Group 6

Lineages

• Hugh Vance of Fayette County, PA (b.1775) m.Margaret Tedrick
  
• William Vance of Fayette County, PA (b.1779, PA)
  
• Davis Vance of Fayette County, PA (b.1781) m.Hannah Tedrick
  
• Capt. Jacob Vance of Chester County, PA (b.1781)

Members

• 140136 – Hugh Vance of Fayette Co, PA (b.1775) m.Margaret Tedrick
  
• 61703 – William Vance of Fayette (b.1779, PA - d.1854, OH) (son Lem)
  
• 101216 – William Vance of Fayette (b.1779, PA – d.1854, OH) (son Mintun)
  
• 104739 – Davis Vance (b.1781 - d.1837, Highland Co., OH)
  
• 133768 – Jacob Vance (1781-1815), Chester Co, PA

DNA Analysis

DNA Results

All members of Group 6 are identical on 12 markers except 140136, who is a genetic distance of 1 from the others. Additionally, members 61703 and 140136 are a genetic distance of 2 on 67 markers from each other and member 133768 is a genetic distance of 1 from each of them on 67 markers. These results are all consistent with the group’s common descent within a genealogically meaningful timeframe, implying descent from someone with the same surname.

Matches with Other Surnames:
This group is within a genetic distance of 6 on 37 markers from 3 individuals in Ysearch:

The Bassett project contains a group of 20 or more men who share the Vance Group 6 modal haplotype on 37 markers.

The genetic distance between most of the Bassetts and Vance Group 6 is very close on 37 markers, with only 1 to 3 mutations separating them. One of the Bassetts has tested 67 markers, and his genetic distance from the Vance Group 6 modal is only 2 on 67 markers. A match this close is often indicative of a recent common descent.

Among this Bassett group are three individuals who appear to have documented lines of descent from the Bassetts of Llanelly and the Bassetts of Havod in Wales. These appear to be cadet lineages of the Bassetts of Beaupre, who trace back to Sir Elias Basset (13th century). They ultimately have a tradition of descent from Thurston Bassett, whose son Ralph was Justiciar of England in the reign of King Henry I (1100-1135). The Vance-Bassett match takes on added significance in light of traditional evidence, detailed below, that points towards a connection between the Group 6 Vances and a group of Welsh families who migrated from the area around Llanelly and Havod to the so-called Welsh Tract in Pennsylvania.

Observations on Marker Values:
This group is characterized by several marker values that are unusual for the I haplogroup. Those values that are present in less than 10% of I males are listed here in order of rarity:

Marker rarity was assessed using the late Leo Little’s survey of marker value frequency.

Haplogroup:
Two members of Vance Group 6 (133768 and 140136) have tested positive for the M170 SNP, confirming their membership in the I haplogroup. They have not had a more refined SNP test to determine their membership in one of the many subclades of I. According to Whit Athey’s haplogroup predictor, they very likely belong to haplogroup I2b*, meaning they may have the S23 SNP but none of S23’s descendant SNPs. This result is also predicted using Jim Cullen’s haplogroup predictor, which further predicts that they belong to the I-S23-A subclade of I-S23.

The International Society of Genetic Genealogy maintains an up-to-date phylogenetic tree of the I haplogroup here: http://www.isogg.org/tree/ISOGG_HapgrpI09.html. Ken Nordvedt’s excellent work on the I haplogroup may be found on his website.

Notable Findings:
This lineage is not genetically related to that of 67952, a descendant of John Vance of Fayette County, PA., who was the son of John Vance who left a will in Frederick County, VA, dated 1760. This genetic evidence tends to confirm the long-noted distinction between the Presbyterian Vances of Tyrone and Connellsville Townships in northern Fayette County and the Baptist Vances of Georges Township in southern Fayette County. The latter are the ancestors of the Group 6 Vances.

The genealogical evidence relating to the Fayette County Vances is well documented in several articles about Hugh, William, and Davis that have appeared in past issues of the VFA Newsletter: January 1989, April 1996, January 1999, July 2000, and October 2003. A group of cousins who have been collaborating on the genealogy of this group additionally penned an article for the May 2009 VFA newsletter on Jacob Vance of Chester County (133768), in which they discussed the evidence suggesting a connection between Jacob and the Georges Township Vances.

To summarize that theory. . . Jacob Vance of Chester County (ancestor of 133768) is known to have had a brother Thomas Vance, and it is thought that these two may have been the sons of a Thomas Vance who appeared on the 1790 census in East Nantmeal, Chester County, PA. There is no trace of this Thomas Vance in Chester County after 1790, but a Thomas Vance does appear on the 1798 and 1799 tax rolls in Fayette County. This Thomas Vance of Fayette is also listed in the 1800 and 1810 censuses in Georges Township, Fayette County (the same township in which Hugh, Davis, and William lived). He was described as an “old man” in the 1817 tax assessment, indicating that he was probably a generation older than William, Davis, and Hugh Vance of Fayette and that he was roughly the same generation as Thomas Vance of Chester. The idea that Thomas Vance of Chester was the same man as Thomas Vance of Fayette was suggested by the timing of the former’s disappearance from Chester records and the timing of the latter’s appearance in Fayette records, and also by the recurrence of the names William, Jacob, and Thomas among the Chester County Vances. DNA results for 133768 make this theory quite plausible.

Chester County Welsh Baptist Connection
The DNA match with a descendant of Jacob Vance gives the Georges Township Vances a firm connection to Chester County, and this opens up new avenues of investigation. The April 1998 issue of the VFA NL contains the following will abstract from Chester County, PA:

Pg. 178. Will of Philip David, E. Nantmeal Twp. B2- March 1747. June 2, 1732-Mar. 23, 1747. To wife Katherine lands, etc. To sister Gwan Llian David, sister Janet David, Servant lad Evan, son of Griffin Griffies. Exrs: wife Katherine and John Griffies and John Rees. Codicil: gives to Evan Griffids all bequests to his wife she being now deceased, except for 5 pounds to Thomas son of William Vance and 2 articles names to Clement Radford. Exr. Nathaniel Jones and John Rees. Wit: Jeremiah Kyle, John Lewis, John Cai___

Kathleen Mason, the historian of the VFA at the time the article was written, guessed from this that the father of Jacob Vance (133768) was William Vance (remember, we know Jacob had a brother named Thomas). However, the codicil itself stipulates that Thomas’ bequest was to be let out at interest "until the said Thomas Vance arrives at the age of twenty one years." Given the date of the will’s codicil (1747) it is clear that Philip David must have been referring to an older Thomas Vance and not to the brother of Jacob, who was born around 30 years later. This early Thomas may probably be identified as the Thomas Vance who can be tracked through the tax rolls of East Nantmeal township from the 1760s all the up to the 1790 census. This is, of course, the same Thomas Vance who is suggested to have moved to Fayette County and who has been put forward as a father to some or all of the Vances who are the earliest known ancestors of the members of Group 6. This theory of descent for the Fayette County Vances was put forward in the VFA NL article from May 2009 on Jacob Vance of Chester.

Philip David was Welsh. His family (the name was also sometimes spelled Davis or Davies) took part in a movement of Welsh Quakers and Baptists to Pennsylvania in the late 17th/early 18th century. Many of them settled in what was known as the “Welsh Tract,” which comprised parts of the present-day counties of Chester, Montgomery, and Delaware. The following item on the Griffiths family is of interest; it mentions both Philip David and the Griffin Griffiths who is noted in Philip David’s will:

At this time [1724] Griffith Griffiths was a member of the Great Valley Baptist Church, the congregation of which was composed partly of persons from the neighborhood of his home in Wales. In 1726, however “the following persons broke off from the Great Valley Church on account of their change of sentiments concerning the Sabbath: Philip Davis (David), Lewis Williams, Richard Edwards, Griffy Griffiths; and the next year William James. These five with their families removed to French Creek in the aforesaid year.” [The pedigree of William Griffith, John Griffith and Griffith Griffiths, Thomas Allen Glenn]

From this, it appears that Philip David/Davis and Griffin Griffiths were part of the same Welsh Baptist splinter congregation (they established a Seventh Day Baptist Church). The two families must have been close, since Philip David gave Griffiths’ son Evan a large bequest in his will. Perhaps the William Vance mentioned in Philip’s will was a member of their congregation, since his son also received a bequest. It is clear they were close; not only did William Vance’s son receive a bequest from Philip David, but he was also a witness on 6 March 1748 to John Rees’s renunciation of his responsibilities as a co-executor of the estate. This is an intriguing connection given the fact that Hugh, William, and Davis Vance were all known to have been Baptists. A matter for additional contemplation is the surname David/Davis. It is tempting to wonder whether Davis Vance of Fayette may have been named after Philip Davis or someone else in his family.

There are also connections between the Fayette County Vances and the family of Griffin Griffiths. Ann Vance, daughter of William Vance of Fayette (61703/101216), married Reverend Levi Griffiths, the grandson of Griffin Griffiths’ son Levi, who moved to Fayette County. Jacob Vance, another child of William, named one of his sons Griffith Vance.

These connections to the Davis and Griffith families are significant, and appear even more so in light of the Vance-Bassett DNA match discussed above. Both the Davis and Griffith families, along with several other families who settled the Welsh tract, originally hailed from the parish of Llanddewi in Wales. The town of Llanddewi, from which the parish takes its name, is only about 20 miles distant from Llanelli, which was the home of the branch of Bassetts whose descendants are such a close match with the Group 6 Vances.

Given Group 6’s possible Welsh descent, it is interesting to note that at least one Vance family was aware of a tradition of Welsh ancestry. A Toledo Blade article from 1976 noted the following about Cyrus Vance, soon to be secretary of state under President Jimmy Carter:

The Vance family was of Welsh descent, and Cyrus was the fourth generation of Vances in Clarksburg [West Virginia]. His great-grandfather, Cyrus Vance, had been mayor, and his grandfather, John Vance, was a member of the first legislature at Wheeling after the state split from Virginia.

The John Vance mentioned in the article may be identified as John Carl Vance, the son of Cyrus and Minerva (Davis) Vance. Conflicting information exists about the elder Cyrus Vance. At least one source (Reminiscences of Northern West Virginia) claims that he was born in Fayette County, PA, in 1807 and that he was the son of Moses Vance. However, only one Moses Vance has been identified in Fayette County during this time and no Cyrus Vance was named in his estate records, which seem to have been comprehensive. In the July 2000 issue of the VFA newsletter, Mary Vance Norfleet noted that Shallenbergers of Echo Mountain mentions a Cyrus Vance who was apprenticed to a saddler in Mount Pleasant, PA, in 1824. (Mount Pleasant is in Westmoreland County, directly north of Fayette.) This Cyrus may probably be identified as Cyrus Vance of West Virginia, since his age fits and since Cyrus of Virginia was known to have been a saddler. It may be worthwhile to have a representative of this lineage in the DNA project.

William and Elizabeth Vance of Chester County, PA / County Armagh, Ireland

The William Vance mentioned in the will of Philip David as father of Thomas Vance may probably be identified as the William Vance who first appeared on the tax list for Nantmeal Township in Chester County in 1748. He and his wife Elizabeth were Quakers and had emigrated to Pennsylvania from Ireland, where they were members of the Grange monthly meeting at Charlemont in County Armagh. They received a certificate dated 3 March 1741 from the Grange meeting recommending them to Chester County’s Goshen meeting. A Griffiths family was also a member of the Grange monthly meeting, but their relationship, if any, to the Baptist Griffiths from Wales is unclear. Descendants are now researching William and Elizabeth to try and discover more about their origins.

At first glance, a theory of descent from the Quakers William and Elizabeth Vance may seem to contradict Group 6’s later Baptist faith. However, membership in these two religions seems to have been highly fluid. In Early Relations of Baptists and Quakers (Church History, V.2, No. 4: Dec. 1933), R.E.E. Harkness points out that the two religions were very similar in matters of doctrine, habit, and custom, and that the first Quakers were drawn greatly from the ranks of the Baptists. He concludes by noting, “we can understand why so many of the Quakers in the New World became Baptists. They had been Baptists. In their origin they were almost as truly a section or society of the Baptists as the Wesleyans were of the Anglicans.” Reconciling William Vance’s apparent Irish ancestry with the Welsh ancestry suggested by the DNA evidence is more problematic.