Blake Newsletter - Volume 1 Issue 2

Blake Newsletter

Table of Contents

1. yDNA Blake Study Group at FT DNA

2. Blake family of South Carolina

3. Request for papers

yDNA Blake Study Group at FT DNA is the largest of the Blake DNA groups and can be found here:

http://www.familytreedna.com/public/blake/default.aspx?section=yresults

Thanks to Barrie Blake, the results have been separated into their likely related haplogroups. The Norfolk Blake family descendant of Peter  Blake and Elizabeth Spelman has been clearly identified as R1a1a.  This family can be traced back to a Thomas Blake bc 1382 and dc 1439 at Swaffham Market, Swaffham, Norfolk, England. This family continued at Swaffham Market until Peter Blake and his wife Elizabeth (parents of Peter Blake married to Elizabeth Spelman) moved to Wimbotsham, Norfolk, England by 1470 as Peter was born at Wimbotsham. The purchase of Tonwells Manor in 1466 (there are several records held at the National Archives (Kew) in England which refer to John Skott of London, gentleman, delivering to John Fyncham, Henry Spelman and others two messuages with buildings in Wymbotesham ....including an indented charter, grant charter, letter of attorney and deed of quit claim) appears to have been completed by the Spelman family. Was this some sort of marriage settlement? Reading these particular documents may assist with understanding why Peter moved from Swaffham to Wimbotsham by 1470. They include: Hare 4630 214x4 5 Feb 1465/66, Hare 4631 214x4 5 Feb 1465/66, Hare 4632 214x4 5 Feb 1465/66 and Hare 4633 214x4 1 Jul 1468. For those unused to the Regnal Year the reference to 5 Ed IV refers to the 5th year of the reign of Edward IV which was 1465 (Edward IV became king on the death of his father 30 Dec 1460 although not crowned until 4 Mar 1461 but the regnal date begins with the ascension day). More information on the yDNA studies in future newsletters.

Blake family of South Carolina, that is descendant of Joseph Blake, Governor of South Carolina, can trace their line back to England with a definitive paper trail. Testing a member of this family with a paper trail back to Joseph would be a wonderful addition to the Blake yDNA study. It would provide both the haplogroup of this Blake family line and assist with determining the family line of Humphrey Blake the known progenitor of this line who was buried 28 Dec 1558 at Overstowey, Somerset, England and left his will naming his sons - John the elder, Robert, Thomas and John the younger.  Humphrey's son Robert married Margaret Symonds and their youngest son Humphrey married to Sarah Williams were the parents of Robert Blake, Lord High Admiral during the Commonwealth and Benjamin the father of Joseph Blake, Governor of South Carolina. Eight children of Robert Blake and Margaret Symonds lived to adulthood. I will add more details on this family in Somerset to a future newsletter. Robert was the eldest in the family. In my blog, "English Research from Canada" (http://kippeeb.blogspot.ca/2012/03/humphrey-blakes-american-descendants.html ) published 30 Mar 2012, I discuss Humphrey Blake's American descendants and will continue with this topic moving on to the census of 1800 having discussed the census of 1790 on 30 Mar 2012.

Request for papers and if any member of the Blake family wishes to submit material for publication please address it to kippeeb@rogers.com.

Elizabeth Kipp (née Blake), BA, PLCGS

Blake one-name study (http://www.one-name.org/profiles/blake.html)

Humphrey Blake's American descendants

Yesterday I input all of the information that I gleaned from the South Carolina Genealogical Newsletter on the descendants of Humphrey Blake which included both the American and British descendants. It is fascinating that in general members of this family were born in England with one or more sons coming to the United States in their adulthood (some marrying in England and some in the United States) and then returning to England when their children were born. This tendency to return lessened by the mid 1800s with the Blake males who chose to live in America remaining here and marrying in the United States and their children being born in the United States.

I decided to look at the American census starting with the 1790s and working my way up to the 1930 (and soon 1940) to capture data on the Blake family of South Carolina. In general I am spending quite a bit of my research time on my Blake one name study; I will also work on my Pincombe one name study but I am at the point in that study where my yDNA project really needs to take off and I haven't been successful in recruiting people to test in that study. I hope to improve that with a newsletter.

This newsletter on the Blake family due 1 April 2012 (Issue 2) will mostly be on the Blake family of South Carolina. I would like to attract a descendant of this family to the yDNA study for the Blake family. Having a known descendant of any line of a family is extremely important in a yDNA study and even more so for a family that is as widespread as the Blake family. Once a member of the Somerset Blake family tests then we can look at the results and compare with the other known results and eventually we might be able to determine the Wiltshire Blake family found at Calne in the 1200s.

I shall write my blog over the day today as I check on the US census results beginning with 1790. Quickly I can see by the number of Blake families on the 1790 census that the article only centered on the eldest son/inheritor of the father's estates in England and America that returned to England. I shall now attempt to place these families. Since we are going back to a singleton son born in 1700 Joseph and Joseph and his wife Sarah Lindrey it is noted that this couple had three sons - Daniel with no issue, Robert who died as an infant and William who became Joseph's heir at law as the only son with surviving sons. William married Anne Izard and I am becoming quite fascinated with the Izard family as it might appear that this is a cousin (perhaps 2nd or 3rd) marriage. This couple had two sons Joseph and Daniel who themselves had a total of seven sons although not all of them survived infancy and several of them did not marry. But it might appear that these two sons were the progenitors of the Blake family in South Carolina with Joseph being born in 1769 and Daniel in 1775. The first thought is can I find them on the 1790 census or will I find their father William who died in 1803. Indeed I do find a William at St Bartholomes, Charleston, South Carolina. The article would appear to verify this is the William Blake who was elected to the Commons for St Bartholomews. He is by far the wealthiest Blake on the census roll for South and North Carolina. The question then comes to mind who are the rest of the Blake members on the census? First I will see if some of these entries are duplicated if that is possible to conclude that as there are 37 entries in total. If you read the label on the census it states for the Parish of St Andrews in Charleston: Schedule of the whole number of persons in the parish of St Andrew. Comparing Edward Blake of St Phillips and St Michaels in Charleston and Edwd Blake of St Andrew also in Charleston - the first entry shows 2  free white males over 16 and 3 white females and the second shows only 1 male over 16. A couple of questions come to mind - who is Edward Blake? is he counted twice in this census (and perhaps more than twice) because he owns properties in different parishes?

Wikipedia does answer that query in that the law required a visitation of every household. Now a days we would only count ourselves as being in one household even if we owned several and in looking at the 1790 census only the head of the household counted himself/herself at more than one residence. This does cut down on the 37 entries which also include the estate of several Blake members where a Blake is living near to or next to the estate. But I haven't answered the question of who is Edward Blake? How does he fit into the South Carolina Blake family? He isn't enormously wealthy like William but does hold substantial property. However, he can be eliminated as a direct line descendant of William Blake of South Carolina.

Looking next at the Blake family in Fairfield, South Carolina and includes Archelaus, Archibald, Fanny, and John. Again a check online reveals a marriage between William Blake and Phanuel "Fanny" Hornsby circa 1773. William Blake died 22 Jan 1781 and this information from the Hornsby/Stroud Family Bible at Winthrop University (Dacus Library, Rock Hill, York Co., South Carolina) according to the author: http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/m/c/l/Rex-Mclaurin/GENE1-0004.html . The children of William and Fanny were Thomas Early Blake and John William Blake. The two older children died in Missouri and Alabama respectively with no known death place for the youngest John. This accounts for Fanny who would have been a widow in 1790 (William died in 1781) and is listed with two sons under 16 (Thomas Early was born in 1776 and John William was born in 1781) and two females (herself and her daughter born in 1775). The necessity is to find the parents of William Blake who was born circa 1740 according to the researcher. On the basis of this information he can now be eliminated as a possible descendant of the South Carolina Blake family. Another researcher (http://www.fritziinc.com/tree/pafg533.htm#12717) has the father of Dr. John William Blake who married Leah Phamuel Ann Hornsby as Thomas Blake of Isle of Wight, Virginia. This family lived initially in Virginia and later in  or near Wake North Carolina. Possibly this author has an error in the date of birth for one of John William Blake's brothers James who was born in Wake and appears on the census in 1790 at Wake. Thomas Blake has parents William Blake and Mary Sessoms and they were married circa 1700 according to the author. William being also born in Isle of Wight, Virginia and his parents are listed as Thomas Blake and Alice Champion with Thomas being born in Isle of Wight, Virginia. Thomas' parents were listed as William Blake and Hannah Tolman with no location given. The father of this William is listed as Robert who was born in England in 1607 and died in 1657. He is said to be a brother of Humphrey Blake and a son of Humphrey Blake of Over Stowey Somerset. This will need to be investigated to determine the line that has a Robert and Humphrey son of Humphrey Blake and Elizabeth Durant. Further back this Humphrey is said to be a son of Humphrey Blake and Agnes James. This Humphrey then the son of John Blake (the elder) who married Johan (said by this author to be Rawson) and from there back to Humphrey Blake and the erroneous information of Somersby on this Blake family. I do not have any descendants of the Humphrey Blake and Agnes James line. John Blake the elder left his will

1577

Will of JOHN BLAKE the Elder of Over Stowey:

To be buried in the chancel of Overstowey.

Twelve pence to the St. Andrew, church of Wells.

Ten shillings to the poor of Over Stowey.

Ten shillings to the poor of Nether Stowey.

Ten shillings to the poor of Spaxton.

To eldest son Humphrey Blake all tenements in Plainsfield which are in the tenure and occupation of Otywell Artur. Also my land in the parish of Aisholt in the tenure of Humphrey Luker. Also all the premises in free Socage of the manor of Estgrenwiche.

To son William Blake all my land in the parish of Bishops Lydeard in Bishops Wood and Bishops Downe. Also one tenement in Plainsfield in the tenure and occupation of Robert Jenkins and all my land in Padnoller in the parish of Spaxton in the tenure and occupation of John Burnell.

To son Richard Blake all my land in Wurstin in the parish of Burnham  late in the tenure and occupation Nicolas Sheperd and now in the tenure of one Smithes and of the widow Everett‘s children.

To Johan my wife and son Richard all my interest in the Rectorie or personage of Over Stowey.

To son Humphrey, four oxen, home furnishings and six silver spoons.

To daughter Alice Richards, ten shillings.

To daughter Ann Saunders, ten shillings.

To Isabel Selleck, ten shillings and ten shillings to her son.

To all my godchildren, twelve pence.

Residue to wife Johan.

Executors: Wife Johan and sons William and Richard.

Overseers: Mr. Thomas Mallett, Esq. Robert Blake and Robert Selleck.

Witnesses: Samuel Mercer, Robert Blockinge, Ottywell Artur, Richard Blake, Robert Black, Thomas Blake, Humphrey Blake, William Blake and Richard Blacke.

(Eldest child of Humphrey Blake of Over Stowey.)

source and original not seen by me:  http://www.portbury-hundred.co.uk/wills.htm

I will attempt to discover evidence of the children of Humphrey Blake and Agnes James. This family is not as wealthy as the other Blake lines in South Carolina and they appear to live eventually in North Carolina before moving further west. The other brothers of John William Blake married to Fanny Hornsby were John Blake, Etheldred Blake, Samuel Blake, Benjamin Blake and Thomas Blake. All of these brothers would be old enough to have married and had sons by the 1790 census who may or may not appear on the census. I find a Thomas Blake at Montgomery North Carolina with Randle Blake just two lines above and a John Blake at Stokes, New Hanover and Rowan, North Carolina. A Dempsey Blake appears on the same page at Wake as James Blake. They both have young families (boys are all under 16). A later find is this website: http://xaa.tripod.com/blake1.html which debunks the notion that the Thomas Blake at Isle of Wight Virginia was related to the Somerset Blake family. This author does not attempt to take the family further back from Thomas simply stating that Thomas was born about 1640 and that was determined by his will of 30 Jan 1707 (OS) a copy of which can be located apparently as it was proved 20 Dec 1709 Isle of Wight Co., Virginia (Will Book 2, page 501).Hence these Blake entries from the 1790 census will go under other.

At St James Santee in Charleston we have side by side John Blake, the estate of Richard Blake Senior and the estate of Richard Blake Junior. John appears to have all daughters and living at the estate of Richard Blake senior is a female head and at the estate of Richard Blake junior a lone male over 16. The Parish Registers for St James Santee show a Richard Blake, Planter buried 3 May 1783 at the age of 79. Also in the South Carolina Gazette Mr. John Blake of St James Santee married Miss Polly Jeanerette in 1784 (http://rainydayresearch.com/indices/sc_wg/sc_wg1784.html). Also from the St James Santee Parish Register the burial of Richard Blake, junior Planter 20 Feb 1774 but no age given. His likely father died at 79 in 1783 putting his birth at 1694. His son could have been born by 1730 or earlier putting his age over 40 at his burial. The wife of Richard Blake senior was buried 2 Jun 1772 (Anne). There are a number of Richard Blakes in the Humphrey Blake line but they have not been traced down thus far. Definitely I would put this family line into the likely descendants of Humphrey Blake at Overstowey.

There are two John Blakes at St Phillips and St Michaels in Charleston; one has a second male over 16 and the other has seven females besides himself. In general the direct line from William/Joseph Blake voted against involvement in the revolutionary movement but this John Blake and an Edward Blake also at St Philip and St Michael, Charleston voted yes. Earlier Edward was shown to be a descendant of the Massachusetts or New Hampshire Blake family. It is possible that one of these Johns is related to this same line. No idea on the second John Blake with a second male over 16. The John with seven females is definitely the one referred to as ratifying the revolutionary movement as he was somewhat wealthy with the other being less so. The website (http://rainydayresearch.com/indices/sc_wg/sc_wg1784.html) includes tax information for this Blake family.

A Mrs. Blake at St George, Charleston is also wealthy but does not need to be placed unless I can find the name of her husband. Originally part of St Andrews Parish and Edward Blake lived at St Andrews as well as St Phillips and St Michaels. Is she perhaps related to Edward Blake?

Census of 1790, South Carolina and North Carolina for the Blake family

Descendant of Benjamin Blake/Joseph Blake
William Blake      St Bartholomes, Charleston, South Carolina       

Descendant of Humphrey Blake at Overstowey
John Blake     St James Santee, Charleston, South Carolina

Mrs Blake     St Georges, Charleston, South Carolina       

Richd, Junr (Esta) Blake      St James Santee, Charleston, South Carolina       

Richd, Senr (Esta) Blake      St James Santee, Charleston, South Carolina       

Other
Edward Blake     St Andrews, and St Phillips and St Michaels, Charleston, South Carolina       

Archelaus Blake     Fairfield, South Carolina             

Archibald Blake     Fairfield, South Carolina             

James Blake     Wake, North Carolina

Dempsey Blake     Wake, North Carolina   

Fanny Blake     Fairfield, South Carolina              

John Blake     Fairfield, South Carolina       

John Blake     St Phillips and St Michaels, Charleston, South Carolina   
  
John Blake     St Phillips and St Michaels, Charleston, South Carolina       

Baker Blake      Bertie, North Carolina       

B Wiggins Blake     Bertie, North Carolina        

Elizabeth Blake     Hertford, North Carolina              

Elizabeth Blake     Carteret, North Carolina             

Henry Blake     New Hanover, North Carolina             

Isham Blake     Orange, North Carolina               

Jacob Blake      Stokes, North Carolina             

John Blake      Stokes, North Carolina             

John Blake     New Hanover, North Carolina             

John Blake     Rowan, North Carolina       

Joshua Blake     Duplin, North Carolina             

Randle Blake     Montgomery, North Carolina             

Thomas Blake     Montgomery, North Carolina        

Edward Blake      Johnston, North Carolina        

The remaining Blake members on the census are all in North Carolina. I will place them all in other for the moment. Are they perhaps descendant of Thomas Blake of Isle of Wight and the story continues on this interesting line. There is a descendant chart at the Blake Museum in Bridgewater and the tracing down shown on this chart is purported to be (http://xaa.tripod.com/blakeeng.html)

Robert E. Blake of Quemberford, Wilts. a juror in an Inq. 22 Jan 1336
  son
Richard Blaque, alias Blake of Wilts. m. Anne, daughter of William Cole
  son
Henry Blake m. Elizabeth, daughter and co-heir of Edward Dorrant
  son and heir
William Blake m. Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Power
  son and heir
Henry Blake m. Margaret, daughter and co-heir of William Bellett
  son and heir
Robert Blake of Quemberford, Calne, Wilts, m. Avice, widow of Roger,
     son and heir of Jno. Malwyn, of Urchfont, Co. Wilts.  Avice d. 29
     Oct 13 Edw IV.
  son
Robert Blake, of Calne, Co. Wilts, heir of bro. John
  son
John Blaque bur. Overstowey, 18 Aug 1558
  son
Humphrey Blake of Overstowey, Som. bur. 28 Dec 1588, m. Anne
  son
John Blake of Plainsfield, b. 1521, bur. 10 Dec 1576 m. Joan
     William Blake of Plainsfield, bur. 13 June 1642 m. Anne
          William Blake of Pitminster, bapt. 10 July 1594, d. bef. Jan
          1664 Dorchester, MA, m. Agnes Bond
Robert Blake, merchant of Bridgwater, Mayor of Bridgwater 1574, d. Oct
      1592, m. Margaret, daughter of Wm. Symonds of Taunton
     William Blake of Tuxwell b. 1561, d. after 1601
          William Blake, Capt/Commander of frigate Tresco, which was
          lost in 1651, off Jersey, Channel Is.
              Thomas Blake, on the frigate Centurion, 1656  [This
              Thomas disappeared from English records after this time.]
              [He is proposed as being the Thomas Blake of Isle of
              Wight Co., VA]
     Humphrey Blake of Bridgwater bapt. 26 May 1563, bur. 19 Nov 1625,
          m. Sarah, dau. of John Williams of Powlett, Som., 12 sons, 1
           dau.                     
          #1 Sir Robert Blake, Admiral, General of the Sea for
             Cromwell, M. P. for Bridgwater 1640, bapt. 27 Sep 1598,
             bur. 4 Aug 1657
          #11 Benjamin Blake of Bridgwater bapt. 7 Nov 1614 Joseph
             Blake of Plainsfield bapt. 26 Apr 1663, d. bef. 7 Oct
             1700, Gov. of South Carolina

This is an interesting chart as I had not seen the entry for Robert E Blake of Quemberford, Wiltshire as a juror in an inquisition 22 Jan 1336 prior to this. The chart at Swindon and Wiltshire Record Office begins with Richard Blake/Blaque marrying Anne daughter of William Cole and this chart lists Richard as the son of Robert E Blake. This chart indicates that Robert Blake (son of Robert Blake and Avis Wallop) [known to be married to Margaret Inglefield] had a son John Blaque who was buried at Overstowey 18 Aug 1558. The only problem with this is that Robert and Margaret are only shown to have two children Roger who married Mary Baynard and Anne who married Robert Baynard on the Swindon and Wiltshire Record Office chart. How to solve this mystery and I think once again a timeline is in order to determine if the dates can match up to the data. I shall eventually acquire a copy of this chart from the Blake Museum in Bridgewater. I have now taken advantage of their comment form on their website to submit an enquiry re the above mentioned chart. It is interesting to see that Humphrey Blake is listed as a son of a John Blaque. In yesterday's post I did postulate that John was a potential parent of Humphrey but the line of descent was considerably different following the chart of the Blake Pedigree located at the Swindon and Wiltshire Record Office.

Blake family of South Carolina

The Blake family of South Carolina descendants are in the best position for tracing their ancestry back to Somerset; their emigrants are known descendants of Humphrey Blake of Overstowey in that Benjamin Blake was a brother to the Lord High Admiral Robert Blake and the trace back from Benjamin and Robert is quite direct.

I have been entering this family into my legacy Blake one name chart. However, the parents of Humphrey are still somewhat of a mystery. If one looks at the Blake Pedigree chart created from the Visitations then the furtherest back ancestor in this line that goes back to Calne Wiltshire is a John Blake who was the second son of  William Blague/Blake of Lacock, Wiltshire who married Margaret Browne of Wablyn (daughter of William Browne of Wablyn). I have not yet discovered where Wablyn is but assume it was the name of their family home perhaps. William was the son of David Blague/Blake who had married Joane Mallet. Continuing back in this line the parents of David were John Blague/Blake who had married Margaret Dyncham/Dinham/Denham. This John is a known son of Robert Blake and Avice Wallop (widow at time of marriage to Robert) who is mentioned in his mother's will as being 40 years of age or more.

Hence the line from Somerset back to Calne Wiltshire is assured by the chart which is based on the Visitations and for the most part would be accepted as proof of descent. However, the descent from John down to Robert, Lord High Admiral has not been added to this chart. The will of Avice Blake was probated in 1474 at which time her son John was 40 years of age (his date of birth extrapolated back could have been 1434 or earlier). Humphrey the known ancestor of Robert, Lord High Admiral, was buried in 1558 at Overstowey.

John's son David and then David's son William and William's son John are the known descendants from the Calne Wiltshire Blake family. If one assumes a generation length of 30 years then David might have been 10 years of age in 1474 and his son William might have been born in 1494 and his son John might have been born in 1524. However Humphrey died in 1558 leaving behind adult children so he was likely born in the early 1500s. The assumption of 30 year generations may be too long so moving it to 20 years then David could have been born in 1454, his son William in 1474, his son John in 1494 permitting Humphrey then to be born by 1514 which would make him 44 when he died and he could have had adult children. However, there is still a difficulty with this assumption as his eldest son John (the elder) was known to be born circa 1521 although I am still checking for proof of this assertion. One of John's daughters married 2 Oct 1569 (Alice married James Richards) giving her a possible birth date of circa 1547 - 1551 and she was the third child. This makes a birthdate for John of 1521 quite plausible. Perhaps John (son of Robert Blake and Avis Wallop) was older than 40 since the will states: John Blake is her son and nearer heir and is 40 years old or more. Timelines are so very important for genealogical research in order to ensure that what you are predicting is even plausible.

To my knowledge no linking information from Humphrey back to John Blake at Lacock has been found but I am very new at the Blake family history and further research may yield such information. Placing it all on a time line lets one then regard the available information to see if a proposition can be fulfilled with extant evidence. Certainly this family bore the crest of the Wiltshire Blake family. The name Humphrey may itself provide clues as it was not a usual name in the Blake family at this point in time.

To my knowledge no member of this family has tested their yDNA and that would be a bonus for our yDNA study. I have avoided very much becoming involved with the yDNA study other than collaborating with the individuals who manage the study. Blake is such a large study that one cannot do everything and it has been well managed by Barrie Blake in terms of placing the various Blake haplogroups into a rigorous table that permits one to then examine the Blake surname with respect to their yDNA.

I will continue building the family line for the descendants of Humphrey Blake from the journal article in The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, volume 1, number 2, April 1900 pages 153 - 166. There are a couple of other articles published on this family in the same journal which I will attempt to locate. Interestingly there was a singleton ancestor for this line in Joseph Blake born 1700. I found it rather amazing that in this line and my own Blake line there is a singleton Joseph although mine was born in 1730 in Andover Hampshire UK!

London and Surrey Marriage Bonds and Allegations 1597-1921

The addition of the London and Surrey Marriage Bonds and Allegations 1597 - 1921 to Ancestry may prove to be helpful to me. It was in this database at the Family History Library back in 2008 when we visited Salt Lake City, that I discovered the marriage of Henry Beard and Jane Blakeley 8 Feb 1785 at St Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey, Surrey. I had Henry's will of 1795 where he referred to his wife as Jane which was somewhat confusing considering that his first wife's name was Elizabeth. That in turn let me find the will of Jane Beard which added more details on Christy Buller (husband of Mary Beard who was Henry's daughter by his first marriage). Christy Buller (father of Henry Christopher Buller) is an interesting individual; he ran a slop business which I understand is production of sailor's uniforms. Through the years, he was called upon to be executor of many of the family wills and to manage the estates of these families. But I have not yet been able to solve the mystery of Christy Buller. He is buried at St Olave Bermondsey just before the graves are re-interred at Bunhill. Thus far the St Olave records are not on line prior to 1813. I await that event most enthusiastically. I hope to learn more about the Buller family from those records. Christy buries his two infant children there and his first wife as well. Since they attended St Mary Magdalen as a family I rather think St Olave must have had a family significance (the Beard family was buried at St Mary Magdalen). His slop shop was just across the street and slightly down the street from the location of St Olave Church.

Searching the London and Surrey records may prove interesting and I shall spend some time doing that. My brief look at them in Salt Lake City was just an after thought on the last afternoon. There are quite a list of Buller records there at the various churches which I found this family at in London. Are they related to these other Buller families? I have a number of wills for the Buller families in London but thus far none has revealed any relationship to the Buller family at St Mary Magdalen and St Olave.

Next time we are at Kew I want to spend a little time on the Buller family. It is a well documented family in England with some fairly famous members but I have no family stories that attach me to any of these particular lines. My grandmother's father died when she was 14 (her mother having died when she was 11) and they were taken to live at Marston Green Cottages Children's Home (she and her four younger siblings). At 15, if your education was complete you could leave the home and take a job and in her case she lived with her mother's sister Kate Taylor and worked in Birmingham visiting her siblings where whilst visiting in the winter of 1908 she learned that her two youngest sisters were to be sent to Canada (the two older children had already been sent in 1905 and 1906). My grandmother decided to emigrate on the same boat they were taking and had managed to find a job in London, Ontario where the youngest was to be sent.

There is a mystery in all of this because of the stories which were passed down to us. Firstly Ellen (mother of my grandmother) was said to have been divorced (this would help to explain the eldest half sister who lived in London, Ontario but was actually the illegitimate daughter of Ellen). The story was further compounded by changing the name of their mother to Rosina Decalma and the half sister had listed her parents as Edwin Taylor and Ellen Taylor. To help protect her I suspect, my grandmother than used this other name as did her siblings for their mother. Their father having been Edwin Denner Buller. But more interesting family lore has Edwin being disowned by his family for marrying a divorcee. This would explain why the children are placed in the home; likely his family was unaware of his death until later and by then they had all gone to Canada. Sifting through the actual documents and relating them to the family lore has been an interesting adventure. Fortunately, I had gone to visit my grandmother's youngest sister about 36 years ago now and learned the details of the children's home but she was only 1 when her mother died and 4 when her father died and was unable to correct any of the stories that had been created. It wasn't until I located the census records that I realized that the Rosina Decalma was erroneous! and that was in 2003 (my visit to my great aunt being in 1976).

I have still not met any descendants of this family line on line. They are all likely still in England. The Welch family did move away from Birmingham to the Handsworth area prior to the birth of my grandmother and likely all contact was lost with this family by the Buller family after the death of Sarah Welch (my 3x great grandmother) in 1872. For the Taylor family, I do not think that there are any direct descendants of the likely parents of Ellen - Ellen Roberts and Thomas Taylor. None of the children appear to have married with several being school teachers and again this family had moved to Ashton under Lyne by the late 1870s. Ellen Taylor must have returned to Birmingham to have her first child (illegimate) as she is found at the Aston Workhouse on the 1881 census. How she met Edwin Denner Buller and when and where they married is all a mystery although all the birth registrations of their seven children do bear the notation Ellen Buller formerly Taylor and the informant is sometimes Ellen and sometimes Edwin. One day I may solve the mystery of this family but at the moment what I know most is that my maternal mtDNA with its unusual mutations is found in Ayrshire/Argyllshire Scotland and Antrim, Ireland with the closest full genetic scan matches being found in Ossettia. Somewhere in there is an amazing story just waiting to be written!

Of course there is always the possibility that Ellen Taylor was herself the migrant coming from Ireland or Scotland to Birmingham although records indicate she was born in Birmingham but Edwin Denner Buller was the informant on her death registration and he may not have known!

Henry Christopher Buller

A timely release by Find my past of the Church Records in Westminster (London, UK) has finally provided details on the first marriage of Henry Christopher Buller (my 2x great grandfather). He married Sophia Scrooby 18 Dec 1831 at St Mary Church, St Marylebone, London (Sophia was the daughter of George Scrooby and Mary Bullock and they were married 24 Jun 1798 at Saint Luke, Chelsea, London and I have found three daughters thus far Mary Ann baptized 15 Mar 1807 at St Mary Church, St Marylebone and married to Thomas Parker Steedman 5 Apr 1829 at St Marylebone (five children: Elizabeth, Sophia, James, Thomas Cornelius and Mary Ann) , Sophia baptized 24 Feb 1811 also at St Mary Church and she was buried 30 Jun 1836 at St James Westminster having died on Lambeth Walk, and Eliza baptized 16 Aug 1812 at St Mary Church (no further details but will now check the newest records).

Henry and Sophia had two children: Mary Ann baptized 15 Oct 1832 at Saint George Bloomsbury and I now know that she was buried 30 Jun 1836 at Saint James Westminster (presumably mother and daughter succumbed to the same illness) and George Scrooby baptized 1 Jun 1834 at Saint George Bloomsbury and he was buried at Whitefield Memorial Church 9 Nov 1834. I have discovered this church was near to where Henry had his butcher shop on Lamb Conduit Way. Perhaps he moved the family to Lambeth Walk away from the main city of London after George's death in 1834 only to lose them anyway from another illness. Sad really.

Henry Christopher Buller married Anne Welch (my 2x great grandparents) and on the marriage license it was noted that he was a widower. A long time in solving but I have now put together his first marriage and all the deaths prior to his second marriage 23 Aug 1838 at Edgbaston, Warwickshire. Sophia was only 26 when she was buried. Anne was only 17 years 6 months when she married Henry and they went on to have 11 children before his death in 1862 at the age of 57 years. I am slowly discovering details on this family as they seem so like modern families - they lived in London and Birmingham having butcher shops in both. I suspect there is quite a story to tell although it is difficult to piece it together from so far away. One day I would like to visit the Birmingham Library and see what kind of interesting details I can find for this couple.

It was nice to have Find My Past help me to put together Henry's families.

Routledge letter from George Routledge to Archibald Armstrong 16 Jan 1837 (London, Ontario, Canada to Parknook, Bewcastle, Cumberland, England

I discovered after searching my labels that I have never posted the letter which George Routledge (my 3x great uncle and brother to my 2x great grandmother Mary Routledge married to Robert Gray) wrote to Archibald Armstrong who still lived in the Brampton, Cumberland, UK area in 1837. This rather interesting and name filled document added to my knowledge of the emigrant families and gave me a glimpse into the life of these early Talbot settlers in southwestern Ontario which included my 3x great grandparents and their family - Thomas Routledge and Elizabeth Routledge with their nine children, son in law and two grandsons.

I published the letter in Families several years ago and now include a copy of the article in my blog:

Archibald Armstrong, letter recipient on 5 April 1837, remains a mystery at the time of writing but he was addressed at Parknook , Bewcastle . It was sent in care of the Inn Keeper, Bush Inn, Brampton, Cumberland, England. 

London [Ontario}, Jan 16th 1837
Mr. Archibald Armstrong

I take this opportunity of writing to you a few lines to let you know how we are all going on in this part of America, I wrote to you once or twice before but I never got any answer. we are all in good health at present thanks be to God for that blessing, hoping that these few lines will find you and your family all in the same state.

First I shall give an assessment of the times, our markets and the price of farming stock and all kinds of produce and the price of land also take notice. what I shall name to you in value shall all be sterling money and meashures the old Carlisle bushel [a Carlisle bushel is equal to 2.98 Imperial bushels] that was when we left the country.

land within 6 or 7 miles of the town of London can be bought for about 24 shillings per acre uncleared all the timber thereon, and a cleared up farm of 100 acres with 50 acres of that cleared off fit for cultivation can be bought for about 350 pounds so any man that can come here with a little money he can see how he may be suited.  

there is not the chance now to get land that there was when we came to this country, land has got to be more valueable on account of the great advancement of the population in this part. my old companion, I am sorry to inform you how unfortunate you were in not coming to this country when you were in the notion of coming at the time when we came. you might have had today as much property as I have and perhaps more.
the general price of good horses is from 20 to 30 pounds. Last spring I sold a horse two years old for 20 pounds. about the same time my brother Tho[ma]s [fourth son of Thomas and Elizabeth Routledge]  sold a horse three years old, likely for the saddle, for upwards of 30 pounds. the price of a yoke of oxen is about 17 pounds, milke cows from 5 to 7 pounds a peice, and sheep will average about 12 shillings a peice, beef 3d per pounds, Mutton about the same,, pork 4d – 6d per stone [a stone is an English unit of weight equal to 6.35 kilograms],   butter 9 cents per pound, tallow 8d, wheat 16s per bushel, barly 10s, rye 13s, peas 12s, Indian corn 12s, oats 5s, potatoes 5s per bushel, apples 4s – 6s per bushel, whisky 2s, Brandy 7s, Rum 5s, [and] Wine 7s per gallon.

We live about 6 miles from the town of London which is the county town and city of London. I have 400 Acres of land 300 Acres of it lies all adjoining and about 70 acres of it well cleared and in a good state of cultivation. [O]ne hundred acres lyes within 4 miles of the town and a good clearing upon it which I have a farmer lives upon it. [A]ny man that comes here that is not of ability to buy land there are farms to be let for 7 to 10s per acre yearly for the cleared land that is fit for cultivation.
I have a pair of good draught horses and a yoke of oxen which I keep for working the place I
live on. I keep 6 milk cows and 14 head of young cattle, a flock of sheep and a good brood mare, and the taxes I pay for all I pocess land and stock is only 13s6d yearly. we can feed the best of beef and summer our milk cows in the woods clear of all costs. we have great privileges here that you have not in Bewcastle or no other part in England and we understand that times is always getting worse in England.

I now shall tell you the alterations of Families that was from Bewcastle – Deaths, weddings, etc. Roby Summers [George (b 1792)’s father in law (George was married to Jane Summers)] died three years ago last a[u]gust, my mother died two years ago last sept. My brother Allan died one year ago last October. I expect you have heard of myself being married to Jane Summers 15 years past last July and we have 6 children living and one dead, all boys but
One. my sister Margaret  and Mary both married to men from Yorkshire. there [are] none of the lads [George’s brothers - Henry, William, Thomas Junior, and Joseph (Allan is noted as having died)] married but myself. they all have a great deal of land and other property, my father has a handsome Estate of land he lives on within 3 miles of the town. 
    Geo[rge] Kennedy [George Kennedy, husband of Grace Routledge b.1789]  has 200 acres of land and is doing very well. we all got 100 acres of land a piece and what any of has more we have bought since from government.

James Nixon is doing well, he has plenty of land, stock and chickens. Roby Summers  family has a good deal of land and other property. old Peggy [Margaret (Peggy) Bell wife of Robert (Robby) Summers (and mother in law to George Routledge b 1792)], John, Tho[ma]s,  and Mary  lives together [John Summers and Thomas Summers did not marry, Mary Summers was married to Eli Trowbridge]. Robert  and Betty  [are] married and live at their own homes [Robert Summers married Isabella Robson]. Mary is a widow.

and in short I can safely say that all the old neighbours from Bewcastle and other parts are doing well and has great plenty of almost everything and is all well contented in coming to this country. they can bring up their familys with great plenty and live well. much better than they
could have done in England. times has been a great deal better this last 18 months than they were some time back. Farming stock and produce ha[ve] brought good prices and money has been more plentifully.
you may judge from this, 4 years ago John Elliot and Sibby came to this part and when they came here they had nothing. they borrowed the money to buy a yoke of oxen to work the farm which they rented. now they have great plenty both German stock 6 cows, 2 yoke of oxen and 10 or 12 head of young cattle and a good mare. they have 9 children..

 Henery’s  [Henry Routledge, eldest son of Thomas and Elizabeth Routledge]  best respects to you and your wife and so do we all. remember us to your brothers Wm. and Robt. I have often lamented that Wm. did not come to this country. he would have done well no doubt but he would have got rich. y]ou will show this with all our respects to our friends John and Richd. Routledge [Richard and John Routledge (brothers) are the sons of William Routledge who is cousin (unknown exact relationship) to George Routledge, the father of Elizabeth Routledge, the emigrant to London Township]  likewise to John Dodgson [John Dodgson is married to Ann Routledge. Ann’s father is also a cousin (unknown exact relationship) to George Routledge, b.1729, the father of Elizabeth Routledge, emigrant to London Township] of Roantrees. they may expect two letters in a short time.

we will be glad to hear from you with all the news you can afford us. you shall hear more particulars in those letters that I have not mentioned here. in short, I must conclude I am and still will remain your most affectionate.
Geo. Routledge.
Ad[d]ress: George Routledge, London, county of Middlesex and District of London, Upper Canada

Note added by me to this letter:

 When my Armstrong correspondent (also not related to this Armstrong family) forwarded me a copy of the 1837 letter she included a comment by  Sally Ramshaw which said:   “…The letter was given to me by Mr. Andrew Ewart (a 4th cousin of my father, the late William Harrison Armstrong) in case it was useful with my family research. Unfortunately the Armstrong is not one of my relations as far as I know but the letter contained a number of names that might be ancestors of other Cumbria Family History Society members as well as much fascinating social history that I thought it might be worth printing in the next newsletter.”  

This letter was indeed printed in the Cumbria Family History Society newsletter at some point in the past. I do not know when.

For Routledge researchers trying to sort out their ancestry the above letter may be helpful. If you think you are tracing back to my Routledge lines I may be able to help you with that as Thomas (my 3x great grandfather) had no siblings who lived to adulthood and Elizabeth (my 3x great grandmother) had only half-siblings all of whom appeared to have remained in the Bewcastle area as well one of her half siblings was George Routledge mentioned in the Dodgson Manuscript (his ancestry coming down from Elizabeth's father George's second marriage to Elizabeth Armstrong (her mother was a Routledge)). Since I am starting with such a small base in the early to mid 1700s I can tell you if you are related to my lines.

Somerby's errors still reverberating in Blake family research

I strongly suspect that Horatio Gates Somerby had no idea of how far reaching his genealogical frauds would eventually be. At a bare minimum sixteen books have been published on the Blake family of Boston (can be seen at the New England Historic Genealogical Society Library in Boston) which either use his results or contradict those results. For the most part though these books accept Somerby's work as correct and simply connect their families back to the information which he created in the mid 1800s.

Usually his connections were back to royalty but in the case of the Blake family, he took them back to the Blake family of Calne, Wiltshire known to be there in the late 1200s. He did this by connecting them to the Andover Hampshire Blake family (my own line) with a fraudulent marriage between William Blake and Mary Coles giving them children Humphrey, Nicholas and Alice. In reality, Nicholas at Enham, Andover, Hampshire was the son of a Mr. Blake (forename unknown thus far) and Joan Blake (his widow). Joan Blake (widow) left a will in 1527 where she mentions her children Robert, Nicholas and Elizabeth (married to a Mr. Mylne). No mention of a Humphrey. Nicholas and Robert in their turn also left wills mentioning their children and the witness to Robert's will was Nicholas (Robert died in 1542 and Nicholas in 1547).

The interesting part of Somerby's creations is that he may have seen the Pedigree Chart which I have mentioned earlier and is located at the Swindon and Wiltshire Record Office (can be purchased from them as images at a very reasonable cost). However, the furtherest back ancestor he names as Robert de Blakeland and the chart shows Richard Blague/Blaake/Blake as being the furtherest back. The interesting question for me is were these men the same person? Robert de Blakeland is a bit of a red herring in all of this. He is supposed to have paid a subsidy in 1286 on Blakelands (now Blacklands near Calne Wiltshire). I haven't pulled up that information yet to look at it. All in Latin and my skills are at best rather weak in Latin so it has waited whilst I improve.

How to rid the world of Somerby's errors though is an interesting dilemma and one that has been discussed in The American Genealogist (TAG). Fortunately, the author Paul C Reid has written an article in 1999 exposing the fraud of Somerby with the Blake family and others. Clifford L Stott in the NEHGS Register has written an article on Humphrey Blake and his descendants also mentioning the fraud of Somerby. By constantly writing articles and blogging on these errors it may yet be possible to undo the fraudulence of Somerby's genealogical forays. That he did it solely for money, is perhaps the greatest crime of all. To have done it innocently could at least be understood by future genealogists but simply to make money is such a crime perpetrated against all of us who try to do a competent job of our family history.

I am often having to deny people who write me asking for a genealogical descent chart particularly for William Blake and Mary Coles who never existed as far as I am able to determine. Certainly William Blake is not listed as a son of Robert Blake and Avis Wallop his supposed parents. His supposed children William Blake and Robert Blake along with their widowed mother are not in the Andover Hampshire area living on supposed Wallop estate (Eastontown). There is a Robert Blake at Enham just as there is a Nicholas Blake at Enham but they are the sons of Joan Blake (widow) and forename unknown Mr. Blake. It is the son of Nicholas Blake, William who first notes himself as living at Eastontown in his will. Nicholas and his wife Margaret have only four children: William the eldest, Edmund (minor at the time of his father's death in 1547) and two daughters Alice married to Mr. Godwyn and Elizabeth married to Mr. Monday. Edmund does have a son Steven but I have not been able to trace this line down. William's line is very large at Andover; he and his wife Elizabeth (unknown) have ten children. Robert, brother to Nicholas, is married to Agnes (unknown) and they have six sons.

My initial thought was that all of the Blake lines at Andover traced back to these two men, however the pedigree chart at Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office gives another William Blake also at Eastontown but married to Avice Ripley. Since the eldest son of William (John) married a Margaret Blake daughter of William Blake I was not surprised to find that there could be another Blake family at Andover and I am pursuing this notion that there was another William Blake there at the same time as William son of Nicholas since William does name his wife as Elizabeth. Could they be the same William? It would mean that his eldest son John married his half-sister Margaret. I doubt that happened. It was frowned upon by the Catholic Church and it is unlikely that one would record it on a Pedigree Chart.

My strongest suspicion is that there is a small error in connection on the chart and that Margaret was the daughter of William Blake and Avice Ripley and able to trace her line back to the Blake family at Calne. John who is shown as connected to this marriage was actually the son of William Blake and Elizabeth also of Eastontown (there were several farms at Eastontown according to ancient maps) but the connection back for him was to William and then Nicholas and unknown Blake married to Joan (widow in 1527). The Visitation which was used to create the chart is somewhat unclear on the parentage of William and it is from these Visitations that the chart was created.

The desire to have the male Blake line go back directly to the Calne Blake family may have been just too tempting (the female Blake line through Margaret definitely did do so I believe). Hence this small error crept in and allowed the descendants to use the coat of arms of the Wiltshire Blake family which included the Blake/Baynard/Bellet/Durrant family crests. It was Richard Blake Esquire, Captain of the Trained Bands in County Middlesex in 1662 who first used this crest on his Visitation although by then the Baynard crest had been forgotten and assumed to be an unfinished Blague/Blake crest. John is correctly identified as the progenitor of the family from Essington, County of Southampton. The Visitation is also signed.

How to prove that I am correct is the mystery at the moment. I am searching out material to either support my hypothesis or eliminate it. That is all that we can do as the successors of Horatio Gates Somerby's frauds.

Routledge family and an email on Hampshire

An interesting request for information on Southampton, Hampshire and I put together a list of some of the interesting resources for this English county that I have at hand and decided to share it with my blog.

Depending on how far back the association with Southampton is, there are a number of interesting published records for Hampshire which include:

The Hampshire Hearth Tax Assessment of 1665 and in the case of Southampton it is the Hearth Tax Assessment of 1670 that is published in this particular book. This book is a good birds eye view of Hampshire in this time period.

West Hampshire Lay Subsidy Assessments, 1558-1603 (Andover, Kingsclere and New Forest Divisions), edited by Douglas F Vick (Family History Library). I copied Andover Hundred only as that was my interest but the New Forest is in the Southampton area so might be interesting. A valuable resource in this time period (my Blake line goes back to the late 1400s in the Andover area so have looked at a lot of the records in this area back to this time period).

The Parish Records are particularly good in Hampshire and can be purchased directly from the Hampshire Record Office at a very reasonable price (microfiche) and a lot of them do go back to the beginning of the Parish Registers (1538) and can be purchased right up to the present if that is helpful.

In general Hampshire is not available on any of the major providers (FindMyPast, Ancestry, Origins, etc.) as they have published a lot of their own records through the Hampshire Genealogical Society. I was a member for eight years and will be again but traveling about as we have done for the last four years I cancelled most of my subscriptions. The articles in their journal tend to be on families of the 1800s on so depending on the time period you are looking at your may find it interesting looking at their journal (available at Allen County Public Library and Family History in Salt Lake City). Federated Family History Societies holds their material for sale: http://www.genfair.co.uk/supplier.php?sid=59

Their are a number of books published on individual cities/towns in Hampshire but Southampton has been a large city for at least one hundred and fifty years. My father was born at Eastleigh (now a suburb of Southampton) in 1904 and he recalled as a child going into Southampton and that it was a large city even then with Eastleigh itself being a substantial town. The New Forest lies in Dorset but right across the Southampton Waters from Southampton. This is an area like Dutchess County (my enquirer was from the United States) with peoples from the west and north west of England moving towards the more economically viable area of Southampton/Portsmouth through the last two hundred years and the only practical way was through the New Forest which is honeycombed with roads going everywhere plus the railroad.

The Census of Hampshire is very complete (few areas are missing) from 1841 to 1911 and available on FindMyPast and Ancestry (FindMyPast has better transcriptions but Ancestry has a really powerful search engine techniques but you can search the 1911 census returns on the UK government website and do remarkable searching just there).

The Electoral Registers would also be a good source although I have not yet looked at them for Hampshire. I suspect that involves a trip to Hampshire Record Office which is in Winchester (an amazing collection of mediaeval buildings still exist in this city including ancient walls and it is not hard to find your way about). The database at the Hampshire Record Office is online and has a good search engine  (http://www3.hants.gov.uk/archives/catalog.htm). They will do hard copy or images and they are most reasonable and make excellent copies.

There are Pollbooks for Southampton (the county was called Southampton and depending on how long ago a family name is associated with Southampton it could have meant the county) which can be helpful in the 1700s.

This is off the top of my head and certainly the Hampshire Genuki webpages have a lot of material that might be helpful (I used to manage these but passed them on to a local Hampshire resident fortunately!). http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/HAM/

The yDNA Hampshire Study has not been overly successful. About 1/4 of the people only have a paper trail back to Hampshire. Most of the members are American. I have been trying to get a couple of people who live in England interested in taking over the study as they could encourage more people who trace back to Hampshire to test. My line (Blake) is one of the few where the actual location of the ancestor is known.

Kew (Public Record Office in London, England) has an excellent online website: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ The holdings for Hampshire are quite extensive there as well although Winchester is the best place for Hampshire records.

I have a lot of Hampshire material but it is generally in the Andover Hundred/Registration District where my families have lived for over six hundred years. I have not yet seen the surname Grooms in this area to my knowledge but will over the coming days check some of the excel transcription files that I have produced.

Back to Routledge and Tom Routledge has sent me a couple of new documents to transcribe. I have begun and noted that Jock Routledge is mentioned in this document. It is from 1543 and not one of the common transcription documents so no help online for this one likely. I will again post it to the blog as I transcribe it and correct the document as I move along with it.

The Gathering of the Clans is now set for July 2014 and we hope to attend. That is as always dependent on my husband's health. Perhaps that will be the time when we sell our house and in between we will do a bit of traveling. Sounds very interesting actually!

Flu bugs

Thought I was on the mend but yesterday proved that flu bugs are very resistant so spent the day resting once again. I shall take a couple more days of resting up before taking on anything .

However, it is nice to be back to genealogy once again. I wanted to do more transcription than I eventually got done this winter but there is always next winter and still a couple more months before the nights are light again. The long cold dark winters in Canada are handy for reading off of microfiche that is for sure.