Today I plan to continue working on the phasing project as well as the Blake book. I want to transcribe the two documents that I bought. They both seem to be interesting but will they support my premise about the Blake family of Calne being descendant of Richard le Blak who is found on the Pipe Rolls in Wargrave (near Windsor) Berkshire in 1301 with his daughter Alice and possibly a son John. they are all living at Wargrave. There isn't a Robert le Blak listed but estimating his age in another blog came up with a birth after 1301. The coincidence of choosing a Richard le Blake at the top of the Blake Pedigree Chart created by the Daniel Blake family of London in 1690 with additions into the 1700s is interesting. The success of this family in the 1300s not surprising for a family of Norman origin and Richard le Blak had requested a market permit in 1274 whilst living in Rouen, Normandy. Was there another Blake family that could be the Calne Blake family in this area. It does not appear so by the records. The wills of the Blake family I have transcribed from the Wiltshire Archives and they include:
Agnes Blake 1563 (Martin, widow of William Blake d 1545, their son William Blake)
Alice Blake 1566 (widow of Thomas Blake 1550, South Newton)
Elizabeth Blake 1583 (Marten, widow of John Blake 1582)
John Blake 1538 (Deverill Longbridge (near Warminster))
John Blake 1546 (South Newton)
John Blake 1554 (South Newton, brother to John Blake 1546, John Blake the elder and John Blake the younger mentioned in will)
John Blake 1572 (South Newton, son of John Blake 1546?)
John Blake 1574 (Erlestoke, brothers Robert and John)
John Blake 1582 (Martyn, widow Elizabeth 1583, son of William and Agnes)
Richard Blake 1572 (Playtford, brother to Thomas and Nycholas)
Roger Blake 1557 (Pinhills, Calne, married to Mary 1570, Robert
Stephan Blake 1564 (Warminster, brothers Nicholas and John)
Thomas Blake 1550 (South Newton, his widow Alice left her will in 1566)
Thomas Blake 1565 (Playtford, brother Richard and Nycholas)
Thomas Blake 1573 (West Lavington, brothers Robert Blake and John Blake)
Thomas Blake 1584 (Warminster, Thomas and William are brothers)
William Blake 1538 (Warminster, father of Stephan)
William Blake 1545 (Martin/Marten, wife Agnes Blake d 1563)
Mary Blake 1570 (Pinhills, Calne, widow of Roger Blake)
My blogs on these wills discuss the different lines (none of these places are that far from Calne) but are they all related? This is already two hundred years after Robert le Blake is found as a juror at Hungerford in 1338 on an Inquisition Postmortem.
So on to the two documents which are both from the 1300s. I do trust the Pedigree Chart to a certain extent when it is discussing Robert Blake and Avis (Wallop) (Malewyn) Blake grandparents of Roger Blake above at Pinhills. That locates the family back into the 1400s. Various items that look at the business dealings between Robert le Blake and the Malewyn family in the 1300s/1400s are perhaps the linkage that helps to connect but time will tell on that.
Robert Dale (Richmond Herald (appointed in 1721)) at the College of Arms in 1693 commented on the Blake family of Quemberford (reproduced in the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, Volume 9 (Pages 223-224) published in 1866 and available on the Internet.Archive.org website:
http://archive.org/details/wiltshirearchaeo09arch
A Robert Dale is quoted by Clarence Hopper:
His notes on the Blague/Blake/Blaake family
Dorsetshire, 27. Blague, alias Blaake, now [Thomas] Blake of Quemberford [Quemerford], Calne and Pynhills - 1st, arg. a chevron between 3 garbs, sab. (this is the usual arms associated with the Blake family [at Calne]). 2nd, arg. on a pile, az. 3 martlets, sil. both by this name. Crest on a chapeau, gu. turned up erm. a martlet, arg. Kent 83.
Blague of Lacock, a second branch from Quemberford. Kent 83
Blague of Hilcot, a third house from Calne. Kent 83
This fits in with the Visitation of 1565 which states that Roger Blake and Mary Baynard had three sons - Thomas at Pynnell, Robert at Lacock and John at Hilcott which matches the information found in the Wiltshire Arms and Descents article mentioned above.
Roger's father was Robert Blake married to Margaret (Englefield) and this Robert was a known son of Robert Blake and Avis (Wallop) (Malewyn) Blake. Avis Blake's Inquisition Postmorten in 1474/1475 (C 140/48/6) helps to date this family as her youngest son John was at Least 40 years of age or more. This brings the known Blake line back closer to the beginning of the 1400s. More on this as Robert Blake husband of Avis had a Fulling Mill and there is a record in 1416 that refers to that. What needs to be determined is can we relate the John Blake (Parliamentary Archives) to this Robert Blake both listed as of Quemberford in this early part of the 1400s? Time will tell and I must do Yoga and breakfast. The morning is evaporating even for this early riser.
My only thought on the economy is diversification of our trading partners especially other Canadian provinces (eliminate the barriers). Plus we need to encourage our local industries once again as they have been lost during NAFTA/CUSMA - it is hard for a country that is so much smaller to compete against much larger companies - buy Canadian is the slogan. An American company operating here yes we buy; it needs to be made here by Canadian workers. Our unemployment at 6.7% is too high and we need to get our youth who have been trained in the trades back to work. This is good work and good money and it requires all the skills and much better talent for sure than any office job. Plus it is much healthier for our young not to be sitting in an office all day. There is money to be made in the trades. Don't create a company and then sell it to the American competition; keep it in the family and always Canadian! But that being said we have enjoyed items that came to us because of NAFTA/CUSMA but we need to protect Canadian industry as much as the Americans protect their industry. A closer economic union as Premier Ford has suggested is interesting and we can look at it.
As far as our border goes I doubt that anything can squeak across without being spotted against the white snow. Plus it is freezing cold up here (minus 23 degrees celsius at 7:00 a.m. in the city) and not much survives out in that cold on foot. Even the animals have hibernated underground or they went south - they do not need passports!
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