G2G: Wife and mother of LAncelot Vance

Question

Dr. Lancelot Vance (Vans) was born in or around 1630 and died in 1658 or 1659 in the seige of Londonderry. His father was John Vance (Vans)Vicar of Kilmacrenan. There are four profiles of him on wikitree. The men are pretty well documented, but I cannot find reliable documentation on their wives. John Vance married Elizabeth Shaw or Agnes Rainey according to the souces I have found. Lancelot Vance married Euphemia Murray, Euphemia Reiney, Euphemia Bainey or Agnes Reiney. Can anyone helo me determine reliable information on thewife or wies of each man?

Answer 1

Search Results from Historical Records

No records found for Name: Lancelot Vance, Event: Birth, Event Range: 1625-1635, Event: Death, Place:Londonderry, Event Range: 1658-1659, Father Name: John Vance

Comments

I entered the names and dates you gave, but  familysearch.org  did not find anything to support an answer. 

Wikipedia has an article on the Seige of Londonderry.

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Thank you

Answer 2

For a start the Siege of Derry Londonderry was 1689 not 1658 circa as you state  so you are quite a way off base there. Lancelot died after the Siege 1689 April to July. He died from fatigue (after the siege-as stated) so August circa. Euphemia was a Murray.

Answer 3

There is NO reliable evidence for the existence of Lancelot Vance and good reasons to suppose that no such person ever existed.

Research by Mrs. Kathleen O'Neill has unearthed a Captain (later Colonel) Thomas Lance, as to whom the source she quotes  gives just the same information about his part in the siege of Londonderry as is given by George Washington Vance and William Balbirnie  for Lancelot Vance. Lance as a surname is unknown in Ireland then or now. We propose without further ado that Lance is a transcription garble for Vance - a name which was clearly already common among the Protestant population of Ireland in 1689. This Thomas Vance is said to have come from Coleraine, just as Lancelot Vance is said to have.

We think that the way George Washington Vance got from Thomas Lance to Lancelot Vance is that he or perhaps an assistant having found a reference to Thomas Lance, wrote down (justifiably, something looking like "Lance? Vance?" in his notes, meaning "could Lance be a mistake for Vance?" and then when he came to consult his notes he mistook his own meaning or that of his assistant, and knowing that Lance is an abbreviation for Lancelot, created the personage Lancelot Vance by incorrectly expanding the "Lance Vance" note.

George Washington Vance himself raises the possibility of this sort of confusion where he states that the name Vance is wrongly written Lance in the Archives of Armagh and Balbirnie further says that he has doubts about the authenticity of a Lancelot Vance63 .

If you would like to know more about this question and to clarify my sources, please contact me.

Jamie Vans.