Noteworthy Families, People and Events.
Work in progress.
Roger de Blaykeston bn. circa 1319. Son of Hugo de Blaykeston of Blakiston. Married Christiana de Wessington* . Legal advisor and special commissioner to the Bishop of Durham. Involved in the "Eland" family dispute.
"Richard (fil. Richard de Parc Chivaler) in 1341.......alienated to Roger de Blakiston, a messuage, five oxgangs of arable, and the meadow which Roger already held for term of life," (Rot.Bury, Ao8, Sched.11: cited by Surtees p159., Vol.iii).
Acquired lands from Richard del Park and Christian his wife in 1349, "deforceants, of six messuages, two hundred acres of land, twelve of meadow, two hundred of pasture, half a messuage, and a mill," orig. charter as quoted by Hutchinson, Cited by Surtees p.160 Vol.iii.1347-1377 p.16
Y.A.S. 54. Westminster Quindene of Martinmas 22 Edw.III 1348
Thomas de Fencotes Kn. & Joan his wife quer. Roger de Blaykeston and Thomas de Mersk def. of the manor of Little Fencotes and 7 messuages and 3 carucates of land in Scruton (near Bedale). To hold to Thomas de Fencotes and Joan and the heirs of Thomas.
Roger DE BLAYKESTON.
About 1376, on his seal, for the first time appears the Blakiston arms (McGlashan, 1974 p.2).
Seal of Roger de Blaykeston 1376 courtesy of Audrey Fletcher
* Of Interest the Wessington family can be traced backwards to the early King’s of Scotland. The name became Washington and forwards in time their most famous member is George Washington. I find it interesting to compare Roger de Blaykeston’s coat of arms to his wife’s Washington coat of arms. The only difference being the Cockerels rather than stars or 'molets'. Some say the Washington Stars are what inspired the stars in the ‘Stars and Stripes’.
Washington Window at Selby Abbey
Catholicism.
Throughout history the Blakiston's seem to epitomize how a family can be split by doctrinal disputes. In the main, however, Catholicism had a strong hold in the north. It also had a strong influence upon the family of Norton and made it's affects evident in their fortunes.
It is evident that the Etton family, ERY, where also caught up by the religious uncertainties. For them the dissolution of the monasteries seems, at least at first, to have improved their fortunes. In that they acquired land from the crown at this time. Land that had no doubt belonged to the church. On the other hand they may have felt it's negative impact. For example, in his will dated 1556, Christopher Blaystone of Etton requests:
"so longe as he is a student at Cambrydge.........I commytt this my son William to my Lord Chester...."
This is the eminent ecclesiastic Cuthbert Scott, the Marian Bishop of Chester and vice-chancellor of Cambridge University. These posts he held from 1547-1559 and his deprivation (57). I have no record of William having attended Cambridge.
The Etton family where connected though not necessarily my marriage to a number of distinguished families who had parts to play in the political, religious wrangling of the day. For example, being wards of Court to Sir Ralph Ellerker, marriage into the Bygod family which in turn were connected to the Aske family. Both of whom suffered due to the fall out from the Pligrimage of Grace.
Pilgrimage of Grace:
There is a possibility that both the Norton branches of the family and those of Etton where caught up in the Pilgrimage of Grace. Robert Askes (1500-1537), a Gray's Inn lawyer, was imprisoned in the Tower and executed for treason. Having, in 1536 led a major rebellion against Henry VIII (1509-1548).
"Henry VIII wanted a male heir. His first wife, Catherine of Aragon, did not produce one, so he decided to marry again. Catherine's nephew, Charles V, controlled Pope Clement VII who refused to grant an annulment; thus Henry repudiated the Pope's authority and set up the Church of England. In May 1533 Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, obligingly annulled Henry's marriage to Catherine and declared his secret marriage to Anne Boleyn to be valid. From 1534 Thomas Cromwell, Henry's right hand man, began to challenge Catholic beliefs and practices, and in 1536 established commissions to assess and collect taxes, to dissolve the lesser monasteries, and to investigate the clergy. The commissions aroused hostility and suspicion.
When on 2nd. October 1536 the Bishop of Lincoln's registrar arrived in Louth to investigate its clergy, he was seized by parishioners who feared that he was about to confiscate their church's treasure, and within two days a popular rebellion had swept through north Lincolnshire. On 4th. October Robert Aske, who was returning from Yorkshire to London for the Michaelmas law term, crossed the Humber at Parton and heard about the rebellion from the ferryman. Later that day Aske returned to Yorkshire and tried to restrain the rebels there, but by 10th. October was regarded as their "chief captain" and on the 16th. led 10,000 armed men into York. By then almost the whole of Yorkshire, parts of Northumberland and Durham, and Cumberland and Westmorland were in revolt; the most formidable of all the challenges to Henry VIII.
Aske seems to have been a devout man who found that he agreed with the Lincolnshire rebels' opposition to Henry VIII's religious policies, and objected in particular to the dissolution of the monasteries. Able and energetic, and with a charismatic personality he used his legal skills to draft a statement of the rebels' aims, and devised an oath by which they swore not to seek their own profit but to take part in a quasi-religious Pilgrimage of Grace, the confusing and enigmatic name by which the Yorkshire rebellion has been known ever since.
He did everything possible to prevent the use of force: only one man was killed during the Pilgrimage. He did not want to overthrow Henry VIII, but to present him with the Pilgrims' views, persuade him to reverse his religious policies, and to dismiss evil councillors such as Cranmer and Cromwell.
Aske was a younger son of Sir Robert Aske of Aughton near Selby. The family was well-connected. One of Aske's cousins was the earl of Cumberland (whose eldest son, lord Clifford, had married the earl of Suffolk's daughter, the king's niece ), and he had served the sixth earl of Northumberland as secretary. The gentry with whom he cooperated had a mixture of economic, financial, legal, political and religious grievances against Henry VIII's regime, but may have associated with the rebellion in order to control it and prevent bloodshed and disorder, for they were certainly reluctant to fight.
On 27th. October four of their leaders met the Duke of Norfolk on Doncaster bridge. He commanded the royal army and knew that he was outnumbered by about 30,000 to 10,000 so agreed to a truce and to allow two of the four (Robert Bowes and Sir Ralph Ellerker, another of Aske's cousins) to travel to Windsor to put their case to the king. After their return without any concessions the rebels lost confidence. On 6th. December Aske and his fellow leaders' met Norfolk in Doncaster, fell to their knees and begged for a free Parliament to discuss their views. Norfolk saw his chance, accepted their request, invited Aske to persuade the rebels to disperse, and kept the royal army ready for further trouble. By 8th. December the Pilgrimage of Grace was over.
Whether out of curiosity thanks for his part in ending the rebellion, or a cynical desire to detach him from the rebels, Henry VIII invited Aske to spend Christmas with the court at Windsor: but after further outbreaks in the north had him arrested in April, tried in May and executed on a specially built scaffold at Clifford's Tower in York on 12th. July 1537."
by John Wigley (First published in the OHA Magazine 2001-02)
for more details see: http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Documents/PilgrimageofGrace.htm
By Dec 1536 as many as 40,000 mustered beneath the banner of the 'Five Wounds'. According to Schama (2000), "It was, in effect, the first act of the English Wars of religion that mapped itself - as it would for centuries - as a Catholic north and west against a more reform minded, or at least heavily governed, southeast".(58)
Recusancy:
http://www.catholic-history.org.uk/nwchs/recushandbook.htm
Several Blakistons have been included in the lists of Recusants, Malignants and Delinquents, and had their estates compounded. Amongst whom where:
Sir William Blakiston Popish Recusant. (1553- ) son of John Blakiston & Elizabeth nee Bowes. Husband of Alice Claxton. His father had the sense not to offend the authorities but kept his Catholicism secret and in 1578 paid homage for his manor and took the Oath of Supremacy. Sir William, however, preferred to parade his Catholicism openly with disastrous consequences for the family. He was described in 1600 as 'the most obstinate and dangerous recusant in all these parts, whom no man for these 7 years past durst lay hands on'. He had to forfeit part of his estates to his brother Marmaduke and had to sell lands to pay recusancy fines for non-attendance of church. In 1607 he had some of his stock siezed and in 1609 he was confined to his manor house for his views. (1& 2)
Other members of the family suffered similar treatment. His brother Marmaduke was arraigned in Durham Cathedral for Romish practices. Two of Marmaduke's sons, Thomas Rev of Northallerton and Ralph Rev. of Ryton, were expelled from their benefices both for their Royalism and Catholic views in the 1640's. Ironic that their brother John was one of the trial judges of Charles I. (1 & 2). A Henry Blakiston is mentioned in a petition of 1648 as 'one of the bishop's gentlemen and now a papist living beyond the seas'. (1)
Martyrdom.
These ideological disputes produced martyrs on both sides. Many of whom by marriage or social context had connections with the families of both Norton and Etton Aske himself was connected by marriage to the Bowes family, others for example, Sir Francis Bygod of Settrington, who also was martyred for his role in the Pilgrimage, was connected by marriage to the Etton family.
Further martyrs, include Sir Nicholas Ridley of Battersby. His family may be connected to both Etton & Norton. He was both a supporter of the reformed faith and the ill-fated Lady Jane Grey. This led to his imprisonment in the Tower of London .
In 1555 along with Hugh Latimer former Bishop of Worcester he was burnt at the stake in Oxford. Hugh Latimer is said to have bade him to be of good cheer. "We shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England as, I trust, shall never be put out". In 1841 near the scene of their execution was erected the Martyrs' memorial in Oxford. (5) For further information see;
http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/269.html
A Portrait can be purchased from the National Portrait Gallery: http://www.npg.org.uk/live/index.asp
Dissolution of the Monastries:
See the Etton Family and Catholicism above.
Rebellion of the Northern Earls.
This represented the first serious threat to the position of Elizabeth II. Members of the Blakiston family joined in. The Rebellion was led by the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland. It began on 14th Nov. 1569 with the destruction of Protestant devices in Durham Cathedral and the celebration of mass there. On 16th Nov the rebels issued a proclamation at Darlington. In this they declared loyalty to the queen. Despite such public announcements they continued to support Mary Stuart. They hoped to see her wed to the Catholic Duke of Norfolk. After a month the rebellion collapsed in total failure.
The Earl of Sussex and Sir George Bowes, brother-in-law of John Blakiston (1556-86), were commisioned to deal with the rebels. The returns they sent to London list several Blakistons:
“Fines assessed and levied at Durham 1st April 1570 upon divers persons being offenders in the late rebellion in the North Parts..,
Norton
| Thomas Musgrave gent. | 30/— | Richard Smyth | 10/- |
| George Lascelle | 13/4 | William Chypchis | 20/—
|
| Roger Widdowe | 10/— | Thomas Wrighte | 20/—
|
| Robert Gatte | 6/8 | Thomas Carlton | 16/—
|
| Robert Robbeson | 10/— | Roger Jefferson | 20/—
|
| Thomas Blakeston | 13/4 | Nicholas Jefferson | 10/—
|
| William Bussey | 13/4 | William Blakeston | 20/—
|
| John Wigan | 26/8 | William Jefferson | 13/4
|
TOTAL £12 6 0d
“25th April 1570. Pardons for all treason, rebellion and other offences committed between Nov. 1 1569 and 31st Jan. 1570. On report of their penitence for their part in the rebellion in the North, testified before the Queen’s Commissioners...
Norton Nicholas Blaxton...Roger Netterton, John Blaxton, William Kitchen, Robert Crewe, John Robinson, William Blaxton, Robert Gates, Richard Smyth, Thomas Blaxton...yeomen.”
Marmaduke Blakiston 'Rebel'.
His brother Marmaduke, the third son of Thomas Blakiston of Blakiston & Elizabeth (nee Place), was admitted to the Inner Temple.(55) Later He figures in the above rebellion of the Earls (1569) as the 'writer', or composer of their manifestoes. He was attainted, but escaped to Brussels with the Earl of Westmoreland, and was afterwards pardoned.
"Little mercy was shown to any person implicated in the rising; upwards of 800 perished on the gallows, and 57 noblemen and gentlemen were attainted by parliament, and their estates confiscated. Severe penal enactments were passed, by which anyone refusing to attend the reformed service was liable to fine and imprisonment; to become a priest, or to harbour one, or be present at mass, were crimes punishable with death. At York alone, 28 priests were hanged, bowelled, and quartered for exercising their sacerdotal functions, 11 laymen were executed for harbouring priests, and one woman was barbarously pressed to death for the same crime."
http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Documents/NorthernRebellion.htm
The Rise of Puritanism
Through the course of the 1500's Puritanism gained a greater hold. By the 1630's it was not just a manner of worship but an entire subculture. "Which began in the cradle of the family hearth, embraced and enclosed men, women and children with its godly vision and conditioned the way they saw the political world" (58). An outcome of these ideologies was the urge to create settlements in the Caribbean and New England. One pioneer was the Rev William Blaxton:
REV WILLIAM BLAXTON.
I am quite controversial when it comes to the Rev William Blaxton's line of descent (see Myths, Romance or Truth, Reality).
Blaxton or Blackstone, William. B.A. Adm. sizar at Emmauel, May 16, 1614. B.A. 1617-8; M.A. Ord. deacon and Priest (Peterb.) May 23, 1619. Emigrated to New England 1625. Lived, as a literary hermit, first on the site of the present Boston; afterwards, for 25 years, on what is now known as the Blackstone River. Married, at Boston, July 1659, Sarah, widow of John Stephenson. Died May 26, 1675. Left a large library. (D.N.B.; Felt;J.G.Bartlett.) Alumni Cantabrigiensis part 1 to 1851 Venn Vol 1:
BLACKSTONE or BLAXTON, WILLIAM (d. 1675), one of the earliest episcopal clergymen resident in New England as distinguished from the puritan founders of New England, must, according to the records ofMassachusetts, have arrived in the colony between 1620 and 1630. In the ‘Literary Diary’ of President Stiles he is called ‘anepiscopal clergyman'—his name being variantly spelled Blackstone, Blackston, and Blaxton. He was found by the Massachusetts Bay colony, on their arrival in 1630, settled on the peninsula of Shawmut, where the city of Boston now stands. He had had a pleasant cottage built and a garden planted. Difficulties beset him with the new-corners. As a consequence he sold his property and removed to the more tolerant colony of Roger Williams in 1631, observing that ‘he had left England to escape the power of the lord bishops, but he found himself in the hands of the Lord’s brethren.’ According to Stiles’s ‘Diary’ be ‘removed to Blaxton river and settled six miles north of Providence.’ Elsewhere in the same diary we learn that he was ‘a great student with a large library,’ that he ‘rode a bull for want of a horse,’ and ‘preached occasionally,’ and that his home and library were burnt in King Philip’s war. He married, 4 July 1659, widow Sarah Stephenson, who died in June 1673. Blackstone died 26 May 1676. ‘He was buried,’says the ‘Massachusetts Historical Collections’ (2nd series x. 710), ‘in classic ground. on Study Hill, where it is said a white stone marks his grave.’ President Stiles visited his grave in 1771, and left a careful map of the whole region, marking the homes of Blackstone, Roger Williams, and Samuel Gorton, the patriarchs of New England (local) history. The high ground on which his second New England home was built—about SIX mile. from Providence—still bears the name of ‘Study Hill,’ because it was on this hill that Blackstone pursued his studies which gave him a wide reputation. The Blackstone river (formerly Pawtucket) and the Blackstone canal also preserve his name.
Dr. Samuel Hopkins speaks as Blackstone man of learning,’ and doubtfully adds:He seems to have been of the puritan persuasion, and to have left his country for his nonconformity.' He tells us also that ‘he used to come to Providence and preach, and to encourage his hearers gave them the firstapples they ever saw '—his orchard having been as celebrated as his library. Lechford, ‘who wrote in 1641, thus mentions him: ' One Mr. Blackstone, a minister sent from Boston, having lived there nine or ten years, because he would not join the church; he lives with Mr. [Roger] Williams, but is far from his opinions.'~.
[Massachusetts Historical Collections, iv. 202 x 710; Johnson’s Wonder-working Providence, where is to be found a notice of one who sympathised with Blackstone: ‘Mr.Samuel Maverick, living on Noddle’s Island in Boston Harbour. an enemy to the reformation in hand, being strong for the lordly prelatical power;’ Holmes’s Annals, i. 377; Savage’s Winthrop, i. 44; Everett’s Address, Second Century, 29; Sprague’s Annals of the American Pulpit, v. 1-3.) A. B. G.Copied from The Dictionary of National Biography (1917) with the kind permission of The Oxford University Press.
The Gunpowder Plot (1605)
I merely mention this in that Yorkshire seems to have been a starting point for a number of political insurrections. Guy Fawkes, of course, was a York man. He was in fact the son of Edward Fawkes and Edith Blake. Edward was one of the Faulkes family of Farnley. The will of William Blackeston of Etton 1641 lists amongst his well-beloved friends and kinsmen, not only a Christopher Ridley and Robert Aske but also Michael Faulkes esq of Farnley. Michael was a distant cousin of Guy.
For information on the Gunpowder Plot see http://www.gunpowder-plot.org/
The British Civil War
It may be argued that the English Civil war represents the pinnacle of this church, state conflicts. The causes are many and varied. Almost as varied as the men who fought them. Probably at no greater time has it been evident who religious and political ideologies may split family member against family member.
Many fought for parliament due to a fear that the Church of England, was veering towards Rome. Many supported the King because they feared fanatical Puritanism.
See http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/ or http://www.sealedknot.org/home.asp
Colonel William Blakiston. (abt 1621- ) son of Henry Blakiston of Archdeacon-Newton & husband of Mary Egerton daughter of Sir Richard Egerton of Ridley. He was a Colonel in the service of Charles 1st. Knighted at Oxford in 1643. He was desperately wounded in the attack at Massey's quarters at Monmouth in 1644. For some time, having refused to give parole, he was imprisoned in Maxstoke and Warwick Castles.
Sir Ralph Blakiston Delinquent Baronet.
Sir William Blakiston the Cavalier Colonel. (abt. 1621-1685) son of William Blakiston of Old Malton and married to Mary Belasye daughter of Sir William Belasye of Morton House. Described by HED Blakiston as the 'Noisy Cavalier'. He was a J.P. and represented Durham City in 1679-80.
John Blakiston Regicide M.P. for Newcastle.
Despite the strong catholic views of many of the Blakiston's, and the sufferings that a number of them occured for their 'Romish Practices', the family was not without it's dissenters. John Blakiston, son of the Rev Marmaduke Prebend of Durham, was a devout puritan and parliamentarian. Beneath is his signature as it appears on the death warrant of Charles Ist:
However, his identity has been disputed. In 1798 Rev Mark Noble in his book on the 'English Regicides,' states "it is singular that in the Nation's trial of King Charles I., his baptismal name is invariably given as John, but it was Joseph; his brother John was one of Oliver's committee for the county of Northumberland so late as 1657". Looking at the above signature I would say that this is questionable. His account is seen "as full of errors", (Dict. of National Biography p.653). It is commonly held that the Regicide was John. The following tree is from Surtees:
I like Rev. Noble's comment when he says, "Little did Charles I., think when Mr. Robert Blackiston was, with other prebendaries, supporting the canopy over his head, that his brother Joseph should sentence it to be cut off."(16)
BLAKISTON, JOHN (1603-1649), regicide, was the son of Marmaduke Blakiston, prebendary of Durham. He was baptised on 21 Aug. 1603, and married in November 1626 Susan Chamber. He became a mercer in Newcastle, and prospered so well in his business that he was able to subscribe 9001. for the reconquest of Ireland (1642). Although his father was a strong high churchman, the friend and father-in-law of Cosin, and a noted pluralist (see COSIN’s Correspondence,i. 185), John Blakiston became a puritan, and was, in 1636, cited before the High Commission Court for nonconformity, and for defaming the vicar of Newcastle (Records of High Commission Court in the Diocese of Durham (Surtees Society), p. 155). He was fined 1001. and excommunicated till he submitted. On 30 Jan. 1641 he was voted member for Newcastle in place of Sir J. Melton, whose election was annulled. When the Scots captured Newcastle he was also appointed mayor, in place of Sir John Marlay (Brand p. 469). He suffered losses during the war, and was accordingly, on 8 June 1645, voted an allowance of 4l. a week, which was continued till 20 Aug. 1646. According to Noble he was also granted the sum of 14,0001. and given the post of coal meter at Newcastle, worth 2001. a year. Holles in his ‘Memoirs’ describes Blakiston as one of the ‘little northern beagles’set onto stir up public feeling against the Scots by exaggerating the contributions they had levied on the country. He was appointed one of the king’s judges, was present at every sitting during the trial, and signed the death-warrant. In April 1649 the corporation of Newcastle found it necessary to write to the speaker to vindicate their representative from the charges brought against him in the ‘humble remonstrance’ of George Lilburn. They praise Blakiston as ‘unapt to cram himself with the riches of his ruined country, or seek after great things’ (Tanner M88. lvi. 22). He died shortly afterwards, for his will is dated 1 June 1649, and he is spoken of as deceased in the Commons Journals of 6 June. On 16 Aug. 1649 the house voted3,0001. to provide for his widow and children. Brand’s History of Newcastle; Surtees’ History of Durham, iii. 166 -402; Noble's account in his Lives of the Regicides is full of errors.] C.H.P." (5) Copied from The Dictionary of National Biography (1917) with the kind permission of The Oxford University Press.
Cromwell's Dissolution of the Long Parliament, 1653.
Of particular note to our American Cousins. The George Blakiston who, with his wife Barbara, left for Maryland circa 1669; was John's brother. John in his will in 1649 left £50 to each of George's children, because their father, 'hath suffered much with him the testator in public concerns'.(1)
Col. Nehemiah Blakiston Commissary General of Maryland
Son of the Regicide. Capt. John Coode appointed Nehemiah in Aug. 1690 to administer government in Maryland. He was superceded by Copley. Nehemiah was married to Catherine daughter of Thomas Gerrard and sister of Mrs Coode. He was given the custody of the new great seal of the province of Maryland (bearing the royal arms) on or shortly after 1 Oct. 1692, when Gov. Copley received it from England. On 17th Oct 1692 the Governer appointed him Commissary general. He was suspended from the Council and dismissed from office, 2 Oct 1693, He died the following December. (62)
Nathaniel Blakiston Colonial Governer.
Grandson of John and nephew of Nehemiah, Nathaniel Blakiston was Colonial Governer of sucessively Montesarrat and Maryland.(1) He was married to Dame Thomazine Thornhill who died 1697 on board the HMS Mermaid. He left for England in 30 June 1702. He was the Maryland Agent in London, 1702-09 and 1713-1721. (34) As can be seen from the above he had children Nathaniel and Rachel. His will of 1721 calls him Nathaniel Blakiston of Black Callerton, NBL. In it he mentions his then wife Maria (nee Rainsford?), son Nathaniel, daughter Rachel Schutz wife of Col. John Schutz and grand-daughter Anna Maria Schutz. (35)
18th C.
Sir Matthew Blakiston (1702-1774). 1st Baronet & Lord Mayor of London in 1760. Proven descendent of Hugo de Blaykeston.
Monument at St Thomas’s, Lymington, Hants to his the 2nd Baronet. Sir Matthew Blakiston (1761-1806). Beneath which is a monument to the 2nd Baronet’s wife. Dame Anne Blakiston (nee Rochfort).
Blakiston/Rochfort Coat of Arms at St Thomas's, Lymington, Hants.
BLACKSTONE, JOHN (d. 1753), botanist a London apothecary. He published Fesciculus Plantarum circa Harefield (Middlesex) sponte nascentium,’ London, 1737; ‘Plantae rariores Angliae,' London, 1737; ‘Specimen Botanicum quo Plantarum plurium rariorum Angliae indigenarum loci naturales illustrantur,’ London, 1746, to which a number of other botanists contributed. In it several species wore added to the British flora. The author intended to publish a second volume of the ‘Specimen,’ for which he had collected materials, but he died in 1753 before its completion. [Pulltney's Sketches of the Progress of Botany, ii. 270, London, 1790]. Copied from The Dictionary of National Biography (1917) with the kind permission of The Oxford University Press.
BLACKSTONE, Sir WILLIAM (1723-1780), legal writer and judge, was born in Cheapside, London, on 10 July 1723. He was the posthumous son of Charles Blackstone, who is described as ‘a silkman, and citizen and’ bowyer of London,’ and who came of a Wiltshire family. His mother, a daughter of Lovelace Bigg of Chilton Foliot in Wiltshire, died before he was twelve years of age, leaving him to the care of his brother, a London surgeon. Through being thus early left an orphan, he was saved, it has been reasonably suggested, from passing through life as a prosperous tradesman. He had already gone to Charterhouse School, and after his mother’s death was, on the nomination of Sir Robert Walpole, admitted on the foundation. When he left for Oxford in 1788, he was head of the school; and perhaps from the fact that he pined a gold medal for some verses on Milton, we may gather that his mind had already received its strong literary bent. At Pembroke College, which he entered at the age of fifteen, his studies were chiefly in Classical learning. Among his contemporaries Was Shenstone the poet; and doubtless at this time were written most of the 'originals and translations' which he is said to have afterwards collected in an unpublished volume. From the pieces which can still be traced to him, and which are full of the strained andstilted mannerisms of the period, we canjudge that nothing has been lost to English literature by Blackstone’s seeking in poetry only a relaxation. In 1741 he entered himself at the Middle Temple, (at which point his father is described as Charles Blackstone of London deceased, citizen & maker of bows) solemnly marking the change in his life by a poem entitled ‘The Lawyer’s Farewell to his Muse,’ wherein English law is figured, in the spirit of his ‘Commentaries,’ as a complex yet harmonious whole. The poem has been often reprinted e.g. in Dodsley, vol. iii., Southey’s ‘Spëcimens of English Poetry,’ Irving Browns’s ‘Law and Lawyers in Literature.’ Of his legal studies we know nothing except from a letter written by him in 1745 (see Law Stud. Map. ii. 279), in which ha describes himself as following the plan sketched out by 0. J. Reeve (see Coll. Jurid. i. 79) and as having already finished one book of Littleton without experiencing much difficulty. ‘In my apprehension,’ be says, again anticipating the ‘Commentaries,’ ‘the learning out of use is as necessary to a beginner as that of every day’s practice.’ The vow of exclusive attachment to law was not rigorously kept. Before completing his twentieth year he had written a treatise on the ‘ Elements of Architecture,’ which has never been published, but which was highly spoken of by those to whom it was shown. He became a careful student of Shakespeare; Malone tells us that ‘the notes which he gave me on Shakespeare show him to have been a man of excellent taste and accuracy, and a good criticik’ (Prior, Life of Malone, 431. The notes are initialed ‘—E’ in Malone’s supplement). Even verse was not abandoned, though he had to write in secret. His friends particularly admired a poem written by him in 1751 on the death of Frederick, prince of Wales; but it has now little interest except to collectors of literary parallels, who will compare with ‘the cock’s shrill clarion’ of Gray’s ‘Elegy’ (published in the same year)
The bird of day
‘Gan morn’s approach with clarion shrill declare.
It appeared under the name of Blackstone’s brother-in-law, Clitherow, and is reprinted in ‘Gent. Mag.’ ii. 835. This interest in literature never left him. Thus in his last years, when he sat on the bench, we find him carefully discussing, as if it were an important legal case, the quarrel between Pope and Addison, and criticising by the light of Pope’s letters the account of the quarrel given in Ruffhead’s ‘Life.’ He had already been elected a fellow of All Souls (1744) and had taken the degree of B.O.L. (1745), when, after the usual period of probation, then five years, he was called to the bar in 1746. For a long time be made little way, ‘not being,’ it ii said, ‘happy in a graceful delivery or a flow of elocution (both of which he much wanted), Copied from The Dictionary of National Biography (1917) with the kind permission of The Oxford University Press.
A Portrait can be purchased from the National Portrait Gallery: http://www.npg.org.uk/live/index.asp
Napoleonic Wars.
Thomas B. Blakistone. A.S., O.M.D., 18 Nov. 1805. Resident S., Chatham,1 Oct. 1806. d. at Chatham, 12 Nov. 1813. Supernumerary A.S. 30 June 1804.(13) His father was Christopher Blakestone surgeon of Rochester & Chatham, Kent but formerly of Beverley, ERY. Christopher had originally been the apprentice of George Stovin in Hull. Prior to moving south and marrying in 1765, Elizabeth Lydia Bradley daughter of Thomas Bradley. Thomas Bradley Blackiston went onto to found a family many of whose descendents are in Australia today. A son Thomas Henry was 1st Lt in the Army. Thomas senior's brother Lt. William Blackiston of Bolney, Sussex, founded a large family which kept the name Blackiston. William was a Lt. of HM 36th Regt of Foot. Another brother Charles James was a Captain in the Royal Marines. Thus, a family much involved in the Napoleonic Wars.
As were descendents of the Lord Mayor of London. Including Major John Blakiston (1785-1867), and his son Captain Thomas Wright Blakiston (1832-1891) left accounts of their military adventures and travels. The Major's brother Commander Thomas Blakiston (1790-1855), left accounts of his experiences as a French Prisoner of War and his escape from Givet.
Capt Thomas Wright Blakiston (bn 1832 Lymington Hants. d. 1891 Ohio) Explorer.
20th C.
HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (4th August 1900 - 30th March 2002)
The Queen Mother Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon is a direct descendent of the Blakiston family of Norton. Her direct ancestor (2nd great grandmother) was Mary Eleanor Bowes (1748-1800) who m. John Lyon 9th Earl of Strathmore. She was the dau. of George Bowes of Streatham Castle and Mary Gilbert. It was the Bowes-Lyon marriage that created the Queen Mother’s maiden name.
Bowes
George Bowes (1701-1760) of Streathame Castle was the son of William Bowes and Elizabeth Blackiston (dau. of Francis Blackiston and Ann Bowes), grandson of Thomas Bowes and Ann Maxtone, great grandson of Thomas Bowes and Anne Wauchope, 2nd great grandson of George Bowes and Jane Talbot, 3rd great grandson of Richard Bowes and Elizabeth Aske, 4th great grandson of Ralph Bowes and Margery Conyers who are the grandparents of George Bowes, father of Elizabeth Bowes who m. John Blackiston.
Blackiston
George Bowes (1701-1760) was the grandson of Francis Blackiston, great grandson of Ralph Blackiston and Margaret Fenwick, 2nd great grandson of Sir William Blackiston and Jane Lambton, 3rd great grandson of George Blackiston and Eleanor Swaine, 4th great grandson of Roger Blackiston and Elizabeth Marley, 5th great grandson of William Blackiston and Eleanor Millot., 6th great grandson of William Blackiston and Anne Conyers who were the grandparents of John Blackiston who m. Elizabeth Bowes. (this is printed with permission of Rev Christos Christou Jr)
Georgina Blakiston. Copy of her Obituary:
GEORGIANA BLAKISTON, who has died aged 92, was one of the “Bright Young Things” of the 1920s, an went on to become a respected family historian. A Russell by birth, and related to the Dukes of Bedford, she was married for 55 years to the historian and short story writer Noel Blakiston, who was, Cyril Connolly’s first great love. Noel Blakiston and Connolly had been contemporaries at Eton, and Connolly’s letters to him were eventually published as A Romantic Friendship. Noel spent his working life as an archivist in the Public Records Office, and gave his wife the task of putting Lord John Russell’s papers in order. This stimulated an interest that bore fruit in her Lord William Russell and his Wife (1972) and Woburn and the Russet Is (1980), both of which were widely admired. Georgiana Russell was born in January 1903. Her father, Harold, was a barrister; her mother, Lady Bita was a daughter of the 2nd Earl Granville, and a well-known figure in London society. Lord William Russell, whose letters and diaries “Giana” later edited, was her great-grandfather, and Bertand Russell a cousin. Her grandmother was French and, following French custom, left her house to all her six children, so that Giana grew up Surrounded by unmarried aunts and uncles. The youngest of them, Conrad, was described by Evelyn Waugh as “one of the most exquisitely entertaining men I have ever known”. Giana’s last published work was Letters of Conrad Russell (1987). Despite her eventual prowess as an, editor and historian, young Giana was not bookish. Instead, she “did” the Season eight years in a row. In his diary for December 1925, Waugh recalled drinking warm champagne with her, which made her “quite drunk”: she in turn remembered Waugh and Matthew Ponsonby — “tight as ticks” — driving at speed the wrong way around Hyde Park Corner. Giana’s sister, Liza, married Richard Plunket Greene, who was very much Dart of Waugh’s world, as was the writer and gossip columnist Patrick Kinross. For a time Kinross shared a house with Cyril Connoly, whom Giana first met at a party thrown by the two. Giana met her future husband at a dance given by the Longfords in 1926. The son of a Lincolnshire vicar, Noel Blakiston had recently come down from Cambridge, and was casting about for a career. He married Giana in 1929. Connolly was in Paris at the time, and too broke to make it to the wedding. But he entertained the couple on their way to their honeymoon in Spain, and presented them with a short guide to the countryside around Granada, especially written for the occasion. Despite his attachment to Noel, Connolly thoroughly approved of his bride. In one of the letters included in A Romantic Friendship he described her as “a mine of unexpected qualities, a belle au bois dormant, so detached and yet so alive”. He thought that Blakiston’s impulsiveness would be good for her, and she would give him the confidence he needed. Elsewhere he wrote that his own fiancée, Jeannie, was like Giana in being “masculine in mind and feminine in feeling”. The next year Connolly and Jeannie were married. In 1930 the Blakistons bought the terraced house in Markham Square, Chelsea, in which Giana was to live, on and off, for the rest of her life. Of their two daughters, Caroline became a well-known actress. The advent of children led to a slight cooling of relations with the Connollys. Much to their regret, Jeannie was unable to have children, and in later years Giana wondered whether an envious Connolly might not have had the Blakistons in mind when he described “the pram in the hall” as one of the snares for prospective writers. During the Second World War, many of the files from the Public Record Office were removed for safe-keeping to Clandon Park, a large and rather bleak Georgian mansion near Guildford. The Blakistons went with them. James Lee-Milne visited them in 1942. “They seem perfectly content to live in this vast, dust-filled house, in a makeshift manner,” he wrote in his diary. “They are not in the least deterred by lack of domestic comfort and what are termed the minimal amentities.” Giana, he wrote, “is so easy that I can chatter with her unreservedly, a thing I can do with very few.” Another visitor was Cyril Connolly. “Cyril came here for the day and seemed very sadly out of touch and unchanged and rather old. fashioned,” Giana told Kinross. As editor of Horizon, Connolly was in the unhappy position of suggesting that his friend send his short stories to the Cornhill instead. Some 10 years later, Connolly failed to acknowledge receipt of a collection of Blakiston’s stories and Giana was so incensed that she cut him at a TLS party. Towards the end of Connolly’s life relations were restored.After the war, the Blakistons bought Parsonage Farm, at Bentworth in Hampshire, where Giana indulged her love of gardening. Noel died in 1984, and three years later Giana moved back to Markham Square. Shortly before she left, the writer Michael Davie paid her a visit. Parsonage Farm was, he wrote, “a long low house in a less than perfect state of repair”. Inside he encountered “indescribable chaos: cardboard boxes overflowing with books, pillows stacked on chairs, a pile of turn-of-the-century women’s hats and bonnets, a child’s cricket bat, old-fashioned brassbound croquet mallets, a heap of good-looking bone china, -an inlaid table, and propped up on the floor an oil portrait of Turgenev”.Like Parsonage Farm, Giana Blakiston’s house in Markham Square seemed frozen in time: dark, rather musty and crammed with beautiful things. It gave the impression of not having been decorated since the newly-weds moved in more than 50 years before. Although Jeannie Connolly thought Giana “beautiful, like a Holbein drawing”, its owner was handsome rather than pretty, with a noble head, sad, clear-cut features and an equally firm gaze. If, on first meeting, she seemed gruff and slightly alarming, she soon revealed herself as warm-hearted and entertaining, hobbling to the front door on her stick — she was arthritic in her later years — and briskly snatchng the receiver from her elderly Bakelite telephone.She continued to garden, collecting seeds on her travels to the Mediterranean, often in the company of the art historians John Fleming and Hugh Honour: in the garden at Markham Square stood a horse chestnut which she had brought back as a conker from Paris nearly 70 years before. Caroline Blakiston (Actress)
Bn. 13th Feb 1933 in London. Daughter of Noel Blakiston & Georgiana
|
Oswell Blakiston (1907-1985) Bn. Henry James Hasslecher. Author, Photographer, Poet & Critic.
Harry Blackstone Sr (1885-1965) Born Harry Boughton http://info.detnews.com/history/story/index.cfm?id=83&category=people
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mhc_mhm_blackstone_49265_7.pdf
Harry Blackstone Jr (1934-1997) Magicians. http://www.amdest.com/stars/harryb.html
Baroness Tessa Ann Vosper Blackstone.
Tessa, Baroness of Stoke Newington. Daughter of Geoffrey Blackstone. Has A distinguished career in the fields of education and politics. Former Minister for Arts, in the Ministry of Culture, Media and Sport. (picture with permission of her brother Christopher John Blackstone).
Ken Blakeson (1944- ). Author & Playwright.
Well known, for amongst other things, popular soaps such as 'Emmerdale Farm', and 'Coronation Street'.
Roger Blakiston. (1948- ). Actor & Magician. Descended from the Blakiston Family of Seaton.
