Three Marriages, A Funeral, a Coronation, and an Indiscretion

One strand - Runyon. My great grandmother Gladys, a Runyon before she married Leonard Smith (historically speaking the Smith's were Johnny Come Lately's to the county, not arriving until the 1860s or so). I grew up across the road from where her father, Orison Peter Runyon, had built the family homeplace sometime before 1900. He had come across the mountain from Pond Creek, where his grandfather, Adron Runyon, had functioned as something like the local gentry. Adron had come to Pond Creek early, among the first wave of settlers, and he owned a good deal of land. He had 14 children with his wife, Jennie Maynard, and at least three children with their live-in housekeeper, Mary Ann May. The fact that one of his great grandchildren by way of Mary Ann May was Leonard Smith, who married one of his great grandchildren by way of his wife, Jennie, was not something mentioned, if known, by my family. Did my great grandmother Gladys know that she and her husband, Leonard, shared a great grandfather? If she did, the knowledge did not get passed along as living memory. It did not, until now, become a story that we could tell about ourselves. I'm not sure whether or not it illuminates anything, but it seems to shed some light on the Runyon character. We begin, apparently, here:

It has been proven by Runyon researchers that Vincent Runyon and Ann Boucher were founder's of most, and many believe all, of the Runyon family in America. Vincent was a French Hugeunot from Poitou France and Ann's family was from England. Many believe that Ann's family too had French roots, but this is a point of discusssion amongst researchers.

The first reference to Vincent in America is in 1668, in a 'marriage license' given by Philip Carteret, the young Governor of East Jersey. The document is on file in the office of Secretary of State of New Jersey, at Trenton and reads as follows Source Runyon24-2231.FTW:

"To any of the Justices of the Peace or Ministers of the Province of New Jersey: Whereas I have received information of a mutual agreement between Vincent Rongnion, of Portiers, in France, and Ann Boutcher, the daughter of John Boutcher, of Hartford, in England, to solemnize marriage together, for which they have requested my lycense, and there appearing no lawful impediment for the obstruction thereof, these are to require you or eyther of you, to joyne the said Vincent Rongnion and Ann Boutcher in matrimony, and them to pronounce man and wife, and to make record thereof, according to the laws in that behalf provided, for the doing whereof this shall be to you or eyther of you a sufficient warrant. Given under my hand and seal of the Province, the 28th day of June, 1668, and the 20th year of the raigne of our Sovereign Lord Charles the Second, of England, Scotland and Ireland, kind, defender of the faith, etc.

(signed) Ph. Carteret

This couple were joyned in matrimony by me the 17th of July, 1668.
(signed) James Bolton ...".

LINK

The historical record of the Runyon's begins with a wedding. It passes along the way through a series of indiscretions that splits a family into two halves, one legitimate and one not, and then resolves itself, so to speak, in another wedding.