Born: 1700, Dunchurch, Warwickshire, England.
Baptized: November 6, 1706.
Died: October 7, 1783, St. Neots, Cambridgeshire, England.
Buried: St. Neots priory, Cambridgeshire, England.
William was the son of a laborer. The parish register gives his name as Tanzer.
Around 30 years of age he made Ewell, near Epsom, his home, publishing his Melody of the Heart there.
He taught psalmody in a number of places, including Barnes, Cambridge, Stamford, Boston (England) and Leicester.
He subsequently settled down and became a bookseller at St. Neots.
Tans’ur wrote some 100 psalm and hymn tunes, anthems, a Te Deum, and other material.
Tans’ur’s Bangor was a popular tune in Scotland for many years, and is mentioned in Robert Burns’ poem The Ordination:
Mak haste an’ turn King David owre,
An lilt wi’ holy clangor;
O’ double verse come gie us four,
An’ skirl up the Bangor.