Delano family


In the United States, members of the Delano family include U.S. presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Ulysses S. Grant and Calvin Coolidge, astronaut Alan B. Shepard, and writer Laura Ingalls Wilder. Its progenitor is Philippe de Lannoy, a Pilgrim of Walloon descent, who arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in the early 1620s. His descendants also include Eustachius De Lannoy, Frederic Adrian Delano, Robert Redfield, and Paul Delano. Delano family forebears include the Pilgrims who chartered the Mayflower, seven of its passengers, and three signers of the Mayflower Compact.

De Lannoy family in Europe

Philippe de Lannoy was baptized in Leiden on December 7, 1603. He was the son of religious refugee parents Jan Lano, born Jean de Lannoy in 1575 at Tourcoing; and Marie Mahieu of Lille, two towns in French-speaking Flanders, one of 17 provinces of the Spanish Netherlands. Today, this area is in northern France. Philip's parents were betrothed in the Leiden Walloon Church on January 13, 1596. His father died in 1604 at Leiden. Philippe's grandfather, Guilbert de Lannoy of Tourcoing, was born Roman Catholic but apparently became an early Protestant. He left the mainland with his family for England probably in the late 1570s and then, in 1591, moved to Leiden, a safe harbor for religious dissidents. The Mahieu family arrived in Leiden around the same time, having earlier been at Armentières, near Lille. The family name de Lannoy may derive from the town of Lannoy also near Lille.
Extensive research has found no evidence to connect the Delano family with the House of Lannoy.

Migration to America

Arriving in Leiden, Holland, from England, Philippe de Lannoy's ancestors affiliated with the Leiden Walloon Church, which held services in French. The timing and extent of his contact with the John Robinson Pilgrim congregation in Leiden is unknown but Philippe traveled to England and sailed to the new Plymouth Colony aboard Fortune in early July 1621, arriving on November 9, 1621.

Life in America

Philippe de Lannoy joined and resided with his uncle Francis Cooke and cousin John, who had arrived on the Mayflower the year before. In 1623, he received a land grant in Plymouth but sold this property in 1627 and moved to Duxborough. In 1634, at Plymouth, Massachusetts, he married Hester Dewsbury. Their children: 1. Mary Delano, b. abt 1635; 2. Philip Delano, b. abt 1637; 3. Hester or Esther Delano, b. abt 1640; 4. Thomas Delano, b. 21 March 1642; 5. John Delano, b. 1644; 6. Jonathan Delano, b. 1647–1648, prob. Duxbury, Massachusetts. Delano prospered and was part of the group that organized the construction of highways and bridges around the village. Hester died after 1648. Before 1653 he married the widowed Mary Pontus Glass, b. abt 1625, by whom he had three children: 1. Jane Delano; 2. Rebecca Delano; 3. Samuel Delano.".
He volunteered to serve in the Pequot War of 1637, but news soon arrived that Connecticut and Massachusetts Bay men had extinguished the threat, and Plymouth men stayed home. In 1652, he was one of 36 Purchasers of the Dartmouth territory, about 115,000 acres purchased from Massasoit, the leader of the Wampanoag. Philippe's share amounted to 800 acres. He sold half of his share to William Earle in 1659 and the other half to John Russell, Sr. in 1667. Philip also owned land in Bridgewater and Middleborough. Philip died in Duxbury sometime between 22 August 1681 and 4 March 1681/82. He was 79. A great many of his offspring would become prominent mariners, whalers, and shipbuilders. The later commercial success of some Delanos was such that they would become part of the Massachusetts aristocracy, sometimes referred to as one of the Boston Brahmins.

Descendants

Philippe de Lannoy's sixth child Jonathan married Mercy Warren, granddaughter of Mayflower passenger Richard Warren; among their direct descendants are the author Laura Ingalls Wilder, President Ulysses S. Grant, President Calvin Coolidge, anthropologist Robert Redfield, astronaut Alan B. Shepard, journalist Hunter S. Thompson, entertainer Martina McBride and the poet Conrad Potter Aiken.
Over time, family members migrated to other states, including Pennsylvania, Utah, Georgia, Michigan, Maine, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Virginia, Vermont and as far away as Chile, where today descendants of Captain Paul Delano are numerous and prominent. From the New York clan, Sara Delano married James Roosevelt and their only child, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, became President of the United States.
File:Delano Family Tomb at Riverside Cemetery in Fairhaven, Massachusetts.jpg|thumb|Delano Family Tomb in Riverside Cemetery in Fairhaven, Massachusetts
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made a large fortune trading opium in Canton, China. Delano first went to China at age 24 to work for Russell & Company, which had pioneered trading with China. John Perkins Cushingalso a Russell & Company partnerhad preceded Delano and initiated a close relationship with a Chinese official called Howqua. The two men had established an offshore basean anchored floating warehousewhere Russell & Company ships would offload their opium contraband before continuing up the Pearl River Delta to Canton with their legal cargo.
By early 1843, Delano had spent a momentous decade in the China trade. He had achieved his financial competence and risen to become the head partner of the biggest American firm dealing with China. He had witnessed the destruction of the hated Canton system, the humiliation of the Chinese government, and the creation of New Chinas.