Dear Mr. Thorn,

Now that it is upon me to compose the story for you I hardly know where to begin. It is from my own quest to discover the mother of my ancestor that I have come across the speculation regarding the lineage of John Vane.

I will begin with my story as it leads me to yours. When I was a small child my great aunt told me we had an ancestor who was related to royalty, which back in the forties could mean anyone who was remotely related to Kings or Queens. The information she gave me was long forgotten, or so I thought.

I became interested in family genealogy in the 1990's. I first traced the Robertson line which meant contacting family members from all over Canada. The line went back to Samuel Robertson who was born in Stromness in the Orkney Islands he had joined Lymburner and Company out of Liverpool as an agent. History has shown that he owned a "post" in Bradore Bay Labrador. He was married to a woman named Mary Anne Chevalier. This was the woman that was our genetic link to our mysterious past.

I received a copy of a story that had appeared in a 1959 Newfoundland Quarterley Magazine. It was called The Story of Mary Ann Vane. It told of the meeting of a pair of scholars and the grandson of this woman while visiting the area of St. Paul's River in Labrador, which is now part of Quebec. Her story was that she was the "natural" daughter of the Earl of Courteney (which is an incorrect spelling).

In 1799 as a young girl of fifteen and the only female on board she was sent to Quebec City to marry an English Army Officer. The ship had been caught in hurricane-like winds and as it approached the tip of Newfoundland it was swept up between Quebec and Newfoundland and through the Strait of Belle Isle known as one of the most dangerous stretches of water for ships in the world. Winds, currents, rocks and icebergs threatened any ship who dared to sail these waters. The ship struck the rock shelves off the coast of Forteau Bay Labrador and sank. Mary Ann and five other men were saved by the local people.

Few ships ever came to this area and now winter was approaching so she was trapped for the winter. Females were very scarce in this part of the world so much pressure was brought to bear on this poor girl. As Christmas approached the local people from all around for miles came to celebrate. One of those people was Louis Chevalier a young man whose mother was a French Huguenot from the Channel Islands. These two young people met and fell in love. She agreed to marry him and sealed her fate forever. I descend from their third child Mary Anne Chevalier who married Samuel Robertson.

Naturally, I had to find out the truth of her story. So for the last eleven years she has been my benign obsession. It has been quite a journey. The article had provided me with a number of clues from which to begin. I determined that her father was William 2nd Viscount Courtenay.

I have not discovered a birth record but I have five pedigrees, but all secondary sources that say that a child named Mary was born/baptized at Powderham on February 26, 1784 to William 2nd Viscount Courtenay. This child was his fifteenth child and fourteenth daughter born two years after the death of his wife. As was common in that period an illegitimate child kept the surname of the mother. One of the clues in the article was that Mary Ann Vane was "akin" to Sir Henry Vane the Younger the Puritan Governor of Massachusetts.

Of course he was much more than that as all historians of the Cromwell period would know as he was eventually beheaded in 1662 for treason for his link with Cromwell and the subsequent execution of Charles I.

So began my research on the Vane family. I started with Sir Henry Vane the Elder and then traced the lineage of his first three sons. I wanted to find a young woman with the surname Vane who would have been of child bearing years in 1784.

I started by writing to Raby Castle, I received a reply that no one there knew of such a connection with the Courtenay family with the descendents of Sir Henry Vane the Younger. I had told them that I had narrowed the search to one young woman, a descendant of Sir George Vane, the second son of Sir Henry Vane. Her name was Frances Anne Vane the daughter of the Rev. Henry Vane and his wife Frances Tempest, daughter of John Tempest.

It was suggested that I contact the IX Marquess of Londonderry who descends from Sir George Vane. We have been communicating ever since. He kindly sent me a book, which was written by Edith, Marchioness of Londonderry and published in 1958. It was about Frances Anne Emily Vane-Tempest the third Marchioness of Londonderry. It is within this book where the answer to your mystery lies. It is called Frances Anne....Lady Londonderry. pages 15, 21, 42, 45.

I believe that the daughter of Rev. Henry Vane, Frances Anne Vane, born in 1769 gave birth to my ancestor Mary Ann Vane when she was only about fifteen years old. Lord Courtenay the 8th Earl of Devon de jure was a 42 year old widower. As she was so young the 2nd Viscount was probably compelled to take the baby, who would notice another baby girl at Powderham Castle when there was thirteen other girls and no wife to protest. Whereas the future of the young girl was at stake if the word got out about her condition.

However, I have no proof, this is pure speculation, but so many things add up.

Frances Anne married Michael Angelo Taylor a MP from Durham, a great drinking and gambling buddy of "Prinny" who was to become King George IV. He was older than Frances Anne and her family were very upset when she said she was going to marry him. She married him anyway. The couple never had any children.

Frances Anne's younger brother was Sir Henry Vane-Tempest. He inherited great wealth from the Tempest line whereas his sister Frances Anne was cut out of the will. Young Sir Henry born in 1771. He was a very handsome black curly haired fellow who owned race horses and was quite the man about town. In 1799 at the age of 28 he married Anne Catharine MacDonnell, Countess of Antrim, daughter of the 6th Earl and Marquess of Antrim. Their first and only child was Frances Anne Emily Vane-Tempest who was to become the 3rd Marchioness of Londonderry, the richest heiress in Britain. You know, coals from Newcastle....

His sister Frances Anne was very close to her niece as she was quite a neglected little girl, her parents were not altogether happy and busy with their lives. Her aunt and mother were antagonists, they "disliked each other intensely." So this aunt and niece were very close until the young girl decided to marry "an older man", Charles William Stewart, later Vane...who was to become the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry. The aunt Frances Anne Vane Taylor fought this proposed marriage taking it to the high court. She eventually lost the case but it caused a deep estrangement between aunt and niece.

Now to your Rev. John Vane, In her book Frances Anne Emily said her father had a child out of wedlock. This boy they called Jack was on the fringe of her life. In the book she remarked that she was always happy with her Aunt 'and her coming to Wynyard or my going to her was a perfect jubilee;. 'Besides' Frances Anne adds slyly, 'I had a friend and playmate in Jack Vane (a natural son of my father) who was eight years older than me. Our being thus thrown together was not in good taste. My mother hated him, which was perhaps natural: my father never appeared to like him. Mrs. Taylor always befriended him, and I liked him as a child likes any person that is kind to it.'" Frances Anne Emily was born in 1800, subtract 8 and you have 1792 the birth year of the Rev. John Vane.

We have now established that Mrs. Taylor supported and befriended both her brother's children defending them supporting their blood tie against the hated wife. The rift only deepened with the early death of Sir Henry Vane-Tempest in August 1813. There was great conflict between aunt, mother and daughter over various issue of guardianship etc. when a great quarrel arose between Jack Vane and the Countess of Antrim. The daughter took the side of Jack against her mother.

Upon her marriage Frances Anne Emily had caused the rift between aunt and niece. Her mother's conduct re money matters disgusted her. One reason was that she had not given the money intended from Sir Henry's estate to Jack Vane. So Frances Anne Emily paid her mother 5000 pounds to pay Jack Vane's fortune..."

It is obvious that her Aunt Frances Anne Taylor and her husband loved the nephew "Jack" Vane, the Rev. John Vane, as both of them made him the heir of their estates.

Perhaps, Frances Anne Taylor was so fond and protective of her niece and nephew, and in the end, most especially her nephew because of her own lost "illegitimate" child. The sentiment fits, but without proof, I am like the rest of you searching for proof of the identity, and in my case the identity of Mary Ann Vane's mother.

But it is not finding the answers that are of major importance, it is the journey that is so rewarding. My life has become so much richer because of my travel back through time. It has taken me to Labrador and Quebec, and England five times. I have had dinner with the Marquess of Londonderry in London. I have come to know the Earl of Devon and his family quite well and in fact I have organized a tour to British Columbia for the Earl, Countess and an entourage of about 30 people from the UK, USA, Canada and Australia are arriving on June 13th into Vancouver. I have come to know so many of my distant relatives all across this country. So because of my research my life has become so rich and full sometimes it is almost too much to bear, but I must push onwards as I still have a mystery to solve.

I am attaching pictures for you of the aunt of Rev. John Vane, Frances Anne Taylor painted by John Hoppner.
                               
He depicted her as Miranda from Shakespeare's The Tempest. No doubt her beauty and her grandparents name being Tempest provided him with a focus for this great work. Lord Londonderry used the picture as a Christmas card one year.
I do have a picture of Sir Henry Vane-Tempest, the father of Rev. John Vane, I will have to find it and send you a copy. You will be able to see the resemblance. This I also received as a Christmas card picture from Lord Londonderry as well as the picture of the Reverend Henry Vane grandfather of Rev. John Vane that I have attached.
                                     
Then there is the picture of his half sister the 3rd Marchioness of Londonderry.
                                     
I have not found any clue as to the identity of his mother.

Lord Londonderry has been so kind and helpful in aiding me to search for the answers, but the mystery of my ancestor's mother a woman with the surname Vane is yet to be fully resolved.

All the best,
Carolyn Grant