| Blencowe Families’ Association Newsletter | Volume 18 Number 1 March 2003 |
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Table of Contents |
A British Bobby on a Different Beat!
Following the tragedy of September 11th the British Police Charity ‘Protect the Protectors’ raised $100,000 for the families of New York Police Officers, both from the NYPD and the Port Authority Police, who had been killed trying to rescue others on that day.
On the first anniversary 340 British Police Officers travelled to New York at their own expense to present the cheque and show support for their American colleagues. I, along with five colleagues from Nottinghamshire was among the group.
Whilst there we went to the church service held for the British victims, and on Sept 11th helped to form an Honour Guard at Ground Zero, standing shoulder to shoulder with American Police and Fire Fighters. It was quite a sight seeing British Bobbies on the beat in New York.
It was a very emotional day and it would take up to an hour to walk just a block as people wanted to have their photos taken with us or would just come up shake our hands thanking us for being there. One lady, who worked in Wall Street and had narrowly escaped death the year before by being late for a meeting on the 106th floor of one the towers, took the six of us from Nottinghamshire for a drink to thank us for our support.
As President Bush landed in his helicopter in the City the local police allowed the six of us from Nottingham to stand with them. The President did a ‘double take’ on seeing six British Bobbies stood there and acknowledged us, giving us the thumbs up.
The week was full of memories not least being stood at top of the Empire State Building in uniform, on a private floor with only a three-foot high fence surrounding us, three floors above the public viewing level, looking down at the City by night.
Simon Blincow,
Nottingham, October 2002
Adam de Blencow, Royal Standard-bearer?
The tradition that Adam de Blencow had been the King’s standard-bearer at the Battle of Crécy has been around for a long time, but in Chapter 1 of our book Jill Dudbridge showed that Adam would have been in the wrong place on the date of the battle. Moreover, it appears that the family tradition was itself different and confused. About 1670, in an obituary of Christopher Blencowe, the Rev. Gabriel Smallwood wrote of:
‘Adam Blencowe, Standard Bearer to that Heroick Person Ralph Baron of Greystock … Major Generall to King Henry the 5th at the famous battle at Agincourt.’
A footnote in a later hand, probably by William Blencowe in about 1715:
‘The Author has mistaken the Family Tradition Concerning this Adam Blencowe — For Adam de Blencowe, whom he means, lived in King Ed: 3ds Time, and it was at the famous Battles of Cressy and Poietiers that he was engaged, (and not Agincourt, as he relates), and that as Standard Bearer to William Baron of Greystock, not Ralph; as appears by authentick Evidences now remaining in the Custody of the said Family of Blencowe.’
Some indication of what really happened can be learnt from a royal pardon granted to Adam:
‘for his good services in Gascony in company of Henry, earl of Lancaster of the King’s suit for all felonies and trespasses in Cumberland before the passage of the Earl to the said parts, whereof he is appealed, and of any subsequent outlawries’. (It appears that Adam had taken possession of lands that had been in Scottish ownership without paying the appropriate fines or dues to the Crown.)
In a review made in 1737 of papers in the ‘Blencowe Evidence Chest’ (now held at the County Records Office in Lancaster) a lawyer of the day wrote:
‘These Letters patent being dated at Calis … very much fall in with if not confirm, the Family Tradition, that this Adam de Blencowe was Standard Bearer to the said William Baron de Greystock … at the famous Battle of Cressy fought August 24th 1346; for these Letters patent bearing date 1347, in June being 21st year of the said King, must have been granted whilst the King lay with his army before Calis, which he then besieged, & which surrendered to him the 4th of August then following upon which he returned to England October and confirmed these letters patent at Westminster on the 22nd day of January following as aforesaid.’
Adam was a vassal of Greystoke and the latter a vassal of Henry of Lancaster so, if we can trace the movements of Lancaster we may be able to get a better idea of what really happened, for both Greystoke and Adam were most probably with him. It’s clear that Lancaster was in Gascony in southwest France on the day Crécy was fought. Ten years later, on 19 September 1356, his army was stuck on the north side of the river Loire whilst the Poitiers battle was being fought a dozen miles to the south. However, dates and names can be confusing: until the 18thC New Year started from Easter, so what we think of as January 1348 was 1347 at that time. Whilst it is convenient to speak of ’Lancaster’, one of the most formidable warriors in English history, we need to note that he was named ‘Henry of Grosmont’ (his birthplace near the south east border of Wales), then he became Earl of Derby, before inheriting his father’s Earldom of Lancaster which was subsequently raised to a Dukedom. Some historians have a distressing habit of mentioning ‘Derby’ in one paragraph and ‘Lancaster’ in the next (or even vice versa!).
‘The Crécy War’ by Lt-Col Alfred Burne, a book by a soldier written for soldiers, follows Lancaster’s campaigns giving details of men and weapons, dates of engagements, and distances marched as well as episodes of battle. He gives a calendar of Lancaster’s movements with his troops in Gascony (the south-west of present day France, territory that the English King had inherited as a result of the marriage of Henry II to Eleanor of Aquitaine) and we can compare the dates with those of the King’s armies movements further to the north.
Henry of Lancaster landed at Bayonne near the Spanish border on 6th June 1345, by 14th June he was in Bordeaux, then a city as large as London, whence he set of on a campaign of conquest (and pillage!). By 26th August he had captured Bergerac in the Dordogne; after returning to Bordeaux he set out on a second campaign and Auberoche fell in October. In the spring and summer of the next year he was fighting further south and was at Villereal between the valleys of the Dordogne and Lot on 27th August 1346.
A third campaign started from Bordeaux on 4th September when the army moved north. Arriving at Poitiers on 4th October after a march of 15 miles, the city refused to surrender; it was attacked immediately and sacked. Lancaster was back in Bordeaux by the end of the month, sailed to England later in the year, landed there on 1st January and reached London two weeks later. On 14th January he visited King David of Scotland who had been defeated and captured at the Battle of Neville’s Cross on 17th October and was imprisoned in the Tower of London.
Meanwhile, Edward III was besieging Calais and called for reinforcements from England. Lancaster and Greystoke were reported in action at Calais on 7th & 24th July and Adam had received his ‘letter patent’ from the King at Calais in June.
It has taken me a long time to get to the point, but Col. Burne describes the capture in October 1346 ‘of the historic city of Poitiers, which gave its name to three famous battles’. As Lancaster, and presumably Greystoke and Adam, were not at Crécy in 1346 or Poitiers in 1356, is it not possible that the battle at which Adam excelled himself as Greystoke’s standard bearer and was commended for ‘his good services in Gascony’ was the first Battle of Poitiers in 1346?
Pauline Blincoe brings back memories of yesteryear in South Island New Zealand
Two books came to me just a few days before Christmas, a gift from Pauline Blincoe, whose husband Maurice descends from Francis Blincoe who sailed from England to New Zealand on the Clifford in 1841. Pauline’s first book: Public Works Camps, Poor Kid’s Paradise, tells the story of a work programme introduced by the Government to alleviate hardship during the 1930s depression — rather on the lines of the CCC programmes in USA under Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’. She has collected reminiscences from a score of contributors and includes more than 200 photos. She tells how her earliest memory is getting ‘shifted out’ of her Blenheim home at the age of four. Just another jobless family leaving for one of the hundreds of public works camps set up during the Great Depression. The family moved to a temporary settlement on the Kaikoura coast and the men set about completing the main trunk railway down the east coast of South Island to Christchurch. The cabins were of wood and were dismantled and moved to another site as work progressed.
Pauline’s own story is of the happiest memories of the experience, the location was spectacularly beautiful and the houses:
‘lovely warm stove, cups of cocoa, sitting with our feet in the oven; big old radio sitting on a bench with a car battery on the floor for power; kerosene lamps on the wall with a shell shaped reflector; stoves shined weekly with Zebo. Toilet at the back of the house down a long path.
Three little girls in a big warm double bed with a fluffy counterpane. Big gold knobs on the ends of the bedsteads … Happy weekends bird-nesting, picking berries for jam, being taught songs and dances by Maori ladies …
So the tales unfold, a remarkable local history, a delight for grandchildren and their children yet to come. The second book ‘Yesterdays of Golden Bay’, also copiously illustrated, is a collection of personal stories of pioneering days in the northernmost tip of the South Island. Many of the early industries have disappeared, but the scenic beauty of the area is developing its tourist potential.
Proceedings at the Old Bailey
30th August 1727
John Mayow of St Dunstan’s Stepney was indicted for stealing a Bay Mare, value £5 on 31st July last, the property of George Isgig.
‘The Prosecutor depos’d, That he lost his Mare out of an open Field near Islington, and by the Honestly of Mr. Blinco he found her again with the Prisoner in Custody.
William Blinco depos’d, That he sold the Mare to the Prosecutor, who afterwards saying he had lost her, this Deponent saw the Prisoner on her Back near Welch Fair, and apprehended him on Suspicion of his having stole her; but neither the Prosecutor nor Mr. Blinco appeared very rigid in the Prosecution of the Prisoner, and he having a very good Character from several People of Reputation, the Jury acquitted him.’
This was probably William Blincoe, the son of John & Anne who was baptised 30th Sept 1674 At St Dunstan’s Stepney. I wonder who really owned the mare?
Daphne Austin,
Chalfont St Giles, March 2003
Milestones
We were sorry to hear that Brother Thomas W. Spalding, 78, of Louisville Kentucky died of a heart attack at his home on Tuesday 28th January. He was a native of Bardstown KY, and had been a member of the Xaverian Brotherhood for 60 years.
Brother Thomas was a distinguished historian and writer. After graduating from Saint Joseph prep in 1942 he matriculated at Xaverian College in Silver Spring, MD, then attended Fordham University in New York NY, Spalding College in Louisville and the Catholic University of America in Washington DC, where he received his doctorate.
In addition to his studies at the graduate level, he taught high school Spanish and US History at Cardinal Hayes High School in Bronx, NY and at the Xaverian High School in Brooklyn NY. His last teaching assignment was at Spalding University in Louisville, where he had been a full professor for 27 years. With all his researching he had been unable to find any tie of his family name to that of the University. He devoted two full years and “almost a dozen summers” to the research and writing of “The Premier See – a History of the Archdiocese of Baltimore 1789-1889” which was published in 1989. The Maryland Historical Society selected the book, which is about the first Catholic diocese in the United States, as the winner of its annual book prize in 1990.
He coedited and/or coauthored a number of other historical works such as Catholics in the Old South: Essays on Church and culture and The ancestry of Dorothy Points. He wrote frequently for such scholarly journals as the American Historical society and the Catholic Historical Review; and at the time of his death was writing a history of the Xaverian Brothers’ East Africa missions.
Tom’s parents were Thomas William Spalding and Mary Frances Boone, his grandfather Charles Henry Boone married Susan Ellen Blincoe one of the Kentucky Blincoes who had emigrated from Virginia to Kentucky in the late 1700’s.
He carried on a large correspondence with other researchers and shared his information freely. We were fortunate to have his attendance at several of the early reunions where he was an accomplished and entertaining guest speaker. “He was a gentle and gentlemanly man,” said Daniel Medinger, CEO of the Cathedral Foundation. “He had the kind of presence that when he came into a room he would calm it.”
Brother Thomas is survived by two brothers, Dr. Charles Spalding, a former mayor of Bardstown, and Dr. Harry Spalding, both of Bardstown, KY. ‘Bro. Tom’, as we remember him, was an early member of the Family Association from the days when it was primarily a “Blincoe” group. We will miss his friendship and his research.
Helen Simpson
South San Gabriel CA
March 2003
Letters
A film star in the making?
Natalie Blinco Hemington wrote from Perth, W. Australia: her son William has played a starring role in a TV commercial being screened by the Royal Automobile Club. The story goes that the family is having breakfast, with William in his high chair, when a car crashes into the house. Australian readers can look out for it and maybe report back on the ensuing mayhem! Natalie descends from Henry Blinco, a prison warder, who emigrated to West Australia from Hedgerley near Windsor in 1864.
A Blencowe family in Germany
I have enjoyed corresponding with Peter William Blencowe who lives in Augsburg. Peter served in the Royal Air Force in Germany where he met Gisela Popp; they were married at Frankfurt am Main. An aircraft radio engineer, he has spent most of his working life outside Europe. He has retired to Germany where he is now a citizen. Peter and Gisela have two sons and a daughter and three grandchildren, so far there are no Blencowe grandsons to carry on the family name in Germany! Peter’s branch of the family originated in Sussex and he shares a g-g-grandfather with Chris Blencowe whose picture appeared in Vol. 17 No.1 (See p.9)
Blincoes of Harpers Ferry
Teri Kelley has written to seek help in tracing the ancestors of Mary Blincoe who was born 29 August 1827 near Harpers Ferry WV and married Abner Thomas there 12 March 1845. They had three daughters and in 1850 were living in Jefferson Co. WV, moving to Indiana around 1859 before the war. Mary, middle name probably Elizabeth, was the eldest of nine children, 8 girls and a boy. Of these, three of the sisters moved to Baltimore MD, two others and the brother lived near Harpers Ferry.
Can anyone help in the search? There is a record of Joseph Blincoe who married Harriet Dillow 27 August 1835 and had four children of whom George Washington Blincoe was born 13 April 1841 at Harpers Ferry. George married Emma White in Nevada MO in 1872 and had 8 children and I believe descendants are members of the Association. Could Joseph have been an uncle or cousin of Mary E. Blincoe?
The Blincoe – Connolly Connection
Daniel C. Yarbrough, grandson of Clarence Herbert Connolly wrote: I have a copy of the last will and testament of George Connolly, a plantation owner of Lancaster Co. Virginia, dated 2 April 1771. In it he makes provision for his daughter Mary and her husband John Blincoe. Their children are named in the will as George Connolly Blincoe, Betty Blincoe and Ann H. Blincoe. He also provides for his daughter Frances (or Frankie) whom he states is “very much subject to fits (epilepsy?) and in the event of his deaath should be placed in the care of her brother-in-law John Blincoe.
John (1737–1782) was the great-grandson of the ‘Immigrant James’ and had a son Mark (1766–1814) and grandson James who died in 1833; if anyone has information of further descendants, I should be glad to know. Readers with more Connolly information may care to contact Daniel at: <celticdreamer@copper.net>
Motor Sport
Rick Blenko, fourth generation President of Blenko Glass, has most likely caught your eye whilst he’s been helping promote PBS with that remarkable documentary Hearts of Glass. When he does have some spare time he has a passion for motor racing. The car he’s coveting in the picture is a BMW Mini, made right here in Oxford. I’m told there’s an English Blencowe who is a racing driver, we should try to get them together some time!