May 17. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



389 



authority for the f^nct oi' the poet's bh-th having 

 taken place in. her house. A. J. M. 



Alfred Club. 



THE BI.AKE FAMILY. 



The renowned Admiral Blake, a native of 

 Bridgewater, and possessed of property in the 

 neighbourhood, left behind him a numerous family 

 of brothers, sisters, nephews, and nieces, settkd 

 in the county of Someiset; to wit, his brothers 

 Humphrey, William, Georj;e, Nicholas, Benjamin, 

 and Alexander all sui'vived him, as did also his 

 sisters, i\Irs. Bowdich, of Chanl, and Mrs. Smith, 

 of Cheapside, in London. His brother Samuel, 

 killed in an early part of the Civil War, left two 

 sons, Robert and Samuel, both of them honourably 

 remembered in the will of their great uncle. Can 

 any of your readers, accpiaiiited with Somerset 

 genealogies, give me any intbrmation which may 

 enable me to make out the descent of the present 

 families of Blake, in that county^ from this stock? 



There are at least two Biake houses now in 

 existence, who are probably of the blood of the 

 illustrious admiral ; the Blakes of Bishop's Hall, 

 near Taunton, of which AV'illiam Blake, Esq., a 

 magistrate for th« county, is the head ; and the 

 Blakes ofVenue House, Upton, near Wiveliscombe, 

 the representative of which is Silas Wood Blake, 

 son of Dr. AVilliam Blake, a bencher of the Inner 

 Tem[)le. These fan:>ilies possess many relics of the 

 admiral — family papers, cabinets, portrait, and 

 even estates ; and that they are of his blood there 

 are other reasons for bidieving; but, so far as I 

 know, the line is not clearly traced back. In a 

 funeral sermon spoken on the death of the grand- 

 father of the present William Blake, Esq., of 

 Bishop's Hall, I find it stated that — 



'• He was descended from pious and worthy an- 

 cestors ; a collateral branch of the family of that vir- 

 tuous min, great officer, and true patriot .'\(lmiial 

 Blake. His grandfather, the Rev. Malachi Blake, a 

 Nonconformist minister, resided at Bloi^dtn, f uir miles 

 from Tatniton. 'I'his gentleman, by his pious labours, 

 laid the foundation of the dissenting congregation at 

 Wellington, in the county of Somerset. After the 

 defeat of the Dnke of Monmouth, to whose cause be 

 bad b-'en friendly, he was obliged to flee from home, 

 anil went to London disguised in a lay-dress, with a 

 tye-wig and a sword." 



This minister had three sons, John, IVIalachi, 

 and William; and it is from the last named that 

 the lilakcs of Bishf>p's Hall are descended. But 

 who was the father of Malachi Blake himself? 

 He was probably a son or "jrandson of one of the 

 ■idmiral's brothers — but of which ? 



Permit me to aild to this Query another remark. 

 I am engaged ia writing a Life of Admiral Blake, 



and shall be extremely grateful to any of jour cor- 

 respondents who can and will direct me, either 

 through theniedium of your columns or by private 

 convmunication, to any new sources of information 

 respecting his character and career. A meagre 

 pamphlet being the utmost that has yet been given 

 to the memory of this great man, the entire story 

 of his life has to be built up from the beginning. 

 Fragments of papers, scraps of information, how- 

 ever slight, may therefore be of material value. 

 A date or a name may contain an important clue, 

 and will be thankfully acknowledged. Of course 

 I do not wish to be referred to information con- 

 tained in well-known collections, such as Thurloe^ 

 Rushworth, Whitelock, and the Parliamentary His- 

 tories, nor to the Deptford MSB. in the Tower, 

 the Admiralty papers in the State Paper Office, 

 or the Ashmole MSS. at Oxford. I am also 

 acquainted, of course, with several papers in the 

 national collection of JISS. at the British Museum 

 throwing light on the subject; but while these 

 MSS. remain in their present state, it would be 

 very rash in any man to say what is not to be 

 found in them. Should any one, in reading for 

 his own purposes, stumble on a fact of im]iortance 

 for me in these MSS., I shall be grateful for a 

 communication ; but my appeal is rather made to 

 the possessors of old family papers. There must, 

 I think, be many letters — though he was a brief 

 and abrupt correspondent — of the admiral's still 

 existing in the archives of old Puritan families. 

 These are the materials of history of which I am 

 most in need. Hepworth Dixon. 



84. St. John's Wood Terrace. 



iBinar «auen'e^. 



John Hohjwnod the Mathpviatician. — Is the 

 birthplace of this distinguished scholar known ? 

 Leland, Bale, and Pits assert him to have been 

 born at Halifax, in Yorkshire ; Stanyhurst says, 

 at Holywood, near Dublin ; and according to 

 Dempster and Mackenzie, at Nitbsdale, in Scot- 

 land. Edward F. Rimbahlt. 



Essay on the h-ony of Sophocles, tVc — AVho is 

 the author of tiie Essay on the Ironij of Sophocles, 

 which has been termed the most e.xquisite piece of 

 criticism in the English language? 



Is it Cicero who says, 



" Malo cum Platone errare, quam cum aliis recta 

 sentire?" 



And who embodied the somewhat contradictory 

 maxim, — 



" .Amicus Plato, .sed magis arnica Veritas?" 



Nemo. 



Menning of Mosaic. — What is the exact moan- 

 inf and deriviilion of the word ^losaic as a term 

 in'art? H. M. A. 



