Joseph Robson Tanner

Joseph Robson Tanner (28 July 1860 – 15 January 1931) was an English historian, an expert on Samuel Pepys, author of numerous publications and Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge.

Life Tanner was born in Frome, Somerset, the eldest son of Joseph Tanner. He was educated at Mill Hill School, London, and at St John's College, Cambridge, where he took a First in the Historical Tripos in 1882. He was President of the Cambridge Union Society in Easter Term, 1883. He was a lecturer in History at St John's, from 1883 to 1921, and lecturer on Indian History to Indian Civil Service students, from 1885 to 1893.

In 1883 Tanner became a Fellow of St John's and was an Assistant Tutor from 1895 to 1900, a Tutor from 1900 to 1912, and Tutorial Bursar, 1900–21. He served as a deputy to the Regius Professor of Modern History, 1926–27.

In 1888 Tanner married Charlotte Maria, second daughter of George J. Larkman of Belton. After living in Cambridge for forty-two years he moved to Woodside, Aldeburgh, Suffolk. He is buried at the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge.

Select publications Two Discourses of the Navy 1638 and 1659, by John Hollond; and A Discourse of the Navy, 1660, by Sir Robert Slyngesbie, ed., 1896. Pepys's Memoirs of the Royal Navy, ed., 1906. The Navy of the Commonwealth and the First Dutch War, 1906. The Historical Register of the University of Cambridge, being a supplement to the Calendar with a record of university offices, honours and distinctions to the year 1910, ed., 1917. Samuel Pepys and the Royal Navy [Lees Knowles Lectures, 1919], 1920. Tudor Constitutional Documents, A.D. 1485–1603, ed., 1922. Mr Pepys: An Introduction to the Diary together with a Sketch of his Later Life, 1925. Pepys's Naval Minutes, 1926. Private Correspondence of Samuel Pepys, 1679–1703, ed., 1926. English Constitutional Conflicts of the seventeenth century, 1603–1689, 1928. Further Correspondence of Samuel Pepys, 1662–1679, ed., 1929. Constitutional Documents of the Reign of James I, A.D. 1603-1625, 1930.

Student reading Tanner's English Constitutional Conflicts at Shimer College in 1973.