Blake Pedigree

The eight images certainly proved to be most interesting and they arrived the next day. Very fast service but the records person had already imaged them last year for another individual. That person had sent some information back to them which they included and I found it most interesting. The chart has clarified the Somerset Blake line and it will be interesting to find someone from that line who has a paper trail back to John (the first to live in Somerset) Blake who has tested their yDNA to see if there is a match with my line in Hampshire and the other individual who matches us 9/12. Having the same unusual haplotype is most interesting.

The Pedigree Chart itself is made up from the Visitations. I wondered if it would be or if it would be someone's personal chart that was maintained through three centuries. The generations are somewhat as has been published over time and I only challenge one entry. The visitation for Wiltshire shows the family of Roger Blake and it does not show William Blake Lynen Draper deceased in 1582 at any time for the children of Roger Blake. He is at Easton Town which is also correct but according to wills he is the son of Nicholas Blake and Margaret . However, I do believe that there are two William Blake's in this area - both living at Easton Town. I have two families with the father William Blake in this time period. There are two Visitations that show these separate family lines. I am slowly gathering up the land evidence to help with that as well.

I compared the wills of William Blake deceased 1582 and his son William deceased 1607. The land which William Senior gave to William Junior is also passed on to William Junior's son William so would appear to be the same family. All the names mentioned are those attributed to this family line. There are several more Blake wills that I need to acquire both from the National Archives and from the Hampshire Record Office. They will also help to clarify these two lines of William Blake but neither of them is the son of Roger Blake. The one is the son of Nicholas as mentioned and the second William is, I suspect the son/grandson of William Blake who was possibly a brother to Robert Blake (married to Avis Wallop). It could also be that Nicholas is descended from this William Blake as well.

Hopefully more transcription will yield an answer to that query. The mother of Nicholas was Jone but she did not mention her husband's name in her will although I only have a transcription from another researcher and I need to purchase that will from the Hampshire Record Office - still to do. My time has passed since I first thought about buying that will. I already have so much material from them that I have not yet transcribed in the early 1700s/late 1600s where I am sorting out my Thomas Blake son of John Blake son of William Blake. I am intently searching for another link between these generations aside from the Parish Register.

I have one of those documents that I am working on now. It is an indenture looking at the will of Joseph Hinxman Senior (deceased by 1685) and he is the son of Joseph Hinxman married to Elinor Blake (daughter of Richard Blake and Jone Blake). Elinor is a sister to William Blake who was the father of the William Blake I am querying as the father of John Blake/grandfather of Thomas Blake. My descent back to Thomas is through his son Thomas and then his son Joseph. Back to Joseph is readily accomplished with wills, land records and the parish registers. The two Thomas appear to be very straightforward. It is always better to have more than parish registers though for proving a line.