Sir Lawrence Tanfield was an English lawyer, politician and Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer

Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer

The Chief Baron of the Exchequer was the first "baron" of the English Exchequer of pleas. "In the absence of both the Treasurer of the Exchequer or First Lord of the Treasury, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, it was he who presided in the equity court and answered the bar i.e...

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He was the eldest son of Robert Tanfield of Burford by his wife Wilgiford Fitzherbert and educated at Eton College and the Inner Temple. He was called to the bar by 1579.

He was elected Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Woodstock

Woodstock (UK Parliament constituency)

Woodstock, sometimes called New Woodstock, was a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom. It comprised the town of Woodstock in the county of Oxfordshire and the surrounding countryside and villages, and elected two Members of Parliament from its re-enfranchisement in 1553 until 1832...

 in 1584, 1586, 1589, 1593, 1597 and 1601 and returned as knight of the shire for Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire (UK Parliament constituency)

Oxfordshire was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1885. It was represented by two Members of Parliament. In 1832 this was increased to three...

 in 1604. He was knighted in 1604.

He was appointed Serjeant-at-law

Serjeant-at-law

The Serjeants-at-Law was an order of barristers at the English bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law , or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are writs dating to 1300 which identify them as descended from figures in France prior to the Norman Conquest...

 in 1603, puisne judge of the King’s Bench in 1606 and Chief Baron of the Exchequer in 1607.

Tanfield bought Burford Priory in 1586 and the manor of Burford and Great Tew estate in Oxfordshire in 1611, which he partially enclosed

Enclosure

Enclosure or inclosure is the process which ends traditional rights such as mowing meadows for hay, or grazing livestock on common land. Once enclosed, these uses of the land become restricted to the owner, and it ceases to be common land. In England and Wales the term is also used for the...

 in 1622. He married firstly Elizabeth, daughter of Giles Symonds of Cley, Norfolk, with whom he had a daughter, and secondly Elizabeth Evans of Loddington, Northants. He died in 1625 and left his estates to his grandson, Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland

Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland

Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland was an English author and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 to 1642...

. His daughter Elizabeth married Henry Cary, 1st Viscount Falkland

Viscount Falkland

Viscount of Falkland is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1620 for Sir Henry Cary, although he was actually English and had no connection to Scotland. He was made Lord Cary at the same time, also in the Peerage of Scotland. His son, the second Viscount, was a prominent statesman...

and became a writer and Catholic convert. Great Tew in the 1630s was the centre of a celebrated intellectual circle..