Cumbria Family History Society

Dear members,

I am from Amsterdam, NL, researching for years the ancestry of my ancestor William Blake, innholder of Ravenglass, who married 19.1.1732 at Waberthwaite Francis Dickinson of Bootle. He died Muncaster 1748. He must be from outside Cumbria but I guess there should be some notes of his admission to Muncaster/Ravenglass maybe revealing his roots/place of birth. Some sources suggest (without any factual support) that he was from the Somerset-family of Blake.
Who knows more?

Rob Schouten, Amsterdam

Rob, Have you asked the Whitehaven Record Office for a copy of the original entry in the Marriage Register, they should have it going back to 1657 under reference YPR46. If he came from outside the county at the time of marriage there is a slight chance this could have been recorded in that entry. But it would depend on the vicar at the time and how particular he was in keeping his records as there was no requirement to do so. You can contact them on [email protected]
If he was an innkeeper in Ravenglass then there is a chance there could be some record of tenancy in the Egremont Barony Manorial Records but it would be quite difficult to access and search these.
There are unlikely to be any other records of his move to Ravenglass, unlike the rest of Europe, England never really maintained registers of inhabitants and people were free to move around as they wished without any record being kept. There are only occasional local 'census' usually created for tax purposed like Window Tax and Hearth Tax and occasional Constables Censuses but I am not aware of any for this period in this area that survive.

Hi Rob,

May I asked where the information for this marriage came from?

I have checked in Nev Ramsden's Copeland Index (he has indexed all the early parish registers in that part of Cumberland) and he has not got any such marriage in his index. Neither can I find it on FamilySearch.

Ah, I see Ancestry has the Marriage Licence Bond from the Archdeaconry of Richmond. The date on it is a bit dodgy - it says 19 Jan 17 2/3 - so they left out the 3 for the decade. The previous and next bond in the series are from the early 1730s so I think you are right, the date is 19 Jan 1732/3. The year started on 25th March at that time, so in the 1730s this would have been January 1732, but by our reckoning today we would say 1733 - hence writing it as 1732/3.

Now, this date is not the date of the marriage but usually a few days before the marriage took place. The presence of a marriage licence bond is also not a guarantee that the marriage actually took place - they could have still changed their minds!

However, Nev has the baptism of three children of William BLAKE (mother's name not given, as is usual at this time) in Muncaster:

William 08 Jan 1732 (not sure whether this is 1731/2 or 1732/3) - in either case this would have been before the marriage!
Isabel 10 Aug 1735
Elizabeth 14 Oct 1739

If you contact Whitehaven Record Office, ask for the full wording of those baptism entries as well as they might give further clues (if you are very lucky!).

Best wishes,

Petra