of William de Chair, rector of Risington, Gloucestershire. James was successively rector of Blatchington, Sussex (1742–6), of Charing, Kent (1746–55), curate of Egerton in the same county (1749–55), and rector of Streatham, Surrey (1755), as well as of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, until his death in 1784.
William was admitted in 1765 to Westminster school, where, as an actor in Terence's play, his performance of Phormio elicited Garrick's praise. He became a king's scholar, was elected to Christ Church, Oxford, in June 1770, graduated B.A. in 1774, M.A. in 1777, and was presented by his college in 1778 to the rectory of Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire. The same year his father presented him to the sinecure rectory of Westbourne, Sussex, where he spent the remainder of his life. He officiated as chaplain to Sir Francis Buller [q. v.], and in 1803 was appointed chaplain to the king.
After altering some of the metrical Psalms by James Merrick [q. v.] for the use of his own congregation, he published, with a valuable bibliographical and historical preface, ‘A Version or Paraphrase of the Psalms by J. Merrick, adapted to the Purposes of Devotion’ (1789, 12mo). This received such encouragement from George Horne [q. v.], bishop of Norwich, Richard Beadon [q. v.], bishop of Gloucester, and others, that Tattersall divided the Psalms into stanzas and republished the work (1797, 4to; 1801, 12mo; 1804, 12mo; 1822, 12mo). He then issued the first portion of an ‘Improved Psalmody’ (London, 1794, oblong 4to; reprinted London, 1802). This contained tunes adapted from Handel and the old masters, as well as many new ones contributed by leading composers and organists of the day.
Tattersall died at Westbourne on 26 March 1829. By his wife Mary (d. 1852), eldest daughter of George Ward of Wandsworth, Surrey, he left three sons and two daughters. The eldest son, James, physician to the Surrey dispensary, died on 8 May 1855.
[Foster's Alumni Oxon. both series; Welch's Alumni Westmon. pp. 383, 391–2, 440, 449, 452, 549; Gent. Mag. 1829, ii. 88; Nichols's Lit. Illustr. v. 853, viii. 651; Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit.; Manning and Bray's Survey of Surrey, ii. 237, 248, 250, iii. 295; Hasted's Hist. of Kent, iii. 220, 223; Dallaway's Sussex, i. 105; Munk's Coll. of Phys. 117; Reuss's Reg. of Living Authors, ii. 374; Lit. Mem. of Living Authors, ii. 297; Holland's Psalmists of Great Brit. i. 171, ii. 34, 114, 151, 210; Addit. MS. 5697, f. 339.]
TATWIN, TATUINI, or TADWINUS (d. 734), archbishop of Canterbury, a Mercian and priest of a monastery called Briudun or Bredon in Worcestershire, was elected successor of Archbishop Brihtwald [q. v.], who died in January 731, and was consecrated by four English bishops at Canterbury on 10 June of that year. It is probable that he owed his elevation to the commanding influence of Ethelbald or Æthelbald (d. 757) [q. v.], king of the Mercians, whose cousin Eanulf was the founder of Bredon. Tatwin is said to have been on terms of affection with Albinus (d. 732), abbot of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, and to have given his benediction to his successor, Nothbald (Elmham, pp. 300, 302). After receiving his pall from the pope he consecrated two bishops for the dioceses of Lindsey and Selsey in 733 (Sym. Dunelm Historia Regum). A letter produced in 1072 to establish the supremacy of Canterbury over York, which purports to have been sent by Gregory III to the English bishops, recommending Tatwin to them, asserts that Tatwin went to Rome to fetch the pall (Gesta Pontificum, pp. 55–57). This would have been an innovation; but as the grant of authority over all the bishops of England, which is the special subject of the letter, is contradictory to the policy of the pope, who shortly afterwards granted the pall to Egbert or Ecgberht (d. 766) [q. v.] of York, the letter must be held to be spurious (Ecclesiastical Documents, iii. 65, 311–12). Tatwin died on 30 July 734 (Sym. Dunelm u.s.; Cont. Bædæ; Elmham's date, 31 July 735, p. 311, is a mistake), and was buried in St. Augustine's. His body, with those of other archbishops and saints, was translated in 1091. His epitaph is preserved (Elmham, u.s.). He bore a high character both for religion and prudence, and was well versed in sacred learning (Historia Ecclesiastica, v. 23). Goscelin [q. v.] is said to have written an account of miracles wrought by him (Gesta Pontificum, p. 7). A charter granted in 732 by Ethelbert of Kent to an abbot Dun, possibly the same as Dunno, consecrated bishop of Rochester in 741, is attested by Tatwin (Codex Diplomaticus, No. 77). Forty enigmas, written in Latin hexameters, are attributed to him; they are in one complete series, the first and last letters of the first line of each forming a double acrostic. They are extant in Brit. Mus. MS. Reg. 12, C. xxiii. f. 121 seq., and in a manuscript in the public library, Cambridge, and have been printed by Giles in ‘Anecdota Bædæ,’ pp. 25–34, and by Wright in ‘Anglo-Norman Poets’ (Rolls Ser.), ii. App. 1. Other poems not now known to be extant are ascribed to him by Bale.
[Bede's Hist. Eccl. ed. Plummer, Sym. Dunelm., Elmham, Will. of Malmesbury's Gesta Pontiff.
