The branches of my cousins’ paternal family tree are becoming quite populated with leaves! They don’t realize how lucky they are that researchers have discovered the English origins for many of the immigrant ancestors.
Today is the first of five family sketches tracing the ancestry of William Blake who married Anne Breck, c1649 and who died in Milton, Massachusetts on 3 September 1703. A second series of three family sketches covering the Breck origins will follow this series.
The source for all this wonderful information is a 2009 article published in the New England Historic Genealogical Society journal, The Register, volume 163, beginning on page 85, published in multiple parts, Humphrey Blake (1494?-1558) and His Descendants in New England and South Carolina: Blake, Richards, Selleck, Torrey, and Wolcott by Clifford L. Stott. The article can be accessed on AmericanAncestors.org by subscription.
My family sketch is providing only the bare essentials of this family’s story, so I highly recommend viewing the entire, lengthy article to learn much more about their lives.
NOTE: This article specifically mentions that the book A Record of the Blakes of Somersetshire, England Especially in the Line of William Blake of Dorchester, Mass., edited by William H. Whitmore (Boston, privately printed, 1881) contains a fraudulent pedigree created by Horatio G. Somerby and was totally debunked by Paul C. Reed in 1999. However, it is available digitally online and less careful researchers are still publishing this fictitious information in their family trees.
Humphrey Blake was born c1494, possibly in Over Stowey, Somerset, England, where he lived. He married Anne, or Agnes (those names were interchangeable at the time), but whose maiden name is unknown.
Anne, or Agnes, might be a second wife because Humphrey had two surviving sons, both named John, possibly indicating two different mothers.
Birth years of Humphrey’s children are estimates, with a possible gap between the eldest son and heir, John, and his siblings indicating that the possible first wife was only the mother of Humphrey’s first child.
Children:
- John, born c1522; buried 10 December 1576, Over Stowey, Somerset, England; married Joan (MNU)
- Robert, born c1530; married Margaret Symonds
- Thomas, born c1532; possibly the man who married Ann Castleton, 29 April 1570, Bridgwater, Somerset, England
- John, born c1533; buried 21 August 1571, Over Stowey, Somerset, England; married Christian Jugg, 18 August 1558, Over Stowey, Somerset, England
- Agnes, born c1534; married Unknown Manning
- Eleanor, born c1536; married Unknown Langham
- Alice, born c1538; married George Slocombe
Humphrey Blake died on 19 November 1558 in Over Stowey, Somerset, England. A post mortem was held and he wasn’t buried until 10 December 1558.
The names of his parents are unproven, but Clifford Stott includes a discussion about how Humphrey Blake might have tied into earlier Blakes in the area.