BLAKE - England's Immigrants Database 1330-1550

To begin my set of 10 Blogs on my one-name Study for the BLAKE family (in this particular blog I will also mention my second one-name Study for the PINCOMBE family), I will examine the Immigrants Database 1330-1550. The project is a collaboration between the University of York, The National Archives and the Humanities Research Institute, University of Sheffield.

This is the citation for this particular set of documents.  England’s Immigrants 1330 – 1550 (www.englandsimmigrants.com, version 1.0, 15 February 2015), http://www.englandsimmigrants.com/contact

I found this to be a rather tantalizing new set of documents (England's Immigrants Database 1330-1550) and it is available for searching:

http://www.englandsimmigrants.com/search/results?keyword=blake&startDate=1300&endDate=1600&col1=name&col2=nationality&col3=date&col4=origin&col5=residence&page=1

I, of course, searched on BLAKE and PINCOMBE. PINCOMBE does not appear as that spelling or as Pencomb/Pencombe/Pincomb and, in general, this is thought to be a name of English origin which arose in England particularly in the west counties.

It is possible to download all of the results of the BLAKE search into a spreadsheet but I have put only basic details into this blog:

Surname    Forename    Nationality    Day    Month    Year    Residence
Blake    Adam                                          8    Aug    1456    London
Blake    Agnes                                       aft 29    Sep    1441    London
Blake    Alice                                        21    Apr    1440    Gloucestershire, St Nicholas
Blake    Gunna                Dutch            12    Jul    1440    Huntingdonshire, Huntingdon
Blake    Hayn                                        27    Sep    1456    Kent, Ospringe
Blake    Henry                                      Oct    1441    London, Castle Baynard ward
Blake    Henry                                      18    Jan    1443    London, Castle Baynard ward
Blake    Henry                                      aft 29    Sep    1441    London
Blake    Henry                                      5    Sep    1449    London, Farringdon without ward
Blake    Henry                                     aft 3     Dec    1450    Kent
Blake    Herman             Dutch           12    Jul    1440    Huntingdonshire, Huntingdon
Blake    Hugh                                      5    Sep    1449    London
Blake    John                                       9    Oct    1441    London, Cripplegate ward
Blake    John                                     11    Oct    1441    London, Queenhithe ward
Blake    John                                      18    Jan    1443    London, Cripplegate ward
Blake    John                                      aft 29    Sep    1441    London
Blake    John                                     18    Jan    1443    London, Queenhithe ward
Blake    John                                      aft 29    Sep    1441    London
Blake    John                  Scot            26    Sep    1465    Lincolnshire, Rathby
Blake    John                  Dutch          11    Jul    1440    Hampshire, King's Somborne hundred
Blake    John                                      10    Aug    1441    Gloucestershire, All Saints
Blake    John                  Fleming      24   Jul    1484    Devon, Exeter
Blake    John                  Norman      18    Apr    1524    Dorset, Eastbury
Blake    John                  Breton         bef 16    Feb    1525    Cornwall, Bodmin
Blake    John                  Dutch            c 1524    Essex, Aveley
Blake    Katherine                             14    Jul    1467    London
Blake    Lodewicus       Dutch           18    Aug    1441    Northamptonshire, Yarwell
Blake    Lodwico          Dutch           24    May    1440    Northamptonshire, Yarwell
Blake    Patrick                                   7    Apr    1440    Essex, High Roding
Blake    Patrick                                aft 29    Sep    1441    London
Blake    Peter                                    6    Sep    1463    Bedfordshire
Blake    Peter                                    20    Sep    1455    Bedfordshire, Dunstable
Blake    Peter                                    10    Jul    1406   
Blake    Philip                                    5    Jul    1440    Shropshire, Shrewsbury
Blake    Richard         Scot                15    Sep    1451    Northumberland, Newcastle upon Tyne
Blake    Richard          Irish               10    Jul    1440    Wiltshire, Salisbury
Blake    Richard          Irish               10    Aug    1441    Gloucestershire, St Leonard
Blake    Richard          Irish                7    Sep    1441    Wiltshire, Salisbury
Blake    Robert                                  28    Aug    1441    Warwickshire, Coventry
Blake    Robert                                  21    Apr    1440    Gloucestershire, Holy Trinity
Blake    Robert                                  10    Aug    1441    Gloucestershire, Holy Trinity
Blake    Robert          French             19    Sep    1441    Wiltshire, Great Somerford
Blake    Stephen                                11    Jul    1440    Hampshire, Millbrook
Blake    Thomas                                aft 29    Sep    1441    London
Blake    Walter                                   18    Jan    1443    London, Billingsgate ward
Blake    Walter                                    aft 29    Sep    1441    London
Blake    William                               18    Jan    1443    London, Tower ward
Blake    William    Breton                 4    Apr    1524    Devon, Morchard Bishop
Blake    wife of Henry Blake            Oct    1441    London, Castle Baynard ward
Blake    wife of Henry Blake           18    Jan    1443    London, Castle Baynard ward
Blake    wife of Walter Blake          18    Jan    1443    London, Billingsgate ward
Blake    wife of John Blake             18    Jan    1443    London

Comparing this information to the map which I prepared from the occurrence of Blake in the Calendar of Patent Rolls is rather interesting as well.

http://kippeeb.blogspot.ca/2013/01/calendar-of-patent-rolls-summary-of.html

The entries in the Calendar of Patent Rolls range between 30 Jan 1230 and 16 Jun 1452. There is some overlap with this new database in terms of time. The Immigrants' database entries range between 10 Jul 1406 (one entry only) and then from 7 Apr 1440 to 16 Feb 1525 with the bulk of the entries between 1440 and 1443. Some of these people could be related especially where no nationality is given. For instance two Bretons William Blake and John Blake settled in Morchard Bishop, Devon and Bodmin Cornwall 1 Apr 1524 and before 16 Feb 1525 respectively. But tantilizingly is this the Cornwall/Devon Blake family that I am busy attempting to put together? There was also a John Blake, noted as Fleming, in Exeter Devon 24 Jul 1484 so a further Blake line to distract me.

Of special interest to me (my Blake line can be found at Upper Clatford, Andover, Penton Mewsey and Knights Enham back into the 1500s) are the entires for Hampshire and Wiltshire where we can see that Richard Blake, noted as Irish, can be located at Salisbury Wiltshire 10 Jul 1440. There is a Stephen Blake, no nationality noted, 11 Jul 1440 at Millbrook Hampshire. John Blake, Dutch, 11 Jul 1440 at King's Somborne hundred, Hampshire. Robert Blake, French, 19 Sep 1441 at Great Somerford, Wiltshire. But as is often the case for immigrants to England, London has the largest number of Blake immigrants with about half of them being listed as living in London.

Finding Richard le Blak (Calendar of Patent Rolls, 30 May 1274 Westminster, 2 Edward I, volume 1, pages 51 - 52) coming from Normandy in 1274 had started my thinking outside of the box with respect to Blake in the British Isles. This set of documents from the Immigrant's Database for England 1330-1550 further intensifies this thinking process as I found  54 entries in the database. In all likelihood a number of the entries are for the same person but it does appear that there are 31 distinctive individuals (I excluded the four wives as I could not tell if they were actually English or immigrants with their husbands plus there are four female names mentioned so could be duplicating) coming to England from The Netherlands (6 one noted as Fleming), Normandy, France, Breton (2), Scotland (2) and Ireland (1). Only 13 have their place of origin noted. The male forenames include: Adam, Hayn, Henry, Herman, Hugh, John, Lodewicus, Patrick, Peter, Philip, Richard, Robert, Stephen, Thomas, Walter, and William. There are four female names: Agnes, Alice, Gunna (wife of Herbert) and Katherine. Four females are listed but only as the wife of and in this case wife of Henry Blake (2 entries), of Peter Blake and of John Blake.

In the next nine blogs I will look at the BLAKE family in Cornwall. I have a set of Legacy Family Trees which I prepared using the Cornwall Online Parish Clerk's Baptism, Marriage and Burial indexes and the census from 1841 onwards which includes  4848 individuals and 1540 families. What emerged from this study was rather interesting in terms of the Devon and Cornwall BLAKE families. BLAKE has very deep roots in both of these counties.