Volume 9 Number 3 September 1994

• WHERE: YMCA of the Rockies, Estes Park, CO
• WHEN: July 27 to July 30, 1995 – Arrive before dinner Thursday evening and leave after lunch on Sunday. (3 nights, 9 meals)
• ACCOMODATIONS: All rooms are in the Mt. Epsilon Lodge. Each room accommodates up to 4 people: one double bed and one set of bunked beds. Full bath and telephone in each room.

The Estes Park Center is located 65 miles northwest of Denver, five miles southwest of the town of Estes Park at an elevation of 8,010 feet. Meals are in the conference dining rooms, located near the lodge on the 1,300 acre campus. There is a large indoor swimming pool, horseback riding, hiking, tennis courts, and mini-golf.

SIX DAY BUS TRIP following the Reunion

• DAY 1, Sunday Leave Estes Park after lunch. Follow the spectacular Trail Ridge Road over the ridge tops of mighty mountain ranges. T he valleys are 8,000′ above sea level and within the park 76 named peaks reach elevations of 12,000′ or higher. Spend the night in Dillon, originally a mining town.
• DAY 2, Monday This morning after leaving Dillon we go through the 11/2 mile Eisenhower Tunnel, an engineering marvel. A stop for lunch in Leadville (which is said to be highest incorporated city in the U.S. at 10,188′ and the center of one of 1860 gold rush areas) or in Aspen, a historic mining town turned ski resort. After lunch we return to I-70 west through the rolling red hills of western Colorado to Grand Junction.
• DAY 3, Tuesday This morning we will tour the Colorado National Monument where through the centuries wind and water have carved canyons, spires and gorges from brilliant orange and red sandstone. Continue on the miraculous million doller highway over the Red Mountain Pass of the San Juan Mountains (refered to as the Switzerland of America) and spend the night in Durango.
• DAY 4, Wednesday Our sight-seeing starts today with a tour of Mesa Verde National Park located in the southwest corner of Colorado. Here we will see the remarkably preserved cliff dwellings of the Pueblo Indians, a culture dating back to 1300 A.D. After crossing Wolf Creek Pass we will arrive in Alamosa on the wide cottonwood-grown (alamosa) bend of the Rio Grande river.
• DAY 5, Thursday The Great Sand Dunes National Monument is your chance to play in a 50-square-mile sand pile. The westerly winds pile the sand against the Sangre de Christo Range in a stark ever changing landscape. From here we continue toward Colorado Springs at the foot of Pike’s Peak, stopping for a look at the Royal Gorge Bridge over the Arkansas River 1,053′ down.
• DAY 6, Friday On our way to Denver and the International Airport we will tour the United States Airforce Academy. We will arrive in time for 3 pm flights or you may wish to stay another night and see the mile-high capitol city on your own.

Dear Cousins,

I heard an advertisement last night – “…during the approaching Holiday Season…!” Impossible! Not yet! I haven’t even finished the September Newsletter!

The main thrust of this letter will be aimed at the 1995 Blencowe Reunion next summer. We are finalizing plans for a wonderful coach tour to see the Rockies. There may be a few minor changes before it is settled but we are on our way. Since we have to make deposits on all the hotels, etc. we would appreciate an early deposit from you if you think you may be joining us. This would be refundable if you find you could not make it. Also, of course, space will be limited.

The Cookbook of Ann Blencowe has been mentioned in a previous letter. An interesting article from Edward and Jenifer Blincoe relates the cookbook to the times and locality of England in 1694.

Their letter reminds me to mention that we have had no ill effects from the numerous earthquakes. Other than the first one last fall, few are even felt where we are.

In the last letter we had an appeal for the repair of the Blencowe Bell at the church in Marston St. Lawrence, England. Jack and I want to thank those who donated and encourage others. There is a line on the form on the back page.

The Memorium for Carr Flournoy is a particularly painful one for us. Carr was a caring brother-in-law. He and Elizabeth have been next-door neighbors for forty-four years.

Bob and I had an interesting Alaskan trip in August, including a coach to Prudhoe Bay and a tour of the oil fields on the North Slope before cruising the Inland Passage for a week. We visited Mark Blincoe in Anchorage, Melissa Blincoe in Ketchican and called a Bill Blincoe in Vancouver. Can I write this trip off?

In three weeks we will be taking an extensive tour of Australia and New Zealand and would enjoy touching base with members “down under”.

• Oct 10, @ Holiday Inn, Sydney;
• 14 @ Tradewinds, Brisbane;
• 15 @ Hilton International, Adelaide
• 23,24 @ The Windsor, Melbourne.

Give us a call.
Helen Simpson

JOHN C. HALEY

John C. Haley, husband of Frances Blincoe of Bartlesille, OK was born 20 Decem er 1907 at Paris, TX and died 22 October 1993. He an Frances were married 20 August 1939 at Lawton, OK. John served in the U.S. Arm in Europe in WWII and re turned to teach and become a principal in the Bartlevill schools. They have on daughter, Mrs. Douglas Boy of Tulsa, OK. Frances is a long time supporter of the Blencowe Association.

ANTHONY 0. BLENCOWE

Antony 0. Blencowe was born 28 January, 1923 in Woking, Surrey, England and died 18 April, 1994 in Georgetown, Ontario, Canada. He leave is wife, Loretta Mills Blencowe and two children, Chris opher and Peter. Anton erved in the R.A.F. Bomber command in WWII. He attended the Blencowe dinner at Oriel College.

CARR IRVINE FLOURNOY

Carr Irvine Flournoy was born in Kansas City, Missouri n April 7, 1916. His parents ere early settlers. His mother, Elizabeth Edwards, was from Saint Charles, Missouri, and his father, Samuel Irvine Flournoy, was from Richmond, Missouri. Carr married Elizabeth Blincoe on September 2, 1938 in Topeka, Kansas. They have four chilren: James Irvine, Carr Edward, Nancy, Mary Helen an Lawrence Houston.

Edward M. Blincoe

Last summer I was lucky to come across “The Receipt Book of Ann Blencowe 1694”, a list of recipes both culinary and medicinal, handed down within the family, and printed as a book in 1925.

Ann Blencowe, the daughter of a renowned mathematician John Wallis, and second wife of Sir John Blencowe, was born in 1656 and married 1675. Fortunately her father, husband and third son William, all featured in the Dictionary of National Biography so background to her life was easy to find.

Her father John Wallis 1616-1703 was professor of Geometry at Oxford and the most eminent mathematician England had produced, until Isaac Newton using some of Wallis’s discoveries eclipsed him. He was a man of wide interests writing on theology and philosophy; with his friend Robert Boyle, he was a founder member of the Royal society and he even had some success in getting deaf mutes to speak, but it was his ability as a cryptographer that brought him prominence. During the Civil War, he decoded captured secret messages from the king, for the parliamentary side. He was cunning or principled enough not to reveal all the incriminating evidence, and despite signing a protest at the execution the Charles I, he remained in favour throughout the commonwealth period. On the restoration of the monarchy, he was appointed chaplain to Charles II and continued with his position as the government’s official cryptographer.

During this period, he was offered the bishopric of Hereford, but declined it, and suggested that his son-in-law be given some preferment instead. As a consequence John Blencowe was appointed to the King’s Bench.

John Wallis was careful to keep secret his decoding techniques, despite pleas to reveal them from mathematicians all over Europe, but he did pass them on to his grandson William Blencowe 1683-1712, and on his grandfather’s death, he in turn became the official cryptographer at a salary of £200 p. a. [per annum]

William was also proposed as a fellow of All Souls Oxford, but declined to take holy orders. The warden then vetoed his appointment, but the queen intervened personally on his behalf and he became the first lay person to be a fellow. Unfortunately after a fever, he had a period of insanity, and shot himself dead with a pistol.

Ann Blencowe and her sister were described by the famous gossip John Audrey, as being “very handsome young gentlewomen”. In 1694, The date of the recipe book, her husband was M. P. for Brackley, the nearest town to Marston St. Lawrence where they lived.

At this period, in pre-industrial England, educated women were expected to make up potions and remedies from herbs in their gardens, to treat family servants and even animals. Consequently the book is divided into Household recipes and Physical recipes, which are herbal potions and distillations. This expertise with herbs, had the result that very complicated recipes held no terror for Ann and her friends, and ingredients like spices which were not locally available could be ordered from London by mail order, whence they would be delivered by carrier.

Perhaps he only thing we could call convenience food was bread. -(Inflation was a problem in Ann’s day too.) A recipe for an almond pudding which calls for a two penny loaf to be crumbled into it, has foot note saying that as two penny loaves were now so small, she now uses a loaf and a half. It would be interesting these days, if manufacturers reduced the size of their products instead of raising the price up on a regular basis). Consequently recipes cover every aspect of cooking down to making what we would call stock ……

John Blencowe, a lawyer, seems to have been well thought of and hard working, but reading between the lines,

great ability as a judge. Whether his position as M. P. called for a lot of entertaining or not, the evidence of the recipe book reveals an extensive circle of both men and women showing a great interest in food, and contributing recipes.

The Blencowe family’s meals were probably not typical of the population as a whole, as the contributors, eg. Lady Oakes Scotch Collops, Lord Kilmory’s Indian Pickle and Sir Thomas Probins’ was of roasting ducks, indicate a fairly aristocratic circle and an eclectic approach to cooking. It is only the obvious abundance of cream, butter and eggs which show it was a rich dairy area, and to us, bombarded with dire warnings on animal fats, the quantities of cream used in syllabubs, flummerys and shaking pudding, and the rounds of butter used in cakes, seem rather alarming. Despite this, or maybe because of it, both Ann’s husband and father lived well into their 80’s.

If the household recipes take great pains to achieve perfection, the physical ones are more mysterious and even more alarming, seeming to operate on the opposite principal, that the worse it tastes, the more good it must do you. “Plurey Water, also good for gripes and fitts in children”, mixed a stone (14 Ibs) of new made horse dung with 8 Ibs of aniseed and licorice into 3 quarts of wine and distilled it.

picture of a way of life that has passed, by giving details of processes which would be considered too mundane to be mentioned elsewhere. I give this recipe for bleaching cloth to show you win some and you lose some.

To Whiten Cloth

Take Sheep’s dung, new made in May or June, or any time of ye Summer; which putt into a soft water, and stir it together till it is well broken and pretty thick. Then power it into a sive plac’d over a tub that will easily contain all ye cloth, so that it may be all covered with this water. Lay ye cloth in this green water on Satturday morning, letting it soake in it till Munday morning; then lay it out upon ye grass by a pond, or river side, which is better, keep it there, constantly wetting with pond or river water let it lye out Munday Tuesday e Wednesday beat it out and lay it in pond water all night; ye rest a day lay it out and water it till ye afternoon. Then forbare, that it may have time to dry out before night; then putt it dry in a tubb, being wash’d clean, laying a buck sheet on it. Upon ye buck sheet putt good store of greens – viz Mercury, Mallows, Kecks or wormwood, all or any of these. Then have in readyness a strong lye, which pour boyling hott upon ye greens, that it may descend to ye cloth, then cover it, greens & all close, that it may keep all night. On Friday morning lay it on ye grass again e keep it with

it may be dry against night. Then take some lye and make it boyling hott and pour it on ye cloth with fresh greens as you did before. On Saturday morning, lay it out and …. it as on Friday, yet left it ly in ye ….. Monday morning. Then lay it out upon ye grass, every day watering it with pond water till it is white enough.

Phew! When did she find time to do the cooking.

A Cover Letter From The Authors

Dear Bob and Helen,

I hope this letter finds you in good spiritsand free from the aftershocks of earthquakes.

I wondered if you would like this piece on Ann Blencowe and her recipe book.

I suppose it should have more recipes in it, but they made the article very unwieldy and if you think it interesting, I enclose a copy of a couple of sheets with some typical recipes. I think the little pye would be very tasty. [ED: See Page 5]

I don’t think we can make the Colorado Reunion trip, but perhaps we will see you the one after that.

All our best wishes,

Edward and Jenifer Blincoe , Lancashire , England

A Jelle Tort farmebrough

Make e cruse cold, take 3 quarters of a pound of Butter to a pound of flower, putt itt into a pattipan that is not too deep. Then take pippins, pair them & slice them very thin into ye pye, and strew some Leamon pill cutt very small & some fine sugar between every roe or two o ye Apple. Then bake itt. When itt is enough take itt out of e oven & cutt off ye lid. Have in a readiness some John apple Jelley, which pour on ye top & putt your pye into ye oven again a little while.

Ratafea Biskett.

Take a pound of double refined sugar, beate & sifted, 5 cournills of Apricocks Blanched & beat very small. Soake some gum dragon in orange flower water all ni ht; ye next morning strain out about as much as a walnutt, ye wbite of an egg beat to a froth ; mix all these together & drop them on papers, butter, &, sift some sugar over them. Let ye oven be pretty hott.

Mrs. Harvey’s Pancakes.

Take 3 pints of creame or good milk, putt in half a pound of butter, sett itt over ye fire till ye butter is melted putt in a little cinamon beat very fine, 9 eggs, & when itt is almost cold putt them into ye creame. Stirr in about 3 spoonsfulls of fine flower, fry them in a dry pan as thin as possible ; as soon as that side next ye fire is browne, turne itt out upon ye wrong side of a pewter plate, & so throw them one upon another, y- brown side being still uppermost. Till you have fryed itt all you must strew a little sugar between every pan cake.

To Make a little Pye for an Entermess.

Take a small Chicken, season it with peper, salt & spice. Then have your paty Ready to put it in with puff paste crust, lay in bits of butter in ye bottom, then put in your Chicken. Have paletts & swetbreads seasoned & a lettell foist meat, strove them in, & 2 or 3 larks with foist meat in their bellys, with ye same seasoning as your Chicken, & so lay bets of fresh butter 6 – Then strove pats & sweetbreads again with a litel foist Meat and ye tops sparograse or scalded spinage. If you pleas you may put a bade of A lace att ye top & some bits of butter. Then close it & bake it. When it comes out of ye Oven have ready a very good Gravy fit for ye purpose, with a spounfull of White Wine, Leomon, or pickled barbarys, & some bits of bakon in dice, then cut up r Pye, & put all in & shak it to close it, & send it to table for a side dish. Your Pallets & swetbreads must be very well oyled before you put them in : ye bacon should be baked in ye p ye.

To Fry Oisters.

When they are dried with Cloth, dip them in ye yolkes o egges, cream, & greated bread. Fry them in a good quantity of boyling hot driping & fry them a pall brown : you need not turn them if you have suett enough to cover them.

To Broyle a Carp.

Lett your Carp be scaled, washed, & scoured cleave from ye slime & blood. Then scarbanada it on bothe sides, wash it over with butter 6- season ye scarbanada with time, Nutmeg, & salt. Then put it on   our grid iron 6- boyle it sloly over charcoals. Keep it basting.- You may broyle some Collops of gammon with

… I have sent a spare newsletter to Rose Blencowe; her husband probably descends from Fern Gibbard/Frank Whillans group. Marcia Hatfield descends from the Brackley family with a dirct lire back to Adam de Blencowe. I have also had an interesting contact from a Blincow family of Dunoon in Scotland. I believe they are descended from a family that migrated north from the Midlands – I am awaiting details.

… I have been having a series of phone calls from Louis Giboin, the husband of our first Scottish Blincow. It turns out that he has downloaded what looks like your Family Roots data from a Californian bulletin board.

[ED:I don’t know where the Bulletin Board got their information but I have not sent my data to anyone except Jack. If anyone else brings this up on a bulletin board please let me know or send me a download on disk. They might even have some information we don’t have. Helen.]

… I am finding it enough work keeping the database up-to-date. The number of entries revised or added is probably more than 10% a year.

… In a list of immigrant Blincoes and Blencowes submitted by Ed Blincoe in Vol5 No 3 there was one Clinch Blinco who, it turned out, had been sentenced to transportation at Leiston (Suffolk) in the Lent Sessions of 1772 for stealing a pig. Clinch must have been a descendant of John Blincoe, a prosperous maltster of Wickham Market who died in 1718. John’s son, also John, married Bridget Clench and the name Clinch or Clynch was used for some of their children and grandchildren, but it is not clear which one stole a pig! It is unlikely to have been the Clench Blenco who married Mary (?Bates) and died in Wickham Market around 1785, or his son, for the family seems to have been quite wealthy. A new piece of evidence turned up when Benn Blincoe abstracted a list of Blincoes in the American IGI: there is a Cience Blincoe who married Elizabeth Mires in Baltimore 6th Oct 1777. Here is an interesting line of study that we hope someone will follow up.

… The Robert Blincoe mentioned in the National Geographic Magazine was GGGgrandfather of Julian Blincoe who, with two of his cousins and their wives, attended the reunion banquet in Oriel College in 1993.

… Jack Blencowe has enjoyed meeting some more Australian “cousins” who called on him in Oxford. Keith and Olive Roach were on holiday from Crossroads NSW Olive is a Blencowe from Armidale NSW whose ancestors emigratedfrom Buckingham in the 1860’s, they descended directly from Adam de Blencow through the Marston St Lawrence line. Early in the summer there was a call from Barbara Blencowe of Canberra whose husband can also trace his lineage back to Adam de B through the Blencowes who emigrated from Brackley in the 1830s and is thus a not too distant relative of Maurine Work of Adelaide. Both visits were far too short but Jack was able to show the visitors Oriel College with Anthony Blencowe’s Arms carved over the main gate. Joy Blencowe manning and her husband Eric also returned to Joy’s native Oxford for a short visit. We hope that Joy will write us an account of some of her experiences in pre-war Malaya.

What’s difference between Goldilocks and Genea1ogist? A Genealogist is interested in forebears.

Dear Mrs. Simpson,

I spoke with your husband briefly yesterday to learn if the Blencowe Families Association was still in existence….

Your husband indicated that you would be interested in my husband’s family. His grandfather was Guy Blencoe, who was born in Alma Center, Wisconsin, on September 12, 1873. He was a dentist. He married Olive Miller (born in Alma Center November 27, 1878) on October 25, 1904. Dr. Blencoe died on June 5, 1913 and his wife died November 24, 1968. They had one son, Shirley Guy Blencoe (he changed his name to Guy Miller Blencoe when he was an adult), born June 14, 1909. Guy Miller Blencoe married Marion Smith (born in Viroqua, Wisconsin February 14, 1911). Guy died ten days ago, on June 9, 1994 in Pinehurst, North Carolina.

Sincerely, Mary Ellen Blencoe

[ED: See list of new members. What a wonderful letter for genealogical purposes! Thank you.]

Dear Helen,

I have been reading my sister’s (Freda Christie – Surrey) copies of the Newsletter. It’s time I became a member. Corrections for the John Pheasant Blenko tree – FYVIE not FYRIE. I must commend you for your hard work. The Newsletter is well written and interesting. Thank you.

Sincerely, June Fyvie

Dear Helen,

I am getting ready to entertain and want to write while your newsletter is somewhat fresh.

The article about Joseph A Blincoe by Benn Blincoe, Benton CA sure struck a familiar chord. And, it sure points out why we need to share what we have. How many times have Marshall and I read these familiar entries we took many years ago; and he submitted to you. Of course, Catherine of Berkeley County, VA 408 was Marshall’s great aunt as was Harriett of Jefferson County, VA 388. Their father Joseph, a recent widower had scattered his children with various relatives. If Benn Blincoe wants any more information we might have or he would like to share, I guess he will have to write me. He has my curiosity up as to what he found we might not have. …I thought our putting all this together would have automatically cross indexed and been a clearing house for all concerned. I need to know a lot more about the home computer, I’m sure.

Last week, I was at the library working on my family when up popped Blincoe, Clinch shipped to USA 1772 after being sentenced at Leiston Lent Suffolk for stealing a pig. He was listed in a guide for “Emigrants in Bondage.” I guess my library reference # 929.373C673C wouldn’t help anyone. Does anyone want to claim him?

We are looking forward to the Colorado reunion… Sincerely,

Marshall and Mary Blincoe, wife of Marshall, Kansas City KS