Richard Lanyon was a gunpowder manufacturer at Stithians. He had two wives: Susan Tucker and Mary Anne Lanyon, his cousin. This post is about three of his sons William Henry, Richard Sampson and John Rodolphus and their children.
William Henry Lanyon 1825-1895
William was Richard and Susan’s eldest son, he was baptised at Stithians in 1825 and like his father was a gunpowder manufacturer. In 1861 he married Ellen Mary Edgcombe at St Gluvias Church, Penryn. Ellen was the daughter of George and Ellen Edgcombe. George was a surgeon in the Indian Medical Service and his daughter, Ellen was born in Madras in 1834.
William and Ellen had eleven children but very few of those children married or had children themselves. Five of their daughters were spinsters and two of their sons were bachelors.
- Eleanor Edgcombe 1862-1934 was a music teacher, she lived with her sister Alice in Falmouth. She never married.
- Minnie Edgcombe 1863-1904 married William Jacques Jr. a solicitor, at Truro in 1888 , they moved to Hertfordshire and had one son, William Huskisson Vyvyan Jacques who never married and committed suicide in 1921.
- Emily 1864-1949 was a spinster, aged 36 she was listed on the census as a companion. In 1911 she was living in Dulwich and working as a ‘Guardian to Children’
- Alice 1865-1956 was a spinster, she lived with her elder sister Eleanor and is described as a housekeeper
- William 1867-bef. 1928 he worked as a banker’s clerk in 1891 and no trace after that
- Fanny 1867-1948 was a spinster, she worked as a hospital sister and in 1939 was living with her sister Evelyn Chalk
- Kate 1868-1955 – a spinster, she worked as a draper’s accountant
- Susan Beatrice 1871- 1949 in 1912 she was a military nursing sister. In 1916 she married Daniel Brown in Ontario. He was a widower, an acting sergeant in the Canadian Medical Corps. He died in Jun 1918, he was missing believed drowned. By 1939 she was living with her sister Alice in Newquay and she died in 1949 at Holloway Sanatorium.
- Evelyn Nona 1873-1947 in 1897 she married Henry Richard Chalk, a clerk in Holy Orders. They had one daughter Mary Lanyon who never married.
- Frederick Beverley 1875-1944 he was a bachelor, he went to Selwyn College Cambridge, he broke the entail of Acton Castle and sold it.
- Edgcombe 1877-1940s – he married Florence Stevens and had five children, after the war he emigrated to Tasmania and became a teacher.
William Henry was an unusual man, at times he didn’t live with his family and seems to have left his wife to cope with their large brood of children. There is at least one incident which calls into question his mental health. In 1871 He became mentally incapacitated in church. He got up during communion and started to read the Litany aloud. The curate asked him to desist and he shouted back “get thee behind me satan“. The rector came and remonstrated with him so he picked up the great prayer book and struck the rector on the head! (Source – Kilvert Society Newsletter March 1995)
Scroll down to page 2 of the Kilvert Society newsletter for a good article on William Henry.
Why did so many of his children remain single? We’ll never know but perhaps they looked at their parents’ marriage and decided not to risk it!
Richard Sampson Lanyon 1828-1903
Richard was the second son of Richard Lanyon and Susan Tucker. Sampson was the name of his father’s business partner. He married Eliza Jane Mare at Plymouth in 1855. They had nine children.
- Florence Mary Helen 1856-1857 died in infancy
- Ernest William 1857-1889 according to the 1881 census he was a ‘decoration assistant’ and an artist, he was a bachelor and died age just 32 of TB
- Reginald Edward 1859-1939 he emigrated to Canada in 1880 and in 1907 he married Hilda Mary Penn – 5 children
- Arthur Richard 1861-1888 he was a post office clerk and was convicted of stealing postal letters and sentenced to five years jail in 1881. He died in Vancouver in 1888.
- Charles Hugh 1863-1887 was an architect’s clerk. Died young.
- Ethel Mary Elizabeth 1865-1939 housekeeper, spinster.
- Maud Margaret 1868- 1955 married Charles Francis Coward at Plymouth in 1905, no children
- Cecil Frederick 1870-1883 died of meningitis
- Agnes Lillian 1874-1967 private governess, spinster
Of Richard’s nine children just one son, Reginald, had children of his own.
John Rodolphus Lanyon 1839-1931
John Rodolphus was the son of Richard and Mary Anne Lanyon and half brother of William Henry and Richard Samspon. He married Emily Anne Hearle in London in 1867. John was a solicitor. They had six children.
- Richard FH 1868-1871 died in infancy
- Marianne 1870-1957 she was a matron in an isolation hospital, spinster
- Frederick 1870-1943 age 18 he emigrated to Boston Massachusetts and in 1893 he married Florence W Atherton. He worked as a manager of a clothing store. No children.
- Radolphus Hearle 1876-1876 died in infancy
- Charles Edward 1882-1918 he emigrated to Canada where he worked as a farmer in Saskatchewan. He served as a private in the Canadian Infantry 46th Battalion and was killed in France just 10 days before the end of the First World War, by a sniper while attending the wounded. Unmarried, no children
- Florence Emily 1885-1886 died in infancy
John Rodolphus Lanyon had no grandchildren and his line died out.
There were so many spinsters and bachelors in the family that out of three sons and twenty six children there were only twelve grandchildren and of them only five sons to carry on the Lanyon name.
The Lanyons 