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They (Sir Ralph Lane and Maud Parr Lane ) served in the English Parliament in late 1550s and early 1560s.
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Marking the beginning of a career of service to queen and country. Lane participated in a force that suppressed a rebellion in Scotland
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Lane had involved himself in maritime affairs which included a queen’s commission to seize ships
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He was developing plans and offering his services in helping England struggle with Spain.
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Lane received a commission to go to Ireland and direct the construction of forts.
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The queen recalled Lane from Ireland and he was given command of the colony that Sir Walter Raleigh was organizing to sail to Virginia (Roanoke Island)
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Seven ships with about 600 men under the overall command of Sir Richard Grenville left England. After a storm scattered the fleet and reduced it to five ships, the company regrouped.
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A fleet led by Sir Francis Drake left Roanoke carrying the first English colonists back home.
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Lane was never involved in another colonization expedition but remained active in service to his county. He provided the foreword to Thomas Harriot’s Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia
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His account of the colony appeared in Richard Hakluyt’s Principal Navigations
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Lane was back in Ireland in 1592 serving as “muster master general” and “clerk of the check of the garrison” and remained in that country for the rest of his life.
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Lane’s physical weakness had made him unfit as muster master. Lane died in Dublin, Ireland.
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In October 1603 and was buried at St. Patrick’s Church on the 28th of that month.