| Blencowe Families’ Association Newsletter | Vol. 17 No. 2 Summer 2002 |
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Table of Contents |
Editors LetterDear Cousins, For me, the highlight of this issue is the cover. I sent a copy of the Blencowe book to the Guild of One-Name Studies for review in their Journal. I never dreamt that it would be given such an enthusiastic reception! With the permission of the Editor I have reproduced the Journal cover and give excerpts of the review elsewhere in the Newsletter. The review is also reproduced in full on our web-site. I have not done this just to blow my own trumpet, I want to share the pleasure with others; please sound a fanfare for the other twenty contributors! Our web-site and the issue of the book has led to a good deal of correspondence, mostly by e-mail. I have included a lot of this and matters arising. I hope you find it interesting and if by chance you spot a long-lost relative or can help with information, get in touch! I shall NEVER complain about receiving too much material for the newsletter; but this quarter we need an extra four pages, with luck this will not lead to an excessive increase in mail costs. Now for the really important bit: Freda Christie has suggested that our next reunion should be in Vancouver and has volunteered to bear the brunt of organizing it! Her tentative programme sounds exciting (see box on p.15). I look forward to a large gathering, ink in the dates NOW! Jack Lace-makers’s BobbinsIn the last issue Jack asked if anyone had collected any lace-makers’ bobbins. Here are some pictures of a lace pillow and bobbins with a small piece of lace that I have made. Some of the bobbins were ‘commemoratives’: of weddings, christenings, Royal events and weddings, special days when groups of us have met and so on. When teaching my daughter Davinia I made up a set with all the Kings and Queens of England and their dates, to help her to learn. It has not been unknown for me to turn to them to answer a question about the date of a special occasion! Bobbins were often given as love tokens with captions like ‘kiss me quick!’ — the sort of caption found in much later days on seaside postcards and paper hats.
I was taught to make lace by Sarah Jiggle. She gave me the white bobbin with her name on it when she was in her late eighties. Her family was quite well-off and had all the children’s names put on ivory bobbins; a unique way of tracing family history! The other bobbin shown in close-up is a very common wooden one, but the object on the end is a button from the uniform of the 3rd Bucks Yeomanry Cavalry. The reasoning behind this was that without the button the soldier was improperly dressed and would be sent back home; the lacemaker was saying, “Come home soon!”. The 3rd Bucks was raised in the Vale of Aylesbury to fight in the Napoleonic Wars; the regiment existed for 25 years, for 21 years of which they received no pay! It became part of the ‘Oxon & Bucks’, now part of the Greenjackets.
The bobbin was given me by my history teacher, who also taught me lace-making; she was the one who inspired my enthusiasm for family history research. The button is a gilt officer’s button and from all the investigations I have made it appears to be the only piece of that regiment’s uniform left in existence. I have been trying to trace its family history, I have narrowed it down to one of six men; I have not given up! Daphne Austin, Chalfont St Giles [Elizabeth Brennecke wrote saying that she too had some bobbins. She also had a lace collar that had been made for her and attached to series of red velvet ‘party’ dresses she had (and hated!) as a little girl. Ed.]
Lucy Ann Blencowe of BanburyAs a newcomer to this association I would like to introduce my Blencowe ancestors and myself. My great grandmother, Lucy Ann Blencowe, was born in Neithrop, Banbury in 1870. Both her father and grandfather were tailors. Lucy Ann lost her mother at the age of seven and her father remarried. In the 1881 census Jack Blencowe found Lucy Ann’s father in Oxford Prison and his second wife in Banbury Workhouse. So far, Lucy Ann’s whereabouts at that time are unknown. Her brother, Richard Nathaniel (1866 – 1897), was apparently working then as a servant-errand boy at Neithrop and later acted as a witness at his sister’s marriage. Lucy Ann married in 1896 into a fairly wealthy family but, sadly, died ten years later leaving two young daughters aged 5 and 9, the elder being my grandmother; she emigrated to Canada in 1919 as a newlywed and I am a Canadian. For the past five years I have worked as a counsellor in a women’s college in the United Arab Emirates, which has been an amazing learning experience. My husband, our 10-year-old son, and I live in Fujairah, a small city on the Gulf of Oman. Since we became expatriates we have been fortunate to travel to a number of countries. At present my genealogical research is limited to what I can find on the Internet except for summers, when we leave the U.A.E. I am grateful to Jack Blencowe and my English cousins for providing me with most of the information I have on Lucy Ann and her family. Jack believes William Henry senior may be the son of William Henry Blincko (born c. 1875 in Whitechapel) and Sally or Sarah (born c. 1791 in Christchurch, Southwark). If this is the case, I can take my Blencowe line back four generations beyond those shown on this page. I hope to link my family to some of the other Blencowe families and welcome any correspondence in this regard. Marilyn Astle, Fujairah Women’s College, Box 1626, Fujairah, U.A.E. William Henry Blencowe m. Hannah Gardner
1813 - 1905 | 1815 - 1878
Southwark - ?Banbury | Banbury
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William Henry Blencowe m. Charlotte Mason
1842 - ? | 1836 - 1876
Banbury - ? | Avon Dassett - Banbury
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Walter John Whitehead m. Lucy Ann Blencowe
1872 - 1927 | 1870 - 1906
London - Weybridge | Banbury - Kensal Rise
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Barry Franklin Galbraith m. Annie Lucy Whitehead
1894 - 1969 | 1896 - 1985
Wellington, Salop | London - Sangudo,
Edmonton | Alberta
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Ronald Allen Astle m. Betty Diana Galbraith
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Terence Brinston m. Marilyn Astle
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Another Caribbean Connection
We have tried to trace further references to the Robert Blinco who was reported to be trading to Barbados in 1646. Helen Simpson trawled through a CD of sixteenth century Barbados records without finding a single Blencowe reference of any spelling.
Jill Dudbridge has sent me a mention that she spotted in the published papers of Sir William Trumbull who was the English Secretary of State 1696 – 1698. A letter to Trumbull from John Robins dated 15 August 1697 included the statement ‘Mr Blencowe Provost Marshall of Jamaica died last night.’
That’s all there is. The date is half a century after the Barbados reference so it is just possible that this might have been a son of Robert. It would be useful if someone could spare the time to search Jamaican historical records and perhaps find yet more interesting details.
More about Anthony Blencowe
Provost of Oriel College 1574 – 1618
My neighbour Nancy Brown, who first drew my attention to Anthony’s connections with well-known Catholics, has found another interesting reference:
[Ralph Sheldon] ‘enjoyed lifelong friendship with Anthony Blencowe president of Oriel College, Oxford, member of the committee to whom Sir Thomas Bodley entrusted the execution of his designs for a library, to which Sheldon gave £50. It seems to have been Blencowe who requested Ralph to supply the chainman to forge the chains with which to secure the newly acquired books to the shelves.’
Turner, Hilary L. (2002) The Sheldon Tapestry Maps belonging to the Bodleian Library. The Bodleian Library Record xvii 5, p. 307.
Book News
Some errors have turned up. Anne Burton in Australia cast an eagle eye at the brief ‘trees’ on pp.5 & 245 and spotted that the same person had been allocated different parents! This set me searching; I think the tree on p.6 can stand but there are errors in the one on p.245 and related errors on p.310. The main problem was sloppy work, I had mis-copied data from a small spread sheet. Also I think that one of the several John Blencowes of Brackley had been given the wrong parents. What I think it should be is now shown in the table; it appears that Blencowes who went to Tasmania and on to South Australia are even more closely related to the ones who settled in Virginia than I had thought.
In Maurine Work’s tree, p. 245:
John m. Mary Cooper
c.1604 - 1667 | ? - 1676
Francis m. Ann Harris
1639 - 1692 | ? - > 1692
John m. Temperance Painter
1687 - 1757 | ? - 1761
Timothy m. Mary Robson
1725 - 1787 | ? - 1788
James m. Thomasine Loveday
1763 - 1826 | 1772 - 1803
In Francis Blencowe’s tree, p.310:
John m. Mary Cooper
c.1604 - 1667 | ? - 1676
Francis m. Ann Harris
1639 - 1692 | ? - > 1692
John m. Temperance Painter
1687 - 1757 | ? - 1761
Timothy m. Mary Robson
1725 - 1787 | ? - 1788
John m. Temperance Wilkins
1758 - 1802 |
Another small point: Helen has noticed (page 233) that she should have named her grandmother Izora as grand-daughter, not daughter, of Dr Patrick Talbot
Where the journey started?
Kendra Maissens’ ancestor William Blincow came from Long Buckby in Northamptonshire; when he and his family emigrated to Nebraska in 1871 they travelled to London by boat — it was presumed by the Grand Union Canal which passes near Buckby. But, William’s grand-daughter Ruth Mussett remembered an uncle telling her they passed by the Houses of Parliament, way up river from where the canal joins the Thames. Before he emigrated William was farming at Appletree, only a few miles from the Oxford Canal, it makes more sense that they went by canal boat to Oxford and down the Thames from there. The most likely starting point was the wharf at Cropredy Bridge and the picture above shows Kendra there, sitting on a Narrow Boat. They really were narrow, only 8 ft wide, so that they could pass through the locks built to that width when the first canals started in the 17thC. The barges were drawn by horses and, until the railways came were the fastest, and for long after, the cheapest means of transport. When they got to Oxford the family probably transferred to a larger boat, probably one of the steamers that operated a daily service to London, taking about three or four days to get there.
Kendra has just completed a semester at Oxford at the Institute of Mediaeval and Renaissance Studies. Attached to Keble College, she helped boost the College successes in the inter-college soccer competitions.
Future Projects
Peter Blencowe and I have been discussing the possibility of re-publishing Lady Ann Blencowe’s cookbook in full. We have been in touch with a Mrs Christina Stapley who has a special interest in early recipes and herbal remedies. Peter is in the throes of moving house and his copy of the 1920s reprint is in storage; once he and Anna have got their breath back we will arrange a meeting. We will ask Mrs Stapley if she considers it practical to print the original recipes on one page with her comments and up-dates on the facing page. A small book, attractively bound, should not be too costly and could make a nice gift for your relatives and friends.
The main body of Blencowe records is kept on a card index type computer programme that is excellent when ‘searching’ for family links but which will not transfer to genealogy programmes. Daphne Austin is patiently typing the records into a series of large ‘family group reports’; meanwhile Mike Walton had shown me how to transfer the records to a spreadsheet. Now, Allen Blincoe has worked out how to get it all into Gedcom format. This will then go easily into ‘Family Tree Maker’. There are a number of errors and imperfections but most people would be able to find their own part of the family tree and print it out. We’re looking at the possibility of making the large file available by e-mail and maybe up-dating it once a year.
Letters
This correspondence with Brian Evans in Australia started in January but I held it over whilst we exchanged information.
Brian was seeking the parents of Harriet Ann Blencowe who married Graham Berry in England before they emigrated to Victoria. We found that Harriet was the daughter of James Blencowe and Harriet Ann Hennessy and was baptised at St Dunstan, Stepney in 1831.
Harriet’s father James was born about 1803 but we have not, so far, traced his parentage. He was apprenticed and ‘obtained his freedom’ of the Needlemakers’ Company in 1823. He married Harriet at Chipping Barnet in Hertfordshire in 1824.
Graham Berry, who was born at Twickenham in 1822, was apprenticed to a draper and mercer in Chelsea where he married Harriet Ann in 1848. After running a draper’s shop of his own nearby in the Kings Road for a few years, they emigrated to Australia on the Marlborough arriving in Melbourne in November 1852. It is highly likely that Graham had been apprenticed to his father-in-law. James and his wife also emigrated to Australia and both died in Victoria.
Harriet Ann bore Graham eleven children, dying in childbirth with the twelfth in 1868.
Graham Berry had a very remarkable career. He opened a general store after his arrival, but returned to England in 1856/7. On his return he bought a local newspaper; he entered politics. and was elected to the State Parliament in 1861.
After Harriet’s death he was back in London in 1872 where he was married again to Rebecca Madge Evans (who bore him another seven children). Back in Parliament in Melbourne, he was Premier in 1875. In 1876 he was made Agent-General for Victoria in London. During the that time he was appointed a Commander of the Legion of Honour (France), a Commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy and was awarded a British KCMG. The latter was a very distinguished order: Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (a decoration known irreverently to juniors in the Colonial Service as Kindly Call Me God!).
Returning again to Melbourne he was twice Premier again, in 1880 and 1881; from 1894 to 1897 he was Speaker of the House. He died in 1904.
15 April – A letter from Judy Ludlow (in Australia) to Christine Clement (in New Zealand): ‘My research has taken me back to a Thomas Blencowe who married Elizabeth Williams in July 1815. My grandfather who, also was a Thomas Blencowe, came to Australia about 1914. Most of the Blencowes I’m interested in came from a little place called Souldern in Oxford… I believe most of them were farm labourers.’
I couldn’t give any positive information here but Thomas, a stonemason, appeared in the censuses of 1841 through 1871 and gave his birthplace as Brackley, c.1788. He was probably the son of Thomas & Mary Blencowe who baptised him there 16 April 1791. If this is correct then the line of descent can be traced from there back to the Marston St Lawrence family.
13 May: Pam Blinco wrote from Calstock in Devon to acknowledge receipt of her newsletter and told, “I was interested to see the picture of Isabel Blincow. … I have several of her embroidered pictures which I started to buy even before I knew my husband — what a coincidence!”
Pam went on to tell of a recent visit of her husband’s two elder brothers, of whom Roy lives in Canada. Their father Vic, who died five years ago, was born in 1900 and orphaned when only a few years old. This would have been Victor George Blinco whose birth was registered 3rdQtr 1900 at Wycombe. A reasoned guess is that his parents were Sidney Blinko who died age 28 in 1907 and Alice who died age 25 in 1905. This Victor was probably a great-grandson of Moses Blinko, a baker of Wooburn, and his wife Mary Weyman. Moses was four generations down from William Blincko, farmer and Petty Constable of Hedgerley, who married Sarah Nash in St. George’s Chapel, New Windsor in 1692. I look forward to receiving some more details from Roy and his mother in Canada.
23 May: Alan Blencowe in Australia and Ray Weller in Southampton wrote to Christine Clement seeking information on their ancestor Sarah Elizabeth Blencowe born 1876 in Bicester.
Christine passed the query to me; it re-opens the problem of too many Blencowes living in one place! I don’t know how many of you have visited Bicester; there are a number of small courtyards opening off the main street and Blencowes were often living close by one another in cottages around the courtyards. The main street is now closed to motor traffic and some of the courtyards have been converted to pleasant little shopping precincts.
I think most of the Blencowes were quite closely related and some children were baptised with the same forenames, even in the same year! When there are so many living cheek-by-jowl the Census data gives the best clue of family links, but even there I suspect that children sometimes moved in with an uncle next door when life got a bit crowded at home!
In addition to Christine, Jo Delaforce in Kent, Sue Gebbels in Abingdon and Keith Hazell in Tenerife have a special interest in Bicester. With their help I hope to give some more information in a future issue.
30 May: Another one via Christine: Ann Scanlan in Australia seeking nformation on Sarah Blencowe, wife of William Hutchings. William was a gardener, Sarah was born in Leasingham, Warwickshire about 1862. There is a problem here: there is a Leasingham near Spalding Lincs, and a Lessingham in north Norfolk; neither of these seem very likely ‘Blencowe’ locations. My guess would be Leamington Warws; there were Blencowes in that area, but I can’t find a Sarah.
8 June from Rob Tickle: ‘The story starts with Sarah Thomas, born 1806 in Buckinghamshire, daughter of John Thomas and Ann Taylor; in 1837 she married William Stannett with whom she had three, possibly four, children. Presumably Stannett died for in 1846 she married Joseph Blinco and in 1847 Maria Jones Blinco was born, my wife’s gg-grandmother. In 1856 Sarah arrived in Victoria with Sarah Ann Stannett, M. Stannet, Maria, Joseph and John Thomas Blinco. She moved around various towns in Victoria and died in East Melbourne in 1887 aged 77. I do not know if Joseph came to Australia. There are a couple of references to a Joseph Blinco in directories in 1868 and 1875 which place him in Victoria but it’s not known if he is the right Joseph. Family stories have him coming to Australia first, with Sarah and the family following. Joseph went back to England to sell his property and was never hear of again !!!’
This answered a query in my records here in Oxford. I had noted that Joseph, a fruiterer in Farnham Royal, emigrated in 1856 but ‘may have been back in Hedgerley in 1881’. It looks as if he was here then, but what happened next? I have no record of his death in England, did he die at sea, or was maybe even shipwrecked?
One thing is pretty clear, here is another whom we can trace back to William Blincko and Sarah Nash of Hedgerley.
17 June: Mick McMillan wrote from Australia to enquire for a book. If I’ve got it right he descends from John Thomas Blencowe, brother to George “the Inventor”, who emigrated to Melbourne in 1860.
20 June: Charles Blincow wrote from Dubai; it turns out that his wife Audrey works at the same organization as Marilyn Astle and learnt about us from her. Charles is one of the family of Blincows in Dunoon in south-western Scotland, a group I’ve hoped to hear from for a long time. There were no Blencowes of any spelling in the Scottish censuses of the nineteenth century and I was interested to learn how they got to be there.
Charles tells me that his grandfather Arthur was born in Lanarkshire and that his great-grandfather John Thomas Blincow was born in the Dudley area in the 1890s. The family were steel workers and moved to Scotland for work.
He says, “I have only come across three or four Blincow families in Scotland, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they are all related. The family in Dunoon has expanded rapidly and has a large presence in this small town of only 10,000 population. Arthur has thirteen grand-children and 32 great-grandchildren, the majority of whom still live in Dunoon. Out of these, there are currently seven Blincow male children, so the family name looks likely to continue in that part of the world for some time to come.
With all these revelations about English ancestry, I may have to consider supporting England in the World Cup!”
Blenco, Blencoe, Blencowe and Blincoe: another emigration from Gawcott to New York
This search started with a query from Bob Moltzen of Freeport NY who sought information about Harriet Elwell, born in 1834, who had married Thomas Sprague and, when widowed, had then married a Blencoe. She had died and was buried in Chenango Co. NY in 1892. The spelling suggested a Wisconsin connection, especially as her elder brother Roderick had lived there in Eau Claire, at least from 1860. We still haven’t answered Bob’s question but, having stirred up help from Roger Davis and Mary Van Gorden (WI), Grace Tkatch (NY), Ed Blincoe (CO), Joyce Gould (FL) not forgetting Helen Simpson (CA), we have at least found some more about emigrants from Gawcott!
In Chapter 18 Mary Van Gorden had shown that her immigrant ancestors were John Blenkow (b c.1798) and Hannah Herring who were already recorded in Guilford NY in 1840. In 1850 John was 52 years old, Hannah was 51. It had been suggested that John had been married previously to Frances who died in 1808, presumably in giving birth to a daughter Frances. This cannot be, Frances husband must have been another John (b c.1784). The daughter Frances (1808-1884) married Thomas Blenkow (1810-1880) and two of their children Jesse (1848-1928) and William (b 1834) emigrated about 1868, first to Norwich NY and then on to Wisconsin; that William was grandfather of Oscar Blencoe. Meanwhile, John and Hannah’s son William had already settled in Wisconsin and he was grandfather of Mary Van Gorden. William had married Mary Ann Marks in NY State in 1853, the Marks family probably also came from Gawcott. Of John and Hannah’s other sons Robert, John and George, the latter moved on eventually to Minnesota, the other two stayed in NY State. John (1826-1922) was grandfather of James Roosevelt Blencowe (1906-1998).
I had assumed that the Blencowe families remaining in NY State were all descendants of Robert and John but the census data shows another two families present in Guilford. Henry Blencowe (b c.1792 in Gawcott and his wife Ann (b c.1893 in Mixbury) were noted in Gawcott in the English censuses of 1841 & 1851. By 1855 they were in Guilford, along with their son Jesse (b 1832 in Gawcott); Jesse managed to get himself recorded twice — with his parents and as a farmer! The family and its descendants are shown above right; they all seem to have used the spelling Blincoe in later generations and included farmers up to the present day.
Also in Guilford in 1855 were John Blinco Jnr aged 28 and his wife Sarah A. aged 33. This could only be John, the son of John and Hannah, who was baptised in Gawcott in 1826. John Jnr and Sarah had three young children there: Emily, Fred and Susan.
In 1855 there was also a Thomas Blinco in Guilford, born NY, aged 18. It is probable that this was another son of John and Hannah and would imply that they had immigrated at latest by 1837. Meanwhile, Bob Moltzen has turned up another Blinco, John C, in Oxford Chenango NY in 1880, born Rhode Island c.1816, wife Lydia; “who he?” as the saying goes!
It’s a complicated story, I hope I’ve got it right, if not, I look forward to having contrary views to publish in future newsletters!
To add a further interest to the extended family groups in New York State I have included a small tree at bottom left based on data sent me by relatives of Lawrence Blenco (1901-1976). So far as I know this is the only family group in North America using the Blenco spelling. They were (and are) based around Johnson City and Binghampton NY. As these towns are close to Chenango County I would suggest that they too could be linked to the Gawcott emigrants. Trawling through State and Federal censuses of the State of New York should yield some interesting stuff!