Benjamin Spann Family History

Children
Captain John Spann	b. about 1689 County Cavan, Ireland	d. about 1769 Dobbs Co., NC	m. Mary ?
Samuel Span	b. about 1690 Chester Co., England	d.
Elizabeth Span	b. ? before 1718 (will of William Lauder)		m. William Lauder
Richard Spann*

It's interesting that the younger son, Samuel, enters Trinity College almost a year before his older brother, John. They also were born in different places. That indicates to me that Benjamin must have kept his English contacts active or that he had family in England. Cavan and Longford counties are next to one another in what is referred to as the Midlands, almost in the dead center of Ireland.

"Captain John Spann was born 1689 in County Cavan, Ireland. He was a son of Rev. Benjamin Spann. John came to Mount Royal, North Carolina from Dublin, Ireland about 1723." [Joe Spann - Genforum email April 24, 2001]

It is quite feasible that the following records are for the Benjamin Span our relative. Place proximity and time period make this much more likely.
1707, Aug. 19 - A will is created for Rebecca Cuppaidge and witnessed Rev. Benjamin Span, clerk. apparently near or in Langer, Co., Cavan. The will is filed in Dublin.

     "Besides other ministring friends from abroad, Benjamin Holme was here this year, and spent seven months in this visit; Having meetings pretty frequently among strangers, and being instrumental to the convincement of several in this journey.
       In some part of his travels he had been accompanied by John Burton, with whom having parted, he went towards Londonderry, accompanied by Patrick Henderson, intending to have had a meeting in that city, which the magistrates would not permit, but dispersed those who came together; whereupon Benjamin(Holmes) wrote to magistrates, shewing how disagreeable it was to Christianity thus to treat men who came to call the inhabitants unto repentance: also he and Patrick wrote to the inhabitants of the city in general , reminding them of the late calamities they had been under, and of the their forgetfulness of God's deliverance of them, for which ingratitude, with other provoking sins, the Lord would bring his judgements on the, if they did not timely repent.
       After this our said friends had several meetings in that county, and in the county of Donnegal, among strangers, as also in the provence of Connaught. Benjamin also travelled into Munster twice, and had several meetings among strangers, and from thence passed again, through some parts of Leinster, into Connaught a second time, and had several meetings with the people in that province: he also visited those few friends that had lately been convinced near Sligo, having a particular concern upon his spirit to strengthen and encourage them to a faithful perserverence in the way of life and peace.
       In the Second month, 1713, Benjamin and three other friends, coming to Longford, set up their horses at an inn, desiring of the landlord that they might have a meeting in a room in his house, to which he consenting, they went to invite the people, and acquaint Benjamin Spann of it, who was both a justice of peace and minster of the parish. The friends, considering him as a magistrate, that it proper to speack to him; accordingly Benjamin Holme, and Benjamine Parvin, went to him and told him, that they had appointed a meeting that day there at their inn; but he, in a furious manner, told them they should have no meeting in that town. B. Holme mildly told him they did not come to ask his leave, but as he was a magistrate, to aquaint him with it, and that he might come to it if he pleased, and pleaded the queen's toleration for liberty of conscence and so parted for that time. Their landlord hearing of this their success, being somewhat cowardly, said, he durst not by any means let a meeting be held in his house; 'For, said he, 'Mr Spann will ruin me.' Whereupon B. Holme and B. Parvin, went to seek for another place, but meeting with the said priest in the street, he attacked them as rash upon the same subject. B. Holme, as before, pleaded the queen's toleration (but the priest, in a furious manner, denied that either man or woman in England or Ireland, could grant a toleration), and desired him to do as he would be done by. The said, 'That is no rule for me;' upon which they came to an argument, in which the priest finding himself pinched, called for a constable; but no constable appearing, he laid hold of B. Holme himself; and, seeing the gaoler near, he commanded him to take him into custody, and the priest led him by one arm, and the gaoler by the other, till they put him into the dungeon; and after using abusive language, the priest also himself laid hold of Benjamin Parvin, and delivered him to the gaoler, who obeyed his orders, and put him also into the same place, where the friends sat together in great peace and sweetness for about fix hours; and then the gaoler took them into a room above stairs, where several friendly persons came to see them; and among them one that brought them a discharge from the priest, upon condition they should promise not to come again, not hold any meeting in or near Longford. They told him they could make so such promise, letting him know that not true minister of Christ was his own matter, but must answer the requirings of him that had called him into his work and service; and so they parted, and were locked up that night in the room, where they lay on the boards in their coats and boots. Next day a friendly man, a merchant in the town , sent them a bed, and B. Parvin asked the gaoler, where he had any thing from the justice but his bare word; he answered, 'No.' B. Parvin told him, he though he could not lawfully detain them above twenty-four hours without a mittimus, and that then they would demand their liberty. The gaoler said he would go and tell Mr. Spann that, and so he did, and in a short time came again, and said he had a mittimus, they desired a sight of it, and with some in treaty got it, and found the tendency of it to be, 'that whereas they came in contempt of the queen's authority, by force and arms, in hostile manner, to the terrifying the queen's peaceable subjects, to hold a Quaker's meeting in the borough of Longford,'    When they read it, they told the gaoler it was false, and demanded of him where their arms were; and that it was not they that did condemn the queen's authority, but the priest, who had in the open street, before the crowd of people that gathered about them, denied that either man or woman in England or Ireland, could grant a toleration for liberty of conscience. The gaoler went to the priest and reported to him the conversation they had had, and when he returned to them, he said the priest wished he had never seen them, who in the evening of the same day, sent an order under his hand to the gaoler for their liberty; whereupon the gaoler told them, they were free from their commitment, but he wanted his own and the sheriff's fees. They told him they were innocent prisoners, and therefore they could pay no fees. He said he would forgive them his part, but the sheriff said they should pay their fees, or lie in gaol till they rotted, and commanded the gaoler to turn them into the dungeon again; which he did not but gave them their liberty two nights, upon their word to return to the gaol if the sheriff did not acquit the, which he did at tast without their paying any fees. When B. Holme was set at liberty from his confinement at Longford, he went a second time into Ulster, being accompanied by Alexander Seaton....Our said friend of B. Holme published this year at Dublin, 'A tender Call and Invitation to all People, to embrace the offers of God's Love, and to break off from those things that provoke him to anger, before the day of their visitation pasover.'"
                                                    [Wight, Thomas, of Cork. A History of Quakers.... pp. 209- 212]

[Index to Prerogative Wills of Ireland p. 434]

Although there are other Span/Spann wills listed in this book, they are a good deal later and mostly in Dublin.

Turner paper - is a collection of papers, maps and plans about an estate in County Leitrim, Ireland belonging to William Lauder. It consisted on lands in Keelogue, Listermagaville, Gorthenury, Drumoula, Bonymore, Boneybeg which were all in the Parish of Mohill. It also had lands in Annahassna in the Prish of Kiltoughart.

William Lauder of Bunnybeg was sheriff of County Leitrim and had married Catherine, daughter of Arthur Auchmuty of Brainstown, Co. Longford, and died in 1715.   William's grandson was also named William Lauder and had "married Elizabeth Span, the daughter of Rev. Benjamin Span, of Dublin and Co. Longford, whose will dated 1718, is included within the collection."

"William Lauder had two sons, William and Samuel Span Lauder who died in 1844 and 1846 respectively. Williams's eldest son william Arther died in 1866) became manager of the estate and marreid Elizabeth Gregg, daughter of Hubert Gregg, who had acted as agent for William Arthur Lauder. William Arthur had two children, Mary and William Sydney. The latter inherited the estate in 1866 and lived at Mount Cambell House. William Sydney Lawder was the last of the Lawders and he left the estate to his cousin, Richard Garret of Belfast and Helen's Bay County Down, grandfather of the depositor, Capt. Richard Turner. "
Apparently after the potato famine the estate fell into a state of disrepair.
             [Turner Papers, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Crown Copyright 2007]