♂Johannes Tawier

Johannes Tawier (living 1584) was a man of Thornbury, in Gloucestershire, England, who is said to have been the father of Richard Thayer, baptised there in 1562. He was the eleventh great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his son Richard Thayer (baptized 1562).

He is said to have been a son of John Tawier and his wife Constance, and to have married a woman named Mary, who died in 1611. Their son Richard was baptized at Thornbury on 2 August 1562, the clerk writing the name in Latin as “Ricardus Tawier” and, as that register did, naming the child’s godparents rather than his parents. Johannes was still living at Thornbury on 12 October 1584, the last date known for him.

Lines of descent

Both lines to Nancy Jane Blanchard run through his son Richard Thayer and two more generations of Richards to Nathaniel Thayer (1658–1728), and on down to Mary Thayer (1770–1827). Two of Mary Thayer’s grandchildren, Joseph Knapp Blanchard (1820–1885) and Elizabeth Trueworthy Blanchard (1825–1884), married each other, so their son Wesley Blanchard (1844–1908) descended from Johannes Tawier through both parents.

Notes

The 1922 column

His place in the family rests on a genealogy column printed in the Boston Evening Transcript in 1922. It names him as Johannes Tawier of Thornbury, son of John and Constance, records him as living on 12 October 1584, and makes him and his wife Mary, who it says died on 20 April 1611, the parents of Richard Thayer, born 2 August 1562. The same column says he married secondly a woman of the Cooke family.

The Thornbury register of the 1560s names godparents, never parents, so it cannot test the link. It also has a second Ricardus Tawier, baptized on 6 April 1565, and the column’s choice of the 1562 child is its own.