Frances (Vane) Buffington (abt. 1660 - bef. 1720)

Born about 1660 in Randolph County, Virginia Colony [uncertain]

Wife of John Grubb — married 1681 in Chester County, Pennsylvania

Wife of Richard Buffington — married 1710 in East Bradford, Chester, Pennsylvania

Descendants

Died before 1720 before about age 60 in English Province of Pennsylvania [uncertain]

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Chet Snow [send private message], Sydna Taylor [send private message], and Thomas Buffington [send private message]

Biography

Frances was the wife of John Grubb, an immigrant Quaker Delaware settler from Cornwall. The couple had nine children, all of whom survived to adulthood. She was born around 1660, but her background is unknown.

This Frances' maiden name is often said to have been Vane, but the basis of the claim has been disproved by more-recent research, showing that the "Frances Vane" in question died in England whereas John Grubb's wife definitely died in Chester Co., Pennsylvania. A respected 1890's Grubb family historian, Judge Ignatius Grubb, stated that she was the daughter of Sir Henry Vane, the second Governor of Massachusetts. While that belief endures to this day, recent research has determined that Henry's daughter Frances died in England in 1683. While it remains possible Frances Grubb's maiden name was Vane, she certainly wasn't Sir Henry Vane's daughter.

David N. Grubb writes:

"In his 1893 work, Gilbert Cope provides no information about John Grubb’s wife other than that her [first] name was Frances. In December of that year, Judge Ignatius Grubb wrote that her maiden name was Vane, and that she was the daughter of Sir Henry Vane, the Younger (1613 – 1662). Sir Henry Vane was a Puritan who immigrated to Boston and became the second governor of Massachusetts. After serving his term, he went back to England to participate in the Civil War and became one of the main spokespersons for Cromwell. Sir Henry Vane was executed after the Restoration. The story is that Frances Vane was born in 1642, first married Edward Kewkewich of Minhincot, Cornwall and became a Quaker. After Edward’s death, she married John Grubb in Cornwall about 1675 and came to America with John. Supposedly, her money enabled John to purchase land upon their arrival."^[1]

and then continues . . .

"This story is pure nonsense. In fact, the daughter of Sir Henry Vane was buried in Shipborne parish, Kent County, England on June 4, 1683. Further, if John’s wife was the daughter of Sir Henry Vane, she would have had three children after her 50th birthday!"^[2]

Based on her children’s birth dates, Frances Grubb was probably born about 1660. A Frances Vane was born that year in Randolph County, Virginia. Interestingly, a John Vane, also born in Randolph County moved to Ocean Township, New Jersey where he died in 1710. Also the same year, a Samuel Vane was named in the will of Ann Hartup of New Castle County, Delaware. While none of this evidence is conclusive, it was quite common for Quakers in the older colonies to move to the Delaware Valley after Penn established his colony there in 1682.

Recent research has determined that Sir Henry's daughter Frances Vane died in England in 1683. While it remains possible Frances Grubb's maiden name was Vane, she certainly wasn't Sir Henry Vane's daughter. This conclusively eliminates Sir Henry Vane as the father of the Frances that married John Grubb (1652-1708) and who is the subject of this profile.

Genforum repeats the above information saying "There is no hard evidence that Frances Grubb’s maiden name was Vane. In fact, the only thing we really know about her origins is that she was probably born between 1660 and 1665 based on the ages of her nine surviving children." See also: Note #N1 below

Frances remarried an old friend of the family: Richard Buffington, after John Grubb's death in 1708 and moved from New Castle County, Delaware, a few miles north to Bradford, Chester County, Pennsylvania. She died sometime before 1721 when Richard Buffington married for a third time, and maybe as early as 1712^[3]

Death and Burial

Between 1712-1720. Before 1720 is listed here as her death date. Her Find A Grave memorial states she died in 1720, which is plausible as she remarried in March 1709 after John Grubb's death in 1708. No primary source document has been found. ^[4][5]

Notes

Note 1: Vane Controversy - Disputed Parents

The origin of the name "Frances Vane" is controversial. Virtually all family genealogy sources say she was the daughter of Sir Henry Vane, the Younger, and Frances Wray. However, there is a Grubb family historian who claims on several internet sites that Frances was not their daughter. He says that John Grubb's wife was a Frances with an unknown name, but then he also says she could be a Frances Vane from Virginia (or North Carolina).^[6]

His main argument for her not being the daughter of Sir Henry Vane is that she didn't marry someone of nobility. But since Henry Vane the Younger was beheaded for treason, his family probably would have lost their estate and perhaps their rank in life, emigration might have seemed a good option...^[7] cited on ^[8]

It should also be noted that "Frances (Vane) Grubb" became a Quaker, who refused to honor worldly rank and station in favor of a quiet, simple life. The persecution of Quakers in 17th Century England was most-likely the reason for her emigration to Pennsylvania.^[9]

Note 2: Grubb Family

In 1678, Robert Wade, one of the Griffen settlers who left Salem for Brandywine, purchased 500 acres on the south side of Upland Creek. That July, John Grubb and his friend Richard Buffington entered into an agreement with Wade to farm this property. Upland was a small settlement across the [Delaware] River from Salem and several miles north of the modern border between Delaware and Pennsylvania. At that time, the population of the entire Brandywine region including Upland consisted of native Americans and several hundred Europeans, few of English origin [mostly Swedes, Finns & Dutch]. Upland and New Castle were the only settlements in the Delaware Valley with courts, i.e. several part-time magistrates, some of whom had remained in office since the Dutch period. Wade erected a large house that became the first regular meeting place for Quakers in what was to become Pennsylvania.

The next year, John Grubb and Richard Buffington used their earnings to acquire their own property. On November 25, 1679, they recorded at the court in Upland their joint purchase of 340 acres on the southwest side of Upland Creek adjacent to Wade's property. Apparently Wade also wanted this property. While William Penn had not yet received the charter for Pennsylvania, by 1680 Penn's intentions were commonly known. Upland was the leading candidate to become the capital of Penn's colony, and the Upland Creek tract would have become prime property if Upland were selected.

Wade accused Grubb and Buffington of breach of contract and embezzling his grain. Wade also claimed that Grubb and Buffington had gelded his bull and ram, and that Grubb had boasted of the deed after consuming a bottle of rum. After arbitration failed, the court at New Castle heard the charges in December 1680, and the jury found for the defendants, Grubb and Buffington. This didn't end the matter, and shortly thereafter Wade was in possession of the Grubb-Buffington tract. Gilbert Cope speculates that they transferred their property to Wade in repayment of some debt.

However, this seems improbable because Grubb and Buffington won the court case. It is more likely that Wade made Grubb and Buffington an attractive offer for the property. While the exact details are unknown, John Grubb then acquired a one third interest in another 600 acre tract on the branches of Naaman's Creek, a few miles south of the modern Delaware-Pennsylvania border. This tract was jointly owned with two Dutchmen, Isaac Savoy and David Bilderbeck. Buffington acquired his own tract on Brandywine Creek in what was to become East Bradford Township (Marcus Hook), Pennsylvania.

John Grubb's dispute with Robert Wade is probably the reason there has been considerable confusion concerning John's religion. We know he was not a Quaker at the time of his death in 1708. However, all of his known actions until his dispute with Wade suggest that he was a Quaker until then. He probably became an "inactive Quaker" about 1680 because Wade was the most prominent Quaker on the west side of the Delaware River and the only Friends meeting place was in his house.

William Penn was granted the charter for Pennsylvania in 1681, and sailed from England the summer of the next year. Just before he left, Penn purchased the 3 counties that make up Delaware from the Duke of York because the Duke decided that it was too troublesome to administer those 3 counties from New York. Penn arrived at New Castle on October 29, 1682, and was met by a group of early settlers, including John Grubb. Then, Penn changed the name of Upland to Chester and announced his decision to establish his capital, Philadelphia, further upriver. As a result, Wade's tract on what was now Chester Creek did not become as valuable as Wade had hoped.

One of the early tasks of the new colony was to record tracts owned by the few settlers already in the area. On September 19, 1682, even before Penn arrived, a survey was made of the Naaman's Creek property for John Grubb and his partners. This survey did not subdivide the property between the three partners, and later this was to cause considerable problems with William Penn. The survey was confirmed by a warrant dated April 26, 1684. Today, this area appears on the map as Grubb's Landing, although John's sons probably established the landing itself after his death. A modern street down to the river from Route 13 is named Grubb's Landing Road. Another street in the area named Grubb Road ran along the southern side of Naaman's Creek. The eastern half of this street from Route 13 to Arden became Harvey Road in 1887, but the portion west of Arden still retains its original name for several miles.

Meanwhile John and his wife Frances (ca. 1660 - ca. 1720) started their family. We know nothing about her origins or when she married John. However, the fact that their first child, Emmanuel, wasn't born until July 1682, suggests that John and Frances were married in America. It appears that she was a Quaker and was somewhat younger than most Quaker women at the time of marriage, which averaged 24 years old in the Delaware Valley.

Emmanuel Grubb's obituary in Penn's Gazette 86 years later reported that his parents had lived in a cave along the banks of the Delaware River until John finished their house, and that Emmanuel was born in this cave. The story also claims that Emmanuel was the first child of English parents born in Delaware. However, Gilbert Cope indicates that at least six children of English parents were born in the area before Emmanuel Grubb. The story about the cave also seems improbable because John already lived on the Naaman's Creek tract for a year or so by the time his son, Emmanuel, was born.

Sources

1. ↑ Source: #S2 and see Note #N2
2. ↑ Source: #S2 Grubb, David N
3. ↑ Source: #S4 Family Data Collection - Record for Frances Vane
4. ↑ Researched by Chet Snow on June 22, 2014.
5. ↑ Source: #S3 Find A Grave Memorial# 71242118 - Record for Frances Vane - gives a 1720 death date but is Unsourced.
6. ↑ Added by Chet Snow, March 28, 2015.
7. ↑ [Ancestors of Francis Vane]
8. ↑ Blauch/Myers Family Tree on RootsWeb - Frances Vane
9. ↑ Added by Chet Snow, March 28, 2015.

• Source: S1 Ancestry.com. OneWorldTree. Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc.; Repository: #R1
• Source: S2 Grubb, David N, The Grubb Family of Grubb's Landing, Delaware. Higginson Book Co. (2008).
• Source: S3 Global, Find A Grave Index for Burials at Sea and other Select Burial Locations, 1300s-Current (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012), Ancestry.com; Repository: #R1; [Find A Grave Memorial# 71242118]. Record for Frances Grubb.
• Source: S4 Family Data Collection - Individual Records (Edmund West, comp.. Family Data Collection. Provo, UT, USA], 2000) Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000. Record for Frances Vane Parents: (Vane) Spouse: John Grubb; Birth 1660: Randolph Co., NC; Marriage: Mar 1708; Marcus Hook, Delaware, PA Death 1712; Bradford Township, Chester, PA..
• Repository: R1 http://www.Ancestry.com

Acknowledgements

• Thank you to Katherine Patterson for creating Vane-3 through the import of Shortened files.ged on 30 December 2010.

• This profile includes the import of LaBach Family TreeApril28_2011.ged on 05 May 2011.

• WikiTree profile Vane-13 created through the import of Rhodes 2011_2011-07-09_01_01.ged on Jul 9, 2011 by Tom Rhodes. See the Changes page for the details of edits by Tom and others.

• Thank you to Thomas Buffington for creating WikiTree profile Grubb-317 through the import of dq2201_173032fbsz725291dii101.ged on Jan 22, 2013.

• WikiTree profile Vane-76 was created by a by a GEDCOM import from Sydna Uteg through the import of RichardBovington.ged on Feb 3, 2014.

• Vane-83 was created by Ed Wynn through the import of Wynn_2014-08-24_01.ged on Aug 24, 2014.