John Rance senior was born in 1630 in Bledlow, Buckinghamshire, England, to parents John Rance (b1596) and Clemence Floyd (b 1599).
Holy Trinity, Bledlow
John was baptised on 10 September 1630 at the church of the Holy Trinity in Bledlow.
He was one of four children born to the couple.
His parents John and Clemence were married at Bledlow on 27 November 1621. John was one of four children.
John married 21 year old Elizabeth Temple on 15 August 1655 at Hughenden, Buckinghamshire. Hughenden is nine miles from Bledlow.
Elizabeth was born in 1634 in Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire to parents Robert Temple and Ann Kingham. She was baptised at Princes Risborough on 27 July 1634. Princes Risborough is only 2 miles from Bledlow.
In 1697 Elizabeth’s brother Robert Temple junior was presented before the constables for selling beer without a license at the Epiphany Session 1697 at Princes Risborough. The following year in 1698 Moses Bristow and Robert Temple junior, both of Princes Risborow, labourers, appeared again, for keeping unlicensed alehouses. (Buckshire Record Society).
John and Elizabeth had six children baptised at Bledlow –
- Mary b 1658 & d 1661 Bledlow
- Elizabeth b 1662 & d 1729 Bledlow
- Mary b 1665 & d 1672 Bledlow
- John b 1670 Bledlow d 1712 Chinnor, marr Sarah Gibbons, 4 children
- Hannah b 1675 & d 1712 Bledlow
- Jonah b 1680 Bledlow, marr Mary. 12 children.
John and Elizabeth lived on a farm in Bledlow.
Bledlow churchyard burials
Elizabeth Rance died in 1703, at Wickham, probably at the home of one of her children. The burial register states she was the wife of John Raunce. She was buried at Wickham in March 1703.
John ‘Raunce’ appeared in the UK Poll Books and Electoral Registers for Bledlow in 1705.
John died in 1709 aged 79 and was buried at Bledlow.
