John Rance junior was born in 1670 in Bledlow, Buckinghamshire to parents John Rance senior (1630-1709) and Elizabeth Temple (1634-1703).
Holy Trinity, Bledlow
I have been unable to find John’s baptism, but there is a baptism at Bledlow for his sister Hannah in 1675 in the Buckinghamshire Baptism Index.
John was one of six children born to John and Elizabeth, but oddly only one baptism can be found.
It seems the parish registers are missing between 1662 and 1670.
John was a yeoman farmer in Chinnor and Bledlow.
At the age of 26 John married Sarah Gibbons on 8 June 1696 at St Mary, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. This is the only church name given in the Buckinghamshire Marriage Index, but if they were married by license, this may be where the license was issued. Bledlow is nine miles from Aylesbury.
St Peter and St Paul Stokenchurch Oxfordshire
Sarah was born in 1662 in Stokenchurch, Oxfordshire, 6 miles away from Bledlow. She was one of ten children of Phillip and Jane Gibbons.
Phillip Gibbons will written on 31 August 1669 and available here, does not mention his wife (she may have died), but mentions daughters Sarah, Jane, Hannah, Ann (Stevens), and sons John, William, Edward, Thomas and Phillip. Phillip was a yeoman farmer of Stokenchurch. The inventory totalled 315 pounds.
John and Sarah farmed at Chinnor and had four children who were all baptised at the church of the Holy Trinity in Bledlow –
- Hannah b 1695 & d 1702 Bledlow
- John b 1701 Bledlow
- Sarah b 1704 & d 1704 Bledlow
- Sarah b 1706 Bledlow d 1763 Crowell, marr Thomas Britnell, 13 children.
In 1701 at the Aylesbury Hundred Midsummer Sessions, John Raunce was sworn in as a Petty Constable and Tithingman at Bledlow Ridge in the Aylesbury Hundred. He replaced Mr Thomas Chitch . He was replaced in 1702 by Nicholas Weston. (Buckshire Record Society)
Bledlow churchyard burials
John died in August 1712 at Chinnor (according to the burial register), and was buried at Bledlow on 1 September 1712.
The only burial I can find at Bledlow searching through all the burial indexes of 1700, was in 1743, which recorded “Sarah Rance, November 9, poor”.
