Y DNA and deep ancestry

I am in the process of writing up an article for our Blake Newsletter (http://blakeheritage.synthasite.com/the-blake-newsletter.php) which will be published 1st of April 2011. It will be the second issue of this first volume. Barrie Blake created the January issue discussing Heraldry (display of ermine) which can be found at the website mentioned above). Heraldry is a very important part of the Blake Family knowledge because coats of arms were used by a number of the different founding lines. I hope that in one of Barrie's newsletters he tells us something about why particular items were chosen for the individual Blake coats of arms. In the case of my line, why the sheafs of wheat. I might think it was because they were landowners but perhaps there is a deeper significance.

In the course of writing up the article on Y DNA and deep ancestry, I have ended up producing two newsletters and will let Barrie choose the one that he feels best suits our newsletter style. The other one I will then put into my blog because it has a lot of links to a European website that I have just been observing and it is incredible for its depth of study on the European lines and their origins.

I plan to return to the Abbotts Ann Parish Registers after completing the newsletter and will also continue working on my gedcom to be put up on the Blake Heritage site. I would like it to be very complete in terms of all the wills that I have transcribed thus far and the BMB records that I have gleaned from the parish registers that I have transcribed.

Carrying on with yesterday's discussion on the various papers, original records that I am examining once again as I work through my additions to my Blake family tree, I mentioned the paper in The American Genealogist written by Paul Reed. He mentioned that "The Robert Blake of Enham, who was Nicholas Blake's uncle is ancestor of Mary Blake, grandmother of the immigrant Shadrack Hapgood. The will of this Robert Blayke was dated 16 Dec 1522 and though no date of probate was attached, it is listed in the year 1522 in the manuscript calendar. He mentioned his son Thomas Blayke, his son Richard Blayke (executor), Andrew Blayke, William Blayke (no specific relationship stated) and Robert Blayke (no relationship stated). The son Richard died the same year as his father. Richard's will, recorded in Latin, was dated 12 April and proved 23 May 1522. He [Richard] mentioned his wife, my brother Thomas Blayke, Robert Blayke my father and my mother."

Shadrack Hapgood was the son of Joanne Scullard and Thomas Hapgood who married  25 Oct 1641 at Andover Hampshire England. Joanna Scullard was the daughter of Shadrack Scullard and Marye Blake who married probably in 1603. Although the IGI lists their marriage as being in Andover (patron entry), there isn't a marriage in the Andover register for this couple. Perhaps they married at Knights Enham as that was Mary's birthplace. The Knights Enham (extant) registers do not begin until later in the 1600s. Mary's parents were first cousins with Nicholas the son of John Blake the younger and Dorothy Blake the daughter of John Blake the elder. Both Johns were sons of Robert Blake (brother to Nicholas Blake (d 1547)). The reference to Mary being a descendant of Robert who left a will in 1522 does not appear to fit the details. Paul Reed says that Robert was an uncle to Nicholas (d 1547) so must also have been an Uncle to Robert the brother of Nicholas and this Robert left a will in 1542. However, has Paul put together a scenario that might shed some light on this family in the early 1500s.

This Robert (d 1522) has a son Thomas and a son Richard (who also died in 1522). The Andrew Blake it is noted has no specific relationship. William and Robert also carry the notation no specific relationship. The puzzle of when the death of Richard occurred relative to his father's is perhaps solved by his comment that the actual will was written in December 1521 although not entered into the calendar until probate perhaps. Richard's death was sudden perhaps whereas his father may have already been ill and perhaps succumbed shortly after his son's death. The interesting part in all of this is Thomas. There is a Thomas who leaves a will at Andover in 1541. If Paul Reed is correct and this Robert is a brother to the father of Nicholas (d 1547) and Robert (d 1542), then we have a second line of Blake which dates back to before 1500 at Andover. The name of the one brother would be Robert and the name of the second brother unknown (but married to Jone who left a will in 1527).

In this same will we have three Blake members with no relationship stated: Andrew, William and Robert. In 1522. Nicholas (d 1547) and Robert (d 1542) are probably adults given the calculations I went through in a blog a couple of weeks ago. Nicholas was possibly born in the late 1480s and Robert a similar time period. I wonder why Paul Reed refers to Robert as an uncle of Nicholas. I do not see anything in this text that proves that Robert was his uncle. On the next page of the article Paul Reed's quotes the will that Jone Blake (mother of Nicholas and Robert) left dated 28 Mar 1527. Nicholas' name is written before Robert so one might assume he is the eldest.

One other piece of information in the paper, mentions that Robert Blake's widow was Matilda or Mawde who died in 1525 leaving a will which no longer survives There is a marriage of Robert Blake to Maude Snell as a patron entry on the IGI. I suspect at this point only the manor records for Knights Enham/Kings Enham can provide the answers I am looking for with regard to any connection between Robert Blake married to Maude Snell and Blake married to Jone . 

Finding that this Robert Blake has sons Richard and Thomas is rather interesting though given that there are wills at Andover for a Richard (d 1522) and a Thomas (d 1541). Wills at Andover in this time period listed in the Hampshire Record Office Catalogue for Blake:

1522B/03  Will of Richard Blake (Blayke) of Knights Enham, Hampshire  1522

1522B/04  Will of Robert Blake (Blayke) of Knights Enham, Hampshire  1522

1528B/06  Will of Joan Blake 'of Enham' [=Knights Enham?], Hampshire, widow  1528

1541U/06  Will of Thomas Blake of Andover, Hampshire  1541

1542B/06  Will of Robert Blake of Enham, Andover, Hampshire  1542

1546B/017  Will of Agnes Blake of Quarley, Hampshire, wife of Harry  1546

1546B/018  Will of Harry Blake of Quarley, Hampshire  1546

1547B/008  Will of Walter Blake of East Tytherley, Hampshire  1547

The first five wills in this list have already been put into family grouping but who are the other three people who left wills in the Andover area in the 1540s? Who is Harry (Henry?) Blake and who is Walter Blake? To really put the family together in the 1500s I think we need to know the origins of these two Blake families as well. As soon as the opportunity arises I shall attempt to get hold of those two wills.

If Paul Reed is correct in naming Robert as an uncle of Nicholas (d 1547) then how early was this family at Knights Enham - again a query that might be best answered by the Manor Records. Do they, as some researchers have in their trees, trace back to Henry Blake married to Margaret Billet at Calne? Is their line second cousin to Robert Blake married to Avis Wallop (and first cousin to his father Robert Blake married to Avice Malwyn)? This is the point at which Somerby created a history for the Blake family at Andover. He claimed that William (brother to Robert Blake married to Avice Malwyn) had sons William and Robert. This Robert would be the Robert married to Maude Snell and one is left to presume that the husband of Jone (d 1527) was William. Looking at this from the naming of children - Nicholas named his eldest son William and Robert named his third son William (first son was Robert and second son was John (the elder)). Nicholas' son William named his eldest son John and his second son William. There was always a William Blake in these lines down to the mid 1600s. The Robert Blake line coming down not so often.

However, Horatio Somerby gave children to William supposed brother of Robert that were incorrect - Nicholas was correct but Humphrey was wrong. The wife of William was not Mary as he stated but would have been Jone who left a will in 1547. This is the beginning of the falsification as the history backwards is verified by the College of Arms Chart and the Visitations. The need to eliminate this falsification is shown by the number of family books that are published by descendants of the Blake family particularly in the United States who lift the information on the parentage of Humphrey from this book attaching it as shown in the book to their own line back to Humphrey. Paul Reed's article is greatly appreciated for bringing that to the attention of Blake researchers. However, he has introduced a new query into the study with his comment that Robert (d 1522) was an uncle to Nicholas. Perhaps I will write a query to TAG, as we are subscribers, which might generate a little discussion now that I have clearly put together his thoughts in my mind at least.

Upper Clatford Priests

When we visited Upper Clatford in 2008 we took a picture of the list of priests and I have inserted the copy below.

Date of Institution	Surname	Forename
c1160-1173		Robert
1292	Sheppey	John
~	of Sherborne	John
1340	of Stoke	William
1349	of Lever	William
~	Packer	Richard
1394	Davy	Richard
1396	Rychemond	Walter
~	Ludlow	Thomas
1459	Deacon	Thomas
1462	Warner	John
~	Neville	John
1494		William
1511	Brownsmith	John
1524	Barnacke	Ralph
~	Grice	Richard
1528	Fallowfield	John
1554	Tinton	Thomas
1564	Gatenby (or Gatenbie)	Anthony
1610	Samborne	James
1627	Hooke	William
1632	Samborne	Thomas
1652	Barker	Philip
1662	Earbury (or Eastbury)	Anthony
1669	Crofts	Joseph
1709	Terry	Peter
1727	Pretty	William
1748	Roman	William
1782	Gibbs (or Gibbes)	George
1783	Willis	Thomas
1830	Fromd	Edward
1863	Child	Thomas
1882	Child	Alfred
1887	Boyd	John William
1891	Angelsmith	Francis Angel
1892	Noakes	Arthur John
1913	Bentham	Walter Reid
1948	In suspension
1949	Bridle	Reginald
1952	In suspension
1954	Browne	Clement Innes
1959	Pigott	John Hammond
1965	Richardson	Jack Cyril
1977	Graham	Alan Robert
1985	Tristram	Michael Anthony
1993	Gilks	Peter Martin
1999	Broad	David Nicholas Anthony

Anthony Gatenbie (Rector from 1564 on) must have started the registers in 1571 and they were incredibly well kept up until the early 1600s by which time one would think he was quite elderly. He has however decided that the new year begins January 1 irreguardless of what the remainder of the country is doing. However James Samborne becomes Rector in 1610 and keeps the records not quite so well but details are there and readable until 1620 regularly and then sporadically to 1625. He goes with the old style of dating with Lady Day in March beginning the New Year (around March 25). The next Rector William Hooke in 1627 does not make a single entry and the entries do not begin again until 1632 when Thomas Samborne becomes Rector. Five years seems like a long time between events so one is left to surmise that he simply didn't keep any records or they are lost. Now in the 1630s the records are again quite legible and thus far appear to be well kept. Thomas has decided to go with January 1 as the beginning of the year. Neither Anthony Gatenbie nor Thomas Samborne mark the date as oldstyle/newstyle ie. 1616/1617 for January 1 to Lady Day (March 25 approximately). This is the first time that I have had the parish records thus kept being most familiar with the Old Style prior to 1752.

I have now reached 355 baptisms as of the end of 1634. There are no Blake entries thus far but I will encounter the first Blake entry in 1635 which is Annis Blake daughter John Blake baptized 28 Dec 1635. I know there is a will by Mary Blake in 1672 stating that she lived at Upper Clatford and had a daughter Dorothy married to Edward Walderne and a son William Blake. That is the sum of the knowledge about the Blake family at Upper Clatford prior to 1757 when my line is found there. However, I do recall that Peter Blake was left a farm at Upper Clatford although I must check that as it is coming from memory!

There are 78 images in total for these parish records commencing in 1570 and ending in 1724. I almost didn't purchase them as I knew my Blake line was at Andover until 1757 but there were only two fiche and it seemed silly not to have the complete set. I am very pleased now that I did do so because when I ordered them I didn't know that my King family existed and they are at Upper Clatford from the beginning of the Registers. Now are they my direct line? That is a good question and working through the fiche might help me with that. I also have the Beaver, Coleman and the Johnson family at Upper Clatford also discovered much later. I will always purchase all early fiche now when I do so as I neglected to do so at Kimpton and must order those earlier registers.

I have now decided to purchase Quarley, Longparish, Monxton and a couple of other parishes in the next couple of months. Likely I will also purchase Weyhill, Wherwell, Chilbolton, Fyfield, Tangley at some point in the future. Eventually I will probably have all of the parishes around Andover and will have captured all the Blake records in the area prior to 1700 (at least all the ones in the registers :) ).

Proofreading Penton Mewsey Parish Registers

The task of proofreading Penton Mewsey Parish Registers is almost complete. I have decided that I will enter any changes by the priest who subsequently rewrote part of the Register in 1710 as * notes. It is a second derivative copy since he copied it and then I copied his. Making a note of changes recognizes his work and since he did it less than 20 years later is a valuable addition to the Register.

I have decided to step back a little from the Blake results until I have completed all the Parish Registers. It will be a portrayal of what is there and I must mow purchase Longparish, Quarley and a few others since they are coming up constantly in the registers. I may yet find the marriage of John and Elizabeth Blake in 1684 or perhaps 1683. Her surname would be nice to have.

Other than that we have chosen all of the pictures to go in our European presentation. We managed to pare the five thousands pictures down to 500 that we really felt best depicted our trip from start to finish. I am busy putting them into Powerpoint in order to show them to our children. Usually we just show them the 5000 but really that is a lot of pictures and better to have 500 nicely labeled and spend a few  minutes on each one. It has been really easy as we already made up a list of the pictures (all named) so that I can just cut and paste.

My new Blake correspondents will be really nice to have. They are not searching my line at least not at the moment - one never knows as one reaches back in time. Our families come together in the will of John Blake in terms of his naming his heirs. Are they related? How are they related? Having the same surname Blake may not mean a direct relationship given that we now know there are at least five absolutely separate lines. There are probably more but only time will pull that information out of the woodwork.

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.

Moving on to Penton Mewsey

I have completed Andover Parish Registers up to 1757 yielding 11,785 baptisms, 3400 marriages, and 10,677 burials. I still need to proofread this entire file before submitting it to the OPC Hampshire site. I must allocate time to that after I complete Penton Mewsey. I am most anxious to see that particular parish.

I have also decided to prepare a flat file in excel of the Hearth Tax 1665 for Hampshire from the published book just for Andover Extra and Infra. The published book lacks an index for a portion of the alphabet and this will make it easier to sort and find my people. I will gradually add in the areas around Andover that interest me.

My two new Blake correspondents descend from the Charles Blake line at Abbotts Ann and have acquired a fair amount of information on their Robert Blake line (son of Charles Blake and Jane Gilbert). I had some information on that line (grandchildren of Robert) which I had extracted just to see if there was any overlap with Upper Clatford. They have a complete look at the family from Robert down. I am looking forward to working with them on the Blake family prior to Charles and my Thomas. I am convinced that Charles descends from Robert but more proof is always good. I note that Edward Blake (at Abbotts Ann) lived at Quarley so this is probably a good spot to look for other baptisms for the children of Robert Blake and Elizabeth Russell. An eight year gap in a marriage is unusual especially as they had several children before and several children after.

I have backed up the Andover file several times over just to be safe on that.