The group of Lanyons associated with St Agnes have proved to be quite tricky to pin down. The following is ‘my attempt’ to use the records available to produce a tree. I emphasise it’s my attempt and may not be right!
It’s worth reading the post ‘John Lanyon of Penwinnick Estate’ (Breage Branch) first as that lays out the main players.
Gaps in the records have made it difficult to say with any certainty how this branch of the tree fits together.
In 1616 at St Agnes an Edward Lenion baptised his son Thomas Lenion and three years later he baptised a son called Humphrye.
There is no trace of a marriage for Edward before 1616. There is a marriage for an Edward Lanyon to an Anne Ascott at Colan in 1627. There is an Edward Lanine and a Humphrie Lanine on the Colan 1641/2 Protestation Return, could that be Edward and his son?
There is a Humphrey/Homphrey Lanyon baptising and burying children in Madron in 1670/80s. Could this Humphrey be the Humphrey son of Thomas Lamone who was baptised on 18 Mar 1649 in Madron and could Thomas Lamone be Thomas (b 1616) son of Edward?
Humphrey had several children baptised in Madron but apart from the burials of the two infant Humphreys there is no further trace of the other children. The names Margaret, Mary and John are too common to be able to state with any certainty that they are these particular people and whilst Ebbott and Arundell are unusual names there is no further trace of them. This little branch dies out through lack of information.
So who is Edward Lanyon/Lenion? He may be an undocumented son of John Lanyon Esq and therefore a brother of John Lanyon who married Tamsin Tapprell at St Agnes in 1596.
He could be the Edward Lanyon son of John Lanyon ‘the elder gentleman’ and his wife Jane who is mentioned in the 1623 document transferring The Penwinnick Estate at St Agnes to Edward Noye. Thomas Tonkin states that this Jane is the daughter of William Whitta. John Lanyon ‘the elder gentleman’ must be the John who married Tamsin Tapprell in 1596 at St Agnes. Jane must be a second wife. We know that John and Tamsin’s eldest son John was born at the earliest in 1596 so a second son called Edward must have been born after that. If that’s the case then he must have married early for his first son to be baptised in 1616.
He could be an undocumented son of Edward Lanyon of Coswin who died at Gwinear in 1630 but Edward of Coswin leaves a will and doesn’t mention any son called Edward so this seems unlikely.
He could even be the undocumented son of Edward Lanyon, the 4th son of William Laniene and Thomasine Tregian who is mentioned in a document of 1586 – source – AR/3/39. There are no records showing any marriage or other children for this Edward so again it seems unlikely.
Map of St Agnes (Colan is near Newquay).
Polsue’s ‘Parochial History of Cornwall’ – “Penwennick, an estate in the manor of Tywarnhaile, was divided, temp. Henry VIII, between Thomas Kemyell, who possessed a moiety, and Sir John Diamond and Urinas Nicholl, who had a fourth each. The representatives of Kemyell sold their moiety in 1568, to William Whitta ; from Whitta it passed to the Lanyons, who resided here several years, and sold the estate in 1622, to Edward Noy, of Carnanton, who sold it in 1627, to John Tonkin, of Trevaunance. Sir John Diamond’s share passed through several female heirs to Francis Basset, of Tehidy ; who sold it to Thomas Tonkin, in 1705.” That would lend credence to a marriage between John Lanyon and Jane Whitta.
So if Edward is the son of John Lanyon of St Agnes (who baptised a number of children at Breage) the tree now looks like this. We can only say for certain that the last child was a daughter of John and Jane as it is recorded in the parish register. The earlier children may have been from the marriage to Tamsin or the marriage to Jane.
Edward the second son was married to an unknown woman and had two sons: Thomas and Humphrye and then he married Anne Ascott in 1827 at Colan and went on to have another child with her. Alice baptised 1634 at Colan and who was buried at St Enoder in 1672.
In 1650 an Edward Lenion married Grace Long at St Enoder, presumably this was another undocumented child of Edward and Anne Ascott? Grace died in 1667 and was buried at St Enoder.
St Enoder isn’t far from Colan (near Newquay)
Sadly without wills and other records it’s impossible to say for sure that this is how the tree should look.
The Lanyons 