave, database and images (Revision date: accessed 19 April 2023), memorial page for Mary Babcock Tanner (1678–1696), Find a Grave Memorial ID 77356754; citing Tanner Cemetery, South Kingstown, Washington County, Rhode Island, USA; Maintained by M Tanner (contributor 47588861).
  15. ↑ Tanner, Francis; Last Will and Testament of Francis Tanner of Hopkinton, Rhode Island, Hopkinton, Rhode Island Town Records, 22 October 1776
  16. ↑ Wheeler, Richard, Anson; History of the Town of Stonington, County of New London, Connecticut, from its First Settlement in 1649 to 1900, New London,Conn., Press of the Day Publishing Co., 1900. Public Domain.
  17. ↑ Babcock, Stephen. Babcock Genealogy; New York; Eaton & Mains; 1903. Page 13 and [. (Note that this source gives last name of spouse only.)
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Tanner, Rev. George C. D.D. William Tanner, of North Kingstown, Rhode Island and His Descendants, Faribault, Minn., Self published by the author. 1905 (original publication). Public Domain.
  19. ↑ Crandall, John Cortland;Elder John Crandall of Rhode Island and his descendants, New Woodstock, New York, 1949. Also available online here
  20. ↑ Torrey, Clarence Almon; U.S., New England Marriages Prior to 1700, Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, 1985. Available:
    1. ) On line at
      1. ) Ancestry Record 3824 #69553 Ancestry.com Operations Inc Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2012. or
      2. ) New England Marriages to 1700; at American Ancestors. This edition include Torrey's references
    2. ) Print edition. This manuscript is still in print and may be available at Amazon.com or Abebooks.com or other rare booksellers.
    3. ) Family Search exposee on New England Marriages Prior to 1700 This article provides excellent insight regarding access to Torrey's source citations, which are not included in the single volume edition.
  21. ↑ Soule, John; Terry, Milton; and Wakefield, Robert;George Soule of the Mayflower and his Descendants for Four Generations. Seventh Edition Plymouth, Massachusetts: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 2015.

Other Sources

The following section provides a listing of source material that is pertinent to the profile subject, but not presently cited in the narrative text of the profile.

  • Thorngate, Janet; Baptists in Early North America Volume III; Newport, Rhode Island, Seventh Day Baptists; Mercer University Press; Macon, Georgia and The Seventh Day Baptist Historical Society; 2017.
  • Terri J. McSweeney; A Guide to the Descendants of William Tanner of South Kingston, Rhode Island, Volume 1; Self-published? 2000. One copy of this text has been located at Vero Beach, Florida library; there is another at the Library of Congress.
    • Memorandum by Terri McSweeney boldly asserts, without evidence, Mary Babcock was the mother of all of William Tanner's children, except Wm Jr.
    • From page 1 of the text, the full extent of the proof McSweeney offers that Mary Babcock was the mother of all of Wm Tanner's children is:
      More about ELIZABETH COTTRELL: Elizabeth was long thought to be the mother of some of William's youngest children. Researchers like Marcia Anderson proved she could not have been.
      {McSweeney's book offers no hint what this evidence might be nor does she offer any evidence to substantiate this bold assertion is correct. Filling in the gap for her; the irrefutable evidence that Elizabeth Cottrell was not the mother of these children is that she did not marry William Tanner until after these children were born, and this is indeed powerful evidence she was not their mother. HOWEVER this is not proof that Mary Babcock was their mother, merely that Elizabeth Cottrell was not; a careful reading of the 1910 Dr. Tanner text reveals that he specifically states that there was another Elizabeth (Wm's third wife) who was their mother, NOT Mary Babcock and NOT Elizabeth Cottrell!!}
    • Also from page one of McSweeney's book:
      1. William Tanner was born abt 1660 in England, and died Dec. 23, 1738 in S. Kingston, RI. He married (1) Hannah Tibbetts, daughter of Henry Tibbetts and Sarah Stanton. She was born 1664, and died 1713. He married (2) Mary Babcock, daughter of Job Babcock and Jane Crandall. She was born 1679, and died 1759. He married (3) Elizabeth Cottrill.
      This narrative is riddled with errors and is self-conflicted. The only source allusion McSweeney offers for any of her assertions made in her narrative is "Hannah's death date is from Carol I. Nelson data." The following is a list of errors found in McSweeney's text:
      • The first name of the first wife of William Tanner may be, but probably is NOT Hannah, and, in fact, her first name is unknown. The assertion that her name was Hannah comes from a footnote in Austin's work and was erroneously deduced, by Austin, from marriage data for William's son William Tanner Jr., who DID marry a Hannah.
      • McSweeney's asserted 1713 death date for Wm Tanner's first wife, _____ Tibbetts happens after William's first eight children were born, therefore McSweeney's account has both the first and second wives of William Tanner, viz, _____ Tibbetts and Mary Babcock, to be alive at the same time these eight children were born. No explanation is offered as to why she then asserts Mary Babcock to be their mother when she also asserts Wm's first wife is still living; this is grievous error that may best be accounted for by the lack of attention to detail.
      • McSweeney asserts, without evidence, Mary Babcock was born in 1679. If this assertion is correct and her ensuing assertion that she was also the mother of Benjamin Tanner in 1692 is also correct; then one arrives at the improbable conclusion that Mary Babcock was 12 when she married William Tanner and 13 when she gave birth to Benjamin. This assertion appears to be an unvetted and improbable guess.
      • Mary Babcock is asserted to have died in 1759, again with no source citation for this death date assertion. This death date occurs after Mary is inferred to be deceased in the 26 March 1715 will of her father, Job Babcock; after William Tanner married Elizabeth Cottrell in 1722/3; and even after the 23 Dec 1730 Land deed to son, John Tanner, was signed by William and his (then) wife Elizabeth Tanner.
      • Conclusion this is not a credible work and is tertiary information source for William Tanner and his family.

Web based Genealogies

The following section provides a listing of web-published genealogies pertinent to the profile subject; these genealogies are valuable in presenting an alternate perspective on family links for the profile subject. However, these genealogies may or may not be correct and are not presently cited as source material in the narrative text of this profile.





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