There are three different Lanter Families living in the USA, and I have been unable to show any connection. The Lanters from Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina are descendents from Thomas & Isabella.
The other Lanter families are descendents from Dominique Lanter, who migrated to America from Herange France around 1800, and August Lanter who came to America in 1882.
The Thomas Lanter Family has been in America since the 16th Century. We have been unable to find any ship records of the Lanter family coming to America in the 1600’s. The Lanter family most probably began in the Americas in Middlesex County, Virginia. The parish register of Christ's Church located in that county provides the earliest references to the Lanter family. During the mid 1600’s there was over 50,000 Irish men and women, plus thousands of immigrants from Europe that came to America. Those that couldn't pay their own way became “Indentured Servants” having to work for 4 - 7 years on the Plantations to pay for their passage to America. Both Thomas & Isabella might have been Indentured Servants, as they were married and owned land by 1700, but yet they don’t show on any Passenger Lists.
Christ’s Church
The parish baptismal records show that Thomas and Isabella Lanter had five children (Margaret, Thomas, Mary, John, and Peter) between 1698 and 1709. Peter later lived in Caroline County, in Drysdale Parish, now Collins Virginia, where he operated a grist mill. A ducking stool was built at Lantor's Pond, where the grist mill was located. The ducking pool was built to provide proper punishment for women who erred in the sight of the law of the Anglican Church.
Lanters Pond
There is no record of the ducking pool being used, apparently all the Lanter females were obedient to the church law, or shrewd enough not to get caught. Peter had four sons - Jacob, Peter, Thomas and Joseph. They served in the Orange County, Virginia Militia and participated in several battles that took place in Virginia in the Revolutionary War. Three brothers married girls from Orange County after the War. Thomas and Mary Walker were married on August 28, 1783, by Rev Aaron Bledsoe, a Baptist preacher. Jacob and Peter married sisters. Jacob married Polly Webb on December 20, 1787, and Peter married Hannah Webb on May 31, 1787. Mildred Lanter, a sister of the three men married a John Webb. The daughter of Mildred and John Webb later married Alex Lanter in Madison County, Ky. The Webb family may have had a considerable influence on the Lanter family, at least those among our immediate ancestors. The Webb’s were a prominent Orange County family and active Baptists. They donated the land on which the Blue Run Baptist Church of Orange County was built. Jacob Lanter, Rev Aaron Bledsoe, and Elijah Craig, migrated as a group, to the Sugar Creek area of Garrard County, Kentucky, about 1787. Elijah Craig (Jacob's neighbor) was credited with the discovery of Bourbon, and later became a prominent Kentucky landowner and businessman.
There was a steady stream of migrants from Orange County into Kentucky from the 1780s into the early 1800s. Thomas Lanter and his sons were undoubtedly acquainted with many of them. Some members of the Webb family had acquired land grants in Bourbon County and were there in the early 1790s. Sometime around 1800 Jacob, Peter, and Thomas and John Webb, along with their families, must have traveled the Wilderness Road into Kentucky. Jacob settled in Harrison County and the Lanters in northern Kentucky are his descendants. Peter was mentioned in an early census of the Montgomery County and later in Garrard County, while Thomas was reported in Harrison, Montgomery, and finally in Madison County.
Lanters have been a part of History since they came to America. Jacob Lanter and his brothers fought in the Revolutionary War.
Thomas Lanter – b.1777 – (son of Thomas, Jacob’s brother), He was a soldier in the War of 1812, under Colonel Dick Johnson.
Wyatt Lanter - b.1788 - (Jacobs son) was killed in the War of 1812.
Larkin Lanter – b.1796 - (Jacobs son) Larkin was in the War of 1812, serving in the 22nd Regiment of the Kentucky Volunteer Mounted Infantry. He received two different Land Warrants from the Government for his military services. One grant was 40 acres, the other was 120 acres. The land is four miles west of Colemansville, Kentucky.
John L Lanter, - b.1800 - John Lanter (son of Jacob) was granted 120 acres of land by President James Buchanan, August 10, 1860 for his service in the War of 1812.
There are over 30 Lanters mentioned in the Civil War (Civil War Lanters Section)
There were over 7 Lanters in World War I.
There are many Lanters listed in World War II
There were three Lanters killed in Viet Nam:
Raymond Edward Lanter –b.1944 - Raymond was a helicopter door gunner for Maj Gen Keith L. Ware of the 1st Infantry Division. Raymond, Gen Ware, and 6 other crewmen were all killed in a helicopter crash, 70 miles north of Saigon. 9/13/1968
Kenneth Wayne Lanter –b.1947 – Died in War, Kenneth Wayne enlisted in the US Army on June 21, 1965, at the age of 17. He was in the 9th Cavalry, Company A. He died a hero while serving in Vietnam on Feb 19, 1966. He received the Military Merit Medal, Gallantry Cross with Palm, The Purple Heart for bravery, the Air Medal with "V" for valor, and several others.
Roger Paul Lanter – b. 1949 - Died in War, Binh Duong, South Vietnam, 4/25/1969
There are currently many Lanters in Irag, Afghanistan, & Pakistan.
Please see other Lanter Veterans in the Lanter Veteran Section.
There are many Lanters in the Who's Who section.
Matthew Mackendree Lanter - 1983 - "Matt Lanter" - Actor: Commander in Chief, Heroes, Shark, CSI. gggrandson of Austin Andrew Lanter, & Grandson of Kenley McKendree Lanter - WW II, One of 317 sailors that survived the shark invested waters of the Philippine Sea.
wlanter@hotmail.com
bravenet.com