The Milliners

Edward Lanyon was the son of William Lanyon and Frances Wills. He was baptised on 20 Jul 1787 at St Ewe in Cornwall. He married Jane Gill in 1821 at High Bickington, Devon. They had nine children:-

• Edward James Lanyon 1822-1899
• Mary Jane Lanyon 1824-1915 – milliner
• Esther Stanbury Lanyon 1827-1890 – milliner
• Catherine Lanyon 1828-1923 – married a milliner
• Elizabeth Lanyon 1830-1910 – milliner
• Frances Lanyon 1833-1903 – milliner
• Lucy Lanyon 1835-1891 – milliner
• George Lanyon 1836-1866
• Emily Ann Lanyon 1838-1840

Map of St Ewe near Mevagissey, High Bickington near Barnstaple and Ilfracombe.

Edward was an excise man. In 1851 the family were living at Ilfracombe and Edward was still working at the age of 63.

Edward’s eldest son Edward James Lanyon was an inland revenue officer, he married twice, first to Jane Brown who died before 1867 and second to Elizabeth Parkin. There were three children from the first marriage:-

• Edward James Lanyon 1848-1928 he founded the Fiji branch of the Lanyon family
• Jane Lanyon 1851-1881
• Emma Eliza Lanyon 1854-1935

In 1867 Edward married Elizabeth Parkin in Barnstaple, Devon. They moved to Liverpool and they had six children:-

• Rose Lanyon 1872-1951
• George Lanyon 1875-1954
• Nora Lanyon 1877-1966
• Ellen Lanyon 1879-1941
• Richard Lanyon 1885-1937
• Maud Lanyon 1886-1940

Of Edward senior’s daughters only two married and they had no children. Catherine married Joseph Hicks and Frances Lanyon married William Henderson. All the daughters were at one time working as milliners or hat makers.

Over the decades the census shows them living together with Joseph and Catherine Hicks in London and Cornwall. Joseph was a warehouseman, a manufacturer of women’s clothing and a milliner. They must have been fairly successful as they were all able to live ‘on their own means’.

In 1881 they were living at 13 Alwyne Road, Islington, London and employed three servants.

Their younger brother George worked as a draper and a grocer, he died aged just 30 from TB.