Ancestors of James Gander and Mary Stace

and the Legend of the French Gandiers

According to research done by Des Gander, our ancestor Richard Gander is first recorded when the government imposed the first "Hearth Tax" in 1622 during the reign of Charles II. For everyone whose house was worth more than 20 shillings a year, and who was a local ratepayer of church and poor rates, a tax of two shillings was levied on each hearth in the household.  Richard paid a Hearth Tax in 1662 at Willingdon on 4 Hearths.     He did leave a will which was made in 1679 and proved in 1683 and was written as follows:

Archdeaconry Court of Lewes - Will of Richard GANDER

In the name of God Amen, the seventeenth day of April in the one and thirtieth year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord Charles the Second King of Great Britain France and Ireland And the year of our Lord One Thousand Six Hundred Seventy and Nine. I Richard GANDER of Willingdon in the County of Sussex Taylor being sick and weak in Body but of a sound and perfect memory do make and constitute this my last Will and Testament in manner and form as followeth IMPRIMIS I commend my Soul into the hands of God that gave it beseeching him to pardon its unworthyings and accept it for the sake of my blessed Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ And my Body I will to the earth therein decently to be buried Item the goods God hath given me I thus bequeath and dispose I do give unto my son Henry GANDER my Featherbed with the Bolsters and Curtains Two Bolsters and Blankets and all also (?sounto) belonging. Also I do give unto my son Richard GANDER my Floorbed which is at this time upon the mat under my said Featherbed. Item I do give and bequeath unto my Daughter Elizabeth RICHARDSON the sum of five shillings of good and lawful Money of England to be paid her at the term and end of one month immediately after my decease. Item I do hereby will and bequeath my Linen Pewter Money and all other my Goods and Chattels whatsoever (not herein before bequeathed) unto my sons Henry GANDER and Richard GANDER equally to be divided betwixt them two Also my will and pleasure in that such Debts as I shall owe at the time of my Decease be paid and satisfied out of my said Money and Goods before that any such variation of them so made unto Two equal parts by and between my sons aforesaid And likewise that the charges of my interment and all other legal charges concerning the establishing and proofs of my last Will and Testament be in equal portions aforesaid by my said Two sons Henry and Richard GANDER. And I appoint my son Henry to be the sole Executor of this my Will. This is the last Will and Testament of me the above said RIchard GANDER in witness whereof I do hereto set my hand and seal the days and years first above written. Richard GANDER.

Signed and sealed in the presence of
William VOTHILL
[ ........... ] VOTHILL
Tobias COOPER

There are no known documents of Richard Gander's birth or parentage, so his birth is recorded as "before 1622" in Sussex, southern UK.

Nearly 400 years after Richard's birth, the legend of his French heritage exists in at least two family lines of his descendants. Great-great grandsons of James (b 1804) and Joseph (b 1813) spoke of two Huguenot sons of aristocratic French family, disowned when they adopted the radical new thinking of Martin Luther. Early in the seventeenth century, they fled to escape persecution by Cardinal Richelieu. One brother, as the story goes, went to Belgium. Our ancestor, possibly Richard himself, stowed away on a smuggling vessel and landed at one of the Cinque Ports.

Anti-French feelings were so rampant in the England of that time that Richard changed his name to Gander, a fairly common name in southern UK then as now.

The Gandier families currently living in France have not been able to trace their ancestry beyond 1700. There is one Gandier who lived for a period of time near Brussels, but efforts to contact him have not been successful. There may also be a connection between the Canadian Gander/Gandiers and the de la Grandiere family. So far this is pure speculation, a challenge to future researchers. We are hoping there is a link to the de la Grandiere family, whose meticulous genealogical records stretch back to the beginning of the thirteenth century.

Rev Joseph Gander (b 1813, immigrated to Upper Canada 1848) might have influenced his sons to change the spelling of their surnames as he passed on the legend to them. There is no record as to the reason they changed their names at all, but the fact they chose "Gandier", rather than one of the many other variations, is interesting.