Monday, February 14, 2011

Richard Blake of London mentioned in the London Visitation.

A bit of a quandry is Richard Blake's will which is dated 23 Mar 1643 in London and his burial was at Andover 12 Apr 1644 and the notation by the priest is that Mr. Richard Blake is of London. I have partially transcribed his will below. Interesting that he traveled from London to Andover (or perhaps he was moved there after death).

1. In the name of the eternall and
2. everliving god Father Sonne and holy ghost in whose name I was baptized in
3. whome only I hope and beleeve to be saved with a free heart and willing minde I
4. doe yeeld and render my soule into the hands of Father, sonne and holy ghost and
5. beleeve that the lord will have mercy upon my soule for he first made me; soe this I
6. beleeve that whether I live or dye I am the lords, to whome be all honour & glory
7. power and dominion forevermore Amen, As concerning my body I bequeath it to the
8. earth from whence it came I Richard Blake of London gent[leman] being sicke and weake in
9. body but of good and p[er]fect memory I thanke my god the giver and y[er]erver thereof
10. doe make this my last will and testam[en]t as followeth The twentie third day of March
11. one thousand six hundred forty three, Item I give to my sister Joane Baylie twentie
12. pounds To my sister Dorothie Burningham twenty pounds, To my sister Ellen Hinxman
13. twenty pounds, To my sister Margaret Savadge twenty pounds, .........

This Richard is the son of Richard Blake and Jone Blake. In his will he mentions his sisters in birth order - Jone married to Richard Bayly 6 May 1605 at Andover, Dorothy married to Peter Burmingham April 1608 Andover, Elenor married to Joseph Hinxman 10 Dec 1610 at Andover, and Margaret married to Richard Savage Apr 1616 at Andover. He also mentions his brother Peter later in the will which I shall complete transcribing tomorrow.  Only one other brother is still living Nicholas and I need to determine if Richard does mention him. He has a lot of names in his will and I would like to place all of them. Because his mother was also a Blake he has many Blake cousins on both sides of this family. This may help me to sort out her family.

My ancestor (his eldest brother) William married to Dorothy Madgwick was buried 4 May 1642 at Andover.  He has also left a number of children and perhaps they too are mentioned in the remainder of the will. One other brother John is deceased but I haven't determined which John Blake in the burial list yet. One sister is also deceased Elizabeth married to John Hapgood 18 Jun 1605 at Andover and deceased before 16 Oct 1607 leaving one child Elizabeth.

Looking at the London Visitation (1633) This is the Richard Blake mentioned as the son of Richard Blake of Andover in the county of Hampshire married to Jone Blake daughter of William Blake of Easton in the County of Hampshire. I hadn't put this visitation into its proper context yet but it appears that Jone Blake is a daughter of William Blake at Eastontown. Now Richard is the son of William Blake of Eastontown so we do have two William Blake's at Eastontown. This is the second marriage between children of the two William Blake's at Eastontown. I must continue working on this tomorrow whilst it is fitting together in my mind. This could be a really good breakthrough.

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