William Lane, of Dorchester

Evidence needed to support as son of Thomas Robert Lane & Mary Roberts. Not the same as William Lane, of Boston

Note: This is not the profile for the younger William Lane of Boston, who was married to two women named Mary and had children born in Boston in 1652-1666.

Edits 12/29/2019 William Lane's death date is unknown. The Great Migration Project has it between date of will 28 Feb 1650 (maybe 51 - unclear in documentation) and inventory of estate 5 July 1654. The guess is probably closer to the inventory, as that was customary to occur shortly after death, but not necessarily true in all cases.

Also, his wife Agnes WAS NOT a Farnsworth. Her parents remain unknown. Online some people guess that because "brethen" Joseph Farnsworth is mentioned in William's will. HOWEVER, Joseph Farnsworth was his son in law, married to their daughter Mary.

In addition, he was NOT married to a Mary Killaway (that was his son William's wife), and .the parents listed on his profile are UNPROVEN>

The text below remains unchanged, but some info is inaccurate or unsupported guesses.

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brief biography

William Lane was born in 1580 in England. About 1603, William married Agnes Farnsworth [SIC: parents unknown] in England. William Lane and Agnes emigrated in 1635 from England on board the Hopewell out of Weymouth. Agnes was probably his second wife, after Mary Killoway, and was the mother of his seven children.

William Lane left a will on 28 February 1650/51 in Dorchester, Suffolk County, Massachusetts. He died about 1654 in Hingham, Plymouth County, Massachusetts.

William's estate was inventoried on 5 July 1654 in Dorchester, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, valued at £82 10/8½d and taken by John Wiswall and William Clark. His estate was probated on 6 July 1654 in Dorchester, Suffolk County, Massachusetts.

Arrival in America

William Lane, his wife, and family are listed as passengers on the Hopewell, with Mr. John Driver as master, bound from Weymouth, England to Massachusetts Bay, departing on May 6, 1635. The ship’s passenger list names 18 men, but does not list the names of their wives, children or servants.

The National Genealogical Society listed the family members in its Vol. 71, saying after each name "and family." Burton Spear, in Vol. 20 of his Search for the Passengers of the Mary and John, lists them with wives and children known to be alive in 1635. His collected works give additional data on many of these people.

The majority of Hopewell passengers went on to settle in Dorchester, Hingham, and Salem, Massachusetts.

Please see the "Media" tab, then "Documents" for the full official manifest and the expanded list (including family members) developed by historians.

William came to New England on the ship HOPEWELL in 1635, with his wife Agnes and son Andrew. "Great Puritan Migration"

will

(( Mary (Lane) (Long) Farnsworth, who died at Middletown in 1671, daughter of William Lane and widow of Joseph Long and of Joseph Farnsworth, both of Dorchester, Mass.; … The will of William Lane of Dorchester, Mass., made 28 Feb. 1650/1, proved 6 July 1654, named his daughter, Mary Long. By her first husband, Joseph Long, she was mother to Thomas Long who married her stepdaughter, Sarah Wilcox; also of Joseph Long, Jr., of Dorchester, who died 26 Aug. 1676. For her second husband, and as his second wife, she married Joseph Farnsworth of Dorchester, who in his will made 2 Jan. 1659/60 provided for his children and for his wife Mary and her children Joseph and Thomas Long. By him she had a son, Samuel Farnsworth, who settled in Windsor, Conn., and for his first wife married, 3 June 1677, Mary3 Stoughton, daughter of Thomas2 Stoughton and presumably niece of John2 Wilcox's second wife. Mary Willcox of Middletown, in her will dated 3 Apr. 1671, proved 7 Sept. 1671, gave to her son Samuel Farnsworth, £10 out of her land in Dorchester, the remainder of the land to her husband, John Willcox; to son, Joseph Long, the bill she had of him for the purchase of land; to Mary Wilcox, some clothing; to Sarah Long, the bed and bolster already in her house in Hartford; witnesses: John Hall, Ann Hall (her mark)." Source: John Wilcox, in Jacobus, Donald Lines, and Edgar Francis Waterman. Hale, House and Related Families, Mainly of the Connecticut River Valley. (Hartford: The Connecticut Historical Society, 1952), 806-06.))

family

Children of William Lane and Agnes [NOT] Farnsworth:

1. Annis Lane born 18 Jan 1606.
2. Elizabeth Lane born Abt 1607.
3. William Lane born 28 Aug 1608.
4. Mary Lane Lane born Abt 1609.
5. Andrew Lane christened 9 May 1610.
6. George Lane born Abt 1612.
7. Sarah Lane born Abt 1614.

sources

• Banks, Charles E., Planters of the Commonwealth, 1930
• Spear, Burton, Search for the Passengers of the Mary & John. Toledo, OH: Clearing House.

links

• https://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/william-lane_11068693
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/36827489/william-lane
• FamilySearch AFN 2ND0-V5
• http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Lane-229

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Genealogy.com - Descendants of William Lane, b. 1580

WILLIAM LANE WAS BORN 1580 IN DORSET , ENG. (Source: "Lane Genealogies, Vol 2" by J.H. Fitts published in Exeter, NH 1897.)

• Part 1 begins by quoting from Dorchester, Eng. church records about the immigration to America:
  • "They came for the purpose of enjoying those religious privileges denied them at home.", and
  • died Bef. July 06, 1644 in Dorchester, Suffolk, MA.
  • He married (1) Mary Killoway Abt. 1609, daughter of Walter Killoway.
  • He married (2) Agnes Farnsworth 1618 in Eng.
• Notes for William Lane:
 • 1635, a resident of Dorchestr, MA., with several land grants listed.
  • Will dated 1654, was living at the time with daughter, Mary Long, a widow.

Children of William Lane and Mary Killoway are:

• 2. i. Annis Lane, b. Abt 1610, England: Died Feb14,1682/83, Hingham, Mass
• ii. Sarah Lane, b. Abt. 1611, England; m.Nathaniel Baker.
• iii. Andrew Lane b. Abt. 1613, England; d. May 01,1675, Hingham, Plymouth, MA.
• iv. George Lane b. 1613, Norfolk, England; d.June 11,1689 at Hingham, Plymouth, MA.
• v. Elizabeth Lane b. Abt. 1615, Norfolk,England.
• vi. Mary Lane b. Abt 1620, Norfolk England, m.William Orcutt.

This is the foundation of the Lane family in America. I have more info on the descendancy if you like.

http://gsmall.us/Family/Carol/getperson.php?personID=I01030&tree=Carol

[S00052] Publications, First Settlers of Hingham Communicated by Andrew H. Ward, Esq., Extracted from New England Historical and Genealogical Register Vol 2, p 250 to 252 July 1848. 
[Transcribed by Jane Devlin]


• [Note:-- Hingham Massachusetts was part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Suffolk County from its settlement until 1803. It was never in the Colony of New Plymouth and did not become a part of Plymouth County until 1803. - courtesy of Betty Miessner]

[S00162] Ancestry Minor Databases, American Genealogical-Biographical Index.


• "William Lane
• 
Birth Date: 1590
• Birthplace: Eng, Massachusetts
• 
Volume: 99 Page Number: 517

• Reference: Preliminary materials for a gen. Of the Rider (Ryder) fams. In the U.S. By Fremont Rider. Middletown, Ct. 1959. (3v.) A genealogical dict. of the first settlers of New England, showing three generations of those who came before May, 1692. By James Savage. Boston. 1861. (4v.)v.3: 540"


[S00052] Publications, Great Migration: Passengers of the Hopewell, 1635.

• 
"Master: John Driver
English Port: Weymouth, Dorsetshire

• Departure: May 6, 1635

• Arrival Port: Massachusetts Bay


• The National Genealogical Society listed the family members in its Vol. 71, saying after each name "and family." Burton Spear, in Vol. 20 of his Search for the Passengers of the Mary and John (Clearing House, Toledo, OH), lists them with wives and children known to be alive in 1635. His collected works give additional data on many of these people.

The full list of likely passengers, according to Spear, were:

• 
William Lane of Beaminster, Dorset, who settled at Hingham, MA.
• Family members:
  • Agnes Farnsworth, wife;
  • Avis (Lane) Lincoln, 28, daughter, and her husband,
  • Thomas Lincoln;
  • Andrew Lane, 24, son, and
  • daughters Mary and Elizabeth Lane."
• 
[excerpt for Andrew Lane] From: 
http://www.geni.com/projects/Great-Migration-Passengers-of-the-Hopewell-1635

[S00052] Publications, History of the Town of Hingham, Solomon Lincoln, page 33?.
"501.

• William Lane. Born ca 1580 in Henlow, Bedfordshire.
• William died on 6 Jul 1654 in Dorchester, MA.
William, the ancestor of all who have borne this surname in Hingham and vicinity by birth, was probably from the western part of England, where, according to tradition, one or more of his daughters was married. The precise date at which he came to New England is unknown. It is certain, however, that he was a resident of Dorchester as early as 1635, and probably a widower, as no mention is made of his wife either upon Dorchester or Hingham records.
• The following parcels of land were granted to him at Dorchester, in 1637, viz.:˜Jan. 2. It is ordered that Good: Lane shall haue one acre [at] the little neck towards the harbor.
• On the 18th of March following, he had two additional grants of between six and seven acres; and at his decease he bequeathed to daughter Mary Long my great lot of about 24 acres.
• He also bequeathed to Thomas Rider my Sonne in Law and daughter Elizabeth his wife my new dwelling-housein Dorchester with all the outhousing, gardens, etc. Also to his sons and sons in law, a specified sum to each, in silver.
• He died about 1654.
  • His will, proved 6 July of that year, mentions two sons and four daughters, all probably born in England.
• William married Agnes Farnsworth.
• Agnes died on 3 Apr 1671 in Hingham, MA.


• Their children include:

  • 1638 i. Elizabeth Lane (ca 1606-)
.
  • 1639 ii Annes Lane (ca 1606-13 or 14 Feb 1682/3)

  • 1640 iii. Mary Lane (ca 1608-3 Apr 1671)
  • 1641 iv. William Lane (ca 1608-)

  • 1642 v. Andrew Lane (9 May 1610-1 Mar 1675)

  • 1643 vi. George Lane (ca 1613-4 Jun 1689)
  • 1644 vii. Sarah Lane (ca 1614-19 Aug 1695)"


[S00128] Passenger and Immigration Lists Index 1500s-1900s.

• 
"William Lane
Year: 1635
  • Place: Salem, Massachusetts

  • Family Members: Wife Agnes Farnsworth;
  • Son Andrew;
  • Daughter Avis 28;
  • Daughter Elizabeth;
  • Daughter Mary;With son-in-law


Source:

• Publication Code: 262.50

• Annotation: Date of arrival and port of arrival or place of eventual settlement.
• Name of ship also provided.
• Extractions from author's work Planters of the Commonwealth originally printed in 1930.


Source Bibliography: BANKS, CHARLES E. Passengers on Early Ships to New England. In The Second Boat (Downeast Ancestry, Machias, ME), vol. 17:5 (Fall 1998), pp. 24-25.
Page: 25"

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GEDCOM Source

Ancestry Family Tree  http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=105394700&pi...

GEDCOM Note

Note: William was in Dorchester, MA in 1635. This ancestor of a numerous prosterity was a person of competent property, a freeman, a virtuous and good citizen who evidently had the esteem and confidence of the people. His daughter Mary was the widow of Joseph Long, with whom he lived several years. His will is among the earliest wills on record in Suffolk County, MA. In it he names his children and many of his sons in law. A recent discovery places William Lane in Beaminster, Dorset, England.

Lane Family Genealogy; NEHG Disc, Vol 5 p304 Second Families Spading letter

This source unverified. It comes from the Ancestry.com Roderick-Culver Family Tree, by Rita Lace: ritalace@yahoo.com

Andrew Lane’s father was William Lane [some Lane researchers say born 1580 in Dorset, England], a resident of Dorchester, Mass. as early as 1635. [Fitts gives no information about William Lane’s wife; some researchers speak of 2 wives, Mary Killoway about 1609; Agnes Farnsworth, m. 1618 in England; others refer only to Farnsworth. There are no records referring to a living wife of William Lane in America.] Several grants of land were assigned to William Lane in 1637. His mark (X) as a proprietor is on a document dated 1641, relinquishing some land on Thomson’s Island to the town of Dorchester for the maintenance of a Free School. According to Fitts Lane Genealogies, vol. II, p. 2: This ancestor of a numerous posterity was a person of competent property, a freeman, a virtuous and good citizen who evidently had the esteem and confidence of the people. His daughter Mary was the widow of Joseph Long, and he lived with her several years and died apparently in 1654 (his will is given in Fitts, vol. II, pp. 2-3.).

From https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/lane/6247/

William of Dorchester was father to George and Andrew Lane of Hingham.I was researching the ancestry of John Lane of Hingham and found so much contridiction that I had to tighten the best and dig through everything I could find.I have concluded that John Lane of Hingham who married Mehitable Hobart and Sarah Briggs was the son of William of Boston, not George or Andrew of Hingham.The best argument is this:

From:

"Parentage of John Lane of Hingham and Norton, Mass" By Ellen Jeannette Lane of Newton, Mass., published in the "The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 1847-1994", October 1929, Pages 466-467.

In the "Lane Genealogies," vol.s, pp4 and 14, and in the "History of the Town of Hingham, " vol. 2, p. 412, it is stated that John Lane, cordwainer, of Hingham and of what was later Norton, Mass., who married Mehitable Hobart, was the son of George Lane of Hingham (William of Dorchester, Mass.); but in Clark's "History of the Town of Norton," p. 84, the father of this John Lane is given as Andrew Lane of Hingham.Careful study, however, leads to the conclusion that this John Lane was the son of William and Mary (Kelloway) Lane of Boston.The facts on which this conclusion is based are as follows.