Parish Records - Burbage

 I will look at the Parish Records for Burbage and for Calne.

Burbage commences in 1561

Baptisms

John Blake baptized 26 Feb 1566 son of Richard and Joan Blake

George Blake baptized last day of September 1571 son of Richard and Joan Blake

Robert Blake baptized 25 March 1579 son of Richard and Joan Blake

I will continue with this process looking at Burbage records but Richard and Joan Blake are thus known to be baptizing children at Burbage in the last half of the 1500s. The only document I have located earlier is a lease for lives which included a Robert Blake for land, tenements, and meadows etc in Burbage and was executed at Calne 29 Sep 1422. The next interesting document is a mention for Edmund Blake as an attorney on a piece of property in Burbage with a Feoffment between William, Lord Sandys and Edward, Earl of Hertford. Robert Blake in 1422 at Calne holding a lease (with another set of individuals in the second part) for property in Burbage is quite interesting. I shall have to investigate the Discovery catalogue at the National Archives to see if I have missed any other mentions for Blake family at Calne in this time period and up to the 1599 period which would take in these baptisms at Burbage for the Richard and Joan Blake family. 

A record from the Discovery Catalogue at the National Archives of the UK: 

Quitclaim
Reference:     DD\WHb/813
Title:     Quitclaim
Description:    

By Walter de Frene to Robert le Blake, of Kemerford, of all those lands, etc. which Silvester Doynel lately held in Bourbach [Burbage] and which after the death of Patrick de Frene his brother late rector of Yatesbury church should descend to him.
 

Witn. Geoffrey de Casterton, John Blount, Ralph fil. Nichole, etc.
 

Dated, Calne, Vig. of St. Barnabas [10 June] 38 Edw. III [1364].
Date:     1364 

This record from 1364 clearly links the Blake family at Quemberford with the Blake family at Burbage at least in the extent that Robert le Blake now holds by quitclaim property in Burbage. 

The time lengths though are rather long even between 1364 and the latter part of the 1500s when Richard Blake and his wife Joan are baptizing children at Burbage. But property, passed by will or simply by the Court Leet, may not have any references over a time period it appears although the Court Leet records may contain such references access is limited for a person living in Canada and being nearly 77 I am unlikely to travel back to Swindon and Wiltshire Record Office. So I leave this thought with future researchers to help link these Blake families and discover more about the origins of the Blake families of the British Isles. 

I will continue looking at the Burbage records and then into the records at Calne to study the early records of the Blake family there. But these records begin, at the earliest, 1538 and do not usually have a route back into the 1400s and 1300s where we really need the information. 

Heavy rain today and it is so welcomed. The land is so dry this year and moisture is greatly needed. It is meant to keep up until the afternoon and then somewhat more scattered which will be welcomed by Mother Earth for sure. We have cracks in our yard from the dryness (pretty typical of a clay soil) and the grass is struggling to survive against the weeds that I am not digging out in particular dandelions. The bees need those dandelions and I actually like the lovely little yellow flowers!

Prayers for Ukraine as always. Sad that they could not celebrate their National Day because of fear of Russian bombs. Russia should look to other countries that have fought for their freedom and how they dealt with the invading country. Time is on the side of Ukraine as the peoples of Ukraine come to terms with what must be lost in order to win this battle against the Nazi Putin and his enablers. Everything he says is basically a repeat of Hitler's playbook. Threats. Threats! and land stealing. All the time blaming everyone else for his having to do that.