The Faunce Family History and Genealogy
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THE FAUNCE FAMILY HISTORY AND GENEALOGY THE ANCESTRY AND DESCENDANTS OF JOHN FAUNCE OF PURLEIGH,' ESSEX, ENGLAND AND PLYMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS BY JAMES FREER FAUNCE AKRON, OHIO Copyright© 1967, 1973 by James Freer Faunce PREFACE This Faunce genealogy is the result of a strong interest in local history and a chance exposure to a fragment of family history. In 1940 George E. Willison wrote and published a book titled "Saints and Strangerstt. As he described it: "Being the lives of the Pilgrim fathers and their families, with their friends and foes; and an account of their posthumous wanderings in Limbo, their final resurrection and rise to glory and the strange pilgrimages of Plymouth Rock. 3 This book was a selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club. A friend sent me his copy with passages marked: "The Strangers included several others of note such as young John Faunce of Purleigh, Essex, who sired Thomas the third and last ruling elder of the Pilgrim church and the source of the story of Plymouth Rock as it has been handed down to ustt, and "Just when the members of the club were mos£ discouraged, Deacon Ephraim Spooner came forward with a curiously interesting story. Many years before, in 1741 he happened to be on the beach one day, he said,1 and though only a boy of six, he would never forget how Ruling Elder Thomas Faunce, an •aged and godly' man in his ninety fifth year, had been brought there in his wheelchair from his home at Eel River several miles to the south. To a handful of people gathered on the beach Faunce related how, as a boy, he had been told by his father, 'Who had heard it in turn from some who had come of the 'Thievish Harbour• expedition, that the Pilgrims had made their first landing at Plymouth on a rock--and, shaking with palsy, he pointed out the rock." My curiosity was aroused and I was challenged to £ind out more about John and Thomas Faunce. Were they my direct ancestors1 Since my grand father, James Henry Faunce, was born in North Carver, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, a few V vi miles from Plymouth, and came to Trumbull County in the Connecticut Western Reserve, I felt there must be some connection. This history and genealogy of the Faunce family is a result of that interest and curiosity. During some ten years I collected the basic material. In April and July of 1960 the New England Historic Genealogical Society published the first four generations in the Register. Continuing the task of refining and adding to this basic material, I arrived at a point where I needed professional assistance. I am greatly indebted to Mrs. Carl J. Main of Cleveland, Ohio, a member of the Western Reserve Historical Society, who authenticated, revised, and added much to the information I had accumulated. Her painstaking verification enhances the usefulness of this material for me and for others who may wish to add to it in the future. In addition my thanks go to my wife, Helen Cooper Faunce who did the proofreading; and to my secretary Rosemary Dulaney Morris, for her typing and indexing. The revised information on our English background comes mainly from the research and guidance of Christopher Fance of Brentwood, Essex, England. He is in charge of Classics at the Bristol Cathedral School in Bristol. There is much still to be done. For example, although the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.c., branch of the family 1s extensive, I have not been able to connect any of these people to the original New England Faunce family. This offers a special challenge. Your help in supplying to me any information which you may have or may develop will be greatly appreciated. I sincerely hope that this history and genealogy will interest and instruct you. James Freer Faunce Akron, Ohio, January 1, 1973 THE FAUNCE FAMILY The surname FAUNCE is of uncertain origin. a) It may have been derived from FAUNUS, tta satyrn. If this is the case, the name was undoubtedly first used as a nickname and was later adopted as a surname by the son of one so called. b) It may have been an Anglicization,of the Norman-French FAUNT, which was originally derived from the residence of its first bearers near a fountain or at a place bearing that name. c) FAWN is also a Norman name, and FAUNCE may have been originally a genitive form of the name, written FAWNS or FAWNSON. In support of this last theory, the form FAUNSOUM (FAWNSON) is found as late as the end of the sixteenth century in the English records. d) One source says the name is derived from the Anglo-Norman FAUN, a flood gate or water gate. e} Dellquist, in "These Names of Ours", suggests that it may be from FAWN, a young deer, figuratively speaking, one who is fast or quick to think. FAUNCE. may have originated from a shop, inn, or tavern sign. A man who owned or resided above a shop or tavern known as "The Fawn", after its wooden sign bearing the image of a fawn, might be called 1•John Fawn" (FAUNCE)• ("History of Surnames of the British Isles", by c. L. Ewen.) 0 f) •tPersonal and Family Names , by Harry A. Long, on Page 52 says the name comes from FOUNT or FAUNT. In ancient English and Early American records the name occurs in the various spellings of FAWNCE, FANCE, FONCE, FAUNCE, etc. of which the last is the form most used. (Longs1 "Personal and Family Names'*, 1883) (The Norman People, 1879) • 1 2 g) Hasted says in his history of Kent County, England, Vol. I, that this name of FAUNCE seems to be the same as that in old times called FAUNT. In the fourteenth century there was a Sir Walter FAUNT, renowned for his valor and bravery. h) F. G. Emmison, M.B.E., F.S.A. F.R.Hist.s. (County Archivist of Essex, 1938-b9)1 started 32 years ago in the Essex Record Office a vast Index of Personal Names, and it is particularly rich in names for the latter half of the 16th and the first half of the 17th centuries. All variant spellings are listed and the Faunce name shows the following variations: Fance, Faunce, Fancy, Fancey. One of the three great works on surnames is by Reaney and on Page 116 of his work appears the following: Faun? Faunce, Fawn, Fawns, Fownes: William filius Faun' 1230 Pipe Rolls (Hampshire); John Foun 1180 Pipe Rolls (Nottinghamshire); Richard le Foun 1299 AssSt: Robert Faun 1390 LLB H. OFr faon, foun, ME faun, foun •a young animal, cub', 1 a young fallow deer' (cl369 NED), used, probably, of a lively, frisky youth. Also used as a personal name. The Scottish Fawns is from the lands of Fans or Faunes (Berwicks): Richard de Fawnes 1150-90 Black. Burke's 11 Landed Gentry••, 1853 to 1875, states that the County of Kent was the earliest home of the Faunce family in England. In the time of King Edward VI (circa 1550) the Faunces owned estates in the parishes of Rochester, Cliffe, High Halston and Aylsford, in Kent. The Rochester estate was said to be 600 acres and the house was built in 1020. ~The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Walesl•, by Sir B. Burke, vol. 1, 3 P• 343, gives the Faunce family as in Sharsted, co. Kent, England, and their coat of arms is described thus: Arms - Argent. Three lions rampant sable, armed and langued gules, ducally gorged (collared). Crest - A demi-lion rampant sable, langued and gorged as in the arms, between two wings argent. Motto - "No Tentes Aut Perficen, meaning "Either do not attempt or accomplish.. (literally~~ or "Don't attempt anything unless you finish it.It Fairbanks' 11 Crests of the Families of Great 1 Britain and Ireland •, Vol. 1 pp. 177, 569, and on Plate 87, Crest 3, calls it 11 A black demi-lion rampant with red tongue, and gorged with a golden ducal coronet." Bonham Faunce of Cliffe Kent (grandson of William Faunce of Greenwich~, b. 1497, died 15 Feb. 1552 (age 55), married twice (once to Elizabeth, b. about 1501), and left, in addition to a daughter, a son Thomas Faunce. Thomas the son also married twice, and died in Cliffe July1 1, lo092 aged 84 years. He had three sons (one na.IJ).!d themas), by wife Alice and three daughters. ~ )The last named Thomas Faunce entered the Navy while young and was present at the attack on the Spanish Armada in 1588. He married Martha Baynard, b. about 1631, daughter of John Baynard of Shorne, and lived at St. Margaret's, Rochester, where he was mayor in 1609. The children of Thomas and Martha included two sons, Robert and Thomasi of whom it is said, ~Thomas joined the Pilgrim ¥athers in Americai 1640, and died at New Plymouth, age 99 •••• " This is definitely an error, since Thomas, the Elder of Plymouth was the son of John Faunce who settled in Plymouth in 1623. Robert Faunce of Cliffe and St. Margaret's, Rochester, the elder of the two sons of Thomas and Martha (Baynard) Faunce, had three sons, Thomas, Robert and George. Of these, the middle son, Sir Robert of Maidstone and Ildon, had a son who was knighted in 1660. After Sir Robert's first wife died he married at St. Leonard, East Cheap, London, 29 September 1662, Elizabeth Head, daughter of Sir Richard Head, Baronet.