Lawrence Tanfield

Sir Lawrence Tanfield (c. 1551 – 30 April 1625)[1] was an English lawyer, politician and Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer.

His career flourished largely due to the patronage of his first wife's uncle, Sir Henry Lee of Ditchley, the Queen's Champion.

True to her combative nature, she was said to have appropriated the north aisle of St John the Baptist to hold the memorial, without seeking permission.

His only daughter Elizabeth had married Henry Cary, 1st Viscount Falkland and became a writer and Catholic convert; this led to a breach with her father, and may explain his decision to leave his property to the next generation.

This is testimony to the hatred they had aroused in their tenants during their lifetime: it is also said that for 200 years after Tanfield's death, he and his wife were burnt in effigy on his anniversary.

Sir Lawrence Tanfield from The life and times of Lucius Cary, Viscount Falkland
Tanfield Memorial, commemorating Sir Lawrence Tanfield and his second wife Elizabeth Evans, in the Church of St John the Baptist, Burford, erected 1628