VANS, a surname originally and properly Vaux or Vaus, of Norman derivation. Sir David Lindsay, in his Heraldry, mentions that Vaus was “one of the surnames of thame that came furth of Ingland with Sanct Margaret,” the wife of Malcolm Canmore. In the reign of Malcolm IV., Philip de Vallibus or Vaux had estates in the south of Scotland, and soon after, the lands and barony of Dirleton, in East Lothian, came into the possession of the family. The chief remaining branch of this ancient house has long been that of the family of Vans of Barnbarroch, Wigtonshire.