Blake - Abbots Ann Parish Registers

Continuing on with the Abbots Ann Parish Registers and this is a particularly rough section. Out of place with respect to the transcription I was doing but welcomed anyway.I am now doing catchup with the time period from 1599 to the 1640s.

Abbots Ann Parish Church of St Mary has Virgin Crowns around the ceiling of the sanctuary. The graveyard has the grave of John Blake, malster, and his wife Mary (King) Blake and their daughter Mary who died in childbirth - their only child. It must have been a sad life for John after losing first his daughter and then his wife and continuing on for many more years on his own. Ann Blake who went to take care of her Uncle at Abbots Ann (sister to my 3x great grandfather Thomas Blake) must have been a welcome companion in his old age. He was generous to her although she eventually sold her inheritance and returned to live at Upper Clatford after her brother's wife Sarah (Coleman) Blake died about the same time as her infant son.

The first Blake entry has now appeared in the Parish Register with the marriage of Dorothy Blake (daughter of the widow Blake of Andover) and John Smyth of Blackfriers London. This marriage in 1632 is an interesting one actually. This Dorothy is generally thought to be the daughter of William Blake and Dorothy (Madgwick) Blake but both of her parents were alive in 1632. I shall have to rethink this thought.

Barrie Blake has pointed out a discrepancy which I had thought was just a spelling error on the part of the Creators of the Blake Pedigree Chart at the Swindon Wiltshire Record Office. They list Robert Blake and Alice Folyot as the individuals in the stained glass window at Calne. However, the coat of arms is actually that of the Folliott family whereas the coat of arms in the marriage crest is that of the Wallop family. I did not acquire the Post Mortem Inquisition for Avis Blake when we were at the National Archives so must think about whether I want to check it out. Online sources name Roger Malewyn as the husband of Avis Wallop prior to her marriage to Robert Blake. She was a widow when she married Robert. Since she does have a Postmortem Inquisition she must have held land which needed to be dealt with and hence the Postmortem Inquisition. It will be necessary to read that to understand if she was actually married twice before she married Robert Blake.

I continued with the Abbots Ann Register through the day and have now completed 701 baptisms, 203 marriages and 260 burials. The burials seem very low and they are very difficult to read - a lot of blanks. I am probably missing some of them and on proofreading may pick up more.