Allen line: The family of Richard Lane 1696-1957

 When I started to prepare for this post, I thought I had nothing much to say about the family of Richard and his wife, Alice Carter, the daughter of Humphrey and Annis Bliss Carter.  I learned so much writing this post, and find him to be an utterly fascinating person, although again, not without controversies both in his own life and in trying to trace his family.  Richard is the son of Roger and Beatrice (controversy as to her maiden name) Lane, and was a Puritan who emigrated from London to the island of Providence, in the Bahamas, where he was a merchant tailor.  At one time, he was on the council of the island, and a slave owner (although the records refer to them as servants; this was the common terminology at the time).  As a Puritan, he was caught up in the investigations by Bishop Laud and forced to return to London for examination.  Fortunately for our family, by the time he arrived the bishop was no longer in power, and he was allowed to return to Providence with the blessings of the government.  

When he and Alice migrated to Providence Island, there were three children with them, and a fourth was apparently born in Providence although there don't seem to be records there.  Richard and a son (below) drowned in 1657, either at the island of Eleuthra or en route there.  Alice returned to London and died there in 1674.  There is much more I could write of Richard, because there is a good account in volume II of Maryland Genealogies (found on Ancestry), but this post is mainly about their children.

Samuel was the first son, born about 1628 in London.  He first married Barbara Roddam, the daughter of Edmund Roddam, and then Margaret Mauldin, the daughter of Francis and Katherine (possibly Dudley) Mauldin.  His three children were all born in the 1670s and that is a problem because Barbara died before the children were married and Margaret's marriage is sometimes recorded as 1649, although some say it was 1669.  At this point, I'm not sure who was the mother of Samuel's three children-Dutton, Samuel, and Sarah.  Samuel settled in Maryland, and I will write further of this family in my next post.  

John, whom I have seen referred to as Jonathan and as Joseph, was born about 1631.  I think the problem is that the original document lists him as "Jo", which can be interpreted in different ways.  However, as John Lane he is best known.  He married first Mary, the daughter of Timothy and Mary Neville Lucas, and had four children-John, Mary Anna, Robert, and Joseph.  He married secondly Elizabeth the widow Howell, and their children are Thomas, Elinor, William, and James.  It is thought that Elizabeth may have been a Saltonstall, with ties to the Boston family of that name, but that as far as I know is still speculation.   

Oziel was born in 1632 and was the youngest child when the family emigrated in 1635.  I have not found any records that he married, and he is the son who drowned along with his father in 1657.

There is also a daughter, Mary, born about 1642.  She married a William Denne and they had at least five children, Elizabeth, Alice, another Elizabeth, Thomas, and Richard.  I have not located the parents of William but I think that someone by the name of Thomas would be a likely candidate, and Elizabeth may be the name of his mother, based solely on naming patterns.

I find Richard fascinating because although he emigrated, it was not to what became the thirteen colonies, but to another British colony entirely.  He was caught up in the politics of religion, he apparently held slaves, he tried to grow madder, and he seems to have been relatively prosperous.  And of course, Richard and Alice are part of the reason I'm here today!