Beautiful sunrise but cold again

Only minus 14 degrees celsius at 7:30 a.m. this morning and we are promised a snowfall later today. The laneway all melted out so ready for the next deluge. Cleaning all accomplished yesterday and will finish today with just the basement to do. 

Continuing to solidfy the first three generations of Pencombe at North Molton/South Molton. It would be fascinating to know the surname of John Pencombe's son John's wife. Her first name was likely Emma but all else is lost to time perhaps although  the Manor Books for South Molton might be helpful. Since he is shown with Goods at 10 on the 1524-7 Subsidy and his son Christopher (who is likely a young child) with Goods at 5 his marriage must have been to an heiress. Perhaps it is significant that John Pencombe at South Molton was taxed in South Molton borough and his son Christopher was taxed in South Molton Parish. South Molton is a beautiful town with its beautiful facade on the main streets dating back to the days of wool merchants. We visited it in 2008. 

A little searching on the Discovery Catalogue at the National Archives of the United Kingdom reveals an item of interest in 1363/64 for a John Pencombe. Too early to be the Pencombe with Lord de la Zouche at North Molton but interesting to see that the name John was used by this Hertfordshire family.  I do not see any mention of a John Pencombe of Hertfordshire being investigated at the relevant time period before 1489 when he likely arrived at North Molton. The Manor Books of Pembroke Hertfordshire might provide more information. There is mention of John Pencombe and Thomas Pencombe in some of the records held by the National Archives. 

I tend to think this is a young person who has come to North Molton with Lord de la Zouch, likely as a page. He was protected for his devotion to Lord de la Zouch and brought with de la Zouch when he finally was released from being attainted and restored to some of his lands in 1489. Guessing age around 15 would make him old enough to marry by 1500 and the four children would have been born over a period from 1500 to 1520 perhaps since we find Thomas, next to the youngest possibly as his sister Margret Pencombe married in 1539 (Philip Kingdon 15 Nov 1539 at North Molton) when she would have been in her early 20s or older. Earning wages and found beside John Pencombe at North Molton one might think Thomas is in his teens in 1524 as the records were used from this year being the best preserved of the original documents. Interesting really and I must get into those early Pencombe documents that I photographed at Kew in 2010 and 2013. They are in latin and slowly my ability to manage improves - very slowly but perhaps sufficient to help me as I work through the early generations of this family. Interesting how the name evolved from Pencombe to Pyncomb(e) to Pincomb(e) and in the West Devon area around Bideford and Barnstaple to Pinkham. 

The question does remain though was there a distinct family named Pinkham in 1500 as we do find an outlier of this family with the name Philip Pynkeham at Tawstocke on the 1544 Subsidy with a worth of 8. By 1581 this is an Edward Pencombe at Tawstocke with Goods worth 5 at Tawstocke. By 1641the Protestation Returns do not list anyone in Fremington with the Pencombe etc surname. Moving forward to 1733 and the Freeholders Book at Fremington there isn't anyone with the surname Pencombe etc listed. If for what ever reason this family lost their land they would not appear in these early records other than the BMBs  of the parish which I shall have a look at in the Fremington Hundred and mostly at Tawstocke. I am unable to place Philip into the early family at this point in time so in the fourth generation he remains an outlier. Richard Pencombe at Bideford is, I suspect, a descendant of the North Molton line but I am at this time unable to assuredly place him into the family structure. However, I continue to forge ahead. 

Having reached this point I shall work on the autosomal DNA matches at Ancestry which have proven to be rather interesting given that I (along with my siblings and cousin) appear to have matches with a number of individuals who trace back in their trees to a Richard Pinkham of Dover Neck, New Hampshire. 

On to breakfast and the cleaning.

Blake Newsletter, Volume 4, Issue 2

Blake Newsletter

Table of Contents
1.    Family of Theophilus Blake (Susan Osborne)
2.    Blake family in Cornwall
3.    England’s Immigrant Database 1330-1550
4.    Blake Family of Galway
5.    Blake yDNA

1.    Family of Theophilus Blake submitted by Susan Osborne
Theophilus Blake (Bleak) is likely at least 20 years old when we find him and his wife, Margaret (thought to be Margaret Kennet) on indenture records in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Efforts to go beyond this point in his life to an earlier time and place have so far eluded all who have been researching this line.

Before we proceed with his story we first need to clear up a problem that exists with the research on his family line connections that began with our research and the research of several others in the early 1980’s when researchers incorrectly linked the line of Theophilus Blake of the Virginia’s to the parents of a family in Hampton, New Hampshire.

It begins with page 210 of a book that was written by Carleton E. Blake titled "Descendants of Jasper Blake, Emigrant from England, to Hampton, New Hampshire, ca. 1643, 1649-1979". The research on this family is printed in its entirety in this book in a section titled "The Descendants of Jasper Blake of Hampton, N.H." by Perley Derby, A Handwritten Manuscript dated 1879 on file at the Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts.

On page 210 of this book is documented the family of Samuel and Ann (Ceilly) Blake and their children who were living in Hampton, New Hampshire. In 1722, this couple gave birth to a son they named Theophilus Blake after Theophilus Cotton, the first minister of the First Congregational Church (Unitarian) of Hampton Falls (NH) that was organized in 1711. Theophilus' parents, Samuel and Ann (Cealy) Blake, were among the first petitioners and signers of the church covenant.

Samuel and Ann (Seally) Blake gave birth to 8 children. Only 2 of those children are known to have survived childhood, Samuel Blake, Jr and Thomas Blake and it is thought that their son named Theophilus did not live beyond childhood because nothing more is known of him.

On paper this APPEARS to be a perfect match for the family of our Theophilus Blake, but as recent yDNA tests have shown, the Theophilus Blake of Hampton, New Hampshire is from an entirely different family that shares the same surname of Blake and is not evenly closely related to the Theophilus Blake (Bleak) found on records in Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.

At the time of this writing, seven people representing the lines of descent of 4 of the children of Theophilus Blake (Bleak) of Bath County, Virginia have submitted yDNA tests at Family Tree DNA. The results of these tests are printed on a chart showing the results of others sharing the surname of Blake, including those who are descended from the family of the Blake’s of Hampton, New Hampshire.

These results are found at the following web link: https://www.familytreedna.com/public/blake/default.aspx?section=yresults . The results for the group of descendants of Theophilus Blake of Bath County, Virginia are listed in category C1, English Ancestry (2). The results are documented as having English ancestry although it is not currently known for sure if Theophilus immigrated from Northern Ireland, Scotland or England. The results of descent of those of the family lines of Hampton, New Hampshire are documented on this chart under F1 ENGLISH EAST ANGLIA (Norfolk) - INCLUDES BLAKES POSSIBLY DESCENDED FROM PETER BLAKE ..

2.    Blake Family in Cornwall
Late July of 2014 I decided to work on the family trees of the Blake families in Cornwall. Unfortunately an accident to my back somewhat cancelled this work until I began again early in 2015. I extracted material for the Blake family around Landrake but was not seeing a set of trees that I could work with readily. I decided to move to Bodmin Cornwall and work around that area and I am still involved with that extraction. I hope to start displaying the information that I have found on the Cornwall Blake families. The mode of the display is still in my thought process. I do have subscriptions to Ancestry, Find My Past and My Heritage plus there is the ability to put trees up on Family Search. I will likely put them up on all sites.

3.    England’s Immigrant Database 1330-1550 (http://www.englandsimmigrants.com/)
I see this particular set of documents from which the above database was constructed as perhaps the most meaningful for Blake research since I came across the Calendar of Patent Rolls a while ago. This new set of documents (blogged: http://kippeeb.blogspot.ca/2015/02/englands-immigrants-database-1330-1550.html) revealed a set of immigrants to England with the surname Blake in the time period mentioned. There appears to be 31 unique individuals but I still need to work on that material. They have come from Continental Europe and Ireland. They are found in various places in England (see blog). It was a John Blake who settled at Bodmin Cornwall before 16 Feb 1525. The parish registers begin early in Bodmin (marriages 1559, baptisms 1558, and burials 1558). An interesting time ahead with this database.

4.    Blake Family of Galway
Finding in the Immigrants Database (above) a Richard Blake coming from Ireland to Salisbury, Wiltshire by 10 Jul 1440 was stunning to say the least. I felt compelled to finally begin a task I have thought about for a number of years. The extraction of the information that Marin J Blake published in his books on the Galway Blake family. At this time of writing I have now entered into Legacy Software the entire set of genealogical charts from Blake Family Records 1300 to 1600 A Chronological Catalogue with Copious Notes and Genealogies of many branches of the Blake Family which was published in London in 1902 by Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row, E.C. I now must begin the long task of seeing if I can enhance this information (and find any possible errors) and eventually put this information up on websites. I do not know if this Richard is related to the Galway Blake family but I do need to understand Galway Blake family in Ireland. Plus I always planned to work on the Blake families of Ireland who are known to descend from other Blake families as well as the Galway Blake.

5.    Blake yDNA Study
Susan has mentioned the Blake yDNA study in her article on Theophilus Blake and I will mention a few more items.
Project Statistics
Combined Gedcoms uploaded 13
Distinct mtDNA haplogroups 25
Distinct yDNA haplogroups 11
Family Finder 21
Paternal Ancestor Information 61
Total Members 92
Unreturned Kits 5

This is an extraction of some of the Project Statistics. With only 13 Gedcoms it is not really possible to look at everyone’s lines in the study. The mtDNA results are not overly helpful in yDNA surname studies but do give one an opportunity to look at the deep ancestry of your mother’s mother’s …. line which could be helpful. There are 11 distinct yDNA haplogroups which is expected given the stated assumption on my part that Blake is a surname that has a number of founders. The Family Finder is, to my way of thinking, the way forward for any female Blake looking at her Blake line and is also helpful for males looking at cousin relationships on the Blake line. Lacking paternal ancestor (Blake) information for 31 members is problematic for a yDNA study.

Thank you to Susan Osborne for her article on Theophilus Blake. Any other submissions greatly welcomed. Please submit to kippeeb@rogers.com.

Theophilus Blake

Publishing our article on the Blake family yDNA has proven to be an important step forward urged along by the results of the yDNA received from descendants. Descendants of Jasper Blake (emigrated to Hampton New Hampshire circa 1643) was published by Carlton E Blake in 1980 (Gateway Press Inc. Baltimore MD). Theophilus was said to be the son of Samuel Blake (b 3 Nov 1696) and Ann Sealey and b 20 Feb 1721 at Hampton Falls NH. Many descendants of Theophilus had faithfully linked themselves back on the basis of Carlton E Blake's book. However yDNA studies showed that Theophilus' descendant line did not match the yDNA of his brothers' descendants. The conclusion was a non paternal event. However, history has a way of coming forth with other explanations and in this case there was an indenture found for Theophilus Blake and his wife Margaret dated 15 May 1745. The period of time was for three years each and the indenture was held by Hugh Haney. The "History of Chester County, Pennsylvania with Genealogical and Biographical Sketches" by J Smith Futhey and Gilbert Cope and published by Louis H Everts & Co., Philadelphia PA in 1881 lists Theophilus Bleak in the list under East Fallowfield Taxables, 1753. Thomas, son of Theophilus, in his Revolutionary War Pension application stated that he was born 25 Feb 1760 in Pennsylvania. George, son of Theophilus, in his Revolutionary War Pension application stated that he was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania in 1751 and then moved to Virginia when he was young.

The discrepancy in the yDNA then resulted in researchers in this line reworking their information in particular information that had been overlooked and in some cases family lore that Theophilus was himself an emigrant arriving in the 1740s. Especially interesting is a comment on Thomas Chapman's blog: I recently came across a list of men living in Andover, NH in 1783, and it included a Theophilus Blake listed on the same page as familiar names such Samuel Blake, Thomas Blake, William Blake, Samuel Cilley, Benjamin Silley, Jonathon Silley, and Thomas Sleeper. However, I believe there may have been more than one Theophilus.

http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/c/h/p/Tom-Chpman/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0061.html



Although the author of the above does link Theophilus Blake back to the Theophilus Blake son of Samuel Blake and Ann Cilley born 20 Feb 1722 in Hampton Falls NH his comment is somewhat prophetic that there may have been more than one Theophilus although I suspect he meant that there was more than one Theophilus Blake born in Hampton Falls.

Work is now ongoing by members of the research group dedicated to the study of Theophilus to discover his actual ancestral roots. We will shortly write up an article to submit to Anglo Celtic Roots as an update to our previous article.

I managed to acquire the Protestation Returns for some of the hundreds of Wiltshire and shortly I will produce a list of Blake men living in 1641-42 in these hundreds. These records are from the Wiltshire Notes and Queries published in the early 1900s which I located at the Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, IN.

Blake Family yDNA Study and Theophilus Blake (Bleak)

When we initially wrote up our Revealing the Blake family - a YDNA project, the opinion was that there had been a non paternal event in the Norfolk Blake family with one son having a yDNA different from the other sons in the early 1700s. The finding of an Indenture dated 1745 for Theophilus Blake has brought this thought into question and researchers in this family who had hitherto connected their Theophilus Blake to the Jasper Blake New Hampshire family have disconnected from this line and have instead shown that Theophilus Blake was himself the immigrant from England with his wife Margaret.

We hope to publish an addendum to our article in Anglo Celtic Roots in the near future.

Comment: With the discovery of the record of the Indenture of the Theophilus Bleak and his wife, Margaret to Hugh Haney of Chester County, Pennsylvania that is dated 15 May 1745, a descendant of this family now believe with the most certainty that one can have on genealogical matters that their ancestor is NOT the Theophilus Blake that descends from the line of Jasper Blake III of Hampton, NH. This is supported by several other descendants. There will be more on this to follow.

DNA testing has broken down many presumed relationships of the past where families with the same name; from the same village ended up not being related because they had different haplogroups. Surnames only extend back 1000 years for the most part with many areas not having surnames until the 1400s. Similar/same surnames spontaneously arose in different areas and the Blake surname appears to fall into this category with the name being found all over the British Isles in various places and thus far are found in the I and R haplogroups with several divisions inside of these major haplogroups.

Testing as many Blake members as possible is the aim of the yDNA Blake family project at FT DNA. The patterns that have arisen thus far are most interesting and the addition of more members can only add to the ability of this study to separate out lines. Although the Irish group at the moment seems very widespread, finding intermediary lines may well diminish these differences leading us back to the common ancestor(s) in this area. There are a number of lines in the Wiltshire/Somerset/Hampshire area as well and the study would greatly benefit from more people testing with known ancestry back to the "resting spot" for these groups.