Will of John Blake of Ely, Cambridgeshire - The National Archives PROB 11/66/319, probated 8 Feb 1583/1584

John Blake lives at Ely, Cambridgeshire and has brothers Thomas, Francis and Jasper and his mother has remarried and is named Beatrice Killingworth. His Uncle is named Thomas Badgcroft.

Beatrice Killingworth is the wife of Richard Killingworthe and they married 18 Jan 1571 at Wimbotsham, Norfolk. Beatrix Badgcroft married Peter Blake of Wimbotsham, Norfolk. They had four children as mentioned in the will. John the testator, then Thomas followed by Francis and then Jasper. Francis was baptized 19 Dec 1564 at Wimbotsham.

The Visitation of Norfolk 1563, 1589, and 1613 does not list the sons in this order. Jasper is named as the eldest son then John, Thomas and Frances. Given that the least amount of money was given to Jasper and the same to Thomas and Frances the possibility is that Jasper has already inherited and Thomas gives him a token sum whilst reserving his funds for his two brothers who have not inherited as eldest son. The linchpin is the mother of John in that Beatrice Killingworth is known to have been the widow of Peter Blake of Wimbotsham.

In Norfolk Archaeology, Volume 2 on page 142 (Google Books with search term will of peter blake wimbotsham) the Manor of Wimbotsham courts:

Peter Blake, gentleman, held his first court 9 Edward 4 (1469/1470)

Jasper Blake held his first court 17 Hen VIII  (1525/1526)

Beatrice, widow of Peter Blake (son of Jasper), held her first court 14 Elizabeth (1571/72)

Hence Peter Blake (husband of Beatrice) must have died by 1571. There isn't a date for a court held by Peter Blake the husband of Beatrice but his father Jasper held court first in 1525.

The will of Peter Blake was dated 16 Oct 1570 according to an online website. The will was probated in the Archdeaconry of Norfolk. Peter was the executor of his father Jasper's will of 17 Jul 1547. The will of Jasper mentioned daughter sAlys, Ele Blyke, sons Harry, Thomas, Peter and John and wife Ann (formerly married to John Bastard). His executors were son Peter Blake and Richard Bachecroft with supervisor Osbert Moundeford. The will of Peter mentioned his sons John, Thomas, Francis and Jasper, wife Beatrice and brother in law Christopher Bachecroft with executors his wife Beatrice and brother in law Thomas Bachecroft with supervisor Francis Gaudy. The will of Jasper apparently allowed for aging of Peter in that he was a minor as of 17 Jul 1547 but would be 21 years of age on Holy Thursday (1 Apr 1548) hence he was born 1 Apr 1527.

Does this help with determining that the Jasper Blake who was the immigrant to Hampton New Hampshire in 1640 was of this line? It at least verifies that there was a Jasper born prior to 1570 at Wimbotsham and that he survived at least until 1583 when his brother John (testator below) wrote his will 12th December.

Transcriber: Elizabeth Kipp
Recorded: 10 May 2013
Source: The National Archives, PROB 11/66/319
Testator:  John Blake
Place: Ely, Cambridgeshire, England
Type of Record: Will
Date of document:  12 Dec 1583, probated 8 Feb 1583/1584
Condition: 16th century English, legible copy

[Margin]: T[estament] Johins
[Margin]: Blake

1    In the name of god Amen, The xij th daie of December in the fyve
2    and twentithe yeare of the raigne of our soveraigne Ladye Elizabeth by the grace of god of England
3    Fraunce and Ireland queene defender of the faithe etc: I John Blake of Elye being of p[er]fecte
4    mynde (thankes be to god) doe make this my last will and testament in manner and forme following
5    First I bequeathe my sowle unto Allmightie god my maker and Redeemer and my bodye to bee
6    buried in the Churche Yarde of the holy Trinitie in Ely Item I give unto my brother thomas
7    Blake Fourtye poundes of good and lawfull English money Item I give unto Frauncis Blake
8    my brother Fourty poundes of lawfull Englishe money: Item I give unto my brother Jasper
9    Tenne poundes: Item I give unto Beatrice Killingsworth my mother Tenne poundes: Item I
10    gyve unto the poore of Trinitie p[ar]ishe tenne shillinges Item I give unto the poore of Saint Marye
11    parrish twentie shillinges Item I give unto Mathew Prynie my servaunt Three poundes and double
12    apparell Item I give unto William Adams Fortie shillinges Item I make my brother Thomas and my
13    brother Fraunces my Executors And my Uncle Thomas Badgcrofte my Supervisor and I give unto
14    him Fyve poundes for his paines Item all my goods unbequeathed I gyve unto my executors to paye
15    my debtes: In witnes whereof I have putte my hand in the presence of Lawrence Raymond Robt
16    Johnson and William Adams Jun[io]r By me John Blake

Genealogy

The long awaited wedding day is now past and I can see myself returning slowly to Genealogy!

I have been in discussion with Barry Blake the last few weeks as he has taken over as co-administrator of the Blake DNA project at FT DNA. He has updated the webpages for this site and done a marvelous job.

http://blakeheritage.synthasite.com/blake-family-dna-project.php

I still have just the one match (8/12) on this site but it is an interesting match. I am hoping that Barry will be able to persuade this individual to test to 37 markers. With the extra 25 markers I should have a clearer picture of whether or not it is feasible that this person also descends from the Hampshire Blake family (or possibly the Wiltshire Blake family). Various posts later I am left with the thought that I originally had on the Blake family of Somerset. It is a combination of the spillover of the Blake family from Wiltshire and a Welsh Blake family that moved to Somerset. When Increase Blake visited a John Blake in Somerset in the mid 1800s and he learned that the Somerset Blake family shared kinship with the Wiltshire Blake family I suspect that over time these two Blake lines thought themselves related and their Welsh ancestry was lost to time. One individual feels that he can trace his line back to Sir Robert Blake, Lord High Admiral and he is R1b1b (the Welsh line is also R1b). His line back though goes to Norfolk which makes this even more interesting. There are already two distinct Blake lines in Norfolk at Wimbotsham (R1a1 and I2b1). These two lines are related although the original linkage is through a daughter of the Blake house which has resulted in two distinct haplogroups. This third line was located in another part of Norfolk and appears to go back into the 1500s as well.

I am hoping that the visibility of the Blake DNA project may encourage more Blake members to test and have their results put into the study. There are now at least ten distinct lines for Blake in the study and one could now relate to one of them and share ancestry.

I also said that I would work on the French Canadian ancestry of my daughter's husband's brother's wife. Half of the table is now done with our son-in-law's ancestry so just need to do the other half of the table. French Canadian ancestry is quite fascinating. I would only take it out to the 8th generation thus far.

I have the Christmas Tree all decorated and as usual it looks a little lopsided when I do it. My husband and children are much better at it. But it stood empty for nearly a week with all the rush for the wedding so I decided to do it today before Christmas is actually upon us. We are in countdown mode. We have purchased very few presents and need to do that by Thursday. Since I always did my Christmas shopping in the last two days I am not too perturbed but others around me are in a rush!