The Lanyons have travelled all over the world and there are branches of the family on most continents. A Lanyon is even listed as a ruler of the Northern State of Gonja in Ghana!
Gonja was created by Mande Conquerors around the beginning of the 17th century. According to Wikipedia the capital is Yagbum.
The first ruler of Gonja was Sumalia Ndewura Jakpa, a slave trader.
Precolonial Gonja society was stratified into castes, with a ruling class, a Muslim trader class, an animist commoner class, and a slave class. Its economy depended largely on trade in slaves from Central Africa and kola nuts, particularly through the market town of Salaga, sometimes called the “Timbuktu of the South.”
Wikipedia gives a list of rulers of Gonja.
Apparently between 1698 and 1699 Lanyon was regent and Yagbongwura (paramount ruler). I suspect the name Lanyon may have been used to fill a gap in the list!
1907 – 1909 Lanyon was again listed as Yagbongwura. Curiously Wikipedia identifies this Lanyon as Colonel Sir William Owen Lanyon, who died of cancer in New York in 1887.
William was born in Ireland in 1842 the son of Sir Charles Lanyon and his wife Elizabeth Owen. He was a British colonial administrator and army officer.
He was invalided in the Ashanti campaign which may be his connection to Gonja.
The Anglo-Ashanti wars lasted 70 years finally ending in 1900. The wars established the British Gold Coast and the country became a British protectorate.
It’s not clear how William Owen Lanyon went from fighting in the Ashanti wars to being listed as a ruler of Gonja twenty years after his death but it makes life interesting for family historians!
The Lanyons 