The Hampshire Family Historian | Vol.49 No.3 | December 2022

Member’s article

extensive being at Crondall and Hurstbourne Tarrant. Family trees have been constructed as far as I could for those families and others, but no connection has been found with them. There was, however, an almost corresponding family at East Meon, the only problem being that they didn’t have a son James – Richard DANCE and Lucy FORD married there in 1721 and had thirteen children, the eldest born in 1722 and the youngest in 1747, only three of whom are recorded as dying in infancy at East Meon. Lucy, who was born at East Meon in 1702, died in 1749, earlier than the likely birth date for James. Richard Dance, who was presumably an agricultural labourer, lived till 1757 but there is no evidence that he married again. There are no Dances in the East Meon parish register prior to their marriage (so Richard’s origin is unconfirmed) and no subsequent family records there, so all their surviving children apparently moved elsewhere. Of their children with likely connections to James, William was their 8th child (born in 1735), while Mary (1742), Daniel (1744) and David (1747) were the three youngest. The others who apparently survived infancy were Richard (1722), Lucy (1724), Hannah (1726), Edward (1728), Ann (1731) and Katherine (1737). A search of the registers of surrounding parishes, giving particular attention to those not included in the IGI, found only one James DANCE born about the right time to be the victualler in Portsea. This James was born at

Warnford, quite close to East Meon, and was baptised there on 5 April 1753, the son of Edward DANCE and Elizabeth THOMAS , who had married there in the previous October. His father Edward is concluded to have been the 4th child of Richard and Lucy, born in 1728. If this is correct, James was Richard and Lucy’s grandson and actually a first cousin of his “nephew” Daniel. James was, however, only a few years younger than his uncles Daniel senior and David senior, so may have regarded them as being of his generation, while his executor and cousin Daniel junior was 21 years younger than him. In any case “cousin” and “nephew” were used to describe similar relationships at that time. The identity and relationship to James of the other nephew cited as an executor, George WINGHAM , has not been established. These conclusions are set out in the Table showing the Dance family of East Meon. Some of this is speculative but fits well with the available evidence. It is hoped that further information to provide links with other Dance families in Hampshire will be found, but movements between parishes before census information became available are difficult to verify. No likely baptism of a Richard Dance, founder of the East Meon family, has yet been discovered; some trees on the ancestry site connecting him with the Dances of Hurstbourne Tarrant appear to have no supporting evidence for that conclusion. Peter Chandler (Member #12894) chandgnats@aol.com

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