Blake wills in Devon

Although I have transcribed a number of wills for Blake in Devon, I have only just scratched the surface. There are over 300 wills for Blake in Devon that were destroyed during the bombing of the Exeter Record Office in WWII. Devon Genuki Wills has extracted from various publications all of the wills that ended up being mentioned as well as including the PCC wills and the IRW wills. One of my projects is to collect all the Blake wills from on the Inland Revenue Wills (IRW) film held by Family Search on our next trip to Salt Lake City.

These IRW wills (18 for Blake) were retained by the Estate Duty Office for the time period 1812 - 1857:

Blake    Ann    North Molton    DEV        1816    W    co        IRW    B 1007
Blake    Ann    Kenton    DEV        1833    W    co        IRW    B 1008
Blake    James    Diptford    DEV        1854    W    co        IRW    B 1009
Blake    John    Plymouth    DEV        1814    W    co        IRW    B 1010
Blake    John    North Petherwin DEV  1832  W    co       IRW    B1011  
Blake    Josiah    Stoke Damerel    DEV        1856    W    co        IRW    B 1012
Blake    Mary    Diptford    DEV        1856    W    co        IRW    B 1013
Blake    Richard    Woodbury    DEV        1844    W    co        IRW    B 1014
Blake    Robert    Sampford Peverel   DEV        1851    W    co        IRW    B 1015
Blake    Samuel    Devonport [Stoke Damerel]    DEV        1841    W    co        IRW    B 1016
Blake    Thomas    Kenton    DEV        1824    W    co        IRW    B 1017
Blake    Thomas    Little Torrington    DEV        1832    W    co        IRW    B 1018
Blake    Thomas    Woodleigh    DEV        1842    W    co        IRW    B 1019
Blake    Thomas Symons    Woodleigh    DEV        1853    W    co        IRW    B 1020
Blake    William    Tiverton    DEV        1825    W    co        IRW    B 1021
Blake    William    Holsworthy    DEV        1828    W    co        IRW    B 1022
Blake    William    Brixham [St Mary]    DEV        1832    W    co        IRW    B 1023
Blake    William    St Budeaux    DEV        1833    W    co        IRW    B 1024

They are listed on Film Number 1278811 and I could use the short-term microfilm loan and will think about doing that in the winter so that I can locate the page number for these wills. I will try to photograph them but it is possible to request a scan of the particular will from Family Search and have it emailed to you. They permit you to ask for five a month. I have already requested one for Hampshire from them and received it. The copy was excellent and I have transcribed that will already in as much as it was possible at the time. I shall revisit the will of Richard Blayke 1522 for Enham Hampshire one of these days!

I ordered a further five wills for Blake in Hampshire and I would be finished with Hampshire by the end of the year so could consider ordering them as well but first need to get the page numbers to help simply that search by them. The title of the film is:  Wills for the Diocese of Exeter (County of Devon), 1812-1857.

I now have a flat file set up with all the Blake wills in Devon that I am missing and the various publications in which some mention is made of them. As I work through the family charts for Blake I will consider ordering these books from Family Search on Interlibrary Loan through their Research Centres. There still remain just under 300 wills for which the original will is no longer available.