Back to Pencombe and it does feel like a few days since I worked on this family

Some of my distant cousins are going to acquire some Pencombe documents for me when they travel to England later this year. They should prove interesting although also in Latin likely. I have to get back to working on the Inquisition Postmortem but discovering that the information in British History Online captures most of the material the incentive has not been quite so strong. 

So my premise, that the John Pencombe (still alive on the 1524-27 Lay Subsidy of Devon) at North Molton from 1486 or thereabouts and arriving with John Lord Zouche is descendant of the Pencombe family of Herefordshire. The missing information is not actually all that long in terms of years. The last Pencombe I have information on in Pencombe, Herefordshire is a Thomas de Pencombe named in his father's Inquisition Postmortem. There are a couple of documents in the early 1400s to mid 1400s but concern female members of the family according to the translations online at the Herefordshire Archives. Could he still be alive in 1486, Thomas that is?  The Inquisition was taken 10 September 37 Edward III. Regnal year 37 Edward III translates to 1335 so the answer is no he is not alive. Thomas was 14.5 years when his father died and a guardian was named who would arrange the child's marriage. One thing I always try to keep in the back of my mind was marriages at a young age were not uncommon amongst royalty and the wealthy so you do have a potential of more generations per century than you might find with "the common people." This family was not wealthy in the 1400s as the women of the family were struggling to maintain property. A family could quickly go from riches to rags in a generation in this time frame but the social support net that now exists does ease that for individuals caught up in death of a wage earner type of thing. 

I will continue working on the Pencombe family for this month and then move on to the generations that come down from the North Molton Pencombe family which does include a large area of north west Devon extending from Rose Ash in the east to Bideford in the west. By the end of the 1500s this family has mostly moved away from North Molton although there continues to be a Pencombe family at North Molton in the 1600s. As the surname evolves I will change it to Pincomb/Pincombe/Pinkham and there are a couple of other similar derivates that I can find the records in the Parish Registers and the Lay Subsidies and other documents that are extant in Devon like the Rebuilding contribution for St Pauls Cathedral in London and others created by the Friends of the Devon Archives. My own line retained the Pincomb/Pincombe spelling to the present day.

Since I have no plans to complete this before January 2026 there is a lot of time. I may be lucky and acquire cousins who offer information to take particular lines that I am not able to take back to North Molton but land records could direct one back there for which I will give them credit because I am not going to Devon to read those files. 

I think I might just go back into the various archives today and make sure I have not missed anything in my searches of the last couple of weeks. There are no published works on the Pencombe family but I do have a complete set of the Herald's Visitations for England and will review them as well. And also go into Internet Archive to see what I can find. 

I do find it interesting the forenames that have appeared in this family - John with the Inquisition Postmortem and his son Thomas. There is a William in another record in Herefordshire and overall John, Thomas and William are quite common names and indeed John Pencombe who arrived with John Lord Zouch named his three sons John, William and Thomas. In the next generation we find Christopher, Richard as new additions and in the third generation Symon, Lewis and Peter as new additions.

I did review "Index of Persons Named in Early Chancery Proceedings 1385-1467" produced as The Publication of The Harleian Society Volume LXXIX (1928). There are no Pencombe/Pinkcombe/Pinkham entries but not overly surprisingly given that the Pencombe family of Herefordshire is not doing well in this time period. There are however Pykenham entries for a John, a Richard and a William. Richard and William are in the same document. To me it is a far stretch but I will now check out this spelling searching the Discovery Catalogue at the UK National Archives. 

There are also Blake entries namely John Blak, Rawlyn Blak, Richard Blak, Andrew Blake, Edmond Blake, Edmund Blake (6 entries), John Blake (4 entries), Simon Blake (2 entries), Thomas Blake (4 entries), Walter Blake, William Blake (3 entries). 

Name                                          Page       Suit #

John Pykenham                         305 (2)    164 

Richard Pykenham                      56           72

William Pykenham                      56 (2)     72

So a bit of sleuthing there today and a few more CDs to look at from my collection. 

John Pykenham. There are 53 records for John Pykenham on the Discovery Catalogue at Kew. None are for Devon or Herefordshire.

Richard Pykenham. There are 34 records and none from Devon or Herefordshire.

William Pykenham. There are 48 records and none from Devon or Herefordshire.

 A good day yesterday and I did a grocery shopping as well so salmon for dinner yesterday, today and tomorrow. I do love salmon and sweet potato mashed with a mixture of vegetables. 

Today up early and have the recyclable food container to put out to the waste management truck so will get that done after breakfast. The rest is all ready out there. Although I do not put out very much. I tried just putting out my white plastic bag but it wasn't picked up so have to put that into a green bag and it takes me a month to fill a green bag and it  still isn't really full so just once a month for actual garbage. The green recycling bin is out for this pickup but not always a lot there either. 

Blake day today and I will do the entries I found in Early Chancery Proceedings - no Robert Blake thought that was a surprise perhaps although not particularly unexpected. I have not seen the Inquisition Postmortem on which Robert le Blake is said to be a juror in 1336. The individual who did locate it though is a highly respected College of Arms individual so I think he did likely find it but who was Robert le Blake. I must look at the Calendar of Patent Rolls to see where Robert le Blake comes up in there as I think he does. 

Teatime and then Latin lessons.

Looking at the first six generations of the Blake Family Chart - Blake Museum Bridgwater

 The chart begins with a Robert le Blake who was a juror at an Inquisition Postmortem according to the Chart at Hungerford Bar 22 Jan 1336. He is said to be of Quemberford Wiltshire. This would be old style of dating so one might think of it as 17 Jan 1337. We are told to look at Note 4. This note reads: The reference to Robt le Blake (1336) was discovered by Sir H Farnham Burke (Garter) who considers this link highly probable. From the Wikipedia Sir Henry Farnham Burke KCVO, CB, FSA (1859 - 1930) was a long serving Anglo-Irish officer of arms at the College of Arms in London. I am assuming the link refers to him being the father of Richard Blague/Blaake listed below his name. There are twelve records for Robert le Blake in the Discovery Search on the National Archives of the United Kingdom website (I did blog this information http://kippeeb.blogspot.com/2018/09/reworking-blake-ydna-website.html 26 Sep 2018. I am going to look at it in a slightly different way and for a different reason and will not repeat all of the references in this blog.  I am toying with the idea of subscribing to British History Online as some items can not be seen on the free site.

1. The first item (Date: 1358) is a Grant (at Echelampton) by Robert le Blake to John Malewayn of all his lands and tenements at Echelhamptone which he had by feoffment of his brother Adam Blake and which were lately Robert de Echelhamptone's. Reference 1720/154. 

Searching on Genuki (fabulous website by the way) Etchilhampton does appear to be this location. It is a chapelry in the parish of All Cannings, hundred of Swanborough, three miles from Devizes. 

Source: https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/WIL/Etchilhampton

Certainly this is the same general area for the Blake family at Calne. Interesting the financial transactions between the Blake family and the Malewayn family in 1358.  Robert le Blake and Adam le Blake are brothers and the date of 1358 is prior to the 1440/1441 date for the arrival of a Richard Blake from Ireland in Salibury, Wiltshire. This is looking interesting and I haven't done other than occasionally look at these records. 

For the twelve records of the search I will eliminate those not in Wiltshire/Hampshire/Berkshire - the oldest one (1272) is from Southorpe, Lincolnshire. 

2. The second item is a bond (at Hungerford) (Date: 1358). Bond (at Hungerford) from Thomas Hungerford and Robert le Blake for payment of £50 to John Malewayn of Echelhamptone. Reference: 1720/152. 

Same as 1 in terms of comments.

3. The third item is a grant (at Calne) (Date 1334). Grant (at Calne) by John de Fynemore to William Rolf of Blakelonde ...piece of arable land in the field of Blakelonde (Blackland). Witd: John le Chamberleyy, Thomas de Takelberwe, Robert le Blake, William Asser, Adam le Schetere, William de Taseworthe. Reference: 1720/120. 

The earlier date is of assistance as Robert le Blake (if the same person) was 21 years or more in 1334. 

4. The fourth item is a Grant (at Stockeleghe) (Date 1347). Grant (at Stockeleghe) by Adam le Chamberleyn of Stokkelegh to John le Glasyere and Isabella his wife, of all his lands and tenements in the hundred of Calne, for the life of the grantor, with reversion of lands in Stokkelegh. Witd: Geoffrey of Castreton, Robert Cauntelou, John Blount, Robert le Blake, Thomas of Roude, Adam le Sheoter, William of Taseworth. Reference: 1720/137.

Continuing reference to date provides proof of life for Robert le Blake (presumably the same individual from 1334 to 1358. 

An item from 24 Dec 1363 refers to a Robert le Blake at Uptone, Herefordshire and earlier we had a reference for a Roger le Blake at Madeford, Herefordshire (a different Blake line perhaps). 

Two items one in 1345 and one in 1364 are from the estate papers of the Walker-Heneage and Button family. The first Robert le Blake is a witness in 1345 for a lease and counterpart involving East Coker, Somerset. This is a bit interesting because it is quite a distance from the Calne/Devizes area of Wiltshire. However in the next case which is a Quitclaim dated at Calne in 1364, Walter de Frene quitclaims to Robert le Blake, of Kemerford, of all those lands, etc. which Silvester Doynel lately held in Bourbach (Burbage) and which after the death of Patrick de Frene his brother late rector of Yatesbury church should descend to him. Reference DD/WHb/813. Interesting and Kemerford/Quemerford is certainly in the area where the Blake family was located near Calne.

Source: https://www.oldmapsonline.org/en/Wiltshire#bbox=-2.0296693527698437,51.394565897890516,-1.9496693527698596,51.45856601385026&q=&date_from=0&date_to=9999&scale_from=&scale_to=

Were Kenerford and Quemerford the same place? Wikipedia again has a history of the spelling of this now suburb of the town of Calne. "Early variants of the name include Camerford (1204), Kenerford (1`226-1228), Qemerford (1240-1245), Cameresford (1292), and Quemerforde (1294)" (Eilert Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names (Oxford, 1936), pp. 359 and 296. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quemerford#cite_note-Ekwall-1

Moving forward and we have Robert le Blake at Quemerford in 1364 receiving eventually a Quitclaim after the death of another person in Burbage. However that doesn't help me with when do we first see Robert le Blake in the Calne area of Wiltshire.  This item continues proof of life for a Robert le Blake from at least 1313 to 1364 since he was probably at least 21 in 1334. Other than as noted these items are from the Money-Kyrle Family Estate papers at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre.

An item dated 1363 and Robert le Blake is a witness once again for a Grant (at Bromham) by John de la Roche, knight, to John atte Halle of Whetham .... . Bromham is in the general area of Calne/Devizes. 

An unknown dated document in Suffolk but there was a known Blake family in East Anglia. 

The Pipe Rolls of Wargrave, Berkshire (1301-2) did not list a Robert le Blake but this scenario just discussed dates him from 1313 to 1364 thus far with the 1313 a calculation based on his being at least 21 in 1334. But he would have been a young child and not listed on the Pipe Rolls if he is indeed of this family at Wargrave, Berkshire.

Doing a search just on Robert Blake yielded a little more information.

In 1386  a Grant to Joan widow of Robert Blake and John her son of all the land  in Shawe by Savernake by Robert Devenyssh which he acquired from John Wyleye and Robert in Echelhampton. Reference: DD/WHb/2025. This gives us a known deceased Robert Blake in 1386 (and if he was born in 1313 he would have been 73 if he lived until 1386). 

Is this John Blake I the Member of Parliament for Calne in 1381, 1884 and 1385. He died in 1395 leaving at least one son John Blake II who likewise served in Parliament in 1415. The History of parliament online website mentions that he inherited some of the family property at Blacklands. He is noted as being of Quemerford on this page.

Source: https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/blake-john-ii-1388

Back to the Blake Family Chart at the Blake Museum Bridgwater:

:Although we find the son of Robert le Blake to be John mentioned with his mother in the record DD/WHb/2025 the chart has a Richard Blaque as the son of Robert le Blake. It is obvious that Robert le Blake is at Quemerford and hence the Calne Blake line. But who is Richard Blaque alias Blake of Wiltshire?

Searching British History Online (BHO) I find a Richard le Blake at Severn Stoke in the County of Worcestershire at Naunton and the land dealing in this case was in 1275. In 1276 Nicholas le Blake, John le Blake, Thomas le Blake and Richard le Blake paid subsidies at Naunton. Apparently Nicholas le Blac appears on the Gt. Roll of Pipe, 204 Hen. II (Rec. Com.), 157). Source: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/worcs/vol4/pp192-197

Searching the Discovery catalogue I found five references to a Richard le Blake. and it is Staffordshire where he apparently holds land next to an individual involved in a land deal. 

The earliest record in BHO was 1290 and dealt with alien merchants in Winchester. A Richard le Blake, burgess of Shoreham (Sussex) appears to be a debtor to to Alien Merchants. Reference C 241/14/70. 

Dated 21 Sep 1313, Feoffment by Thomas le Blake of Wabburleye to Joan his daughter of a place of land there between the land which Alice his daughter held by his gift  and the land Richard le Blake formerly held (Warwickshire). Reference E 40/8214.  Another set of items found at British History Online (https://www.british-history.ac.uk/ancient-deeds/vol4/pp34-46) A.6474 - A grant by Richard son of Thomas le Blake of Watburleye  ....... . Two other references are for Buckinghamshire. 

Does this help me prove that the Richard le Blak who received the right to set up a market in England in 1274 was the ancestor of the John Blake mentioned with his mother Joan? The question remains who was Robert le Blake. Was he the son of the Richard le Blak who applied for a license to establish a market? By the time of the possible birth of Robert le Blake before or by 1313, Richard le Blak would have been in his 40-50s perhaps since he was likely an adult in 1274. Robert naming one of his sons Richard might be anticipated but it was John who was the  member of parliament for Calne living at Quemerford and it does seem strange not to have him on this chart actually.

But I do have a sort of date scheme for Robert le Blake (born before or in 1313 and died before or by 1386. Moving on one might say to Richard Blaque alias Blake said to have married Anne daughter of William Cole. Looking online one sees dates such as 1331 for this marriage but that is impossible since we have determined a likely date range for Robert.

I would actually like to bypass this entry and move on to Henry Blake marrying Elizabeth Dorrant/Durrant.  Looking at a quick search one discovers that a number of sites basically ignore Richard Blaque marrying Anne Cole and they have Henry Blake marrying Elizabeth Durrant in 1353. There is actually a Memorial for Elizabeth (Durrant) Blake at St Mary the Virgin Churchyard in Calne showing her year of death as 1425. Would Henry, as a son of Robert le Blake, fit into this time frame?

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/241577186/elizabeth-blake

The Discovery catalogue has just one result in 1400-1499 for Henry Blake and it is in Leicestershire. 

Moving on to William Blake (said to have married Elizabeth daughter of Thomas Power) and my searches using William Blake and Quemerford and Quemberford did not reveal any land deals with the Blake family that could be utilized for dating purposes. There are several reasons perhaps. This Blake line was simply not political and maintained their property at Quemerford over a long period and there were no transactions dealing with the property and the particular male Blake members did not get involved in any types of transactions where they were witnesses. Where the information on the marriages comes from I have no idea but I am not in place to do those kind of searches which involve records not online. The  next Blake day I will pull out some of my CDs and see if I can find anything there. At this point I do not see a link between the Richard le Blak at Wargrave and the John Blake I and John Blake II who served as Members of Parliament in the late 1300s and early 1400s. Looking at the Bellett family to come and that will be for the next research day as well.

Robert Blake at Quemberford who married Avice (Wallop) Malwyn widow and the surname is curious having found the earlier records between the Blake and the Malewayn family  in the 1300s. Also for the next Blake day which is Friday.  

Is it possible to have so many generations in a family in 120 years but I am still working on the dating of each individual.

Teatime soon and Latin lessons.

Cleaning completed

 Completed the basement cleaning yesterday and then watched a movie on Netflix - Geostorm. Absolutely fantastic movie. I do love watching "space" movies for sure. 

Did not actually accomplish anything yesterday. It should have been a Pencombe day but I had done some work on Sunday on Pencombe so decided not to do very much and take a day off - good for the brain. So I did a couple hours of Latin and played my solitaire games which I love. Answered some email; I do not always answer emails unless they come on my one-name study address. I feel people are either thanking me or sharing something with me about one of my blogs or they might have a query but generally phrase it in such a way that they do not expect an answer unless I know something. I find people who write me emails to be very helpful in that regard since I do get a lot of emails.

Today is a Blake day once again and I will be continuing to work on the Blake Family Chart at the Blake Museum in Bridgwater. Truly these huge charts are a gift now that I understand how one approaches them. They are after all the creation of a family at a particular time and place and very much controlled by the thoughts of that family. Creating a chart in 1690 was a great feat really but already the discussed elements were hundreds of years in the past and especially if you have moved away from the area the clarity of the facts can become somewhat distant. I understand why the caution I received with regard to such items was a good one. Examine in detail and in this generation we have access to so much material from that time frame that was stowed away in the Tower of London, etc. Although accessible not everyone could make the trip to see the original so had to rely on word of mouth. 

So today I see if I can come up with a timeline for the Bellet - Blake marriage and whether there actually are any records for the Bellet family that would help out. There is a record of Robert Blake and his fulling mill at Quemberford which I have already. We are basically looking at six generations and coming up with a time span. The first record is for a Robert le Blake at Quemberford in 1336 where he was a juror in an Inquisition Postmorten at Hungerford Bar the chart says. The Pipe Rolls for the Bishopric of Winchester 1301-1302 do have a le Blak family living just north of Hungerford in Berkshire and they are not there one hundred years later. I have a theory that it is this le Blak family that gradually moves south into Wiltshire. In 1301 there was: John Blak, Alice la Blak (daughter of Richard), Richard le Blak all at Wargrave. At Waltham St Lawrence there was : Hamo Blak, Walter Blak (son of Hamo Blak). So my task is set for the day and I shall see what I find. 

I do have all sorts of abstract records on CD that I have purchased through the years. It is amazing some of the items that have been produced by societies in England and attending Who Do You Think You Are meant I came home with a lot of CDs and books from the various county societies from which I descend - six areas in England actually. My father's father's father's side (all born in England) is Hampshire (Andover area), my father's father's mother's side is Dorset in the Winterborne villages area. Then my father's mother's father (if the priest has the name right on the baptism as she was illegitimate) is Wiltshire around Ludgershall area, my father's mother's mother is Wiltshire in several areas across the north of this county. Then my mother's father's father was from Bishops Nympton, Devon back to the late 1500s (although born at Molland himself) and then North Molton back to the late 1400s (and maybe a seventh location if Herefordshire is the ancestral home), my mother's father's mother's line is (from) the East Riding of Yorkshire - Holme on the Wolds, Cherry Burton, Etton on one side and Bewcastle, Cumberland on the other (but she was my first Canadian born ancestor), my mother's mother's father's side is Birmingham/Staffordshire/Leicestershire and London/Surrey (Bermondsey area) and my mother's mother's mother's side is Birmingham/Shropshire and much further back Northern Ireland possibly and then likely Ayrshire/Argyllshire. So a lot of the UK to cover for sure for some of these lines. 

The day begins with a reddish sunrise and it is zero degrees celsius about normal for mid March but where ever is the snow! It has been a very light winter. Not good actually for the soil. 

Teatime and Latin.

Blake family Chart held by the Bridgwater Blake Museum

 I think the one thing I have learned since I first started into surname research back in 2007 was that there is always a purpose to producing a chart and in this case to link the Somerset Blake family to the Blake family of Calne. Both of these charts I have mentioned do that and personally I think that the Somerset Blake lines are the same family. But one notes in this chart above that they do connect William Blake married to Avice Ripley to William Blake of Enham son of Nicholas Blake of Enham. Nicholas' mother was Jone (?) Blake who left her will stating the names of her sons (Robert and Nicholas) and daughter (Elizabeth (Blake) Mylne). She only names her husband as Mr. Blake. A Richard Blake leaves his will in 1522 where he names his children as Robert and Nichi and mentions a daughter but does not name her. This Richard is named in his father Robert Blake's will of 1521. So a bit of a conundrum one might say which I have puzzled through these past years.

Today, when time permits, I will look at this chart based on the known material that has emerged as the Archives put more and more online and various other sets of information are coming forward out of the Church records that are also being placed into the county archives. It is an exciting time actually and the date at the top of this chart has an unknown Blake who had lived at Whiteparish Wiltshire coming to Hampshire in 1471. It is an interesting addition to the story. Whiteparish does exist and is a parish in the hundred of Frustfield 7.5 miles SE of Salisbury, 3 miles south of West Dean Railway.

I will recreate this portion of the Chart just so that it can be read online without squinting. One notes that this Chart is also attached to the Blake family at Calne (see Part 1). 

 

Part 2 of the Blake Family Chart at the Blake Museum begins with the line quoted above which lends to the thought that this Chart was refining something from earlier. At least that was my impression. An unknown Blake of Whiteparish Wiltshire (just south of Salisbury which does have a rather interesting aside where there was a Richard Blake listed on the 1330-1550 Emigrants' Database and mentioned earlier in a blog). That Richard Blake has two dates of arrival 1440 and 1441 at Salisbury. The unnamed Blake in the chart dies by 1471 leaving two sons - William and Robert (by his first wife, unknown). The interesting part of this is a Robert Blake of Enham who leaves his will in 1521 although he does name a William Blake he does not say he is his brother and he names his sons as Richard lives at ?, Robert lives at Enham and Thomas (at Rawkyns in the will but not on this chart).  Now this Richard on the Emigrants' database is listed as Irish but there was quite a bit of movement between England and Ireland in this time frame and I am not seeing the original record. The Calendar of Patent Rolls does show these movements back and forth but there are no entries that include Blake and Salisbury in this time frame. 

Also noting that the Blake-Bellet family has been selected which was likely taken from the Visitation of Surrey 1662-8 (Blague alias Blake) (Page 12, [D. 15, fo. 77]. Francis E Blake of Boston, Massachusetts, USA compiled a book published in Boston 1898 titled: "Increase Blake of Boston, his ancestors and descendants, with a full account of William Blake of Dorchester and his five children. In his chapter "The Family in England" he mentions" his correspondence with Edward J Blake, Esq., of Crewkerne, Somerset, England (a descendant of John Blake, a brother of our William of Pitminster)" (Page 9-10). I am curious if the author of the Blake Family Chart at the Blake Museum is Edward J Blake. Both of these men agreed that all of Horatio Gates Somerby's work had to be carefully checked for errors. So once again one is left to assume that Horatio created a scenario that was then dissected by genealogists ever since it was taken out of the private collection of a Blake family that had it created and into the public forum in 1881. Interesting really but the timing is so excellent and I shall check when Edward J Blake died (an Edward J Blake died Dec quarter 1936 at the age of 93 years in Chard Registration District (includes Crewkerne) (Volume 5c, page 362; FreeBMD accessed 12 Mar 2024)). At the time of the correspondence he must have been in his mid 40s, interesting really.

The time frame for the Blake-Bellet marriage would be interesting to attempt to calculate. I will leave that for my research day on Wednesday and continue looking at this chart. The time frame for Robert Blake and Avis (Wallop) (Malwyn) Blake is known at Quemberford where he had a fulling mill.

Teatime finished. Latin lesson completed and on to the cleaning of the basement. My routine keeps me grounded for sure as I barrel forward with the books and must keep the Blake Newsletter for 1st April on the back-burner of my brain so that I stop early enough towards the end of the month to complete it in a timely fashion. 

On to breakfast; the best meal of the day for sure. Perhaps that is why I repeat the same day after day or am I just lazy. Not sure.

Mothering Sunday yesterday in England

And probably in some places the Anglican Church also celebrates Mothering Sunday worldwide.  This week we started out in the Chapel of the Old Deanery which is near St Pauls Cathedral. We visited St Pauls several times on different visits but the longest visit was on our walking tour of the city of London which was nearly 20 kilometres by the time we were back at our hotel near Waterloo Station in 2010. 

We also visited online at the service I believe it was St Hilda but the priest was incumbent for St Hilda and St Stephens. A really nice service actually and I am enjoying this tour around the country side. I just find that the idea of actually getting on the bus and then the train and heading to my Church downtown is just not practical for me. When the service is online I attend otherwise I am really feeling quite content at home singing the hymns of my childhood that I so enjoyed.

I did two major lesson times in Latin (about 2 hours in total) so that is coming along. I am starting to use it with my purchases of latin documents. I need to spend some time creating declensions for me to memorize. At 78.5 years I am happy with how well I am doing with the Latin. I am also looking forward to starting my French Conversation in September. I still read French very well (my written is a little rough) but my spoken is dreadful. So will improve on that. I will start the German a year after that and see how far I can get with that. French I studied at both High School, University and in my job but my German was primarily Scientific German and for two years only. It will be interesting to see how well I can do with both of them. 

I am pleased with my progress thus far with the two books - Blake and Pincombe. I have made decisions that I am pleased with and I just couldn't make them before now - deciding what to put in them and what not to put in them. I still think two years is reasonable to complete both books. 

Snowed today, not a lot but hopefully we get some snow cover back if it is going to get cold as that is so hard on the plants in the ground. 

Today cleaning day and I start on the top floor. We have plans for the summer downsizing already listed and will begin that eventually. I do want to eliminate more things this summer. There is too much to clean in terms of items that are simply not used.  

If time permits I will work on the Part 2 of the Blake Chart held by the Bridgwater Museum. It contains the "Hampshire Blake" which was created by an unknown person although an interesting Blake book published in the United States may actually reveal who that person was and as I vaguely recall it was a descendant of the Somerset Blake family. The author of that Blake family book visited with this individual in the 1800s to see material that he had at hand. Interesting day for sure. 

Teatime and latin lessons are next.