Widow Blake buried 1734

Widow Blake was buried in 1734. Possibly the wife of Robert Blake as he was buried 1729 and his wife was Elizabeth and no record of her being buried yet. The last Blake burial in this time period was 1736 and this was Elizabeth Blake (no other notation). I can not really begin to guess whether Mary Blake is one of the burials (widow of Thomas Blake and mother of Thomas Blake (b 1709)). The priest stopped noting anything other than the names from 1735 on. It is a new priest once again and he is not overly familiar with the names.

The burials at Andover have taken a sudden spike in the late 1730s and early 1740s. There are probably three to four times as many burials but amazingly there are no Blake burials after 1736 with the exception of Joseph son of Joseph and Mary Blake who is buried in 1746. Initially I had this Joseph on the list as my ancestor so finding his burial was a further confirmation that I should not look at this particular Blake line.

Has the Blake family gone to Penton Mewsey? Interesting thought all of that as they also suddenly appear at Abbots Ann in this time period (marriage of Charles Blake and Mary Prince in 1736). In this time period the death rate is quite horrendous. I will do a calculation when I am finished this register just to see the increased percentage. There are 9928 burials up to 1746 at Andover and only 11078 baptisms in the same time period. All the gained growth of the last hundred years was lost in seven years of massive deaths at Andover. I shall have to check on epidemics.

Found on line for England:

1727-1729 Great febrile epidemic in London, relapsing fever and some typhus, fatal anginas, cholera, epidemic agues and ‘influenzas’, fever, convulsions and griping, dysentery (amongst others), smallpox in London

1731 Smallpox in London

1733 Measles followed an influenza epidemic in same year, scarlet fever, influenza

1734 Scarlet fever, convulsions, ‘milatary fever’ (eruption of red and purple and white vesicles), smallpox in London

1735 ‘Milatary fever’ (eruption of red and purple and white vesicles)

1736 ‘Milatary fever’ (eruption of red and purple and white vesicles), smallpox in London

1737 Influenza, smallpox in London

1739 Typhus

1740 Typhus and smallpox

1741 Smallpox, great epidemic of fever, great typhus epidemic, fever

1742 Smallpox, great epidemic of fever, great typhus epidemic

1743 Dysentery followed influenza

Always remembering that Andover is not really that far from London (by car it is only 30 minutes) and not an entire day's journey by horse in those days or by coach. Diseases would have spread quickly from the capital area I rather expect. I do not know if Andover was heavily bombed in the war my cousins lived at Upper Clatford with our Aunt Sarah Smallbones and her husband. Sarah was teaching at the school and took in the children as their parents lived near the coast (Weymouth) and he didn't remember any bombs dropping in their area.

There are still Lambden families there (they are unfortunately also victims of this sudden death) as well as Durnford and Farmer families. These also interest me very much at Andover. I may yet discover the channel through which my great grandfather ended up marrying Maria Jane Knight from the Blandford Forum Dorset area. Certainly the Durnford family are there in the later part of the 1700s with my ancestor being baptized there in 1770. I have not yet read the registers in Winterborne Stickland where she was baptized so do not know if the Durnford family was already there for a long time before that date.