♂George Lane

George Lane (died 4 June 1689) was a shoemaker and one of the early settlers of Hingham, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony^W, where he held land from the town’s first division in 1635, raised eight children and twice served as a selectman. He was the tenth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his daughter Sarah Lane (born 1638).

Hingham

George was a son of William Lane, who was living at Dorchester by 1635 and died about 1654; the family is said to have come from Beaminster, in Dorset. When Hingham made its first distribution of land on 18 September 1635, George received a house lot of five acres on Town Street, now North Street, with ten acres at Nutty Hill and thirteen shares in the common lands. His brother Andrew was granted a house lot on the same street that day, and in 1648 bought the lot next to George’s on the west. In March 1652/3 George and Moses Collier bought the Hingham estate of Thomas and Nathaniel Jocelyn.

He worked as a shoemaker and was chosen selectman in 1669 and again in 1678. George and his wife, Sarah Harris, had eight children, five daughters and three sons, all born or baptized at Hingham between March 1637/8 and July 1656. The eldest, Sarah, married James Lewis of Barnstable in 1655.

Death

George died at Hingham on 4 June 1689, and his will was proved on 20 August that year. It named the sons of his daughter Hannah and her husband, Thomas Humphrey. His wife, Sarah Harris, outlived him by nearly six years and died at Hingham on 27 March 1695.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through his daughter Sarah Lane and her daughter Sarah Lewis (1661–1732). They meet again in Wesley Blanchard (1844–1908), whose parents, Joseph Knapp Blanchard (1820–1885) and Elizabeth Trueworthy Blanchard (1825–1884), were both descended from George Lane and his wife Sarah. On Joseph’s side the line runs from Sarah Lewis through her daughter Susannah Lincoln (born 1688), Elizabeth Colson (1723–1798), Sarah Hovey (1747–1805), Nicholas Blanchard (1766–1849) and Noah Blanchard (1797–1875). From Wesley the descent to Nancy Jane Blanchard runs as one, through George Wesley Blanchard (1868–1939) and Kenneth Blanchard (1897–1975).

Notes

Sources

His life at Hingham comes from the Lane entry in the History of the Town of Hingham, Massachusetts (1893), volume 2, page 411, compiled from the town records: the land grants of 18 September 1635, his trade (“Shoemaker”), his terms as selectman, his house “on North, near Beal St.”, the children, “all b. or bt. in Hing.”, his death on 11 June 1689 with the will “proved 20 Aug. foll.”, and his wife’s death on “26 March, 1694-95”. Andrew’s own entry places his purchase of 6 April 1648 as “bounded by George Lane eastward”. The purchase from the Jocelyns, on 11 March 1652/3, is in the same volume, page 396, citing Suffolk Deeds, volume 3, page 372. That his will named the four sons of Thomas and Hannah Humphrey is from the Humphrey entry, page 360.

Death dates

The History of the Town of Hingham, Massachusetts gives George’s death as 11 June 1689 and his wife’s as “26 March, 1694-95”. The Hobart journal (New England Historical and Genealogical Register, volume 121, pages 274 and 282), as cited by Harris in volume 156 (2002), page 147 and note 19, gives 4 June 1689 for George’s death and 27 March 1695 for his wife’s.

Wife

Gale Ion Harris, “Walter and Mary (Fry) Harris of New London, Connecticut”, in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, volume 156 (2002), pages 145 to 149, identifies Sarah as the daughter of Walter and Mary (Fry) Harris. The identification rests on her mother’s will, dated 19 January 1655/6, which names “my eldest daughter Sarah Lane”. The Hingham history gives only her first name.

The son John

The History of the Town of Hingham (1893), volume 2, page 411, lists a son John, born 20 January 1647/8. Harris, in volume 156 (2002), page 148 and note 23, cites Ellen Jeannette Lane, New England Historical and Genealogical Register, volume 83 (1929), pages 466 to 467, for making him the son of William and Mary (Kelloway) Lane of Boston. George’s will, dated 16 October 1688, names sons Josiah, Ebenezer and Peter only, so John is not counted among George’s children.

Origin

The Hingham history makes George a son of William Lane of Dorchester, whose will, proved 6 July 1654, names two sons, George and Andrew, and four daughters, “all prob. b. in Eng.”; it places William “prob. from the western part of Eng.” Beaminster comes from later work summarized in the Great Migration Newsletter, drawing on articles in The American Genealogist, volume 64 (1989), pages 214 to 215, and volume 65 (1990), page 106: “Thomas Lincoln (cooper) and his father-in-law William Lane emigrated from Beaminster, co. Dorset.” No record of George’s own birth or baptism is known.