Life History

Notes

• This line of Le Strange was established by Roland le Strange (died 1135) in Hunstanton, Norfolk.  My line connecting to the Gregorys and Stranges of Tennessee connects to North America through Devon, which has a Hunstanton town also, probably named after the Le Strange estate in Norfolk.
  
  A descendant manages a family website, "The Le Strange Family Website," that includes some historical information and a sparse genealogy showing the line of descent from Roland.  In 1299 John le Strange was "summoned" as the first Baronet Lord Strange of Knockin.  The website does not provided dates for most persons, and places of birth for only a few.  I have compared and evaluated other sources to get birth dates for the children.
  
  Note that there is a question on a connection with an Edmund Strange to Roland Strange/Extraneious that is worth investigating.  Some questoin a link between Devcon and Norfolk in the line of descent.  This suggests that the earliest ancestor of the Devon Le Stranges is a Robarte Strange about 1519.
  http://www.arapacana.com/reference/hypotheses.html#dumnonic
  
  The Le Strange Family Website spells the name with a lower case L on le Strange.  I have followed the common pattern of capitalizing it.  Sir Thomas Le Strange was "Esquire to the body of Henry VIII," according to the Le Strange Family Website and other sources.
  --  Jamesina M Remfry, Le Strange Website, http://www.ls.u-net.com/le_Strange/Seat-H2.htm
  
  The Le Stranges were originally Franco-Celts (or Norman-Celts) from Breton (Brittany) in France.  The name is the natural phonetic development in French Latin of the name Extraneus, the foreigner.  Members of the family later established themselves in Devon.  Devon is on the southwest peninsula of Britain, bordering Cornwall.  There is a long historic connection between this area and Wales with Brittany, from the pre-Roman times, but strengthened in the time of the Saxon invasions when some from the Cornwall area emigrated across the channel to Brittany to escape military pressure.  This connection figures in the anachronistic Arthurian tales of the Middle Ages.
  
  The Celts of this area of Britain and the continent were of the group linguistically classified as Brythonic.  Families were related across the British Channel into modern times.  The continental area became more and more Romanized, then Frankified, though the Breton language is still spoken some today.  Cornish as a mother tongue was declared extinct in the 1950s, but has been revived as a studied language.
  
  A L'Estrange researcher in Australia contributed the following information about Thomas, indicating that his son Richard was the one who started the Irish line of L'Estranges:
  "My daughter-in-law's maiden name is L'Estrange, she is descendant from Sir Thomas le Strange (1493-1545).  His second eldest son Richard, went to Ireland sometime between 1531 and 1545, and started the L'Estrange family there, living initially at Rosscommon and finally at Moystown and Kilcummin in Kings Co."
  --  Eric Winstone, Genealogy Website Guest Book Entry, April 2008
  
  One or two sources have birth dates for Thomas and/or his wife Anne Vaux that are too late to match the marriage dates for this couple (21 May 1513).  I initially used dates from the family website of Le Strange of Hunstanton, of whom Thomas was one of the Lords.  These are supported by other genealogies presenting the Le Strange or related families, as well as formal academic sources.  Some genealogies appear to have linked Thomas to the wrong Anne (Anna) Vaux, who was born abt 1513 (or confused the birth date with someone else), instead of Anne (Anna) Vaux, daughter of Nicholas Vaux and Elizabeth Fitzhugh, who seems to have been born about 1494, from most family and public sources that have a birth date for her.
  
  Dictionary of National Biography, Volumes 1-20, 22, via Ancestry.com
  Sir Thomas Le Strange
  Birth Date: 1494
  Death Date: 16 Jan 1545
  Father's name: Robert Le Strange
  
  -------------------------------------------------------
  Sir Thomas Le Strange (1493-1545)
  Birth 1493 Hunstanton, Norfolk, England
  Death January 16, 1545 Hunstanton, Norfolk, England
  Father: Sir Robert Le Strange
  Mother: Margaret Le Strange
  Spouse: Anne Vaux
  Wedding May 21, 1513
  
  "Sir Thomas Le Strange of Hunstanton inherited the Norfolk estates of his nephew, John who died without issue aged 13 in 1514. His career was influenced by his father, Robert, of Elsing manor, who had died 3 years prior, and whom had arranged for his children to marry well. Indeed Sir Thomas and his siblings did, and his early arranged marriage to Anne Vaux, in 1501, who was 5th in descent from John of Gaunt, enriched his life by bringing them 16 children."
  --  "Sir Thomas Le Strange (1493-1545)," Familypedia, http://familypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Sir_Thomas_Le_Strange_(1493-1545)
  -------------------------------------------------------
  
  Sir Thomas le Strange  [1493-1545] [Esq. to Body of Henry VIII] Son of: Sir Robert le Strange (see above) of Elsing Hall, Norfolk [d.1511] and Anne le Strange
  Spouse Anne Vaux [b.1494, living 1548]
  Issue:
  1.  Sir Nicholas le Strange of Hunstanton [b.c.1511 d.1580]
  2.  Richard le Strange of Moystown, Ireland
  3.  William le Strange
  4.  Roger le Strange
  5.  Henry le Strange
  6.  Thomas le Strange
  7.  William le Strange (Junior)
  8   Edmund le Strange
  9.  Elizabeth le Strange  m.John Cressener
  10. Alice le Strange   m.Thomas Calthorpe
  11. Anne le Strange  m.Anthony Southwell
  12. Katherine  m.Rowland Clark
  13. Mary le Strange
  --  Jamesina M Remfry, Le Strange Website, http://www.ls.u-net.com/le_Strange/Seat-H2.htm
  
  Note that this LeStrange genealogy names the wife of Robert, Thomas' father, as Anne Le Strange.  One interesting item is that the Familypedia article names the parents of Sir Thomas Le Strange as Robert and Margaret, not Robert and Anne.  The Tudorplace genealogy also shows Thomas' mother as Margaret Le Strange.
  --  http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/STRANGE.htm#Thomas Le STRANGE of Hunstanton (Sir Knight)1
  
  Other sources I have consulted have no information about Maragret as a wife of Robert Le Strange, father of Thomas born 1494.
  
  Dictionary of National Biography, Volumes 1-20, 22
  Sir Thomas Le Strange
  Birth Date 1494
  Death Date 16 Jan 1545
  Father Robert Le Strange

Sources

• 1. Dictionary of National Biography, Volumes 1-20, 22
• 2. Le Strange Website - No Longer Online
• 3. Le Strange Family Genealogy -- TudorPlace
• 4. Jamesina M Remfry, Descendants of Roland Le Strange
  • Location: http://www.ls.u-net.com/le_Strange/Seat-H2.htm;
• 5. One World Tree (sm)
  • http://trees.ancestry.com/owt/person.aspx?pid=41294257&st=1
• 6. Ancestry Trees
  • http://awtc.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=*v34t0074&id=I08865
• 7. Ancestry Trees
  • http://awtc.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=*v34t0074&id=I08901
• 8. One World Tree (sm)
  • http://trees.ancestry.com/owt/person.aspx?pid=4158331&st=1
• 9. One World Tree (sm)
  • http://trees.ancestry.com/owt/person.aspx?pid=4152561