MARGERY ARUNDELL m. JOHN NANCE

A Crouch Family Heritage Association Family Tree page, Nance family line

Husband: JOHN NANCE, Esquire of Illogan, Cornwall, son of HENRY TRENGROVE of NANCE in Illogan, Cornwall and of CONSTANCE or CHESTEN NANSPAN
m.
Wife: MARGERY ARUNDELL d 1610, daughter of SIR JOHN ARUNDELL, Esquire of Trerise
Children Include:
Henry (Harry) Nance 1556-1625
JOHN NANCE of Trewynnard baptised 1557 (info below)
Richard Nance of Trewynnard [ancestor of U.S. Nances and Crouches]
William Nance, born 1560, died in infancy
Julian Nance, a daughter, baptised 1561. No other record.
Dorothy Nance, baptised 1562, married Henry Colthurst of Treleigh
Katherine Nance baptised 1563, married John Langhearne of Trevagathen.

John Nance, Esquire, of Nance (not the John directly above, but the one at top of page) died after 1606 and before 1610. His widow Margery Arundell died 1610 at Illogan. She was the daughter of Sir John Arundell of Trerise. John was the first of the line to use the Nance spelling as a surname and place name. Apparently a shrewd trader like his father, Henry, besides inheriting the entire Nance estate of his father, was mentioned in the will of his brother-in-law, John Arundell, Esquire, in 1580 as receiving four tenaments. He is of record as buying several pieces of real estate but selling little. Besides this, he also made occasional loans to other members of the gentry, one being to Martin Trewynnarde, by which he foreclosed on the most important manor in St. Erth Parish, Trewynnard (Trewinnard). John, Esquire, was also a member of parliament from Helston, tin center of the Kirrier Parishes. In 1595 he was made captain of the trained bands of the Penwith Parishes, which included St. Erth, St. Ives and Lelant, at which time he used Trewynnard as his western headquarters. This was during the period when it was feared that the Spanish were going to attack western Cornwall, and all Cornwall made preparations to protect their homeland. During this same period, John, Esquire, received correspondence from many of the leading figures of England and Cornwall, of which the Cornish museum has approximately 15 of these original letters. Most of these letters speak of John Nance as "cosen" (cousin), and if this meant blood cousin, then he was related to all the famous families of England at that time.

What I feel to be among our better discoveries pertains to the Nance family arms. "I, Robert Cooke Esquire, Clarencieux, principle herald of arms for service to their prince or country in peace or warre, do grant a coat of arms applied unto John Nance of the county of Cornwall. I find in the records of my office, armes belonging to that name and family, that is to say _____ silver, a playne crosse humete sables, and for that I find no creast. I have given into him for his creast upon his healme an unicorn's head ermine ensuante out of a crowne horned mayned and bearded, gold mantle gule doubled silver as appeareth in the margin." Signed, February 5th. 1572 by Robert Cooke, Clarencieux, Roy d'Armes.

Even though we know more about John, Esquire, than any of the Cornwall family, we have yet to find when he died (?). He appears to have left the bulk of his estate to his oldest son heir by law, but did devise Rosecarnon to his grandson John Harry Nance, and apparently Trewynnard to his second son John Nance.

That son, John Nance of Trewynnard was baptised 1557 in Illogan Parish. No records found in Illogan after the date of baptism. About the time John became of age, or shortly thereafter, his father John Nance, Esquire, of Illogan obtained by foreclosure a place in St. Erth Parish called Trewynnard, former home of another great family of Cornwall, the Trewynnardes. Based on lack of records in Illogan on he and his brother Richard, we must assume they moved to St. Erth to take over their father's newly acquired estate. Brother Richard died quite young in 1582, age 24, and had little time to produce a family, [but did have one son who was ancestor of U.S. Nances and Crouches] yet we find five adult Nances in the St. Erth records beginning 1600 to 1608, including two John Nances, one being John Nicholas Nance. They were apparently the father John Nance and sons:
John Nance,
James Nance,
Thomas Nance,
and
Henry Nance,
the last married in 1603.

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