♂William Lane

William Lane (died before 6 July 1654) was an early settler of Dorchester, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony^W, whose sons George and Andrew were among the first planters of Hingham. He was the eleventh great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his son George Lane (died 1689).

Dorchester

William is said to have come from Beaminster, in Dorset, and was living at Dorchester by 1635. He had six children, two sons and four daughters, all probably born in England. His wife, Agnes, was probably the mother of all six, though no record names her as their mother. His sons settled at Hingham, where on 18 September 1635 George and Andrew were each granted a house lot of five acres on Town Street, now North Street.

Dorchester gave William land of his own in 1637. On 2 January the town ordered “that Good : Lane shall haue one acre [at] the little neck towards the harbor”, calling him by the title Goodman^W, and on 18 March he received two more grants of between six and seven acres. By the end of his life he owned a new house there and held a “great lot” of about 24 acres.

Death

William died about 1654. His will, dated 28 February 1650/1, was proved on 6 July 1654, and it names his son George Lane of Hingham. He left his “new dwelling-house” at Dorchester, with its outbuildings and gardens, to his son-in-law Thomas Rider and his daughter Elizabeth, Thomas’s wife. The great lot went to his daughter Mary Long, and each of his sons and sons-in-law received a sum in silver.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through his son George and George’s daughter Sarah Lane (born 1638), and on through 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 William Lane. From Wesley the descent to Nancy Jane Blanchard runs as one.

Notes

Sources

His life comes from the Lane entry in the History of the Town of Hingham, Massachusetts (1893), volume 2, pages 410 to 411, which is drawn from the Dorchester and Hingham town records and from his will. It states that “he was a resident of Dorchester as early as 1635”, quotes the grant of 2 January 1637, gives the two grants “On the 18th of March foll.”, and quotes the will’s bequests of “my great lot” of “ab. 24 acres” to “dau. Mary Long” and of “my new dwelling-house” in Dorchester to Thomas Rider, “my Sonne in Law”, and his wife Elizabeth. It gives his death as “ab. 1654” and says the will, “proved 6 July of that year, mentions two sons and four dau’s; all prob. b. in Eng.”: Elizabeth, who married Thomas Rider; Mary, who married first Joseph Long and second Joseph Farnsworth; Anis or Avith, who married Thomas Lincoln, later of Hingham, “kn. as ‘the Cooper’”; George; Sarah, who married Nathaniel Baker; and Andrew. The grants to George and Andrew at Hingham on 18 September 1635 are on page 411.

Wife

The Hingham history calls him “prob. a wid’, as no mention is made of his w. either upon Dor. or Hing. rec’s.” The name Agnes comes from the list of members of the Dorchester church, in Records of the First Church at Dorchester, in New England, 1636-1734 (Boston, 1891), page 5, where “Agnes Lane” is among those added before November 1639. The 1635 list of the Hopewell, sailing from Weymouth, names “William Lane, his wife and son” (Coldham, The Complete Book of Emigrants 1607-1660, volume 1, page 144, from the port books, PRO E190/876/1). No record gives her surname or states the marriage; that she was his wife rests on the name, the place and the time. No record names her as the mother of the six children; that she was their mother is an inference. Her maiden surname is not known.

The will

The will is dated “28. 12mo 1650”, which is 28 February 1650/1 in modern reckoning, and was proved on 6 July 1654. The abstract in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, volume 5 (1851), page 304, names “Sonne George Lane of Hingham”; the word “Sonne” there also covers sons-in-law, and George and Andrew carry the surname.

Origin

The Hingham history places him only as “prob. from the western part of Eng., where, according to tradition, one or more of his dau’s was m.” Beaminster comes from later work, summarized in the Great Migration Newsletter, on articles in The American Genealogist, volume 64 (1989), pages 214 to 215, and volume 65 (1990), page 106: parish register entries “strongly support the conclusion that Thomas Lincoln (cooper) and his father-in-law William Lane emigrated from Beaminster, co. Dorset.” The second article is titled “Thomas Lincoln (the cooper) of Hingham and William Lane of Dorchester (not Hingham)”. No record of his own birth or baptism is known.