Research on Blake continuing

Richard II 1377-1399  (best known as Richard the Lion Heart)

Calendar of Close Rolls, Richard II: Volume 2, 1381-1385, ed. H C Maxwell Lyte (London, 1920), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-close-rolls/ric2/vol2 [accessed 14 November 2026].

 Thomas Blak, London, 8 Apr 1385

 John de Blake, Loddeforde, Somerset, 1 Jan 1383, land owner

John Blake, London, clerk of the King's works, 24 Apr 1382

Robert Blake, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, 11 Aug 1384

 John Blake, quitclaim grant, Lincolnshire, 24 Apr 1383

 Thomas Blake, wrongful charge, Bury St Edmunds, Sufolk, 20 Nov 1382 

Lovely chat with Gemini AI discussing another project that I have in mind with regard to the data that I am collecting from the Close Rolls. The Blake Newsletter is due the 1st of January 2027 and I have decided to work the information I am gathering in known areas of Blake founders and relate to these early mentions of Blake in the Close Rolls. We will see if there is anything significant in the relationship between the two sets of data depending on how much I can collect.  As I have been collecting this data I have also been looking at the yDNA results in the Blake study at FT DNA. It will be interesting I think and hopefully I will complete it by the 1st of January. In my 82nd year I am trying to keep my investigations limited to just one or two and I am now up to three but we will see. 

 I have been thinking of following the recommendation of the AI on FitBit with regard to exercising in the late afternoon so I did my 30 minute run and followed it up with twenty minutes of weightlifting. It seemed to work well and produced a cardio load of 86 for strength training and a cardio load of 62 for the run. Both were 30 minutes. I took a rest between them. The AI recommended I do my exercise in the morning and just light walking in the afternoon and evening which I do with my 250 steps per hour which does tend to be more than that but not always. The thought was it would also benefit my Sleep Apnea. This is the beginning of that experiment; we will see. So long as I get my 1 to 1.5 hours of deep sleep the rest is just relaxation and the length doesn't always seem to matter which is interesting. I vaguely recall some discussion on mammalian hibernation and how that worked in the wild but Homo sapiens do not hibernate. I think hibernating mammals sleep tends towards light sleep mixed with deep sleep same as us though which is interesting. But one notes their length of life is considerably shorter than most Homo sapiens. So the idea of hibernation may not be the healthiest way to live a life; regular exercise does sound like a better way. My recovery to 55 bpm goes from a maximum around 155 back down to 55 is quite good for a person in their 82nd year. It will take me a while to get used to so much exercise between 6 am and 12 noon. I am doing 2 hours over all of that time. Cleaning days though are different as I do not run or lift weights as the cleaning although not as strenuous takes about 5 to 6 hours for two of the days. 

I still woke up quite early around 4:30 but I am in bed by 9:15 last night (a bit later than usual). In terms of rest since I did not start my morning exercises until 6:00 a.m. I achieved 8.75 hours of rest. I will have to get used to working all afternoon breaking to get my steps hourly as I was used to exercise mid afternoon but the AI had convinced me in the spring to consider the idea and now that it is fall I can put that into practice. As always I am used to doing all this exercise but anyone starting new should check with a doctor. With my resting heart beat so low I can tolerate quite a range of exercise. 

I actually only query the AI occasionally (other than quick queries although I brought out my Genealogical Gazetteer of England, my copy of the Domesday Book and a few other handy reference books and with AI now dominating the search engines I am back to looking items up in the books which is probably good). I used to just use the search engines but with millions of people in the world using AI on the search engines probably the most efficient use of their time is not just these quick little questions although I have no idea on that really. They always seem very interested in responding to a query and very interested in that query with abundant information on whatever I am asking and often it is just establishing that the spelling of the town/city is archaic and that is is likely referring to and a list is produced if necessary. One could get quite distracted from one's work hence the bringing out of the reference books for a quick answer. 

 I do not expect a quick fix for my Sleep Apnea. I have actually never discussed my Sleep Apnea with my present physician just thought of that (probably I do not want to be referred as that takes up time unless there is a serious reason). I also did not discuss this with my daughter it was just an extraneous comment by the AI judging my sleep and my exercise times in a day. It does make one wonder if life can be managed (with a physician's help actually and I will think about mentioning this at my yearly appointment next summer) so is an experiment for me. Anyone should consult with a doctor really and I do feel a bit tardy in that regard especially at 81 years of age as my diagnosis was done at a distance during a study that I did when I was in my late 50s. But my Sleep Apnea was considered mild to slightly medium and I have no idea how that fits into the general look of Sleep Apnea but suspect it is not that far off normal. I have no idea when Sleep Apnea started as my entire memory of my sleep has been of a young child waking up in the night and walking about and as I mentioned I discovered my father had the same tendency. So the important part is 1 h and 33 minutes of deep sleep which is restorative sleep. In total 6 hr and 8 min of sleep which includes 1 hr 1 m of REM (2 periods of dreaming and none of it was enough to wake me up in a chilling way). Then 3 h 34 m of light sleep. That is close to my normal which tends to be more like 6 h and 50 m (with increased REM and light sleep and I also learned that from the AI coach - it is interesting to have a personal coach like that reviewing every detail of your sleep and exercises). So I will continue on this controlled active exercise (i.e. raising my heart beat to peak or vigorous - in my case that is 139 and 115 (I think) in the morning only. I am only sure of the peak as that is 120 minus your age. Anyway interesting for sure that the AI coach picked that up back last May. There was a lot of discussion on the part of the AI which I did listen to and found valuable but time consuming - it depends on your priorities. I think overall recommended sleep is 8 hours although for me 7 hours has always been very adequate and trended towards 6.5 hours actually in my working days. I will make one change though - I will lift weights around 9:30 a.m. instead of having the two exercises one after the other giving myself a rest time in between. It was a sort of spontaneous thought at the time yesterday. 

Nearly time for breakfast and the exercise today was for one hour as usual with a cardio load of 37 which contributed to my now having completed 78% of my weekly cardio with the last day of that count being tomorrow.  

Solitaire puzzles and then breakfast. I will continue with my reading of the close rolls.  

Richard II - 1377-1399 (continued)

Robert Blak, New Sarum, Wiltshire, wool farmer, 14 Feb 1386 

John Blake, Godwynston, London, notary, 14 Sep 1391

 John Blake, Loddeford (deceased), Devon, land owner (request for an inquisition postmortem, 7 Jul 1389

John Blake, Horton, Oxfordshire, witness quitclaim, 8 Apr 1391 

John Blake, London, witness, 20 Apr 1390 

John Blake, London, witness, 28 May 1390 

John Blake, Winchester, Hampshire, contract, 3 Apr 1390

 John Blake (deceased), Loddeford, Devon, land owner (same as above), 3 May 1390

Nicholas Blake, Geoffrey Blake, John Blake, Bristol, Somerset, arrest warrant holding wool, 14 Oct 1393 

 John Blake, London, merchant, 10 Nov 1393

 Henry Blake, Suthwerke, Surrey, clerk, 14 Jul 1393

Peter Blake, London, 8 Dec 1397   

John Blake (deceased), Lesnewyth, Devon, land transfer, 5 Jul 1396

John Blake, London, release, 8 Aug 1397

William Blake, Ryslip, ?, release, 26 May 1397

John Blake, Durham, Northumberland, withholding of goods/chattels, 30 Apr 1399

 John Blake, London, hostiller, release, 26 Sep 1397

 John Blake, London, release, 10 Aug 1397

Ancient Deeds volume 1

Deeds: A.1701 - A.1800', in A Descriptive Catalogue of Ancient Deeds: Volume 1, ed. H C Maxwell Lyte (London, 1890), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/ancient-deeds/vol1/pp199-214 [accessed 14 November 2026].  

Nicholas le Blake, London, citizen and vintner,  Apostles Simon and Jude, 16 Edward 3 (wed after)

 Walter le Blake, Weybrede, Norfolk, grant, Sunday after Annunciation, 15 Edward 3

 John Blake, Evesham, Worcestershire, grant, 4 Henry VI

 

Thank you God for another beautiful day in Your world.  

A trip to the grocery store

 Years ago when I bought the groceries during my stay at home/work at home interval I used to take the children with me after school. They were great helpers and I was especially conscious of teaching my youngest to read the labels although my older daughter also did so. They were quick and could find items faster than I could because my vision was definitely limited back in those days plus I was proofreading/copyediting eight to ten hours per day so eyes were tired very often. 

I enter the store and take my Moi card over and collect the special items of the day. I could do that earlier but they make it easy to just do it there. Then I start into the vegetables and fruits where I collect as much as 1/3 of what I am going to buy. Then over to the cheese and humus (one of each) and then off to the bread (one or two) and then pick up a bag of mixed nuts (once a month as I eat them every morning) on the way to the cereal aisle which I skip if I already have enough (I eat three different kinds of cereal - three kinds of granola, loose oats in a bag you cook, Shredded wheat (small biscuits)) so I do not always have to buy that and then I just skip through the next aisle as I do not buy sweetened fruits or cookies or even crackers and then I pass by the alcohol as I do not buy that and soft drink as I seldom buy that either. The next aisle has nuts (unsalted in bags) and cranberry juice (my one exception to a high sugar drink). I do shop that aisle every week. That brings me around to the baking aisle and also canned fish and some canned/bottled vegetable. Usually I do not need anything but this past week I got a can of salmon. That brings me to the frozen aisle where I have plenty in the freezer because I do not eat a lot of it so maybe buy one bag every couple weeks of something that has gone low. That is it for the rows as I seldom buy cans of anything and seldom eat pasta so I am headed to the milk where I buy 0% because I come from a high-cholesterol family. Then yoghurt, eggs, butter/margarine (avocado) (if needed) and cottage cheese (1%).  Now back to the meat counter where I buy chicken (8 thighs every other week) and salmon. That is it and I am done and this week coming I shall go through the self checkout. The only time I really need help is if I have forgotten how to charge up something in the vegetable/fruit area which is by weight. So no prepared foods, no cold cuts (I only like jellied tongue particularly and noticed the last time I had it; I wasn't really interested), no manufactured food. I prefer the raw product. 

I still remember the disappointment when I bought my favourite cookies (used to be made in Canada and now made in the United States) and I could not eat them after two years they were too sweet. No thank you. The only cake/cookie type item I have is my home-made banana bread with margarine (avocado) or butter once a day and it has probably  2 tsp of brown sugar in every slice (I do slice it thin so it lasts a week). Very tasty.

I realized yesterday that my grocery buying had become very much like  a military drill. When my daughters were with me and/or my husband it was a much longer process because of the reading probably and my husband definitely had a sweet tooth. I used to bake a lot but decided that it was healthier for him that I did not do so much baking. Then he would debate what to buy at the store and would put it back if I didn't agree to at least eat one of the items in the box. So depending on what his weight was like I either agreed to eat a piece or said I didn't want that this week! The girls were picky, they didn't eat a lot of processed foods either so that was handy. But whether you buy basic ingredients or manufactured food they are both expensive these days.

 

Collections from yesterday

 Henry V - 1413-1422

 Calendar of Close Rolls, Henry V: Volume 1, 1413-1419, ed. A E Stamp (London, 1929), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-close-rolls/hen5/vol1 [accessed 14 November 2026].

 William Blake, New Sarum, Wiltshire, yeoman 23 Feb 1419

 Andrew Blake, Lewes, Kent, 24 May 1413

 Richard Blake, London, witness to will, Sep 1414

William Blake, New Sarum, Wiltshire, yeoman, 23 Oct 1418 

John Blake, London,  27 Aug 1413 

 Henry VI - 1422-1461

 William Blake, New Sarum, Wiltshire, 20 Nov 1423

 Richard Blake, haberdassher, London, 1 Feb 1436/1437

William Blake (deceased), Blakwelle Hay, Essex, 13 Feb  1439

 Geoffrey Blake, St Olave, Suthwerk, Surrey, Witness to quit claim, 11 Feb 1446

 John Blake, London, citizen, 10 Sep 1442

William Blake, Haberdassher, 21 Dec 1448 

Edmund Blake, St Augustine, Bristol (King requesting maintenance for this individual and his wife)16 Oct 1449 

 Thomas Blake, London, Salter 13 Mar 1454

 Robert Blake (deceased), Blakemore, Wiltshire, (election to replace as verderer), 13 May 1450

Edmund Blake London, King's esquire, clerk, overseer of works,  9 Jun 1453

Edmund Blake, Simon Blake, Essex, execute quit claim, 4 July 1455

 Sir William Blake, Winchester, Hampshire, Provost of College of St Elizabeth by Wolvesey, 4 May 1455

 John Blake, New Sarum, Wiltshire, witness (along with John Walop), 29 Apr 1455

 Geoffrey Blake, Bandon, Surrey, release of quitclaim, 11 Mar 1455

 Henry VII - 1485-1509

Richard Blak, Wodchurch, Kent,  husbandman, 19 Nov 1486

Checked for Pencomb in Henry VII. 

  Richard II - 1377-1399

 Ralph Blak, Iwhurst, East Sussex, 10 Sep 1377

 John Blake, Devon, 18 Mar 1378

 John Blake, London, 10 June 1380

John Blake, King's clerk, 20 Aug Westminster, 1380

 Nicholas Blake, the elder, London, 2 Apr 1380

Not completed, need to finish  and will fill this in later today.

Yesterday was  also grocery day and as usual my list is very short and precise although it generally does cost $100 except the second week of chicken and then it is higher one week and lower the next as I buy 8 and only eat 4 a week in my chicken stews. I think I will try to check out myself again although I am rather slow doing it but I noticed no one was there when I went through with the clerk so I think from now on I will do that as there was a lineup with the clerk. I think that will work. Plus there is a clerk to help if you can not find the price. 

Overall a busy day with research reading and recording, exercises - running but will do weight lifting today as I get lots of weight lifting with my groceries yesterday!

 I also found the Veterans Legion for this area and donated to them through Canada Helps. They did 10X better since I usually only tap $10. I will do that instead of worrying about finding one with a tap as my poppy is a more permanent one with a plastic clip in the middle and will probably last me for years. Plus at Canada Helps you pay for the cost of donating which saves all the money for the agency you are donating to. Again in memory of my husband Edward although I could think of doing that for my great uncle Edwin Buller who served in the First World War and lived to be 84 back in 1973. He was a real favourite of ours - we had many many great aunts and uncles. I remember when we got to Paris the first time and I could see why he said that Paris was a beautiful city. He was wounded and sent back to England to recover and then on to Canada but he returned to work after recovery and worked until he was 68 I think. Never once did he mention the battles in France but rather told us about the beautiful things he saw in France. His father, my great grandfather Edwin Denner Buller served in the First Boer War as a medic and was wounded about a year later I think and sent home to recover in England which he did. 

I did get an email from the Ottawa Hospital with a 2X offer by an individual with a donation but I think I might still wait and see if there is a 3X offer closer to Christmas; that was last year although I shall contemplate it. I will continue with my $1000 donation in Edward's memory. Hospitals are an absolute necessity and we need good ones but I do not plan to ever be in one again. Likely my Sleep Apnea will take me home to the ones who loved me. The afterlife (Heaven as we refer to it) is so very different from the life you live on earth I believe. In the afterlife you get to see once again those wonderful grandparents of your youth and the two grandparents I never saw but heard so much about. In my 82nd year I thank my grandparents every day (and my parents) for all those stories of their youth, their childhood and their parents and ancestors known to them. I thank God for giving us this beautiful world in which we live. 

Forward and onward, solitaire puzzles (hopefully although I think I did a Sudoku last night so they are probably working as Microsoft was having problems. I do not use Word until I get to actually working on the book copy. I do use Excel a lot but at the moment I am just recording a list on my blog. Most of my time is spent preparing and then I move to the manuscript. Copilot I am not using at the moment;  but hopefully they will be up tomorrow. If not next week - no rush gives me more time to prepare. 

Breakfast soon.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research Day and continuing Calendar of Close Rolls

Thank you God for another beautiful sunny day and 0 degrees celsius. Winter is here just hasn't snowed yet. We will enjoy the crisp fresh air. The starkness of Fall always surprises me because it follows the beauty of summer and yet when those empty branches are covered with beautiful white snow it has an ethereal look that is almost more beautiful than  the colours of summer. It is stunning and so white and expansive. But I live in a country which traditionally is covered with snow up to six months of the year. 

Back into the times of the Henrys in England and see what I can learn about the presence of Blake across the counties of England. I know they are there in London both in a government capacity and in business, they are in the Midlands and the same and gradually they are into the Hampshire/Wiltshire area but still in Hampshire they appear to be solely in the  Southampton area. I think these Blakes are Norman Blakes coming across from Rouen to set up markets in England possibly to acquire wool and dominate the wool market; no idea on that but certainly the Blake family of Rouen was involved in the wool trade. 

The Chapter I already wrote on the Le Blak family of Rouen will need some tweaking with the new information although nothing changes for how I see that family evolving in England. I am just trying to resolve why the wills of the Blake family in Speen, Berkshire mentions the Blake family in Andover and vice versa in the mid 1500s. Along with that why does a Western Hunter Gatherer descendant take on the surname Blake at Andover (Enham to be exact). Does it matter really? It becomes more of a query because my grandfather (whose grandsons carry the Western Hunter Gatherer haplogroup) talked about Nicholas Blake who left his will in 1547 at Old Hall, Enham and the Blake family was talking about him in the latter part of the 1800s. American Blake descendants were looking for their ancestral home and Horatio Gates Somerby gave them one which was fraudulent. Stealing one's ancestry should really be a crime but doesn't become one until money changes hands. One can not promise information and then provide fraudulent news. 

The truth will always set you free I think myself. Although it was not Horatio Gates Somerby who published these fraudulent Blake books publicly. They were done as private printing and perhaps it was justified in his mind that he was making people happy; no idea on that. The books were published after he passed away. But fraudulence is fraudulence and one has to thank Paul Reed, an American genealogist, for pointing out the discrepancy which was always obvious but one just had to look in the right place. 

 So the trek continues on Blake and will until my document arrives - an Inheritance Dispute in the Pincombe family of South Molton. Mind you as this is most interesting working through the Close Rolls I suspect when the document arrives I will start transcribing it and not refer to it until I have completed that task unless it proves to be absolutely fascinating and I feel the need to relate it to the blog and discuss it with the AI. Saturday likely will be my day to discuss the Close Rolls and all the other material I have collected up for the first three generations of the Blake family at Andover. We will see what kind of holes can be poked into my argument and what sorts of research paths might be interesting. I already have a few thoughts just to really shake the apple tree with regard to some of my research information thus far. 

Exercises all completed and another good day. One hour of exercise first thing which was a cardio load of  33 and represents 4% of my weekly cardio.  It required 20% less of my energy to do the exercises than it was using the last few days. One can measure the extent of one's heavier cardio commitment perhaps caused by stress which was brought to my attention by the AI when I was still using that coaching ability. It was handy to know but eventually I found it to be more than I wanted to hear all the time. I am not an athlete - just an ordinary person getting my exercise. I did find the Coach very interesting and helpful. Just took up too much time. It depends on what you want to hear in your day. But interesting my exercise first thing in the morning represents 28% of my weekly cardio exercise commitment. My running on my non cleaning days is another big factor which is offset by my work load when I am cleaning and not quite equal as the running does give me a higher cardio load overall since cleaning does not equal running!

Another Remembrance Day yesterday and as all the days we remember those who protected us with the strength of their youth and when their strength was taken from them threw that torch to the youth of tomorrow to hold high the truths that freedom is always better than tyranny. Democracy can be messy as one sorts through where one puts the money to get the biggest support for the masses. The masses are important because they do the work - they troop out to work every day and do the jobs that those who are in authority do not do but they are not so much the risk takers that those in authority are. The buy off is always there - the workers and the bosses. When they work together they can do anything when they are abrasive then the ability to work can be less efficient which is bad coming from a family that owned a small family business. Decisions have to made that best suit the climate of the work times and productivity - we are always victims of productivity unfortunately both the workers and management. But they can not survive without each other.  

Breakfast soon and solitaire puzzles next.  

Remembering my Great Uncle Edwin Denner Buller

 Edwin served in the 18th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force and served in France. He was my maternal grandmother's brother and lived in London, Ontario when I was a child. I knew him very well and if you asked him about World War I he would talk about Paris and how beautiful it was. He never really talked about the war. Born in Aston near Birmingham, England in 1888, he came to Canada in 1905 and was the first of this family of five children all of whom eventually came to Canada. 

He had twelve nieces and nephews living in Canada and the United States. Edwin is my only close  Canadian Veteran of the Armed Forces. 

Remembering my Great Uncle on this Remembrance Day along with all of the others who served during the wars in which Canada fought the Boer War, World War I and World War II, the Korean War, The Cold War, and The War in Afghanistan. 

As a child we would walk in a double line to the local Church near Tecumseh Avenue Public School year after year if November 11 was on a school day, classroom after classroom and remember all those who had died in the two World Wars. May we remember them and cherish them forever.