Wiltshire Subsidies

 I will spend a little time looking to see where I might see the Wiltshire Subsidies online. I bought the Subsidies for Devon and Somerset and have them on a CD but Wiltshire never was a place where I was going to do intense research at the time I was purchasing my now a couple of hundred CDs of genealogical material. 

First stop was the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre which is an excellent website. A search on subsidies revealed twenty one items. Most are fairly modern and I am looking for something in the 1200s, 1300s, 1400s and 1500s. A search on Blake yields 368 results. The Advanced Search does have a date but a date range does not appear to work which would be handy. Searches combining Blake with Calne or Quem[b]erford or Pinhills also are not helpful. It is possible to display 100 searches at a time which is helpful to look at the dates. 

Reference    9/6/27
Level    Item
Title    Left hand indenture of final concord, made in the King's Court in Westminster the Quindene of Easter, 26 Edward III, and afterwards in the Octave of St. John the Baptist in the same year. (1) Robert Blake and Joan his wife, plaintiffs, (2) Robert de Bilkenor, Kt., and Anastasia, his wife, deforciants. Four messuages, 1 carcucate and 3 virgates of land in Burbage. Robert de Bilkenor and Anastasia have granted to Robert Blake and Joan, 2 messuages and 2½ virgates of land of the said premises, and have given them back to them in the same Court, to hold for their lives, rendering annually 1 rose. And also Robert de Bilkenor and Anastasia have granted that one messuage and the said carucate of land which Richard Spryngehose and Margaret his wife held for their lives, and also one messuage and half a virgate which John Hobbecok' held for his life, and which, after the death of the said Richard, Margaret and John, should revert to Robert de Bilkenor and Anastasia, shall all remain with Robert Blake and Joan for the term of their lives. And after the death of said Robert and Joan all the above premises shall return to said Robert and Anastasia. Consideration 100 marks.
Date    Easter and Trinity Terms 1352

Reference    1300/33
Level    Item
Title    Quitclaim, Sir William Esturmy, to Robert Erleghe his kinsman, of all rights in lands, called Ringlonde, Welyngtones and Saff[es] [? Gyffardes] in Burbage. Witnesses Welter Beauchamp and Robert Shotesbroke, kts., William Darell, Robert Blake, Robert Selman, Richard Stopwelle, William Coventre.
Very fine armorial seal.
Date    1404

Reference    492/128
Level    Item
Title    Grant for two years of a rent of £4 from a tenement with shops in Castle Street, and a tenement in Scots Lane, Salisbury.
Parties: Robert Blake, William Waryn
Witnesses: Walter Nandre, then mayor of Salisbury, William Westbury, then bailiff, Robert Deverell, then one of the coroners, William Bowyer and William Fuyster, then constables, Walter Shirle, William Walter, John Nedler, Thomas Mason, draper, William Dovdyng [ or ?Dondyng], Stephen Edyngdon ‘and others’.
Date    11 Feb 1411

Reference    9/6/28
Level    Item
Title    Lease for 5 lives (1) Robert Blake (2) Thomas Underwode, Margery his wife, John Bailly, Katherine his wife and Thomas the son of said John and Katherine. Lands, tenements, meadows, etc., in Burbage. To hold to said leases for the term of their lives and of that of the longest liver of them. Rent: 5 marks. Witnesses: Robert Solma', William Fynamour, John Fynamour, William Wychampton', John Justyse. Given at Calne on Michaelmas Day, 1 Henry VI. Round, red seal, device with legend.
Date    29 September 1422

Reference    130/80/8.5
Level    Item
Title    John Blake, esq. of Nether Wallop, Hampshire.
[Refers to land in Calne.] {His will}
Date    1504

Reference    130/80/8.7
Level    Item
Title    Roger Blake of Calne.
Date    1557 {His will}

Reference    814/1
Level    Item
Title    Ten deeds relating to a house called Beaks and land and common rights in Sutton Veny and Tytherington.
Parties: Grove, Mayowe, Mayhew, Daniell, Holloway, Blake, Long, Keen, Exton.
Date    1563-1687

Reference    1369/4/19/4
Level    Item
Title    Leases for lives of land in the common fields of Chilhampton, South Newton.
Parties: Morgan, Blake, Eyre.
Date    1567-1597

Reference    473/100
Level    Item
Title    Deed relating to property in Calne.
Parties: Blake, Symons, Wear als. Brown.
Date    1574

Reference    546/75
Level    Item
Title    Deed relating to property in Calne. Parties: Blake, Forman, Swaddon.
Date    1596

Reference    9/6/5
Level    Item
Title    Feoffment (1) William, Lord Sandys, (2) Edward, Earl of Hertford. Wood or coppice called Mottesfounte Coppice (22 a.) in the parish of Burbage between the fence of the said Earl's park calles Brimslade Park on the east, the Earl's land called Lyehill on the north, closes of pasture and arable land called Mottesfountes lately belonging to the said Lord Sandys on the east, and a close of meadow of the Earl's called Iwoodes Meadow on the south. Attorneys for livery of seisin: Edmund Pyke, gent., and Edmund Blake. Endorsed with livery of seisin.
Date    6 May 1599
Physical Description    <PHYSDESC LABEL="Physical Characteristics" ENCODINGANALOG="344"><PHYSFACET>Practically all seal has been lost.</PHYSFACET>
</PHYSDESC>


Reference    546/81
Level    Item
Title    Deed relating to property in Calne. Parties: Blake, Forman, Gye.
Date    1611
Physical Description    Damaged.

Twelve items in total and the most interesting part is the location which appears to be recorded within each entry. I have reordered them by year rather than by reference number. 

1352 - Burbage - Robert Blake and Joan his wife

1404 - Burbage - Robert Blake

1411 - Salisbury - Robert Blake

1422 - Burbage - Robert Blake

1504 - Calne (Pinhills) - John Blake (living at Nether Wallop, Hampshire and leaving Pinhills to his brother Robert Blake in his will)

1557 - Calne (Pinhills) - Roger Blake (his will)

1563 (-1687) - Sutton Veny/Tytherington - Blake

1567 (-1597) - Chilhampton, South Newton - Blake

1574 - Calne - Blake

1596 - Calne - Blake

1599 - Burbage - Edmund Blake

1611  - Calne - Blake

There are many sets of records held by the National Archives of the United Kingdom and to really look intensely at the Blake family in Wiltshire and surrounding counties it will really be necessary to examine as many of them as is possible. In this set we can see the Blake family at Burbage very early on by 1352. The records at Calne do not appear until the will of John Blake but possibly because the land passed from father to son without any discussion other than perhaps at the Courts held by the Lords of the Manor. 

 

The item in 1411 at Salisbury is rather interesting. The Blake family (found later at South Newton as well) is located there in 1567 and the Blake wills do show this family quite well. The Sutton Veny/Tytherington reference is a bit of an outlier in that it is closer to the Somerset border than I might have expected although not that far from South Newton (23 km). I would need to look at the document to see how Blake was actually involved in the transaction.

The locations for Blake in Wiltshire are shown on the map below. 

 

The background is a free map found on the web. The placement of these villages/towns/cities is somewhat rough but one notes a clustering in the lower three and of interest Burbage is not far from where John Blake (will 1504) lived at Nether Wallop and there are a number of wills from the Blake family at Burbage. The distance from Calne to Burbage is large given the times but large movements in England did occur particularly if one owned a horse! But are we looking at the same Blake family or two different Blake families? I will leave that for the moment as my interest lies simply in looking at the marriages between Robert/Richard Blake and Anne Cole. 

I would like to look at the Cole family for a moment as they lived in Devon according to the online material. Anne's father was said to be William Cole according to the various charts already introduced. The wikitree that I mentioned earlier gives her place of birth as Coleton, Chulmleigh, Devon, England. I am a bit suspicious of this information as Richard Blake appears to be the individual who married Anne Cole according to the College of Arms and the Blake Museum. However, on to the Cole family since the coat of arms of the Coles family has been combined with the Blake Coat of Arms on the College of Arms Chart. Finally located a coat of arms which does include the bull within a border but has half as many of the gold bullets but that is perhaps being a little too precise and a commercial entity may have decided the other looked too busy. Of interest the Cole family held the manor of Coleton in Chulmleigh as the earliest recorded ownership and remained in the possession of that family until the reign of King Richard II (1377-1399) when it passed by inheritance to the Bury family. Thus far it is shown that Anne Cole as the daughter of William Cole, Lord of the Manor of Coleton, does exist and the records show that the combined coat of arms created at her marriage to Richard Blake resembles the Blake and Cole coat of arms. The Manor appears to be in the possession of the Cole family at the likely time of her marriage to Richard Blake as that occurs within the time frame of Edward II-Edward II which precedes Richard II. It would be interesting to find some actual records other than the research trees of various people on Ancestry, Geni and Wikitree. Probably looking at the Manor Records might be helpful. The Domesday Book shows that Iudhael of Totnes held the land in 1086. I must subscribe to British History Online one of these days, perhaps this winter I will do that. Coleton is mentioned in the Close Rolls of Edward I. But for the moment, I believe I will publish what I have found in the Newsletter and let it go for the moment. That the Cole family held Coleton appears to be correct.