Will of Edward Blake possibly Charlton, Hampshire - The National Archives PROB 11/336/444, probated 17 Jul 1671

An interesting will which I have placed into Hampshire as it does not have a location in the index at The National Archives. This is the will of Edward Blake and his properties include parcels at Charlton, Andover, Wildherne and Hatherden as well as Knights Enham.

Edward is married to Abigail and he mentions her children so was perhaps her second marriage although it would appear that her brother is John Hayes and she Abigail Hayes from documents below. He names his sons as Edward and James and his daughter as Elizabeth. His will is not witnessed but appears, by the probatum, to be verified by a Robert Blake and John Hayes. I am still learning latin but have taken the time, in this case, to also transcribe fully the probatum and publish it. I usually do make an attempt at transcription but do not generally publish it. Eventually, when I put these will transcriptions up on internet archive I will be adding the probatum and perhaps also go back and add it to my wills in the blog. The blog is such a flexible tool for me and often I will go back in later in the day or even days later and make adjustments if I suddenly notice something amiss.

I have transcribed the Andover Parish Register from the beginning to about 1757 for baptisms, marriages and burials. Eventually I want to do the entire register but for the moment Abbots Ann is my transcription project (and it is not moving very quickly but hopefully with the quieter times ahead I can get back to it).

There is an Edward Blake baptizing children at Andover (no wife’s name given).

John Blake baptized 19 Sep 1630 (Edward is of Foxcot)
Peeter Blake baptized 25 Jun 1632
Mary Blake baptized 19 Mar 1633 (Edward is of Foxcot)

There was an Edward Blake of Charlton buried 15 Mar 1653.

There are no parish registers listed for Charlton and most often entries are found in the Andover parish registers for Charlton and Wildhern.

Looking at the Hampshire Record Office Reference No 11M56/100 and this is a settlement on the marriage of Edward Blake and Abigail Hayes: conveyance to trustees of messuage and lands in Knight’s Enham 29 Apr 1663.

A second document 37M85/19/OT/19 at the Hampshire Records Office also dated 1663 concerns Knights Enham: lease for capital messuage called Court Garden in Knights Enham; lands called Hillmarsh alias Upper Hill Marsh Field and Lower Hillmarsh and 90 acres; 55 acres in Knights Enham with the description of the two parties: 1. Edward Blake of Knights Enham, gent and 2. James Hayes of Lincolns Inn esq; John Humphrey of St Albans, Hertfordshire, clerk; Francis Blake of St Pauls, Covent Garden, Middlesex, esq; Robert Blake, gent, brother of Edward Blake.

There is an Inventory for Edward Blake of Kings Enham, Andover from 1644 1644AD/02 which may prove to be interesting in the future working on this particular Blake line. A second item Probate inventory and renunciation of Edward Blake of Charlton, Andover, Hampshire, yeoman dated 1654 1654PC/05 will also be interesting.

These documents tell me that Edward Blake had a brother Robert Blake and interestingly enough Francis Blake of St Pauls Covent Garden is also mentioned (he is descendant of another Blake line at Eastontown near Andover). This Edward Blake is listed as being of Knights Enham. That would tend to make me think he is a descendant of Robert Blake whose will was blogged earlier:

http://kippeeb.blogspot.ca/2014/01/will-of-robert-blake-enham-near-andover.html

One of Robert’s grandsons Nicholas Blake (son of John the younger) lived at Charlton and he had a son Edward was who born circa 1586 and is the Edward buried at Andover in 1653. There was also a John Blake at Charlton whose will was probated in 1625 and that is to come. It may be possible to sort this Edward out later.

Transcriber: Elizabeth Kipp
Recorded: 5 Jan 2014
Source: The National Archives PROB/11/336/444
Testator: Edward Blake
Place: possibly Charlton, Hampshire, England
Type of Record: Will
Date of document: 28 Jun 1670, probated 17 Jul 1671
Condition: 17th century English, legible copy

[Margin]: T[esta]m[ent] Edwardi
[Margin]: Blake

1    The 28th of June 1670
2    I Give and bequeath to my
3    sonne Edward and his heires for ever Court garden and all the land belonging
4    to it I give and bequeath to my sonne James Hillmarsh and my acre and halfe
5    that which leads to it with the appurtenances to it and my two meads which
6    lies in Charlton and joined to Hillmarsh and to his heires for ever Alsoe I
7    give to my sonne Edward Cambers Bilgrove Giffords Goldings Coppice my
8    land in Andover Wildherne and Hatherden and all the rest of my lands with
9    the appurtenances and to his heires for ever except 30 l and out of it to be paid
10    to his brother James dureing his mother’s life I give and bequeath to my daughter
11    Elizabeth to be paid out of my goods and chatles 500 l I doe appoint my deare
12    wife to be my whole Executor And all the rest of my goods and chattles I give
13    to my wife and her children equally to be devided In witnesse hereof I have
14    sett my hand Edward Blake
15    Probatum fuit hujusmodi Testamentum apud cedes Exonienses
16    scituat in Le Strand in Com Midds Coram venerabili et egregio viro Domino
17    Leolino Jenkins milite Legum Doctore Curie Prerogative Cant[auriensis] Magistro
18    Custode sive Commissario legitime constituto decimo Septimo die mensis Julij
19    Anno d[omi]ni Millesimo Sexcentesimo Septiagesimo primo Juramento Abigaelis
20    Blake relicta dicti defuncti et Executricis in eodem Testamento nominat Cui
21    commissa fuit Administratio omnium et singulorum bonoru[m] juriu[m] et creditoru[m]
22    dicti defuncti de bene et fideliter administrand ead[em] ad sancta dei Evangelia (vigor
23    Commissionis) Jurat Johannes Hayes et Robertus Blake Testes etiam Jurat

Will of Nicholas Blake - National Archives, PROB 11/31/549, probated 20 Jun 1547

The will of Nic[h]olas Blake was written 31 May 1547 and probated 20 Jun 1547. I had forgotten that Nicholas mentions Robert Boswell and again this links with the will of William Blake of Speen in 1552 as Robert Boswell is his father in law whom he makes executor of his will. Now is this the same Robert Boswell? Always that question comes first to mind. He would appear to be the tenant of Nicholas and as I read through William's will I am seeing now that William Blake does hold the lease of the tenements that William Blake of Speen occupies but it appears that William also tills that piece of land. A mite confusing as you look at it and again the will of William Blake at Speen in 1552:

http://kippeeb.blogspot.ca/2012/05/will-of-william-blake-yeoman-of-speen.html

I still wonder if they are related but is this perhaps the answer to the mystery? No, the children of William Blake of Speen do not match the children on the Blake Pedigree Chart. William Blake at Speen's siblings however are Richard and John with no mention of a sister in his will (on the chart the children of William Blake married to Avis Ripley are John, William and Peter with a sister Agnes married to Roger Hyde). So this is not that family either. The children of William Blake of Speen are Anthony and others unnamed (perhaps only one other) and his wife was Ellyne. The date of William Blake of Speen's will is 1552 not 1582 as in the Pedigree Chart.

Nicholas names his wife Margaret and as of this date I have no ideas on her surname. He names his children as William Blake eldest, Edmund Blake under 21 years of age, Alice Goodwyn (married daughter) and Elizabeth unmarried. William is married and they have children as the inheritance of his daughters if they die before inheriting is to be divided up amongst the children of William. We can see the property in this will which has passed to William and mentioned in William's will of yesterday. William has added greatly to his holdings and again Lord Sandy is the Lord of the Manor. The holdings are all in Andover, Knights Enham and Kings Enham in Nicholas' will. William Blake is the first to state that he lives at Eastontown.

Working backwards from Peter Blake's will to William Blake's will to Nicholas Blake's will and then tomorrow to Jone Blake's will is an interesting trip through time. I am beginning to wonder about Peter Blake's will and whether I am dealing with these two William Blake lines with his will and then the other three (Jone-Nicholas-William) that fit together. On the other hand Peter Blake in his will does not mention any of the properties that the Jone Blake-Nicholas Blake-William Blake family hold. What he does mention is his kinsmen William Hinxman of Hatherden, Mr. Nicholas Blake of Gavelacre and Mr. Richard Blake his brother and their sister Mrs. Jone Blake. I need to think about these three people and exactly who they are and how they fit into the Blake family at Andover. It could be the clue that I have been struggling to find to solve the mystery of the two William Blakes at Eastontown (or one married twice).

One thing I do know and that is the William Blake who dies in 1642 leaving his will (married to Dorothy Madgwick) is in financial trouble and this trouble becomes even more evident in Dorothy's will. Then we see their now eldest son William (his brother Richard died in 1648) selling off property in particular to Mr. Nicholas Blake of Gavelacre. No relationship is stated in that particular indenture although we know that that William Blake is the grandson of Richard Blake the lynen draper as the indenture states that. Tying that family together from Richard Blake to William Blake to William Blake has been fairly straightforward. The question is, to my mind, is Charlou Dolan right in saying that Richard is the son of William Blake and Anne Tutt? This would then bring them into the Pedigree Chart and definitely William Blake is the son of Nicholas not Roger Blake and Mary Baynard. The marriage between William Blake (Charlou has this William as a son of the son of William Blake) and Anne Tutt is on the Pedigree Chart and does perhaps help to define these two families as being separate William Blake lines at Eastontown. The timing is simply not right for Richard Blake lynen draper who died in 1622 to be a son of William Blake and Anne Tutt as their grandfather on the chart (Roger Blake married Mary Baynard). Plus the will of the son of William (of Eastontown) does list the properties from his father's will that he inherited and he married Margaret Hibberd). It was the son of this William that was to have married Anne Tutt! It is perhaps time to revisit some of these Wiltshire wills that I have not yet transcribed but probably that is going to wait for the alphabetical walk through the wills and I am only at Hampshire.

The will of Jone Blake tomorrow will complete the cycle back and I will move on to the next will in line which is for the Blake family at Christchurch.

Transcriber: Elizabeth Kipp
Recorded: 6th May 2009
Source: The National Archives, PROB 11/31/549
Name of Testator: Nic[h]olas Blake
Place: Enham (near Andover), Hampshire, England
Type of Record: Will
Dated: 31 May 1547, probated 20 Jun 1547
Read: Electronic copy
Condition: scan, old English writing good, contrast excellent

[Left hand corner] Test[at]or Nicho[las] Blake

1    In the name of God amen In the yere of our Lord god a Thousand fyve hundred
2    Fourtie and sevyn and the last day of May I Nicolas Blake of the p[ar]ishe of Enh[a]m in the Dioc[ese] of Wynchest[e]r
3    being sicke of body but of good and p[er]fite remembrance make and ordeyn this my last will and testament
4    in maner and fourme folowing First I Bequith my soule to almightie god to oure Blessed Lady and to all the
5    Blessed company of heaven. And my body to be buried w[i]t[h]in the Church of Saint Michaell Th[e ]archangell Item
6    I geve to the Trinite Church of Wynchester vj d Item I geve to the church of Andever oon quarter of whete
7    It[e]m I give to Enh[a]m Church a quarter of wheat Item I geve and bequeth to Will[ia]m Blake my eldest sonne
8    the halfe of the Farme of Andever of my Lord Sandys holding which Robert Boswell occupyeth Also I geve
9    and bequeth to the said Will[ia]m the Tenement in Kings Enham of my Lord Sandys holding w[i]t[h] all the La[m]mes
10    lande lying in Andever feld that the said William nowe occupieth and holdith Also I geve to the said Will[ia]m
11    Blake my sonne my Leasse of the Tenement of the Lord Sandys called the olde hall w[i]t[h] all the app[ur]ten[an]cs ther unto
12    belonginge or lying in Knyghts Enh[a]m Also I geve to the said William Blake my free holde in Knyights Enh[a]m w[i]t[h] all
13    the appurten[an]cs there unto belonging Item I geve and bequeth to Edmund Blake my sonne the Leasse of the
14    Farme of Andever called Semers Farme w[i]t[h] all the appurten[an]cs ther[e ]unto belonging and walworth of my
15    Lord Sandys holding And a leasse of a Tenement in Kyngs Enh[a]m which is John Catts gentilman holde w[i]t[h]
16    all the appurten[an]cs ther[e ]unto belonging Also I geve to the said Edmund my sonne my freeholde in Andever
17    with seven acres and a half of arable land that Thomas Wescombe now holdeth with all the rest of myn[e]
18    erable lands grains pastures and com[m]ons of pastures of what nature kynde name and degre soever they be
19    which I do holde and kepe of any man[ner] at the making of this my last wille and testament Also I wille that
20    the forsaid Thomas Wescombe shal[l ]have the forsaid house that he dwelleth in for the terms of thurtie yeres
21    next folowing paying yerely therfor and to agree w[i]t[h] Margaret Blake my wife and Edmund Blake my son[ne]
22    Item I geve to Elizabeth Blake my daughter one hundreth of shepe and Twentie poundes of money at the day of
23    her mariage and her apparill. Item I give and bequeth to Alice my daughter twentie shepe and fyve quarters of
24    barley to be delivered at Michelmas next commyng Item I give to Sir Thomas Upton my curate to pray for my soule
25    and all Christ[ai]n soules x s. Also yf that it fortune Edmund Blake my sonne to dye before he be of lawfull age Then I wille
26    that my freholde w[i]t[h] all the other leases geven and bequethed by me to the said Edmond to remayn to William Blake
27    my sonne his heires and assignes And the goods to remayne to Alice Goodwyn and Elizabeth Blake my daughters equally
28    to be devided betwixt them And if it fortune the said Alice and Elizabeth to dye Then I will the said goodes to be devided
29    betwene the children of William Blake my son Provided also I will that Margaret Blake my wife shall have and
30    kepe all my free landes tenements holds leases with all th[e ]appurtenancs to them belonging which I doe holde of any man[ne]r
31    of man[ner] at the making of this my last will and testament during the terme of her life The residue of my goods and
32    c[h]attalls not gevyn or bequethed I geve and bequeth to Margaret Blake my wife and Edmunde Blake my sonne
33    whom I make and ordeyn myn executors of this my last will and testament Also I make and ordeyn William
34    Hopkins and Willi[a]m Aldred my Overseers of this my last will and testament for to se it p[er]formed according to
35    my mynde above specified Witnesse to this Sir Thomas Upton Curate Stevyn Smyth Will[ia]m Blake w[i]t[h] other
36         Probatum fuit test[ament]um suprascripti defuncti h[ab]entis etc xxth die mensis Juinij Anno D[o]m[in]o Mill[es]imo quingen[tesimo]
37    xlvij [1547] Coram d[o]m[in]o apud London aucto[ritate] d[o]m[in]o n[ost]ri Regis etc Iurament[o] Margarete Relicte executoris in h[uius]mo[d]i test[ament]o no[m]i[n]at[i] In persona
38    Stephe[n] Smyth procur[atoris] sui in hac p[ar]te Ac approbatum et insinuatum Com[m]issa fuit admi[ni]stracio o[mn]i[u]m et singulorom bonorum Jurium
39    Et creditorum d[i]c[t]i defuncti prefat[o] executrici In p[er]sona die proc[urato]ris De b[e]n[e] et fidel[ite]r admi[ni]strando Ac de pleno et fideli In[venta]rio secondo die post
40    festum s[an]c[t]e Anne prox[imum] futur[um] exhibend[o] necnon de plano et vero compoto reddend[o] Ad s[an]c[t]a dei Ev[a]ngelia in debit iuris forma jurat
41    Reservata po[tes]tate Edmund Blake executori etiam in h[uius]mo[d]i test[ament]o no[m]i[n]at cum venerit etc

Penton Mewsey Transcription Complete

Amazingly I have completed Penton Mewsey up to 1812 (I do not have the fiche for the later years). In total I only have five fiche for this parish. Baptisms 1064 but this includes a duplication as the priest in the early 1700s decided to rewrite the earlier register (good of him actually as his was easier to read but I did a new transcription to compare with the original since it became a secondary source automatically. The duplication is 157 although the priest captured a few that I could not read readily. We will see what the end tally is when I proofread and send the copy into the OPC Hampshire site. I will not include the duplication I do not think but rather a transcription that combines the two sets of data. Marriages 229 with 33 duplications but again I must check and see if he found material that wasn't in the original register. There is the occasional note that says items had been missed and they were inserted several years (or even 20) later. Burials 751 with 121 duplications to be checked against the original entries.

There were 29 heads of household on the Hearth Tax list of 1665. This is a parish in the lower division of the hundred of Andover and lies 3 miles north west of the town of Andover. The Church is Holy Trinity Penton Mewsey Parish. The area was rural and agricultural and continues to be that to this day. As I moved through the centuries, the original names continued in the village but I recognized names from Andover marrying into this village. There were, however, some entirely new names as well. Perhaps the local manor houses reflect the names that come from further away - London, etc.

According to Wikipedia, the village consists of about 110 dwellings and a population of 400 people. Working with 29 heads of household and a family size of 5 in 1665 one might expect the population to have been about 150. The census of 1841 lists 250 people at Penton Mewsey. The census of 1851 lists 211 people at Penton Mewsey. The census of 1861 lists 287 people at Penton Mewsey. The census of 1871 lists 344 people at Penton Mewsey. The census of 1881 lists 377 people at Penton Mewsey. The census of 1891 lists 280 people at Penton Mewsey. The census of 1901 lists 227 people at Penton Mewsey. I used the enumerator book and came up with only 100 people on the 1911 which doesn't seem quite right. I would need to determine if Foxcott, Weyhill and Hatherden were always included within Penton Mewsey in these census. They were separate places on the 1665 Hearth Tax Assessment. The 400 now listed perhaps reflects Penton Mewsey becoming a "commuter" town as Hampshire becomes the Technological Centre of England. Between 1665 and 1841 there appears to be an increase from about 150 to 250.

Penton Mewsey did not give me support for my hypothesis of a couple of days ago which was that Robert Blake and Elizabeth Russell Blake were baptizing children there in the absent years from Andover 1703 to 1710. The 1710 baptism of Sacheverell Blake as the son of Robert was very welcome news but the 1714 baptism of John is coincidental with the baptism of a child of theirs at Andover. Back to the thinking board but will not let the Robert Blake/Elizabeth Russell marriage slip away because the children fit nicely into the John Blake will that is my linchpin for all of the discussion on the Charles Blake family with respect to my own at Upper Clatford.

Who is the Robert Blake at Penton Mewsey? There is a large Blake family - John Blake and Sarah Towler who married at Quarley baptize all their children there and their sons continue to do so and even grandsons (possibly this is the Blake family that continues to live there to this day). I wish I could persuade them to test their yDNA to see if there was a mixture of Blake families at Andover. The name Blake occurs as Blague, Blaake, and Blake. It is always possible that indeed there was more than one grouping of people who ended up using the name Blake at Andover. The two Blake lines at Andover though intermarried and their descendant will one day sit on the throne of England (Prince William son of Diana, Princess of Wales). The Pedigree Chart at the Swindon and Wiltshire Record Office clearly shows this relationship although I am still puzzled by the marriage between William Blake and Avis Ripley and that this William is a son of Roger Blake and Mary Baynard. The extant visitation does not list him, the will of Roger Blake lists only his eldest son and youngest daughter but it was prepared by the College of Arms. I expect that we will see more information on Williams' line in the years to come.

Once I have proofread Penton Mewsey then I shall move on to Upper Clatford as being my next place to transcribe. I have only extracted my own family information from this parish back to Joseph Blake and Joanna King marrying in 1757 at Upper Clatford. I have glanced at the King family there to a certain extent trying to put the King families together there somewhat successfully. It is time now to look at the beginning of the registers as there was a Blake family there earlier and I think I need to know more about that family. They were there in the 1600s but had disappeared from Upper Clatford by the early 1700s or perhaps earlier.

Blake and Buller Wills

I have started to work on the Blake Wills. But the first necessity was to sort all the material that I brought back from Kew. It included 604 images that I took and 286 wills that we downloaded. It seems like a lot but in actual fact many of the wills were only 15 lines or less including the Probatum. I wouldn't have purchased them from afar but getting to see them gives a better rounded picture of some of these elusive Blake families in particular. Although I think that my linkage from Thomas to his father John to his father William is reasonable, I would like to have another proof than parish records particularly since they lived at Andover where there were several Blake families and Blake families at Penton Mewsey, Abbotts Ann, Upper Clatford, Kimpton, Monxton, Hatherden, and a few other nearby villages. Mostly each of the family lines stayed in their particular villages but I need to be sure that I have the right line at least I feel that I need to be sure :)

I have transcribed four Blake wills that I knew would be interesting and they are. They establish the correctness of the Visitations for three generations and the mention of cousins may also be helpful once I have finished sorting them out. The wills do seem to prove that there were two distinct William Blake lines at Andover in the 1500s (one of my goals for my research at Kew). Since they mention each other in their wills it would appear that they are related although refered to as Kinsmen and I need to determine what is really meant by that term kinsmen. Is it a second cousin and on? That is the interpretation that I think is there but it could also be closer perhaps. The Blake family seems to use the term kinsman in their wills and I do not find the term in a lot of other wills that I have read. Perhaps it is frequent in the Hampshire/Wiltshire area where they lived.

As we collected the wills from Documents on Line we had prepared a framework to divide them into family lines which worked very well. My husband did all that for me along with the wills for his families - Abbs in particular. I imaged the wills that I was least interested in but the images have turned out very well. I had thought that I would just purchase them if I wanted them and I will probably still do that for the ones that are particularly helpful. It is nice to see them though although I have had absolutely no regrets in the 85 wills that I have purchased from the National Archives - they have all been helpful. But since we were there acquiring them in this fashion is most helpful to my research and I will let Blake researchers know who write to me that they would find particular wills helpful and they can then purchase them.

I imaged about 50 Buller wills from across England that I want to have a look at. I am brickwalled with Christopher Buller born in 1763 (place unknown) and this date is calculated backwards from his death registration in 1832 where his age is stated as 69 years. He died at the Workhouse Infirmary in Bermondsey and was buried at St Olave. Since he and his wife Mary Beard appeared to have attended St Mary Magdalen at Bermondsey as their children were all baptized there, I wonder at the significance of St Olave being the final resting place of their infant children buried in 1797 and 1807 respectively and his wife buried there in 1806 and Christopher himself buried there in 1832. Mary Beard's parents were buried at St Mary Magdalen. Unfortunately St Olave no longer exists and the burials were moved elsewhere. Christopher is a Slop seller/cutter (naval uniforms) and has his shop in the wharf area of Bermondsey on Tooley Street. We walked Tooley Street whilst we were in London and then traveled down Bermondsey Street and Long Lane where they lived. It was quite fascinating to do so. This area though is completely changed (bombed heavily during WWII) and the housing is 20th century for the most part.

The Church of St Mary Magdalen though still stands and we did visit. I must admit to being overwhelmed by its age although the people who attend her were most gracious in telling me about the Church and the upkeep being done. It has still the marble font where my 2x great grandfather Henry Buller would have been baptized (dates back to 1801) and a rather ancient structure called the Warden's box with its walls still intact and tables inside plus benches around the edge for tax collection and such I suspect plus meetings. I should have gone up in the balcony and really looked around but I found it sad to see that the Church needs so much work to restore it to its obvious stupendous glory. We went out and found that the cemetery was still out back and a sign saying that restoration work was in process. That was great to see and we wandered about the cemetery. I do not know if there ever were stones for the Beard family there. Elizabeth Hemsley (first wife of Henry Beard) was buried there in 1781 having been baptized there in 1744 and married there in 1766. Henry was buried there in 1795. These families are relatively new to me and I hope to discover more about them. Henry was a tanner living on Grange Road where many tanners lived. This parish had a sizeable congregation of tanners.

A lot of work ahead for me and we also want to label all of our pictures from the summer trip to the Maritimes and the fall trip to England and Europe (over 10,000 images).

We found Internet quite expensive in Europe and so did not publish to my blog whilst we were there - plus the days were so full and exhaustion sunk in quickly at night so that I was fast asleep not long after dinner. We did prepare a blog of our England/European trip which can be found on my husband's blog. We wrote that up every evening and put it on our Trafalgar Journal so that our families could see our process through London and then Europe.