TANCRED, CHRISTOPHER (1689–1754), benefactor, born on 11 Nov. 1689 at Whixley, was the second son of Christopher Tancred of Whixley, Yorkshire, by his second wife, Catherine, daughter of Sir John Armytage of Kirklees. His father was in 1685–6 high sheriff of Yorkshire, and was master of the harriers to William III (Hist. MSS. Comm. 14th Rep. vi. 166); his great-grandfather, Sir Richard Tancred, had as a royalist compounded for his estates under the Commonwealth, and was knighted by Charles II for his services and sufferings during the rebellion.
In 1721 he settled his property in trust, in default of male issue, to the use of the masters of Christ's and Gonville and Caius Colleges, Cambridge, the president of the College of Physicians, the treasurer of Lincoln's Inn, the master of the Charterhouse, and the governors of Chelsea Hospital and the Royal Hospital, Greenwich, and their successors, for the foundation of twelve Tancred studentships, for which purpose £50 apiece was to be paid to twelve young persons of ‘such low abilities as not to be capable of obtaining the education.’ Four were to be educated in the study of divinity at Christ's College,
