Thursday, September 12, 2013

Will of William Blake of Blandford Forum

The Will of William Blake of Blandford Forum is 1015 lines and I have now completed the transcription. Because it is so long I have typed it rapidly and am now in the process of proofreading it.

I am a little slowed down at the moment as I managed to walk into the garage door (just the top of my head) but it was enough to knock me backwards and give me a touch of whiplash. That slowed down my computer time as I rested away from the computer. All recovered now and back to work. I generally watch for that but thought it was up high enough.

This will adds to the will of his father The Reverend Malachi Blake of Blandford Forum mentioning his siblings and his nieces and nephews and indeed his great nephews and great nieces. I find this family very interesting perhaps because my great grandmother lived at Turnworth Dorset (five miles west of Blandford Forum) and we visited this area in 2008 with my now deceased cousin Ivan Kent. It is hauntingly beautiful country with a slight mist covering the low rounded hills when we visited the Winterbourne Valley in which a number of small villages that my ancestors lived in are located.

How my great grandparents (Edward Blake of Upper Clatford, Hampshire and Maria Jane Knight of Turnworth, Dorset) met is a mystery to me although I have a vague memory of my grandfather telling me that Maria Jane was visiting in Upper Clatford (and I think perhaps helping out a cousin with small children) when they met.

My own Blake line and the Somerset Blake line are not related at least not in hundreds of year at least back into the 1400s although Horatio Gates Somerby in his writings on the Blake family did link my ancient ancestor Nicholas Blake of Old Hall, Enham near Andover with Humphrey Blake of Overstowey. This relationship is false. They were not siblings and their father was not William Blake claimed to be a son of Robert Blake and Avis Wallop of Quemberford near Calne, Wiltshire.

The will from 1522 by Richard Blayke may be the father of Nicholas and Robert Blake but they did not have another brother listed as living in their mother's will of 1527.


Returning to proofreading and I hope to post this will a little later today.

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