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The Blake Story, Part 1A
Blake families of Canterbury c.1800
There were many Blake Families in 18th and 19th century England, and for centuries before that, including a number of Blake families in South Kent during the 18th century. The focus in this history is the Blake family from Canterbury, Kent, England who were the ancestors of Barbara, Julie and John Blake of Brisbane. We believe this family to have been George and Elizabeth Blake who had 8 children baptised in Canterbury between 1793 and 1803.
At around the same time as George and Elizabeth were bringing up their family there were at least five other Blake families in Canterbury, possibly as many as seven. There were also at least three other Blake families elsewhere in South Kent.
George and Elizabeth in Hythe (18 miles south) a few years earlier in 1786,
George and Margaret in Dover (16 miles SE) in 1790 to 1800
George and Sarah in Sandwich (10 miles east) in 1806.
'Our' George cannot have been the husband of Margaret (since the baptisms overlap in time) but he could have been the man in Hythe in 1786 (possibly with the same wife) and/or the man in Sandwich in 1806. George of Sandwich dies in 1860 and his probate record does not feature ……. If George and Elizabeth of Hythe are the same couple then this puts the estimated birth date back to around 1760. The child born to G & E of Hythe was Elizabeth in 1786 - if they are the same then Elizabeth must have died between then and 1796 but I can find no death record.
John & Jane were baptising children at All Saints Church from 1785 to 1797. Nicholas 1785 Thomas 1786 Robert 1789 Elizabeth 1792 George 1797
William and Sarah baptised Sarah at All Saints Church 1790
John and Mary baptised a son Henry at Holy Cross in 1794. This extract from the registers of Holy Cross church in Canterbury is more interesting and informative than most baptismal register entries.
John and Sarah had four children from 1802 to 1808. John 1802 Stephen 1804 Jane 1806 Sarah Ann 1808 Stephen is an unusual name. At 1841 there is a Stephen at Sittingbourne and a John. Although censuses give their births as Sittingbourne there is no record. Did the family move there when they were young? At 1851 a Sarah Blake widow born Canterbury , the grandmother of William son of Stephen is living at Sittingbourne.
James and Mary baptised Elizabeth Mary in 1804 at St Peters - the Cathedral.
Thomas and Mary had two children at St Dunstans in 1807 Elizabeth Ann and 1810 Jane A Thomas Blake age 60-64 was in the Canterbury workhouse in 1841 Mary and Jane in workhouse at 1851, Mary identified as a widow ( smith's wife) Jane as an unmarried servant
John and Maria baptised Ann at St Mary Northgate in 1807
Samuel and Elizabeth baptised Mary Ann there too in 1811 and seem to have then moved to Sandwich before Samuel's baptism there in 1814. Mary Ann could be the unmarried Mary age 38 Bonnet Maker at Sandwich in 1851 and at St Mary Dover Milliner 58 in 1871 ( another Blake 'of the Army' but 11 years younger is at the same address in 1871 - but could the entry simply read 'friend of mary Blake?
It seems a reasonable assumption that at least some of these men were brothers or cousins of George. They do seem to represent a generation group. There are no Canterbury births of Blake recorded in the period 1764 to 1784 and none in the period 1755-1761.