| Blencowe Families’ Association Newsletter | Vol. 17 No. 1 Spring 2002 |
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| Cover picture: From a cartoon by Lyn McClenaghan |
Down on the Farm, “Down Under”
In November 1995 I was in Australia and took the opportunity to visit Frank
and Pat McClenaghan with whom I had corresponded about Blencowe family history.
I travelled some 700 miles up country from Sydney to Armidale NSW and they organised
a family gathering at a memorable barbecue at Acaire,
their farm some 20 miles from town. It was a great experience! Until I was about
sixty I had not met any Blencowes other than my father and son and a cousin
of my grandfather. I think that Blencowes and their near cousins must be thicker
on the ground in Armidale than anywhere else in the world; here I had a score
around me, I even met another Jack Blencowe!
I have been involved in agriculture all my life, arable farming in Europe,
then plantation crops in the tropics. This was an entirely different way of
life, Frank is a sheep farmer and life turns around the feed available for grazing,
the quality and price of the wool clip. When rain drove us and the barbecue
indoors no one complained, a good fall meant a new flush of grass. Other things
are unexpected, Armidale is only 7° south of the tropics but it is several
thousand feet up in the table lands of the New England Range and has cold winters;
Pat wrote once of falling heavily on ice in the farmyard, and of course that
would have been in July! Driving round the 3,000 hectare property in a Land
Rover I found that kangaroos don’t always jump, they often make large holes
in the fence instead! Much of the routine work involves care of fencing and
moving the flocks from one area of controlled grazing to another.
Pat writes me every now and again and her news from the
farm comes like a breath of fresh air, I thought I should share some of it with
you.
May: ‘Our trees are nearly all bare with a carpet on the
ground. We have had the best autumn for many years with plenty of feed for stock,
I guess the usual dry will set in soon but Frank has a silo full of corn and
the 2001 crop will soon be dry enough to harvest. Stock and wool prices are
still holding up.We have just had all the adult sheep tested with a new Optical
Fibre Diameter Analyser (OFDA) that measures how many microns* thick the staple
is. Those testing more than 20µ will be run with coarser rams and they and the
lambs will be sold off at our circuit sale next Spring. At shearing time it
will make our wool classing much more accurate.A friend in the far north of
Queensland returned from a Winter visit to England. She was puzzled at all the
dead trees in the gardens – she had never seen deciduous trees before! *1 micron
= 1/1000th mm.July: ‘We’ve been doing some more OFDA testing.
The grand-children were at school so I was roped in to help, made a change from
the kitchen. It was interesting to see the variation of the staple from base
to tip. The finest we tested was only 13.7 microns. After a couple of days the
computer crashed, but we got nearly all the job done.Our front dam is a main
point of interest at present. A pair of black swans have nested down there and
hatched out six cygnets. The parents are very protective so we have only watched
through binoculars; the kids are all very excited about the event.August: ‘Our
shearing starts tomorrow so it will be flat strap for at least a month, we hope
wet weather doesn’t slow things up, even though we need the rain. A good fall
of snow would help.We’re having trouble with feral animals; Captain Cook brought
in pigs, foxes were brought for the hunting, (and to ‘control’ the rabbits!),
brumbies (horses gone wild), dingoes and wild dogs. Now we have a stupid English
woman vet. (a vegetarian!) wants us to stop culling kangaroos and exporting
the meat. At least we don’t have Foot & Mouth YET!Christmas: ‘I’m sure Christmas
only takes six months to come around these days. Winter came late and when Spring
should have sprung there were frosts and drying winds. We had a good shearing
and wool sale; cattle and wool prices have been great and lambing excellent.
Rain seems to have been rationed in our area, but at least no cyclones. There’s
still a lot of fencing to attend to.We needed to move 2,500 ewes and the steers
across the road and I had to turn out with the 4 x 4 along with Ian and Lyn
on the ag. bikes. Ian makes cow noises and the animals know that when a gate
is open they are going to get a fresh paddock! It really was quite spectacular,
I must try and get a photo next time.
I sent the draft to Pat to check a few
details and she came back with:
We’ve had some good rain storms and everything
is looking full growth ahead, including the weeds. Frank was dubious about his
corn (that’s maize to us Brits) but now “it’s going to make it”. He spread 10
tonnes of pig manure before planting and I really didn’t want to know him for
a few days. I had to do the tucker run and I could smell it all the way down
from the shearing shed to the front gate!
Pat is very active in the Country
Women’s Association and the University of the Third Age, she says that one day
she will be asked to sign the visitors’ book back home! We hope that she will
find time to keep us posted of life ‘down on the farm’.
Death of a ‘Mountie’
In 1998 Kim Cannon sent me a picture of a Blencowe gravestone in the East Cemetery
in Perth, Western Australia. At first we had no more information about Ernest
Blencowe, but then she found the obituary notice telling that he had been a
Mounted Constable in the Perth Police who had died when thrown from his horse
in Bazaar Terrace, Perth in June 1895. Although only 27 years old he had served
previously in the West Camden Light Horse of the New South Wales Cavalry. An
accomplished horseman, he had competed in military tournaments in London and
Dublin and had been awarded a gold medal. This still gave us no clues of Ernest’s
family but eventually Maurine Work and Pat McClenaghan turned up some more bits
of information:
Thomas and Eliza Blencowe emigrated from England on the Matooka
and arrived in New South Wales in 1857; their eldest son Thomas was born during
the voyage. He was the first of a large family, he was followed by: John (b
1857), Frances (1859-1917), Mary (b 1861), Phoebe (b 1863) Clara (1865-1866),
Frederick (b 1867), Ernest W (1868-1895), Emily (b 1870), Owen B (b 1872), Arthur
William (b 1875), and Daisy A (d 1883). The last seems to have been Omega (b
1877); did her name symbolise that Thomas had finally ‘shot the stork’?
Thomas
had been born c. 1836 and Eliza c. 1835, she died 9 March 1910 at Wild’s Meadow
NSW as did her daughter Frances. Some of the children were baptised at St Mary
Magdalen, South Creek NSW; Phoebe married Charles J Ferner or Furner in NSW
in 1883. Can anyone tell us more about this family?
The 1901 Census of England and Wales
The British Census data are kept under confidential cover for a hundred
years and genealogy buffs eagerly await the turn of each decade. The appearance
of a full index of the 1881 Census rather over-shadowed the release of the one
for 1891, but 1901 promises to give us a new interest.
In a recent article Margaret
Brennand of the Public Record Office reported that from 2 January the entire
census returns for England and Wales will be available on line at
<www.census.pro.gov.uk>
— some 32 million entries
will be accessible. The actual census return pages have been converted to high
quality electronic images. A database has been created and linked to the images.
It will be possible to search the database for family name and forename, place
and age. Searching for forename without surname will be possible and will help
track down ladies whose married name is unknown. It is not clear how much of this
will be open to us without charge, but ‘a small additional fee’ is charged for
some items, implying that we are not going to have an entirely free ride!
Coupled
with the fact that we are charged for local ‘phone calls in Britain, it will make
a lot of sense to share out the work and avoid duplication. We will have to look
at how easily things can be viewed on screen and at how easy or difficult it proves
to be to access the web-site. I have asked Bridget Fisher to take on N.E. England
and Jill Cobb to look at Suffolk. I will aim to deal with Northamptonshire. However,
they have told me that it is so popular that it is very difficult to ‘log-on’;
it may be that we shall have to rely on Christine Clement in New Zealand to get
some information whilst we in UK are sleeping!
Book News
The main task of shipping
parcels round the world seems to be accomplished. Initial estimate of a demand
for 700 copies seems to have been about right and we are left with an adequate
number in reserve for the more occasional requests that will no doubt continue
in the months ahead. I have been flattered to receive enquiries from local historians
who are not connected with our family, and from the Northamptonshire County Library.
A remarkable souvenir
In the last issue I mentioned a ‘pub lunch’ at Marston St
Lawrence where we met up with Francis Sitwell and Clive and Angela Blencowe (see
pictures in the centre fold). Clive brought with him a magnificent family Bible
that he had purchased at an antiquarian book store. It had been a gift to John
Alexander Blencowe from his mother on the occasion of his twenty-first birthday,
the occasion of the ‘coming of age party’ at Marston Hall described by Peter Blencowe
in our book. It was inscribed :
John Alexander Blencowe
with his mother’s love and blessings
on his 21st birthday Sept 3rd 1867And thou … my son know thou the
God
of thy father and serve him with a perfect
heart and with a willing mind …
if thou
seek Him He will be found of theeI. Chron:XXVIII. 9
… As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.
Josh: XXIV. 15
Since our meeting Clive has traced
his family tree back another generation to John Blencowe who was born in 1857
at South Newington, Oxon., the son of John Blencowe and Ann Mary Betterton. A
likely link that he is working on would probably take him back, via Souldern,
to Thomas Blencowe who was born c. 1788 in Brackley.
Milestones
Joy Prudden wrote telling me of the death in November of her mother Lilian
Blencowe Gates. My contacts with Mrs Gates started last Summer when
Janet Dunn wrote asking me for a copy of our book to give to her aunt on her
89th birthday. News of the surprise gift leaked out and Mrs Gates said, “I might
not last that long, can’t I have it now!”. So, when the book came to hand in
July I made sure she received the very first copy I distributed. Subsequently
she sent me the article and picture of her grandmother featured in our last
issue. Joy tells me that seeing the ‘front page special’ gave her mother great
pleasure.
Our condolences go to Jill whose husband Bill Dudbridge died
on 29th January. Like Jill’s father Sidney Blencowe, Bill was a railway engineer.
He and Jill met when they sailed to UK from the Argentine to ‘join up’, Jill
in the WAAF, Bill in the Royal Engineers — in which he served throughout the
Burma campaign. They returned together to Buenos Aires but moved later to Nicaragua
and eventually retired to London. Bilingual in English and Spanish, Bill told
me that he held the reserve rank of Captain in the British Army and Major in
that of Argentina.
We owe Bill a great deal: he patiently drove
Jill to nearly all the English County Records offices and enjoyed his country
walks whilst she located and researched the vast number of Blencowe documents
that formed the foundation of our book.
On 1st March Ernest Blencowe of Banbury passed away. He was
born on 8 August 1915 and was named after his uncle who died just three days
before at the battle known as ‘First Ypres‘. Ernest fought as a paratrooper
in the next war, as one of the famous ‘Red Berets’. His Banbury family descends
from Thomas Blencoe who married Sarah Brickhill in nearby Kings Sutton in 1725.
Ernest’s ten grandchildren and twenty great grandchildren will ensure that the
Blencowe family continues to flourish in Banbury. When the late Fred Blincow
first met Ernest at one of our family reunions, Fred said to me, “I took one
look at him across the room and said, ‘there’s a real Blencowe!’”.
On a less sombre note, here’s a charming Xmas picture of Francis Blincoe-Deval,
whose addition to the Blincoe family of New Zealand was reported in our last issue.
Congratulations!
Congratulations to Isabel Blincow of Sheffield on the award of
MBE in the New Year’s Honours List; or, more properly, on her appointment as a
Member of the Order of the British Empire.
After family responsibilities had led
to her retirement from teaching Isabel turned her talents towards professional
needlework and embroidered pictures and her work became well-known in galleries
all over the UK. Some twenty-five years ago she set up the Hallam Art Group and
taught painting to adults.
Realising that there was nowhere in Sheffield for emerging
artists to show their work she took the plunge, rented space at the Octagon Centre
and launched the Great Sheffield Art Show, bringing 1,200 amateur art works to
the public view. The first Show took eighteen months to prepare and has since
become an annual event in the Sheffield art world. It was only after a decade
that, in 2000, Isabel decided to pass the responsibility on to others. The award
of the MBE is a fitting recognition of her contributions to art and society in
the city.
I look forward to hearing an account of the ceremony at Buckingham Palace
from husband Graham Blincow. Graham, a cousin of our old friend Tricia Heath,
descends from Edward Blencow (son of Henry and Ann) who was born in Kings Sutton
in 1738.
Letters
There has been some interesting correspondence during the last few months.
Robert Moltzen of Freeport NY has provided data from the NY
State Census concerning Blincoe families of Chenango Co. NY who emigrated there
from Gawcott in Buckinghamshire. Bob has caused me to look again at the family
trees I published in our book and some revision will be necessary!
Brian Evans, of Dianella,
West Australia, is seeking information on Harriet Anne Blencowe who married Graham
Berry in 1822. Harriet had connections with Chipping Barnet in Hertfordshire.
Graham Berry, who started out as an apprentice draper in London, became a man
of consequence in Australia; he was three times Prime Minister of Victoria.
A query from Steve and Lynne Luxford
reached me via Christine Clement in New Zealand.
They were seeking information about George Harry Blinko whose birth was registered
at Ashby de la Zouche in 1894. It looks as if they can trace back from him to
John Blinker who married Mary Walsbey at Stoke Lyne in 1807. Stoke Lyne is between
Brackley and Bicester and practically every village around has Blencowe records;
Steve and Lynn can have a happy time trawling around to find out more!
John Townson
wrote from Hatch Beauchamp in Somerset telling of his links with the Blencowes
of Marston St Lawrence. Two of Samuel Jackson Blencowe’s children had connections
with the Shuckburgh family from whom John descends.
Mike Spencer, of Portishead, near Bristol, asked about his
grandmother Edith Blencowe who had married Harold Spencer at Aston Abbotts in
1919. Edith was one of the Mixbury Blencowes and can be traced back to William
Blencowe who was born c. 1729.
As Schehezarade might
have said, “all these, and other tales, will be related in future issues”. It
looks as if we will not be short of material for the Newsletter for a while yet!
Blencowe Families’ Association Home Page
updated: 5 May 2002