Continuing to look at Robert Blake

 A beautiful Sunday and Church in a bit. Keeping to myself pretty much these days although everyday I am in conversation with my daughters. That is being 80 I think. Life is busy for them but they take minutes out of their day to be with me which is very kind of them. I appreciate it very much. Yesterday I wondered if I was getting a cold (I haven't had one in probably ten years of more) but I am wondering if I am using too many of my lemon (sugar-free) candies. My mouth was dry with the appliance that the dentist recommended so did that to keep the moisture level up. But I no longer use the appliance (I think I may have stopped grinding my teeth perhaps) and possibly I no longer need the lemon candies to a large extent. We will see how that goes. 

Yesterday I spent time looking for the gedcom that I uploaded to World Connect. Indeed I did find it but I added the wills and items after uploading I think perhaps as they do not show up in the gedcom file. Too bad but it was a long time ago and I was still on that learning curve for sure. It also resulted in my looking at the work of another Blake researcher who had linked back to Jone Blake who left her will in 1527 and was the mother of Robert, Nicholas and Elizabeth. Her line was going back to Robert and I never really thought about it at all but now I want to clarify all of this material. Unfortunately Charlou Dolan passed away in 2024 which I have only just realized. I am not the most frequent correspondent for sure but I do know she was somewhat suspicious of some of the connections and had done all that she was going to do a number of years ago as she moved to a different family. I do have all of her work and it is excellent. Nicholas was named in the will of Robert but not as a brother; he was a witness. However, Nicholas left his will in 1547 so thinking he was the brother of Nicholas sounds reasonable but at the time I was still a newbie when we were corresponding and I did not really think about Robert being anyone else at that time or even right up until yesterday. But is he the son of Robert Blake; that is really the question I think at this time. When I bought all of these wills from the Hampshire Record Office they had been probated in Winchester Diocese and were perhaps not available for purchase from afar (I purchased them around 2012 to 2014 I think). I could check that actually as I tend to keep receipts and things. The children mentioned by Robert who left his will in 1542 are named as such by Charlou. But these children are older than one would expect compared to the children of Nicholas although I need to really make some tables of all this information.

Nicholas, in his will, refers to the individuals who appear in the Berkshire Blake wills but this Robert does not in his will. I do have this theory about the Blake family in Berkshire being descendant of the le Blak family of Rouen, Normandy and eventually ending up in Calne as the founder Blake family there. Given their status I suspect that they were descendant of the Rouen family which had come to England in 1274 to setup a market. That one finds the le Blak family at Wargrave near Windsor is so very interesting and that they gradually moved to Calne fascinating actually (just  need to prove it beyond a doubt). Socially speaking the Blake family at Calne were at the "top of the ladder" so to speak in the 1300s and they continue at that social level through several centuries at least until the disagreement between the Blake family of Calne (refusing to accept a knighthood from King Charles I in the 1630s (need to check that date)) and they were basically chased off from the Calne area it appears for their refusal. Their manor house was demolished. 

But I digress. It does make sense that they are all related in this time period as there are not a lot of records for the Blake family in the Andover area this early (i.e. early 1500s) and the frequency of particular forenames does tend to give one the impression that this is one family. Looking at the Calendar of Patent Rolls for Blake between 1323 and 1452:

1323	Faxfleet	le	Blak	Simon	Hampshire		Edward II
1343	Westminster		Blake	Robert	Hampshire		Edward III
1352	Westminster	la	Blake	Alice	Hampshire		Edward III
1352	Westminster	le	Blake	Walter	Hampshire		Edward III
1352	Westminster	le	Blake	Henry	Hampshire		Edward III
1389	Clarendon Manor		Blake	John	Hampshire		Richard II
1389	Clarendon Manor		Blake	John	Hampshire		Richard II
1392	Windsor		Blake	Thomas	Hampshire		Richard II
1394	Westminster		Blake	John	Hampshire		Richard II
1402	Westminster		Blake	Andrew	Hampshire		Henry IV
1405	Westminster		Blake	John	Hampshire		Henry IV
1421	Westminster		Blake	John	Hampshire		Henry V
1452	Westminster		Blake	George	Hampshire			Henry VI

 The entries are rather interesting although do not in this list give the location in Hampshire but the presence of the le Blak in Hampshire most intriguing and the forenames of the family members also interesting. There are really not very many items in this list. As an aside the Le Blak family at Wargrave appears to move towards Hungerford and then Calne through the 1300s after they received the right to set up a market in England in 1274 (they were from Rouen, Normandy as mentioned). Robert, John, Thomas are all names seen in this Blake family at Andover. Alice la Blake is likely the daughter of Richard Le Blak (or a descendant) who applied for the license to set up a market. Alice la Blake is mentioned in the Pipe Rolls of 1301 at Wargrave. My thought is that she married into the family at Andover that then took on her surname as they did not have one which was pretty typical of the times in England at the end of the 1200s and into the 1300s. The advantages to  having a marriage between a Briton and a Norman are large for sure in that time frame. 

So more thinking and considering the work of Charlou as I know she did a great deal of research but she did not have all the original wills for this family at Andover as I received only points from these documents from her. I do believe this is all the same Blake family (the la Blake family would be associated by marriage rather than being related) but will continue considering how to fit them together. Richard Blake does identify one of his sons as Robert and another son appears to be Nichi on the will which I interpreted as Nicholas (a daughter is mentioned but not names (she was Elizabeth)). I will continue looking at the wills to ensure that I have gleaned everything from them that is helpful. 

Robert (he appears to spell his name as Blayke but I do not think he wrote the will himself as the writing in English at the bottom is not quite the same but I am not an expert for sure). Robert is the father of Richard who left his will in 1521 and he did name Thomas and Richard as his sons so it does make sense that Robert is the son of Richard since Richard mentions his eldest son Robert. But the ages of the children seem to be not quite as expected so need to review that. Nicholas' sons William and Edmund appear to be younger than the children of Robert although William did leave his will in 1582 (35 years after his father passed). I guess I am a knitpicker but perhaps we all benefit in the long run from the knitpicking!

Washing clothes now and then breakfast and Church. Somewhere in between I will do the Solitaire puzzles of the day. God is in the Heavens watching and waiting for us to do the right thing to have that uplifted plain of peace where all can live in happiness.