Again, I chose this will to photograph at Kew because it was the earliest Blake will in Gloucestershire. Date in 1552 and probated in 1555. I can not find him on the Clergy database for England nor is he listed as a graduate of Oxford University. However he may appear in the Wiltshire and Swindon Pedigree Chart listed as John Blague Abbot of Cirencester in County Gloucester. He is, from the chart, the son of David Blague and Joanne Mallet with this David being the son of John Blague and Margaret Denham/Dyncham/Dinham. John was the son of Robert Blake and Avice Wallop and was mentioned in his mother's will as being over 40 with her will being probated in 1474. The timing does work with John born in 1434 or earlier, then his son David born before 1474 and his son John being born in the late 1400s or early 1500s. You might wonder why John doesn't mention his family but he has been in this diocese prior to the Dissolution of the Abbeys by King Henry VIII as he is named as Abbot at the time of Dissolution. The people closest to him were probably his servants and the gentry of his area which included Sir Anthony Kyngston and Sir Walter Buck[e]ler. The reference to John Blake as Abbot can be found in the chapter "Gloucestershire-Lincolnshire" by Thomas Cox, Anthony Hall and Robert Morden and part of the book Magna Britannia Antiqua and Nova: or a new exact and comprehansive Survey of the Ancient and Present State of Great-Britain, Volume II, Caesar Ward and Richard Chandler Booksellers: Ship without Temple Bar, 1738.
Transcriber: Elizabeth Kipp
Recorded: 5 May 2012
Source: The National Archives PROB 11/37, Image Reference 291/231 (images by me)
Name of testator: John Blake, Clerk of Feyreford
Place: Feyreford, Gloucestershire, England
Type of Record: Will
Dated: 2 Jan 1552, probated 4 Apr 1555
Read: Electronic file
Condition: old writing, 16th century, bold copy
[In margin] Testam[ent] Johne Blake clerc
1 In dei nomme Amen seconde die January Anno d[o]m[ini] Millesim[o] quingentesimo qu[i]nqu[a]gesimo
2 secundo est Anno Regin dic[t]i n[upe]r Edwardi Sexti dei gracia Anglie Francie et Hibernie Regis fidei
3 defensore et in terra Eccles[ie] Anglicane et Hibernice suprem[um] Capits Septo / I John Blake of
4 Feyreford in the divi[sion] of cirencester clerke being sicke in bodye and hoole of mynd and in perfect
5 Remembrance do make and ordeyne this my last will and testament in maner and forme folowinge /
6 First I bequeathe my soule to t[he ]handes of Almightie god my Savior and Redemmer which by the power of
7 his most precious blood have delyv[er]ed me from all my synnes and reconsiled me unto god the Father / By
8 the merits of his deathe / and my bodye to be buried wher yt shall please myne Executors John Hiet and
9 John Dawbeny jun[io]r my servemts / And they to paye all my debts whiche I do owe / And also to perform
10 and paye all my legacies as hereafter foloweth / First I bequeathe and geve to the poor mens boxe
11 ii s Fyreford aforesaid / Item I bequeathe to John Wallan Shapelyn Sept pounds in money and clyowne
12 Item I give to Thomas Ligges gentleman x lsand his lyvere / Item I give to Thomas Clark my servent
13 twenty shillings in money and his lyvere / Item to Richard Merynge xxxv s iiij d and his lyverye / Item
14 to Willyam Carter xxx iiij s and his lyverye / Item to Roger Wyatt xxvj s iiij d and his lyverye / Item to
15 Richard Hall xxvj s viij and his lyvere / Item to John Farges xxx s and his lyverye / Item to
16 Reynold Hooles xxx s and the lyvere / Item to Richard Woodward xx s and his lyvere / Item to
17 Margery Livey xxv s and one petycote / Item to Faithe Brywater xxiij s and one petycote / Item to
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18 Katheryn Grey xxiij s and one peticot / All this I give every of them in full payment of their wages
19 and lyvereys / All the rest of my goodes and cattalls moveable and unmoveable not gyven nor
20 Bequeathed after my debts and Legacies be fully contentyd and paide / and my funeralls done / I geve
21 and bequeathe unto John Hall and John Dawbeny Jun[ior] above said my serv[an]ts whome I make and
22 ordeyne my sole Executors / And further I make Overseers of this my last will and testament Sir
23 Anthony Kyngston Knight Sir Walter Buckeler Knight and John George gent to the intent that they
24 shall see all my debts and Legacies abovesaid paide and fulfilled and myne Executors quietly to
25 inioy all the reste of my goodes above bequeathed and geven to them / And they and ev[er]y of them myne
26 Overseers abovesaid to have for their labors and paynes in the premisses fouer markes a peece in money
27 to be paid to them by myne Executors. Thes p[er]sons nis__yng beareing wytnes of this my last will
28 Mathew Glam they being Curate / Richard Stiyhall / Richard More / Thomas Smith
29 Willyam Greene By me John Blake pr[i]est
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