Guilbert ‘Gysbert’ de Lannoy

Not the same as Gysbert "The Huguenot" de Lannoy

Biography

Guilbert de Lannoy was a Huguenot emigrant (1540-1790).

"The wife of Guilbert de Lannoy was Jeanne du Bus. One of the most important fiefs in the Seigniory of Tourcoing was that of du Bus, which had been in the du Bus family since 1389. It was located one-half mile from Tourcoing on the road to Mouscron and the name still survives today. If Jeanne du Bus was from this family, it would indicate that Guillebert too was of considerable social status."[5]

Jean de Lanoy, son of Guilbert de Lanoy, was baptized on 9 May 1575 at the church of St. Christophe in Tourcoing, Spanish Netherlands.

"The records containing this entry start with the year 1573. Most of the pages for 1573 and some for 1574 are so severely damaged that names cannot be read... That the records are preserved is purely due to good fortune. The volume was discovered stuffed into a wall in the tower...[in] 1897 when the tower was being partly taken down to be replaced by the present neo-gothic tower."[1]

Protestant religion spread rapidly in Tourcoing. According to one account, a quarter of the town was Protestant by 1556. Ten years later, in 1566, the church of St. Christophe was vandalized by "iconoclasts," many of whom were then attacked and killed by Catholic soldiers who stopped their church-burning rampage through the countryside on a march toward Lannoy. (English, p. 168.) Many Protestant refugees, including Guilbert's family, fled to Canterbury, England.

In 1581 the seven northern provinces of the Spanish Netherlands declared independence, and in 1588 the English navy defeated the Spanish Armada, weakening Spanish military efforts in the rebel provinces. The de Lannoy family returned to the Spanish Netherlands (to the rebel area, not their original home) three years later. (English, p. 173)

When he was a small child, Jean's family fled religious persecution to Canterbury in England, where many other Walloon refugies had settled. The family of his future wife Marie Mahieu also lived in Canterbury, before moving to London and then Leiden, Holland in 1590. Jean was 16 years old when his own family left Canterbury for Leiden the following year, in 1591.[2]

NOTE (added Nov 14, 2011) - The marriage record (Nov 13, 1596) for "Jan Lano" and "Mary Mahieu" states "Gysbert Lano" as his father, and "Jane Mahieu" as her mother. The place of birth of Jan Lano is spelled "Torckangie" (it is safe to assume that this a phonetic transcription). Thus far, incontrovertible documentation substantiates that Philippe de Lanoy was the son of Jan de Lanoy (from Tourcoing) and Marie le Mahieu (from Lille) who moved from Flanders, in the Spanish Netherlands, to England and then to Leyden, Holland.

"Guilbert de Lannoy and his family of at least seven children arrived in Leiden from England in 1591, nearly twenty years before the Pilgrims. They were received as a member of the Walloon Church of Leiden on 29 March [Easter] 1591 from the church in Canterbury." (English, p. 80.)

Guilbert was alive at the 1595 betrothal in Leiden of his son Jean. Jean de Lannoy joined the Walloon Church on 14 October 1595 by confession of faith, when aged about twenty. This was probably connected with a wish to marry since Marie Mahieu, the future wife of Jean,A also joined the church on the same date. Then, on January 13, 1596, we find the publication of their banns in the Walloon Church:[23]Jan Lano, young man of Torckangie [Tourcoing], accompanied by Piere de Bu [Bus] and Gijsbert [Guilbert] Lano, father of the bridegroom with Mary Mahieu of Lyle [Lille], accompanied by Jane [Jeanne] Mahieu her mother and Anthonette Morth, her acquaintance.

Genealogical Summary of Guilbert de Lannoy’s family:

Guilbert de Lannoy, b. poss. Tourcoing circa 1545.[114] Guilbert married Jeanne du Bus.[115]

They fled to England, possibly via Poperinge, with their family probably in the late 1570s.[116] They came from Canterbury to Leiden at Easter 1591.[117]

Children of Guilbert and Jeanne (du Bus) de Lannoy:[118]

• i.MargueriteA de Lannoy, b. Tourcoing, Flanders;[119] m.(1) Olivier de Plaes in Leiden, Holland, ca. Aug. 1592;[120] Olivier b. Mouvaux, Flanders,[121] d. prob. Leiden, Holland, bef. 27 Feb. 1604;[122] m.(2) Jean de Rousseau in Leiden, Holland, 14 Mar. 1604;[123] Jean b. Mouvaux, Flanders.[124]
• ii.Jean de Lannoy, b. prob. Verdequee, Toucoing, Flanders; bp. St Christopher, Tourcoing 9 May 1575,[125] d. prob. Leiden, Holland, bef. 28 Feb. 1605;[126] m. Marie Mahieu in Leiden, Holland, ca. Jan. 1596;[127] Marie, dau. of (_____) and Jeanne (_____) Mahieu, b. Lille, Flanders;[128] Marie m.(2) Robert Mannoo in Leiden, Holland, 6 Mar. 1605;[129] Robert b. Namur, Namur.[130]

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Disputed Parentage

The old Delano Genealogy states of Guillebert ("Gysbert") de Lannoy, "It is certain that he must have been Philippe's grandson."[1] However, the compiler had trouble deciding whether the father of Guillebert/Gysbert was the eldest son Jean de Lannoy (with a royal ancestry through his mother) or Jean's younger half-brother Baudouin de Lannoy (who was lord of Tourcoing, where Gysbert came from).

As related in the old Delano genealogy: "A curious discovery was made when a coat-of-arms used by Dr. Barna Delano was sent me--proving to be those of Barbancon--This and Gysbert's birth at Tourcoing place the line without question in that house. Dr. Barna Delano while in Paris, early in 1870, applied to the "College Heraldique" college of Heraldry then in official existence under the 2d empire--Napoleon III: the arms given him as his right by inheritance were BARBANÇON: Argent, 3 lions gules--Crest, the unicorn used by the TOURCOING house of Lannoy. On his return to America he had a die made and used on note-paper, a sheet of which is water-marked 1873. Why the college should have given him this coat instead of Lannoy plain is a mystery! unless the reason was that "Gysbert the disinherited son had these by right from his mother? Jeanne de Ligne, dame de Barbançon. Note: Philippe d. 1543 & 2d wife Francoise de Barbançon left Barbançon arms to their son Baudouin d. 1559 see Tourcoing branch arms. In this case there would have been no reason for separating the Lannoy and Barbançon arms for Gysbert. He could have used them or the mother's arms of Hornes. But not Barbançon alone, except that were his mother's name."[2]

In 1977 Kerry William Bate published a brief article in The American Genealogist attacking the supposition that Jean de Lannoy could have been the father of Gysbert and great-grandfather of Philippe Delanoy, the 1621 emigrant to Plymouth Colony. Bate showed that Gysbert's daughter Marguerite married a wool-comber as her second husband, and that the widow of Gysbert's son Jean also married a wool-comber as her second husband.

Based on these two examples, Bate concluded: "Claims that the grandfather of Philippe [the emigrant to America], Gysbert de Lannoy, was a son of Jean de Lannoy, a knight of the Golden Fleece, who was disinherited at the age of 11 for becoming a Protestant, are not correct. It is obvious that these people intermarried in several cases with wool-combers. Mr. Leverland correctly notes that 'In view of the fact that it is unthinkable that these two women [Marie le Mahieu and Margriete de Lannoy] could have entered another social class through their second marriages, we can safely place Jan Lano and Oliver de Pla among the Walloon textile-workers who emigrated to Holland."[3]

However, there are two simpler reason to reject Jean de Lannoy of Molembais as the father of Guillebert: Guillebert was from Tourcoing (where his son Jean was baptized), not Molembais. Jean was not lord of Tourcoing, but his younger half-brother Baudouin was. Second, Jean bore as arms Lannoy quartered with Burgundy, as opposed to his younger half-brother Philippe, who bore Lannoy quartered with Barbancon.

In his lengthy 2007 article on the de Lannoy family in The Mayflower Descendant, George English devotes a section (pp. 173-83) to considering the question of Guillebert's parents. He concludes that "there is no credible evidence that any of Philippe de Lannoy's sons, apart possibly from Baudouin, was the father of Guillebert....The noble Baudouin de Lannoy is the only family member who could possibly have been the father of Guillebert but it is unlikely that he was."[4]

It would seem that English is too quick to dismiss the plausibility of Guillebert being a younger son of Baudouin, in light of the identity of Guilbert's wife (see below), together with Guilbert's origin in Tourcoing and the fact that the names Guilbert, Jean (Guilbert's son) and Philippe (Guilbert's grandson) were all names that appeared in the noble De Lannoy family of Tourcoing.

References

1. George English, “Ancestry and History of Philip Delano, Born Philippe de Lannoy”, Mayflower Descendant, Vol. 56 No. 2, pp 173-184. Mayflower Descendant: A Journal of Pilgrim Genealogy and History. Boston, MA: Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1899- . (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2010) https://www.americanancestors.org/DB407/i/30239/184/52536739
2. The Delano and Cooke Ancestors: The INTREPID de LANNOYS and MAHIEUS from FLANDERS. George Philip English. Lulu.com, Aug 11, 2022 - 84 pages. < GoogleBooks >
3. “DELANO-COOKE ANCESTORS 11-04-2022.mp4” From “The Delano Kindred.” < link > This is the extraordinary story of our Delano and Cooke Ancestors, the intrepid de Lannoys and Mahieus from Flanders, presented by genealogist George Philip English and hosted by Col. William English, CBE. Also discussed is the European History Tour planned for September, 2023.
4. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/De_Lannoy-6 cites
   1. "The Genealogy, History and Alliances of the American House of Delano, 1621-1899," by Mortimer Delano and Joel Andrew Delano (1899), p. 47.
   2. "The Genealogy, History and Alliances of the American House of Delano, 1621-1899," by Mortimer Delano and Joel Andrew Delano (1899), p. 47.
   3. Kerry William Bate, "Some Delano Answers," in The American Genealogist, vol. 53, #3 (July 1977), pp. 172-73.
   4. George English, "Ancestry and History of Philip Delano," in "The Mayflower Descendant", vol. 56 (2007), p. 183.
   5. George English, "Ancestry and History of Philip Delano," in "The Mayflower Descendant", vol. 56 (2007), p. 177.
   6. Jeremy Dupertuis Bangs, "De Lannoy -- Le Mahieu Research," in The Mayflower Descendant, vol. 56 (2007), p. 153.
   7. Histoire Généalogique Et Chronologique De La Maison Royale De France, Des Pairs, Grands Officiers de la Couronne & de la Maison du Roy: & des anciens Barons du Royaume (1773)
   8. Alexandre Pruvost, [https://books.google.com/books?id=FBdYAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA173&lpg=PA173&d... Histoire des Seigneurs de Tourcoing (1863; Google eBook), starting on p. 169 for Baudouin de Lannoy.
   9. Histoire de Tourcoing (1986), has a section on the Protestant (Calvinist) unrest in the area in the 1560s and 1570s.
   10. Wikipedia (French) list of Lannoy lords of Tourcoing.
   11. Wikipedia (French) The House of Lannoy (Maison de Lannoy).
5. For information on Baudouin's son Philippe of Beauvoir, see Alexandre Pruvost, Histoire de Wattrelos (1865; Google eBook), pp. 245-46
6. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/L25G-V3P
7. https://www.delanokindred.us/Wordpress/history/