Education
He was a surveyor and writer, said by Anthony Wood in Athenae Oxonienses to have studied at Cambridge but not graduated, though university records do not confirm this.
He was a surveyor and writer, said by Anthony Wood in Athenae Oxonienses to have studied at Cambridge but not graduated, though university records do not confirm this.
He was the eldest of Richard Taverner"s younger brothers. Probably in the 1540s he became deputy to Sir Francis Jobson as surveyor for the Court of Augmentations, and later he was employed (also as deputy surveyor) by the exchequer until 1573 (we have surviving various reports by him on crown woods, in British Library, Lansdowne Master in Social Service 43, 56, 62). He was elected to Parliament in 1555 as a member for Newport-juxta-Launceston, Cornwall (possibly at Jobson"s instigation).
He was also a writer of tracts on economic issues, such as ‘Remedies … of derth of victualles’ (Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Mississippi 376 - dedicated to Queen Elizabeth), a similar work sent to her two years previously (mentioned in the previous work"s dedication), and - unprinted, but more influential - his ‘Arte of surveyinge’ of 1565.