The family of Sir Richard Lane’s youth and adulthood lived in Northamptonshire, about 70 miles North of London. He was described as being of a family with a good name, but little wealth.  Like many in that time, he had 12 children, but only half survived to adulthood.  His direct family name appears to have ended with his only surviving son (also Richard), who seems to have had no children.  The family line does live on through his daughters.

An important branch of his family tree springs from his sister Dorothy, whose several sons sought their fortune in America, apparently helping to found settlements in Virginia. There, they would become an important political family, ultimately leading to the birth of Thomas Jefferson. This child would ultimate author of the Declaration of Independence, orchestrate the Louisiana Purchase to dramatically increase the size of the United States to the center and west of the continent (as our 3rd President).  His face is one of the four presidents carved into a granite mountain at the Mount Rushmore National Monument.

Fortuitously, I have been in contact with a modern descendent of Sir Richard Lane, whose father undertook a bold project to lay out the genealogy of all the Lanes of England.  I would like to see this work make its way into the public genealogy databases.  It would be interesting to map where the descendants of Sir Richard have made their way over the centuries.

• Origins of the Lost Lord Keeper Project
• Sir Richard Lane’s Early Life and Career
• Sir Richard Lane and the Civil War
• Sir Richard Lane’s Exile And Lost Grave
• The Great Seal of England
• The 1657 “Lane’s Reports” Book
• A Man Without a Face: The Lost Portrait of Sir Richard Lane
• Sir Richard Lane’s Family and Lineage
• The Trail of Strafford: Harbinger of the coming Civil War
• The Uxbridge Treaty House