William Blake (1620-1703): An "Ordinary" Man in Massachusetts Bay Colony

My 9th great grandfather William Blake baptized at Pitminster, Somerset, England on 6 September 1620 was one of many men in his family carrying the same name. His father too was William Blake (1594-1663) and his father before him (William Blake ca.1560-1642). Not surprisingly, our William also had a son named William Blake (1656-1699). Confusing!

Somerset, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1531-1812
for Pitminster 1620-1621 (baptism William Blake son of William Blake)

Pitminster is located four miles south of Taunton in Somerset. The Church of St. Andrew and St. Mary where William was baptized is considered unusual in this area for having a spire.

The copyright on this image is owned by Derek Harper and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license: Pitminster Church photo by Derek Harper

William's father had married the widow Agnes Lyon Bond (or Band) in 1617, also at Pitminster Church. William was the third of four children born to them, the first two being twins Anne and John born in 1618.

By the mid 1630s, William's parents decided to move their family across the Atlantic to the growing Massachusetts Bay Colony. William would have been in his mid-teens. No record of the ship name or date has yet been located, but the first record for the family is a land grant in dated 14 May 1636. William's father became a freeman and member of the church on 14 March 1638/9.  He served as constable 1641, selectman 1645-47 and 1651, on committee for new meetinghouse 1645, and as town clerk 1656 until within 6 weeks of his death on October 25, 1663. Clearly, he was an active participant in his community.

William's father's will is interesting not only for providing equally for all his children, but also for the unusual first bequest being a small gift to the town for the repairing of the burying ground on condition that it would be done within a year of his decease. (This was done as requested.)

Our William had in the meantime married his first wife Anna (possibly Lyon) in 1649 in Dorchester, which is now a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. They had numerous children beginning with Samuel in 1650 and others following at fairly predictable 2 year intervals until 1673. My 8th great grandmother Experience Blake was born to them in 1665 in Milton. In 1660 William had received an allotment of land in a part of Dorchester set off as Milton and he had moved his family there to a farm on Brush Hill the same year that new daughter Experience was born.

Like his father, William occupied many public offices in Milton over the years, beginning with membership on a committee to build a new meetinghouse in the new town. He served as selectman in local government for several years and was sergeant of the local military company. He was chosen as Deputy to the General Court in 1680, 1683, 1690 and 1697. His main occupation was farming, but it also seems he was a carpenter. He obtained the right to obtain "clobords" (clapboards) out of the swamp for his own use. In 1683, he and Reverend Peter Thatcher righted the hedge in the minister's pasture and "Sergeant Blake agreed to ground sill my house and lay a double floor and new sleepers," according to the minister's diary.

It appears that William and Reverend Thatcher were good friends. Also from Reverend Thatcher's diary we learn that in January of 1684, he and William were joined by Brother Clap and Mr. Taylor to go deer hunting, but having no luck, they returned for supper at Sergeant Blake's. This may have been to William and Anna Blake's home or it could have been to their inn, if it was still in operation. William had been authorized to keep an inn or "ordinary" in December of 1682 as shown by the County Court records: "Upon consideration of the necessity of a house of entertainment for Travellers in the new road from Taunton to new Bristol over Brush Hill, William Blake is allowed to keepe an Ordinary until April next." No further records show any extension to this right to keep his ordinary beyond April of 1683 so we don't know how long he remained an "ordinary" man.

William's wife Anna died in about 1680. He remarried the widow Hanna Tolman on 22 November 1693 at the age of 73. William died about ten years later on 3 September 1703. His will, executed shortly before his death, made provision for the comfort of his "dear loving wife. He left property to his sons Nathaniel and Edward and legacies to his son Samuel and daughters Anne Gilbert, Mary Willis, Experience Carver and Mehitable Briggs.

Gravestone of William's daughter Experience (Blake) Carver
Bridgewater Cemetery, Massachusetts
1999 photo by Joanne Barnard

Helpful Resources:

• Blake, Francis E., Increase Blake of Boston: His Ancestors and Descendants, With a Full Account of  William Blake of Dorchester and his Five Children, 1898,  Boston, Mass. accessible online at https://archive.org/stream/increaseblakeofb00blak/increaseblakeofb00blak_djvu.txt
• Schutz, John A., Legislators of the Massachusetts General Court 1671-1780: A Biographical Dictionary, 1997, p. 165.
• Cutter, William Richard, New England Families: A Genealogical and Memorial, Genealogical Publishing Company, 1996, p.1436

Emma Matilda Smith Barnard (1838-1908): Importer of a Frozen Sheep

This memorandum found among the Barnard family treasures cannot but pique one's curiosity.

Why would Mrs. Barnard be receiving a frozen sheep sent by steamship and rail all the way from New Zealand in 1885?

Mrs. E Barnard in this document refers to my husband's great grandmother born Emma Matilda Smith in East Dean, Gloucestershire in 1838 to William and Harriet Smith.

First, a bit of background. When she was 19, Emma married James Barnard of Littledean, Gloucestershire and started a family with him that would eventually include 11 children. From census and mining records we know that James was involved in free-mining as co-owner of Birch Hill Gale as well as being a shopkeeper and innkeeper. He was also very active in quarrying and building brick/stone houses in the Forest of Dean, many of which are still in use.

James was obviously an ambitious man and no doubt a good provider for his growing family.

1861 census with Innkeeper James and wife Emma at Butchers Arms, East Dean

James had a reputation as the strongest man in the Forest of Dean, according to information provided by his grandson Arthur Barnard to Richard Barnard who wrote about it in his school project  "My Family History". On a bet, James carried two sacks of corn (each 120 pounds) up a steep grass hill.  He ruptured himself so badly that he was never able to lie down again. In fact, James died at the age of just 46, quite possibly as a result of this ill-advised wager.

Then things fell apart for widowed Emma. They had already lost eldest son Clement in a mining accident when he was killed by falling rock in the Dowlais Company's Edge Hill Mine in 1875. Left on her own to raise the remaining 10 children, she soon learned that life would not be easy.  She had to call upon her young children to help.

From "My Family History" by Richard Barnard: "J.M Barnard started work at the age of 9 picking rocks for 6 pence a day. He and his brother Naboth used to collect laundry from about two miles into the forest, which his mother used to launder for 1 penny a family plus 1 penny carriage.  They grew up in extreme poverty because his mother was too proud to seek help from the Poor Law." It was said that a male relative had come and claimed all James's estate, leaving Emma with no money for supporting her large family. When he was just 10 or 11 son John Mathias Barnard was sent to London to work as an errand boy for an uncle. Earning just 3 shillings 6 pence a week, he managed to send 2 shillings 6 pence home to his mother. Later writings by son John indicate his belief that women were very badly treated in business, no doubt resulting from some bad experiences his mother had had.

Emma did manage to either retain or obtain a shop as indicated by the following entry in the 1881 census just a couple of years after her husband's death:

Emma Barnard, widowed shopkeeper 1881 with son Job and the 5 youngest children at home, Plump Hill, East Dean

Son Job, a gardener and later a miner, married in 1884 and it seems that Emma was basically running the shop on her own with probable assistance from her younger children. Son George Arthur Barnard (aka Arthur George Barnard) had emigrated to New Zealand where he had married in 1885. Perhaps he was instrumental in placing the meat order on his mother's behalf.

Historical information shows that this was brand new technology with the first such shipment having been made by the Gear Meat Preserving Freezing Company just 3 years earlier in 1882. This was the same company that shipped the frozen sheep to Emma, though on a different ship - the newer Steamer Aorangi. From London, the sheep was to be shipped to Emma by rail on one of the fast "perishables" trains on the Great Western Railway and should have arrived on the 4th or 5th of January 1886 to be sold in her shop.

It isn't clear how long she retained her shop. At the time of the 1891 census, she was enumerated as a visitor at the home of her daughter and son-in-law in London. One clue can, however, be found in her youngest son Arthur's service record from 1896 (Short Service Army form B.265) indicating that he had been a grocer's assistant in East Dean parish in Gloucestershire so perhaps she still had the shop up until at least 1896. By the 1901 census, she was living on her own means next door to son Job and family in East Dean. She died there in her 70th year, a strong hard-working woman who had lived to see her children well settled and successful people in their own rights.

Emma Matilda (Smith) Barnard

Sergeant Humphrey Johnson (1620-1692) - Don't Mess Around with Him!

My 9X great grandfather Humphrey Johnson arrived with his parents Captain John and Margery Johnson as part of the Winthrop Fleet, landing at Salem, MA on 22 June 1630. He had not yet celebrated his 10th birthday. Brother Isaac, a few years older, was probably entrusted with keeping an eye on him aboard ship on the crossing from England to America. The main troubles for children were cold and seasickness; a game involving a rope (perhaps tug-of-war?) reportedly helped with both. Younger sister Sarah would have completed the family group at the time of the crossing, though three additional siblings were later born in America.

Arrival of Winthrop's Company in Boston Harbor (1630) by William Formby Halsall (painted ca. 1880)
Wikimedia Commons

Humphrey's father John was very active in the new Massachusetts Bay Colony community at Roxbury. He was made a freeman there on 18 May 1631 and served on many juries and committees, acted as Surveyor laying out the bounds of towns around Boston. He was the first clerk of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Roxbury. He was chosen for 22 years to be Roxbury's Deputy to the House of Deputies. Later in life, John was awarded 1000 acres of land as thanks for his community service. His position as Surveyor General included taking care of the arms and ammunition of the community; at one point his house burned down with the Colony's stock of gun powder. That must have created much excitement and consternation for the family!

Captain John's fine community service should have provided an excellent role model for his sons.

Elder son Isaac became a military man, serving as Captain in the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company and also as Captain of the Roxbury Company in the Narragansett Expedition. Isaac was killed, as head of his company, at the Great Swamp Fight on 19 December 1675. We may not necessarily be comfortable with colonialism and such military actions today but it is a part of our history. Isaac's younger brother Sergeant Humphrey was a member of his brother's Company in the Narragansett Expedition. Fortunately for my family, Humphrey returned home to his wife Eleanor (Chaney) Johnson and their 10 children, the  youngest of whom was my 8X great grandfather another Isaac Johnson (1668-1738)

By the time Humphrey was in his early 30's he had moved from Roxbury to Scituate, MA. Samuel Deane in his History of Scituate, p. 296, says of him: "Serj. Johnson was a capable man in pulbick affairs, and often employed in Town business, in the early part of his life: but he had an uncommon inclination to law suits, and few men have left on the records of the Court, so many evidences of his litigious disposition."

Deane goes on (pages 296-297) to describe some details.

First, Humphrey was fined 5 pounds in 1673 for removing a land mark and  "for the boldness and insolency in coming into this Government to do this act."

That same year, he was ordered to remove his dwelling and cottage erected within the town of Scituate within a month or an order would be given for removing it. This was the result of his coming into the Government without leave of the Governor and two Assistants (contrary to law).

No record could be found that would indicate why Humphrey was so upset with the Town in the first place.

Although an obviously-aggrieved Humphrey had moved his residence from Scituate to Hingham about 1673 (probably in the month following the above order!), he commenced an action in 1683 against the Town of Scituate for three shares in the common lands. Although the Town considered his change of residence to have cancelled any such right, Humphrey won and lands were set off to satisfy the execution.

Still not satisfied, he complained in 1687 that he hadn't had all his rights in Scituate. The Town felt his rights had all been satisfied (although they still felt he should not have won that 1683 suit). Nevertheless, Humphrey won again and Governor Andros furnished him with a warrant so that Humphrey could take a surveyor and lay out an additional 100 acres at the head of Dudley's lot, 100 acres at Burnt Plain and 100 acres at Halifax cedar swamp. The Town protested to the Governor that much of this land had already been claimed by others and that "Johnson had already been accommodated with thrice sixty-five acres to the full amount of his claim as principal and successor to two others." It seems Humphrey never got these lands after Governor Andros was tossed from office. There was an area thereafter known as "Johnson's swamp" which was in remembrance of Humphrey's trespass on part of those lands and for which the Town eventually recovered damages from him.

Humphrey must have finally felt revenged for whatever slight had started the whole fiasco. In Hingham, the only records for him involve his community work on committees. His first wife Eleanor had died in 1678 amid his legal battles and he married Abigail Stansfall and had a couple more children with her.

Humphrey died 24 July 1692 in Hingham, MA at the age of 71.

Resources:

Deane, Samuel, History of Scituate, Massachusetts, From its First Settlement to 1831 (Boston: James Loring 1831), pp. 296-297

Johnson, Paul Franklin and Johnson, Frank Leonard, "Genealogy of Captain John Johnson of Roxbury, Massachusetts", compiled 1932-1945 located online at Ancestry.com

Edward Lewknor ( c1517 - 1556) - Political Intrigue in Tudor England

The story of my 11th great grandfather Edward Lewknor provides a cautionary tale about wishing for a prominent life at court. Better, perhaps, to be an obscure farmer (like the majority of my ancestors) than to find oneself caught up in the political intrigue often surrounding more prominent lives. In the case of Edward Lewknor, the intrigue occurred during the rancorous and bloody aftermath of the break from the Roman Catholic Church by England's King Henry VIII (1491-1537).

First, to set the stage: A very simplified recollection of Tudor history centres on Henry VIII's desire for a male heir. His first wife, Catherine of Aragon, had produced a daughter Mary but not the male heir he desired. (Of course we now know that it is the father that determines the gender of his offspring, but Henry placed the blame squarely on his wives.) In order to marry his second wife, Anne Boleyn, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church and started the Church of England so that he could obtain an annulment of his first marriage. However, Anne also suffered miscarriages and produced but a single living child, daughter Elizabeth. The marriage to Anne was also annulled. After Anne was beheaded, Henry went on to marry Jane Seymour who did produce the desired son, Edward.

When Henry died on 28 January 1547, succession to the English throne was governed by the Third Succession Act under which the order in the line of succession started as follows:
1. Prince Edward
2. Princess Mary
3. Princess Elizabeth
4. Lady Jane Grey

King Henry had also left a will with his wishes for his succession expressed; the first 3 names noted above were his first 3 choices but after that the lists diverged. After the early death of  Protestant King Edward VI, still in his teens, Mary became queen. Mary, like her mother, was Roman Catholic while her sister Elizabeth was Protestant. Both sisters suffered the stigma of being considered illegitimate by the other faction! Much of the rancour that swirled around their reigns was as a result of the religious persecution between Catholic and Protestant supporters. Even among Protestant supporters, there were dissident groups who thought the Reformation had not gone far enough in purging the church of its Popish ways. (For example, see the story of another of  my ancestors, Thomas Morse, who was definitely in this category.)

Now to get to Edward Lewknor's place in all of this: Edward was born about 1517 at Kingston Buci (now Kingston by Sea), Sussex, to another Edward Lewknor and his wife Margaret Copley.

St Julian's Church, Kingston Buci, Shoreham-by-Sea, Adur District, West Sussex, England. An 11th-century parish church in the ancient village of Kingston Buci, now the suburb of Kingston-by-Sea in the urban area between Southwick and Shoreham-by-Sea photo on Wikimedia Commons courtesy The Voice of Hassocks.

Both parents came from prominent families with ancestral links to royal and noble families. His father had served in the court of King Henry VII and King Henry VIII. A few years after the death of the elder Edward in 1528, Robert Wroth, one of the co-executors of the will, became young Edward's guardian. Edward had been left estates including Hamsey, East Sussex which would mature for him in 1542.

Robert Wroth had a son Thomas Wroth of a similar age to Edward. The Wroth household were Protestant sympathizers. Robert Wroth was a friend of Thomas Cromwell and from 1534 shared with Cromwell the stewardship of Westminster Abbey.

At the requirement of Robert Wroth in his will, Edward married Wroth's daughter Dorothy prior to 1542 and had a large family with her, including four sons (Edward,Thomas, Stephen and William) and six daughters (Lucrece, Ann, Dorothy, Jane, Elizabeth and my 10th great-grandmother Mary). (It should be remembered that in this time, marriages were not generally love matches but a way to cement family relationships and property rights. Robert Wroth's will had contemplated that both Edward and Dorothy would have the right to refuse this marriage, but in that case, Dorothy would receive the financial benefit from the dissolution of her father's wardship of Edward.)

On the death of his mother Margaret, Edward came into possession of the manor of Kingston Buci. In 1553 young King Edward VI granted him the manor of King's Barns (in Upper Beeding) and another estate called New Park (in Lower Beeding), Sussex.

Edward was elected as a Member of Parliament for Horsham in March of 1553 but lost his seat when Queen Mary came to the throne later that year. Mary, of course, was intent on returning England to Roman Catholicism and history reveals the methods she employed to have been very "bloody". During her 5 year reign she had some 280 people burned at the stake.

Wyatt's Rebellion in 1554 resulted from Mary's decision to marry the Catholic King Philip II of Spain (and likely breed a family of devout Catholics to ensure Catholic succession to the throne). Lewknor was not implicated in this failed plot but because of his wife's family ties to Sir Thomas Wyatt's wife, there were suspicions about his loyalty. His wife's brother Thomas Wroth was not so fortunate, but did manage to escape to France where  he remained in exile. Some 90 nobles were executed, including Wyatt himself, Jane Gray and Guilford Dudley.

Two years later Edward Lewknor was to find himself entangled in a new web of intrigue in an affair known as the Dudley Conspiracy. This was another unsuccessful attempt to depose Mary and replace her on the throne with her half sister Elizabeth. With his brother-in-law Thomas Wroth still in exile, there is no doubt that Edward was in communication with Protestant dissidents. He complied with a request to use his position in Queen Mary's court to obtain a copy of Henry VIII's will in the hope that it would prove Mary's ineligibility to hold the throne. It was also said that he held meetings both in London and at his home in Sussex with other sympathizers. There was even some talk of a plot to kill the Queen during a card game. All of this culminated in his being taken to the Tower of London on 6 June 1556. Nine days later he was tried at Guildhall and found guilty of treason. He was among those whose sentences were deferred and he might well have ultimately been released. However, his health failed during his imprisonment. Wife Dorothy and one of his daughters had been allowed to look after him in prison, but he died in the Tower on 6 September 1556 and was buried in the Tower Precinct.

His final request was to ask for Queen Mary's forgiveness and for her to spare his wife and children. This she did, quickly restoring to widow Dorothy Lewknor the properties at Kingston Buci and Hamsey. Son and heir (yet another!) Edward Lewknor was restored in blood in 1559 and went on to become a leading Puritan Member of Parliament during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

Sources:

R.J. W. Swales entry in "History of Parliament" located online at https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/lewknor-edward-151617-56

Wikipedia article on Edward Lewknor located online at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Lewknor_(died_1556)

Website located at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~dearbornboutwell/fam578.html accessed October 24, 2012