Yesterday saw the cleaning completed and visions of the work week ahead. Today continues to be Blake; I will get back to Pincombe but my mind is very much on this month of Blake looking at the le Blak family of Berkshire found on the Pipe Rolls in 1301. Are they whom I think they are? Not sure; I have a theory that this family gradually moved towards Calne. Why did they chose Calne one might ask? By 1353 a Robert le Blake is at Quemerford with a land exchange between two individuals. Ref: 1720/148 (Discovery, Archives UK).
Searching on Blake in The History of Parliament website (https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/blake-john-i ) I found another interesting individual that I feel is helpful in this regard. John Blake of Winchester, Hampshire served in Parliament in 1388 and 1395. In the last couple of days I have mentioned the Blake family in this southern part of Hampshire. He was said to be a merchant in Winchester and later had a fulling mill at Priors Barton (part of modern day Winchester). There are a number of wills for the Blake family in this area and I think they are a separate group that one can see in the Blake yDNA study but refrain from actually putting a name to that group for the moment. But they do not match the possible Blake line at Calne. To date, no one descendant of the Blake line at Calne (with a proven line) has tested in the study. But if I am correct that this is the le Blak family of Wargrave, Berkshire found on the Pipe Rolls in 1301 and Richard le Blak on this roll possibly the Richard le Blak of Rouen, Normandy who received a patent to set up a market in England in 1274. The same History of Parliament website also has a write up on John Blake II representing Calne in 1415 (John Blake I, his father, is mentioned d 1395 and John Blake I was from also Calne and said to be a lawyer representing Calne in 1381, 1384 and 1385). John Blake II inherited family property in 1412 at Blacklands. This John does not appear on the Pedigree Charts for the Blake family and the History of Parliament website for Calne mentions that the John Blake II was the son of John Blake I and that likely Robert Blake was their kinsman. Looking at the list of Calne representatives on this page is this article referring to the Robert Blake who represented Calne in 1421; I suspect the answer is yes. The Blake Pedigree Charts do not list other than the eldest son it would appear. Since land passed father to eldest son; there were not enduring records from one generation to the next except locally. I did discuss this in my blog:
https://kippeeb.blogspot.com/2022/09/sorting-out-blake-records-at-calne.html
At the time of writing this article 28 Sep 2022 I did not come to any conclusion mostly because I think it comes down to place and ability to have been part of a family. Finding a Robert le Blake at Calne as early as 1334 though remains an interesting find and the reference 1720/120 on the Discovery (Archives UK) website and mentioned as item 16 in the above blog.
Time for yoga and breakfast. I will return to this interesting discussion. Looking again at the first image of the Blake Pedigree Chart created by the College of Arms in 1690 and the Blake Chart created in the mid 1800s:
The upper image is the original size but the lower image is cropped but both charts contain the similar time frame. The problem with the lower chart is the number of individuals between known material - there is not a sufficient time interval in the chart below between the top person in the chart Robert le Blake and the bottom person in the chart Robert Blake (married to Avis (Wallop) (Malewyn)). The top reference though to a Robert le Blake of Quemberford, Co. Silts named as juror in an Inq. Postmortem dated 22 Jan 1336 (found amongst deeds in the Hungerford Bar apparently) is interesting because it links Robert le Blake back to Hungerford which is very near the border with Berkshire. Was it that items of consequence were dealt with at Hungerford rather than Calne or Swinford for that matter? Or had he traveled back to Hungerford to deal with a family matter. Placing a Richard Blaque alias Blake as his son is very peculiar given that the earlier chart has Richard at the top.
I did write a blog which looked at all of the Robert le Blake records that I located at the various repositories and created a life chart of records for this individual in as much as I was able:
https://kippeeb.blogspot.com/2024/03/looking-at-first-six-generations-of.html
This blog dated 14 Mar 2024.
The link between this Robert and the Malewayn/Malewyn family is very interesting especially given that a descendant of this Robert married Avis Wallop widow of John Malewyn. But definitely I did conclude that Richard as a son of this Robert le Blake was not really possible. So returning to the thought that Robert is the son of Richard (unknown to whom he is married) but again the three generations down to Robert Blake married to Avice (Wallop) Malewyn is simply too short a time period even for very young marriages.
The link with a Grant to Joan widow of Robert Blake and John her son DD/WHb/2025 (South West Heritage Trust) I have related to this being the Robert Blake present at the Inq PM in Hungerford in 1336 as his then widow and a son John is even more interesting and is this John Blake I, member of parliament for Calne and the location of the grant in Echelhampton is very close to Calne. It is this collection of material on Robert le Blake/Robert Blake that gives me the thought that this line descends from Richard le Blak. Have I proven it? I have merely established a premise that is possible. More research into the records may well reveal whether this premise stands up to a further test of the records.
Having said that I will continue through this month into next month to attempt to establish more proof for this premise.
On to Latin and then back to this rather interesting acquisition of data.
I think I need to purchase DD/WHb/2025 from the South West Heritage Trust. The document 1720/120 is found on the UK Archives website and located at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre but Robert le Blake is only a witness so will not learn a great deal from reading that document. The document 1720/148 is very interesting and I will try to order a copy from the Swindon and Wiltshire Archive.
The Inquisition Postmortem at Hungerford might also be interesting but it does sound like it is a private collection. It simply gives more credence to the presence of Robert le Blake in Wiltshire quite early i.e. 1336. It generally takes a month or so for a document to come from the South West Heritage Trust although it is now a while since I ordered anything so can not be sure until I hear from them. In the meantime I need to review my chapter on the le Blak family and make some revisions. I actually do not want to go into much detail other than a possible line coming down from Richard le Blak with a rough time frame. When Robert Blake married to Avis (Wallop) Malewyn is reached then there are wills to help along the way. Plus some documentation from a very respected earlier scholar looking at the children of Robert and Avis Blake and their crests and subsequent lines.
That will be tomorrow's work I think I may just take a peak at the Pencombe book thus far written.
Mid-afternoon already; the days pass quickly.
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