In 1663 John Blackett, the son of Nicholas, was baptised at Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland. He married Jane Cunningham in Bamburgh, in 1687 and settled in Beadnell, a coastal village a few miles to the south, where at least eight of their children were born. From this line descend a number of notable Blacketts, including John Blackett, the co-founder of Hurst and Blackett, publishers, (see Blacketts and Literature), James Douglas Blackett and his brother William Richard, who were members of the London Stock Exchange, (see Stock Exchange Blacketts), and George Forster Blackett, after whom the town of Blackett, New South Wales,now a suburb of Sydney, is named (see Blacketts Down Under). Another member of this line, Captain Alexander Anderson, who married the step-sister of John Blackett, also settled in New South Wales. Yet another member of this line, William Blackett (1830/31-1898) settled in Quebec, Canada, and at least one of his children moved to Massachusetts, USA.

Although it was suspected that a connection existed between these branches of the family, it was only in February 2011, after detailed study of the relevant Bamburgh parish records, that the relationship was established. This has now become the largest tree to date that remains unconnected to the “main” Blackett line. For a descendancy chart of Nicholas Blackett please click here.

It is possible that these Blacketts were distantly connected to the Blacketts of Wylam. On 4 October 1712 an advertisement appeared in the Newcastle Courant stating “Newham [a hamlet of Bamburgh] adv., to be sold, the estate of the late Mr. Ch. Blacket, deceased. Apply to John Blacket of Wylam, one of the trustees.” John was Christopher’s elder brother, and Christopher had inherited lands at Newham under the Will of their father, John Blackett, who had died in 1707. Not all of the Newham estate was sold, however, as Christopher’s son, also Christopher, of Haughton-le-Skerne, County Durham, died in 1738 possessed of a one third share of lands at Newham, most of which were let, other than Newham Hall and a small farm reserved for his own use. All of these were sold to the Duke of Northumberland by a Mrs. Blackett (probably Christopher’s widow, who had remarried) in 1789 for £11,500. In 1785 John Blackett Esq. had granted a lease of a farm in Newham, and John Blackett of Wylam sold Newham Hall, probably part of the same estate, to the Duke of Northumberland in 1789. The Duke thus became the sole owner of Newham. The link between the Bamurgh and Wylam Blacketts may be no more than a coincidence, however. In his 1707 Will John Blackett makes no mention of any of the Bamburgh Blacketts and it is not clear how he acquired the Newham estate.

The maritime connection suggested by James Blackett’s Trinity House connection, and the family’s later move to Wapping, then a strongly maritime area, also support the possibility that this family included the Captain J. Blackett who in 1776 built at his own expense two lighthouses off the coast of Bamburgh. (See Blackett Aids to Shipping). In 1825 Captain Blackett’s family sold the lease of one of the lighthouses to Trinity House for £36,484, more than enough to establish two members of the family on the stock exchange!

Isaac Blackett was born about 1590 and died 4 May 1642 in Tynemouth, Northumberland. His burial record states that he was of Chirton, Northumberland, but the only baptismal record of an Isaac Blackett around that time that we have found is that of Isaac baptised 25 July 1598 in Pittington, Co. Durham. No other connection has been found with Pittington, however, and several generations of Isaac’s descendants lived in Tynemouth and neighbouring Longbenton and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. For a descendancy chart of Isaac Blackett please click here.

Robert Collingwood Blackett (1807-1878) was born in London, the son of Peter Blackett and Mary Russell, who according to family legend was the daughter of a Lady Elizabeth Russell. A shipwright by trade, he was an accomplished violinist and artist. He was an early convert to the Church of the Latter Day Saints, and with his family emigrated to the USA in 1856, finally settling in Utah. Robert’s ancestry can be traced back to Alexander Blackett, who married Elizabeth Scotland in Gateshead, Co. Durham in 1707, but the lineage prior to that has not been established. His middle name was almost certainly bestowed in tribute to Admiral Lord Collingwood, who had been second-in-command to Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. As outlined in Naval Blacketts Admiral Collingwood was married to Sarah Blackett, but no link between her and Robert Collingwood Blackett has been found.

This branch of the family is now believed to include Robert Blackett, who married Sophia Dyball in Shoreditch, London in 1810. Sophia was baptised in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk in 1786, where a number of their descendants were subsequently born. According to family legend this Robert was a sailor and he or his family had had a ships chandler’s business in Newcastle before losing it through drink. Sophia’s son, Walter Jones Blackett, a musician born in 1826, was christened as such, but is shown as Walter Jones in several censuses, though his children were registered with the surname of Blackett. For a descendancy chart of Alexander Blackett and Elizabeth Scotland please click here.

Another line of descent from Alexander and Elizabeth Scotland includes several generations of Joseph Snowball Blacketts, who have had maritime connections over the generations. This line, who mostly live in the United States, was originally thought to descend from Isaac Blackett of Chirton, Northumberland (see entry above), but this now seems unlikely.

It is possible that John Turnbull Blackett of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and New South Wales mentioned in the article below formed part of this line, though no conclusive proof has been found.

For more details of Robert Collingwood Blackett’s journey to Utah please click here.

Joseph Blackett, who married Elizabeth Watson on 27 July 1771 in St. Oswald, Durham City, is described in parish records as a wheelmaker or spinnelwheel-maker¹. In the 1771 marriage entry Joseph is shown as a widower and Elizabeth as a widow. Elizabeth’s maiden name was Morgan. She married her first husband, Richard Watson, an innkeeper, in St. Oswald, Durham City in 1769 but he died the following year. It seems that Joseph married at least three times, as Elizabeth was buried in St. Oswald, Durham City in 1782 and Joseph then married Elizabeth Penny in 1794. She died in 1827 in Framwellgate. Joseph’s first wife was probably yet another Elizabeth, “wife of Joseph Blacket (papist)”, who was buried in Durham St. Oswald in 1770, though it is not clear whether the term was accurate, or simply meant to signify a nonconformist.

In his book, My Name Is Blacket, Nick Vine Hall, relying on earlier research carried out by the late Cedric Blackett, shows Joseph to be the son of Henry Blackett (1705-1744). This seems unlikely. In an 1811 submission to the College of Arms the eminent historian and genealogist Robert Surtees shows this Henry as having had five daughters but no sons. This is confirmed by Henry’s Will dated 3 Oct 1744. Moreover, Surtees also refers to a Grant of Administration de Bonis Non taken out in 1787 by Katharine (b.1729), Henry’s eldest daughter, and her husband, Nicholas Clarke, covering the unadministered part of the estate of Henry’s grandfather, also Henry (1639-1704), there being no surviving male issue. Surtees goes on to state that “it seems pretty plain that all the male line of Henry… is extinguished.”

Henry’s family were Anabaptists, based around Witton-le-Wear. We have found no mention in Anabaptist records of a Joseph Blackett being excommunicated from their church and no record of Joseph’s baptism or birth in either Anabaptist records or the parish registers covering Durham City held at Durham Record Office, nor in the Witton or Hamsterley registers, despite Joseph’s burial entry stating that he was a native of Hamsterley. Both Cedric Blackett and the Hudleston papers held by Durham University show Joseph Blackett as having been born in 1733, but this may have been based on his being shown as aged 70 in the entry for his burial in the 1803 St. Oswald register, and the birth date may not therefore be secure. It is not clear whether or not both authorities came to their conclusions independently or whether one followed the other.

If Joseph’s father was named Henry, (and we have found no evidence to support this), there is one possibility, namely Henry, the son of Christopher Blackett, of Little White, Brancepeth, baptised in 1701. Christopher almost certainly descended from the Blacketts of Shipley and Helmington and is known to have had financial dealings with his third cousin, Edward Blackett of Bedburn Hall, who was a witness to the birth of Christopher’s eldest daughter in 1705. Edward’s mother, Jane, was a close friend of Henry Blackett the Anabaptist, and in her Will appointed Henry one of the guardians of her children. No further connections with this Henry have been found, however, nor a marriage or burial for Henry, the son of Christopher, who may have been named after his maternal grandfather Henry Atkinson.

Perhaps a more likely possibility is that Joseph, if the burial reference to him being a native of Hamsterley is correct, was the son of Cuthbert Blackett (1703-1778) and Alice Parmeley. Virtually all the Cuthbert Blacketts for whom we have discovered records descend from this Cuthbert and, although Cuthbert and Alice married in 1726, we have found no earlier baptisms of their children before Rachell on 14 March 1737/8. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that Joseph and Elizabeth’s 2nd and 3rd sons (baptised 1775 and 1777) were named Cuthbert, and their daughter (baptised 1778) was named Alice. In the absence of a baptismal record for Joseph, however, we have left this as a separate tree pending further investigation.

Joseph had at least two surviving sons. By 1799, the elder son, Henry Brymer Blackett, had settled in Darlington, about 18 miles south of Durham City, where he was working as a machine maker at the time of his marriage. He remained in Darlington and continued his trade at least until 1851. His eldest son, Henry, took up a similar occupation but had moved to Barnard Castle by the early 1820s.

The younger son, Cuthbert, followed in his father’s footsteps as a spinnel wheel¹ maker and also moved to Darlington, where, like his brother, he married in 1799. By 1801, however, he had returned to Durham City, continuing his trade, and was living at Abbey Mill², Durham from at least 1804 to 1820. Pigot’s directories of 1828/29 and 1834, however, show Cuthbert carrying on business (in partnership with Thomas Gainforth, who was probably his step-brother) as Blackett & Gainforth, carpet and worsted manufacturers of Framwellgate, and Cuthbert and Thomas, trading under the name of Blackett and Gainforth of Framwellgate, are reported in the London Gazette as having executed an indenture for the benefit of their creditors on 12 November 1839. It is possible that the worsted business had commenced at Abbey Mill as William Dean is shown as a worsted manufacturer of Abbey Mill in 1828/29 and, with Matthew Dean, in 1834, (they are shown as worsted manufacturers, living in South Street, Durham City in 1841). The premises may therefore have been used by Cuthbert Blackett for manufacturing worsted before Blackett & Gainforth moved into newly built premises on the east side of Framwellgate some time after 1823, and continued as a worsted mill after Cuthbert had moved. Interestingly, the previous occupant of the Framwellgate premises was Thomas Watson, the same surname as Cuthbert’s mother at the time of her marriage to Joseph Blackett in 1771. Cuthbert is shown in 1841 as a “worsted manufacturer” living in Framwellgate, Durham City, and in 1851 as a “retired worsted and carpet manufacturer.”

From 1852 onwards several of Cuthbert’s children emigrated to Australia and New Zealand (see Henry Blackett in Blacketts Down Under), where their descendants still live. These included Cuthbert Robert Blackett and his wife Margaret (nee Mordey), and Ann Blackett and her husband Luke Forster³. Additional important Blackett lines descend from Joseph Blackett and Elizabeth Watson, including some of the East Anglian Blacketts, and the line that includes Col. William Cuthbert Blackett C.B.E. (see A Blackett Aid to Miners). Despite the existence of the adjacent image of Margaret, nee Mordey, the wife of Rev. Cuthbert Robert Blackett, no image of her husband Cuthbert has been found. If you are aware of one please contact us.

The images on the right are believed to be of Luke and Ann Forster, painted in 1846, before they emigrated, and though they bear the annotation “J. Wood” (presumably the artist) and the 1846 date, no names of the sitters are shown. It is possible that copies were made and distributed amongst this branch of the family and if you recognise or have any information on the portraits that may help to identify the sitters please contact us. Sue Beatty, with whose permission the images are shown, hosts a very interesting and informative website on the Forster/Blackett family history.

For a descendancy chart of Joseph Blackett and Elizabeth Watson please click here.

Notes:

¹ “Spinnel” is an archaic form of the word “spindle”. It was already falling out of use at the beginning of the 19th century and in Cuthbert’s marriage entry and the baptismal entries for three of his children the word “spinning” is used instead.

² Abbey Mill is now known as The Old Fulling Mill, and is on the south-west of the peninsula beneath the cathedral. It is now a museum and part of Durham University. Formerly known as Jesus Mill, it was leased in 1792 “for the carding of wool and cleaning of cloth”. (Fulling mills were used for the beating and cleaning in water of cloth in order to make the fabric denser.) The 1794 St. Oswald burial record of John Southers/Sutherst describes him as “master of the jenny spinners at Abbey Mill”. Another Abbey Mill at one time stood on the opposite bank, but was destroyed by floods in 1771.

³ Despite the coincidence of Blackett/Forster names and the Australian connection, the connection, if any, between the family of Luke Forster and that of George Forster Blackett mentioned in Northumberland Blacketts above, after whom the town of Blackett, New South Wales is named, has not been established.

On 12 Aug 1793 Joseph Blackett married Ann Lister (bapt. 1761) in Welbury, Yorkshire, where at least three of their sons were born. The family of Robert (bapt. 1794) settled in Northallerton, and that of John (bapt. 1800) in Thirsk, both in Yorkshire. We have not been able to establish the parentage of Joseph. For a descendancy chart of Joseph Blackett please click here.

Welbury is just over 10 miles west of Ingleby Greenhow where in 1637 Richard Blackett married Miriall (Muriel) Harrison. Their son Richard married Anna Appleton in 1672 in nearby Kirkby in Cleveland, where at least nine of their children were born. No link has however been found between this family and the family of Joseph Blackett and Ann Lister. For a descendancy chart of Richard Blackett and Miriall Harrison please click here.

Frederick Blackett was born in Hull in 1821/22, the son of Thomas Blackett and Emma Clarkson, who married in Hull in 1819, but had moved to County Durham by the time of his marriage to Sarah Watson in 1841. His second daughter, Ann or Anna (1844-1913), married Henry Flounders (1836-1904) in 1866 and emigrated to Ohio between 1876 and 1879, where some of their descendants live to this day. For a descendancy chart of Thomas Blackett and Emma Clarkson please click here.

In 1696 William Blackett (b. 1660/61, the son of William), a yeoman of Riding Barns, married Ann Errington in Whickham, near Gateshead, Co. Durham. Ann died in 1701 and William married Ann Atkinson in 1711. The family maintained their connections with the Whickham area over several generations, as did that of William’s brother John. For a descendancy chart of William Blackett, the father of William Blackett who married Ann Errington, please click here.

A second branch of the family also lived in Whickham, where in 1717 Francis Blackett married Elizabeth Stephenson. His great-great-granddaughter, Elizabeth Blackett, married Edward Charlton in Whickham in 1810, and at least three of their children were given the 2nd/3rd name of Blackett, a practice which has continued to this day (2009). Robert Blackett Charlton, who founded the engineering company of R. Blackett Charlton Ltd. in 1885 (see A Piping Hot Blackett), descends from this line, and William Charlton Blackett, of Blackett and Howden fame (see A Blackett Music Maker) also descends from Francis Blackett.
The line of descent from Francis is now believed to include that of William Blackett, who married Mary Lackland in 1797 in Gateshead. William, a land agent, was a native of Marsh Lands in the Parish of Whickam. His wife Mary died at Academy Street, South Shields in 1825 where William Blackett, aged 85 and presumably William’s father, had died in 1822. (William and Mary’s son Francis also died in Academy Street in 1824.) The couple had at least four children born in South Shields between 1798 and 1807. The eldest son, also William, settled in Liverpool, Lancashire, where he had a daughter, but the descendants of the youngest son Thomas remained in County Durham, other than Anne (Annie) Blackett (1841-1915), who lived in Norfolk for a time, where her youngest son was born. For a descendancy chart of Francis Blackett please click here.

A third Whickham branch descends from Benjamin Blackett, who married Margery Sharper in 1730, and a fourth, based in neighbouring Lamesley, from Luke Blackett of Tinker Row, who died in 1774. One branch of Luke’s descendants settled in Whitehaven, Cumberland. For a descendancy chart of Benjamin Blackett please click here. Although the tree of Luke Blackett can be connected to the main Blackett tree by the marriage of a descendant, Luke’s ancestors are not known. For a descendancy chart of Luke Blackett please click here.
The connection between all of these branches has not been established, nor that with Thomas Blackett (abt 1744-1825), gentleman of Ravensworth Castle, Lamesley, who married Jane Blackett in 1766. Thomas’s younger brother Peter married Elizabeth Catherin in St. Mary-le-Bow, Durham in 1771 and it is believed that Thomas and Peter were the sons of Christopher Blackett. (For a descendancy chart of Christopher Blackett please click here.) However, there is a strong possibility of a connection between all or most of them, given that many of their immediate descendants lived in the hamlets of Fellside and Lowhand.

Blacketts have lived in London since at least the late 1500s, and over the following centuries their numbers have been swelled by Blacketts migrating from the provinces, particularly from north-east England. Many of them became weavers following the boom in silk-weaving that commenced in the late 17th century. One branch descends from John Blackett, a seaman who married Anne Davison in Tynemouth, Northumberland in 1750, and who moved to London some time between the births of their daughter Anne in 1755 and their son William in 1759. (For a descendancy chart of John Blackett and Anne Davison please click here.) The family settled in the East End of London, initially in Mile End Old Town and St. George in the East, but by the late 18th – early 19th century their descendants had moved the short distance to Shoreditch and were concentrated in a cluster of streets including New Inn Yard, George Yard and Swan Yard. Those addresses, together with the neighbouring Holywell Lane, crop up regularly in the baptisms, marriages and burials of three further lines of Blacketts:

(i) in 1766 Robert Henry Blackett, the son of John and Mary, was baptised in Bethnal Green, slightly east of Shoreditch. He married Sarah Brett, a widow, in 1785 in Shoreditch, and seems to have had three wives in all. This branch of the family, many of whom were weavers, lived in and around the East End of London for generations, though Robert’s great-grandson, George Frederick Blackett (1847-1925), had moved to County Durham by 1870. It is not known if there was a remaining family connection with the north east, or if George’s move was coincidental. For a descendancy chart of John Blackett and Mary please click here.

(ii) Abraham Blackett was born around 1772 and married Esther Carter in 1797 in Shoreditch. The couple had at least six children before Abraham died in Bishopsgate Workhouse in 1820, Esther surviving until 1847. Their descendants remained in the Shoreditch and Bethnal Green areas for several generations. For a descendancy chart of Abraham Blackett and Esther Carter please click here.

(iii) John Blackett and Sarah had at least six children born in Spitalfields, London between 1776 and 1783 and a further four born in neighbouring Aldgate between 1785 and 1791. Here again, their descendants remained in the area of Shoreditch, Bethnal Green and Spitalfields for several generations, though their 2xgreat-grandson Frederick John Blackett emigrated to Alberta, Canada with his family in 1873. For a descendancy chart of John Blackett and Sarah please click here.

Given that these families were living in the same small area at around the same time, it is probable that they were all closely related to one another, but the precise relationships have not yet been established.

In 1702 John Blackett, a mariner and widower of Stepney, married Isabella Wright in the City of London. They had at least five children born in neighbouring Wapping, but no link has been found between them and the other London Blacketts. For a descendancy chart of John Blackett and Isabella Wright please click here.

No connection has been established between the families mentioned above and the descendants of Benjamin Blackett, who died in Dog Row, on the border between Stepney and Mile End, in 1676. Benjamin’s son Thomas seems to have owned the close known as Dog Row, which is believed to be named after dog kennels that were originally located there. Thomas died in 1701 and by his Will left Dog Row to his wife Mary until his son Thomas became of age. Thomas senior’s widow married Joshua Naylor, a cheesemonger, within a year of her husband’s death and the younger Thomas and his sister, though still minors, accused Naylor of defrauding them in 1704. Thomas junior, who, with his siblings was born in Dog Row, seems to have regained the property by 1727. His uncle, another Benjamin, moved south across the River Thames to Southwark, where several of his children were born. For a descendancy chart of Benjamin Blackett of Dog Row please click here. Please also see the next section below for the probable Prince Edward Island descendants of Benjamin Blackett.

A little further to the west George Blackett, a house painter, married Sarah Cureless in Soho in 1820. Sarah was born in Shropshire but all that is known of George’s birth is that the 1841 census shows him as not being born in Middlesex. He died in St. Pancras, London in 1847, as did Sarah in 1860. The couple had at least 9 children born in that part of London between 1821 and 1839. For a desecendancy chart of George Blackett please click here.

Towards the end of the 1780s William Blackett arrived in St. John’s Island, soon to be renamed Prince Edward Island, and now a Canadian province. (Some sources state that he was sent out by the British Government to North America to buy lumber for the English shipyards in 1785, but his son Walter William was born in Limehouse, London in 1786.) In 1777 he had married Anne Martha Applequist (shown as Applequest in the marriage record) in Bethnal Green, London. William and Martha settled in the island, and in 1790 were living in Launching, Lot 56. Shortly afterwards William and his family moved across Grand River to Annadale where William bought or leased 100 acres of land running alongside what is now known as Blackett’s Creek. William Blackett appears as head of a household in Lot 56 in 1798. Many of this family remained in Prince Edward Island, but William’s son Walter William Blackett (1786-1872) moved to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, where he founded the settlement of Glace Bay (see Wikipedia article) where many of his descendants were born. William’s granddaughter Diana Blackett (1816-1906), who married Michael Taylor of Nova Scotia, settled in Massachusetts, USA, and a number of her descendants were born there, as were a number of other descendants of William.

It is now believed that William Blackett was born in Rotherhithe, Surrey in 1750, the son of John Blackett and Mary and the grandson of Benjamin Blackett, who had earlier moved from his native Stepney south across the River Thames to Southwark. The evidence to support this is circumstantial (and should therefore be treated with caution) but is persuasive. Anne Martha Applequist married William Blackett, a widower, in Bethnal Green, north of the River Thames but she was born in 1748 in Rotherhithe, south of the river. The name Applequist was an extremely rare surname in the London area at the time and was probably Scandinavian, coming from the Swedish word for an apple twig – appleqvist. Martha’s father, Daniel Applequist had married his wife in St. Katherine by the Tower, on the north bank of the river but at least four of his children, including Anne Martha, were born in Rotherhithe before he and his wife moved back north across the river to Poplar in the parish of Stepney, where at least four more of their children were born. Anne Martha was baptised in St. Mary’s, Rotherhithe, where on 24 April 1750 her sister Elisabeth was baptised two days after William Blackett was also baptised there. Blackett was also an extremely rare name south of the river at the time and it seems probable that the two families may have been well acquainted with one another. Rotherhithe was a nautical area at the time and William is described as a shipwright at the 1783 burial of William John, his son by his first marriage, and at the baptism of his son Walter William in 1786.

Since the immediate ancestry of William Blackett has probably been established, his tree now forms part of that of Benjamin Blackett of Stepney. For further details of Benjamin Blackett please see the paragraph on him in London Blacketts, and for a descendancy chart of Benjamin Blackett please click here.

Some sources show one of William and Anne Martha’s sons as being John William Blackett, who died in 1895 aged 101. However, although we have not discovered the baptismal records concerned, it seems more likely that John and William were father and son, John being the son of William Blackett and Anne Martha Applequist, and William being the son of John Blackett and Elizabeth Scheverie/Cheverie. There is some circumstantial evidence in support of this. In 1798 the elder William appears as head of a Household of 7 people in Lot 56, (presumably farming the 100 acres mentioned in the first paragraph above). John was appointed as a Fence Viewer of Lot 56, Prince Edward Island in 1833 and died two years later. By his Will dated 24 August 1835 he bequeathed “the old homestead or the farm” of 100 acres (which he had presumably inherited from his father, William, his brother Walter having by then moved to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia) to his eldest son, William, with the stipulation that William should provide for his mother (John’s widow, Elizabeth) and for his (William’s) brother George and sisters Katherine and Diana. One of John’s executors was Robert Robertson, probably the husband of his sister Mary.

The younger William appears a number of times throughout his lifetime. In 1826 he registered the boat “Success”; in 1849 William and John (presumably William’s son) Blackett of Grand River registered the boat “Swallow” which was built in the Grand River shipyard of William Blackett; in 1861 he is shown farming 55 acres (it is not clear what happened to the remaining 45 acres) in Lot 56; in 1871 he appears in Lovell’s P.E.I. Directory as a farmer of Annandale (in Lot 56); in the 1881 census as a farmer aged 82; in the 1891 census aged 97, living with his son William; and in his death notice dated 13 Apr 1895 as aged 101. He had made his Will in 1885, one of the witneses to which was Simon Chivirie (sic), probably the husband of his granddaughter Sarah Elizabeth Blackett.

If anyone can provide information that contradicts our assumptions above (or, better still, supports them!) please contact us.

In 1795/96 John and Lt. George Blacket, both serving with the Royal Artillery, arrived in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, as part of a British force sent to take over the island from the Dutch. Army records cite George under Royal Artillery Drivers (horses for the guns).
George died in Colombo in 1809, but John’s son, James Blackett (1808-1893), and his descendants went on to become coffee, and later tea, planters. A family link with tea planting in Sri Lanka continues to the present day. For a descendancy chart of the unknown Blackett who was the father of John and George please click here.

Blacketts have lived in Cumberland and Westmorland for several centuries and the earliest entry we have come across is the marriage of Marion Bleckett (sic) to John Welles in Penrith on 29 August 1556. There is thought to be a connection between these early Blacketts and John Blackett (bapt. 16 Oct 1670) of Appleby-in-Westmorland, who married Julia, or Julia Ann, Bellas in 1702, and whose descendants are recorded in the tree as a separate module. John’s great-grandson, Thomas, b. 1747, lived for some years in Barbados, where his son, Stephen, was born in 1780. Stephen married his first cousin, Mary Blackett, born in Barbados in 1782, the daughter of William Blackett (b.1752 Appleby, Westmorland) and Rebecca Ross. The marriage took place in Appleby, Westmorland, England in 1808. No connection has yet been found between these Blacketts and other Blacketts who are known to have lived in the Island around that time. Another great-grandson of John, John Blackett (1805-1856) moved to Shoreditch, London, where he married in 1837 Sarah Nicholson of Bampton, Westmorland. They had at least six children born in Shoreditch and the neighbouring Hoxton. For a descendancy chart of John Blackett and Julia Bellas, please click here.

A number of prominent Barbadian Blacketts of mixed descent are believed to be descended from the Appleby, Westmorland branch of the Blacketts, including the Right Reverend Monsignor Vincent Harcourt Blackett. The precise line of descent is, however, still being investigated.

For a possible connection to the Blacketts of south-west England please see Devonian and Cornish Blacketts.

A further line of Westmorland Blacketts descends from Thomas Bleckett (sic) who married Margaret Chappelhow in 1686 in Bolton, a few miles north-west of Appleby. The family of their eldest son Thomas seems to have moved south to Kendal by 1744, where two of his daughters were married that year. For a descendancy chart of Thomas Blackett and Margaret Chappelhow please click here.

Finally at least four children of Stephen Blackett, a descendant of Luke Blackett (please see Whickham and Lamesley Blacketts) settled in Whitehaven, Cumberland where a number of their descendants were born. We have found no connection between these descendants and the other Cumberland and Westmorland Blacketts.

At least two Blackett families lived in Devon, mostly in and around Plymouth. William Blackett, (1791-1853), the son of Ralph Blackett and Elizabeth, had at least six children born in the city, and the splendidly named Sampson Blackett (1801/02-1887), the son of Jeremiah and Sarah Blackett, had at least four children born there. The links between these families have not been found, nor which branch of the Blacketts they descend from. Please click on the names to see their respective descendancy charts.

Interestingly, the only marriage around the time in question of a Jeremiah Blackett to a Sarah took place in 1800 in Madron, Cornwall, the bride’s name being Sarah Chelew. Both parties were expressed to be of Penzance (Cornwall) and were shown as a widower and widow. There was a further marriage of a Jeremiah Blackett, a bachelor, to Esther Harper, a widow, in Padstow on the north-west coast of Cornwall, in 1804, which produced at least one child, Joseph, baptised in Padstow on 27 Dec 1804. This Joseph later married Elizabeth Glanvill in Tintagel in 1827. However, since Jeremiah Blackett and Sarah Chelew had a daughter Eliza born in 1807 in Plymouth, where Sarah died in 1846, there must have been two Jeremiah Blacketts in the region at the time, unless the 1804 marriage of Jeremiah was bigamous. A Jeremiah Blackett was buried in Padstow in 1806.

Blackett is an uncommon name in Devon and Cornwall and Jeremiah Blackett even rarer. The only other instances of Jeremiah Blacketts in the UK we have discovered were based in Hampshire, and around Appleby and Murton in Westmorland. The latter may possibly provide the clue as to the Devon and Cornwall Blacketts. In the mid eighteenth century Thomas Blackett, the sixth son of Jeremiah Blackett (1708-1781) went to Barbados to work for Sir James Lowther. Jeremiah Blackett was agent for Sir James, a Westmorland landowner who also had estates in Barbados. Thomas Blackett eventually became a landowner on the island in his own right, ¹ and at least one brother, Stephen, lived there. Thomas is believed to have perished at sea en route from Barbados to Great Britain via Bermuda around 1792. It is possible that a member of the Barbados Blacketts landed in Cornwall and decided to settle there. This is no more than speculation, but no other explanation has so far been found for a Jeremiah Blackett being found in south-west England. (Please see also West of the Pennines and Barbados.)

¹ Information obtained from Cumberland & Westmorland Herald article.

William Blackett married Elizabeth Barber in Deal, Kent in 1762, and the couple had at least six childen who were baptised in Sandwich and Dover, elsewhere in the county. In the 1870s their great-grandson William Thomas Blackett emigrated to New Zealand. For a descendancy chart of William Blackett and Elizabeth Barber please click here.

On 9 July 1749 Thomas Blackett, the son of Joseph Blackett and Hannah Storey, was baptised at Sedgefield, Co. Durham. Branches of this family continued to live in Sedgefield for several generations. Joseph appears to have been one of at least five children, all of whom married in Sedgefield (or in one case at Durham Cathedral who was stated to be of Sedgefield parish) between 1733 and 1741. No baptisms for these five children have been discovered, but more importantly neither has a marriage of a Blackett in Sedgefield who could be their father, inferring that this may be a family who moved to Sedgefield from elsewhere. Pending further information coming to light these five children have been assigned an “Unknown Blackett” as a father.

This tree can be connected with the “main” Blackett tree through the 1929 marriage of Norman Blackett to Alma Hetherington, the granddaughter of Alice Blackett, and is therefore contained within the main Blackett tree, but for a descendancy chart commencing with the “Unknown Blackett” please click here.

In 1737 Thomas Blackett married Margaret Carter in Houghton-le-Spring, Co. Durham, where at least six of their children were born. Their eldest son, John, (1740-1822) married Hannah Reed in 1774. John and Hannah had at least 11 children born in Cox Green and Penshaw, some of whom remained in the area, some settling in Sunderland and some moving some miles south to Sedgefield. A member of this branch, Thomas (1807-1878), a grandson of John, moved to London and then to Kent, where his daughter Elizabeth Jane Blackett married James William Rand and had at least 6 children.

Thomas and Margaret’s second son, Thomas, was born in Cox Green and was baptised in Houghton-le-Spring in 1746. He died, aged 82, at High Street, Bishopwearmouth in 1829. It seems likely that he was the Thomas, a butcher, who married Margaret Egglestone in 1793 in Sunderland. Margaret Blackett, a grandchild of Thomas Blackett and Margaret Egglestone, also died in High Street, Bishopwearmouth in 1834. Thomas’s nephew George, and George’s son were also butchers, as were other descendants of Thomas Blackett and Margaret Carter. (In the 1793 marriage bond George is stated to be 30 and Margaret 21. Their true ages at the time were 47 and 33 respectively!)

Thomas and Margaret’s third son, George, married Margaret Lawson in 1772 in Penshaw, where their son, Thomas, was born later that year. By 1841 Thomas, an agricultural labourer, and his wife Margaret were living at Red Briar, Framwellgate next to Joseph and Margaret Richardson, the parents of William Blackett Richardson. No link between these families has yet been discovered (see entry for The Blackett Richardsons).

For a descendancy chart of Thomas Blackett and Margaret Carter please click here.

Joseph Byron Blackett (1824/25-1905), who married Caroline Mary Cutler in 1857, was a London physician and surgeon, as was his younger son, Edward (1870-1948). Although Joseph’s place of birth is shown in the censuses as Westminster, no baptismal record has been found. This may have been because the family were Catholic, as Joseph’s eldest son, also Joseph (1858-1936) became a Roman Catholic Priest, and his aunt Ellen became a nun. What is known, however, is that Joseph senior was a child of the second marriage of Powell Charles Blackett (abt. 1791-1847) to Jeanne Gille, who was born in Belgium 1801/02. Powell Charles Blackett became a naval surgeon in 1809, but is shown as being on half-pay in the 1840 Naval List. His sister, Ann Harriot Blackett, was a governess, born in Marylebone, London in 1797/98, who died unmarried.

Powell Charles Blackett seems to have collected a number of artefacts during his time as a naval surgeon, which formed the basis of his private museum. After his death a number of these were acquired by The Cuming Museum in Walworth, London, whose catalogue c. 1850 includes the following items:

Please also see A Blackett Medical Device in Odds and Ends.

For a descendancy chart of Powell Charles Blackett and Jeanne Gille please click here.

A further line of Catholic Blacketts descends from John Blackett, believed to be from Sunderland, who married Ann Middleton in Durham City in 1817. Ann was a Catholic and all 10 of the couple’s children were baptised into the faith. For a descendancy chart of John Blackett and Ann Middleton please click here.

In 1802 Peter Blackett (1776-1845), a bricklayer, and Mary Basham (1775-1862), were married in Sculthorpe, a village a few miles inland from the north Norfolk coast. Branches of this family remained in Sculthorpe and the neighbouring villages of Burnham Thorpe, Syderstone and East Rudham for several generations, though some branches moved to the London area, and one branch of these settled in Chobham, Surrey. A number of Norfolk Blacket(t)s are shown in early Parish records by the name “Black”, possibly due to the East Anglian dialect at the time encouraging the “swallowing” of the final consonant.

Peter’s father, also Peter, was almost certainly the Peter Black (1730-1801), of Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, who married Mary Baker in 1754 in the village of Bale, about 10 miles east of Burnham Thorpe. This Peter appears to be the son of Jacobi (i.e. James) Black and Ann Thrower, who married in Burnham Thorpe in 1729/30. His daughter, Mary Blackett (1760-1852), was employed as a nurse to look after the younger siblings of Admiral Lord Nelson (see Naval Blacketts). For a descendancy chart of James/Jacobi Black and Ann Thrower please click here. Given the rarity of the surname Black/Blacket in the county at the time, there may also be a connection to Peter Black/Blackett, baptised in Aylsham, Norfolk in 1703, the son of another Peter who died in Aylsham in 1716, his wife, Sarah having died in the village in 1712. However, given the distance between Aylsham and Burnham Thorpe, this family has been shown as a separate tree. For a descendancy chart of Peter (Black) Blackett and Sarah please click here.

A further possible connection between the families shown above and that of John (Black) Blackett (1757-1832) has not yet been established, but circumstantial evidence suggests that there is one. John was born in Brancaster, the son of John and Elizabeth (Black) Blackett and settled in East Rudham after his marriage. John’s grandson William and his family moved to Rotherham, Yorkshire in the 1870s, where several of his descendants settled, possibly following the example of his mother, Elizabeth, (the widow of John’s son James), who moved to Yorkshire some time in the 1860s. One of William’s grandsons, Thomas, emigrated to Canada in 1911 with his wife and settled in Toronto, Ontario. For a descendancy chart of John (Black) Blackett and Elizabeth please click here.

It seems likely that any connection between the Norfolk Blacketts and those of Durham and Northumberland is due to the coastal trade between north-east England and East Anglia and London, with Blacketts settling in the coastal towns and then moving inland a few miles to the surrounding villages. This could be true of Francis Blackett (c.1752-1828), a master mariner of Lynn, Norfolk who seems to have married at least 4 times in the county. For a descendancy chart of Francis Blackett please click here. However, Blacketts have lived in Norfolk since at least the late 16th century. For example John Blackett, the son of Robert, was baptised at St. Margaret’s, Kings Lynn on 28 Nov 1570, where, on 10 Feb 1588/9, Oliver Blackett married Agnes Dobbynson. For a descendancy chart of Oliver Blackett and Agnes Dobbynson please click here.

William Blackett married Jane Lodge in Leeds, Yorkshire in 1756, where they had at least twelve children. Their elder children were baptised at a non-conformist church, but from 1769 the children of the marriage were baptised at St. Peter’s Parish Church in Leeds. In 1779 their youngest son James was born in the Woodhouse area of the city. James became a Wesleyan minister, and married Anne Catharine Randolph in 1810 in Bristol, Gloucestershire. James and Anne then moved to Warwickshire where their first two sons were born, two further sons being born in Staffordshire. Their second son, James, born 1812, married Ann Parker of Attleborough, Norfolk in 1839 and then moved to Yorkshire. Two of James’s grandsons, James William Blackett and his brother Charles Herbert (Bert) Blackett, together with their mother Emma, emigrated to the USA in 1891 and settled in New York State, USA.
Another son of William and Jane, William, remained in the Leeds area, but in 1854 his grandson, William Blackett Pollard, emigrated with his family to Launceston, Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania). William was in poor health and died the following year but his family remained in Australia.
(NB. At his burial in Leeds in 1795 William is described as a master mariner, which may appear strange, given the distance of Leeds from the sea. However the Aire and Calder rivers had been made navigable in 1699, linking Leeds with the Ouse and Humber rivers and with the sea.)
For a descendancy chart of William Blackett and Jane please click here.

In 1786 Jonathan Blackett married Elizabeth Whitely in Bradford, Yorkshire. They had at least 4 children born in Leeds and the youngest child, William Blackett, was born there in 1801. Like his parents William was a staunch Methodist. Around 1805 the family emigrated to Albany, New York State, where his father was naturalised in 1808, dying a few years later. At the age of 17 or 18 William moved with his step-father and family to New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he married Sarah Eliza Stevenson in 1823, and in 1826 to New York City, where he ran a successful hardware store. In 1856 he moved to Clermont, Iowa where he established another store, and was subsequently joined there by his sons James and Henry. He finally established a store in Lawler, Chickasaw County, which his son Henry eventually took over. James’s grandson, Vernive Hill Blackett, ran one of America’s largest advertising agencies, which was responsible for the creation of the “soap opera”, as outlined in Blacketts in Politics.
The circumstantial evidence suggests that Jonathan Blackett was a son of William Blackett and Jane Lodge mentioned above, and was possibly his son John, bapt. 1767. However, no conclusive proof of this has been discovered and the two trees are shown separately. For a descendancy chart of Jonathan Blackett and Elizabeth Whitely please click here.

George Blackett (abt 1743-1830) married Margaret Young in 1789 at Greatham, a village between Billingham and Hartlepool in Co. Durham. Many of George’s descendants were still living in Greatham as recently as the end of the 19th century. It seems likely, however, that George’s eldest son, Robert (1790-1846) moved south into Yorkshire, where he married Sarah Johnson in Oswaldkirk in 1814. By the birth of their daughter Harriot in 1820 Robert and Sarah had moved north again to Wolviston, Co. Durham, about two miles from Greatham, and their son Johnson Blackett was born in Wolviston in 1823. By 1841 Robert, a cartwright, was living in nearby Middlesbrough, where he died, aged 56, in 1846.
(NB. Prior to November 2011 Robert and Sarah Johnson’s descendants were shown as a separate entry in Can You Help Us?)

For a descendancy chart of George Blackett and Margaret Young please click here.

In 1808 John Blackett married Ann Elliott in Portsea, Hampshire and at least three of their children were born in Portsea or neighbouring Portsmouth. Ann died in 1813 giving birth to their youngest son, John Elliott Blackett, and John senior then moved to Deptford, Kent, where he married Ann Wallis in 1817. John and Ann Wallis had at least 3 children born in Lewisham, Kent. There may have been connections with Co. Durham, however, as in 1839 John Elliott Blackett married Grace Scouler, who was born in Sunderland 1818/19, in the Stockton district of Co. Durham.

There is strong circumstantial evidence to suggest that John Blackett was a younger son of William Blackett who married Ann Brooker in Alverstoke, just outside Portsmouth, in 1776. William and Ann subsequently moved a few miles north-west to Fareham, Hampshire where their son William was born in 1776/7, followed by Thomas in 1781/82, though Thomas was not christened until 1792. William, who became a mariner, settled in Woolwich, Kent, about 4 miles east of Deptford around 1813. Thomas became a baker and also moved to Woolwich around 1814 and both brothers had children born in Woolwich.

For a descendancy chart of William Blackett and Ann Brooker please click here.

Given Portsmouth’s maritime connections, it is quite possible that both these branches stem from Blacketts elsewhere in England who became seafarers.

In 1841 Thomas Blackett (1840-1888) was living in North Shields with Jessie Blackett, aged 60, who was born in Scotland, Ann aged 20, Margaret aged 10 and Jessie aged 4. Thomas married Christen Atchinson (1840/41-1902) in 1862 and their family remained in North Shields before moving to Yorkshire and finally to West Hartlepool. In 1881 Thomas was living there, his occupation being shown as a carpenter and mastmaker. The parents of Thomas have not been established, but we now believe that Jessie was Thomas’s grandmother, who was also known as Jane or Jean and had been married to George Blackett, who died aged 60 in 1833 in Tynemouth. For a descendancy chart of Thomas Blackett and Christen Atchinson please click here.

John Turnbull Blackett died in Grong Grong, New South Wales, Australia on 8 August 1901. His death certificate shows him as aged 61, born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, his parents’ surnames as Blackett and Turnbull, and states that he had lived in New South Wales for 28 years and Victoria for 17 years.

The only likely marriage of a Blackett to a Turnbull in Newcastle that we have found is that of Alexander Blackett to Jane Turnbull in 1830. This Alexander Blackett is part of the line mentioned in the entry above for Robert Collingwood Blackett of Utah (Descendants of Alexander Blackett). However, Jane died in October 1839, presumably giving birth to her daughter Jane Turnbull Blackett. No entry for a birth or baptism has been found for John Turnbull Blackett, but it is possible that he was given up for informal adoption by his father and reverted back to his name at birth at a later stage.

For a descendancy chart of John Turnbull Blackett please click here.

John Blackett (1783-1854) was born in Longwitton and baptised in Hartburn, not a great distance from the Blackett seat of Wallington, Northumberland. His parents were Michael Blackett and Mary Maslingham. He may have been born outside of wedlock as his baptismal entry refers to him as “John Blackett or Maslingham.” Michael is also shown as the father of “William Blackett or Spearman”, who was born in Hartburn four years previously and whose mother was Isabel Spearman.

John Blackett’s seven children and at least three of his grandchildren were born in Longwitton or neighbouring Hartburn.

We have discovered nothing further about this Michael Blackett. Given the proximity of Longwitton and Hartburn to the Blackett seat of Wallington it is possible that Michael was an illegitimate son of Sir Walter Blackett, who was reputed to “spread his favours” liberally around the area, particularly amongst women of lower rank. No proof of this has been discovered, however. To see a descendancy chart of Michael Blackett please click here.

In 1710 William Blackett (abt. 1673-1757) married Dorothy Swan in Easingwold, Yorks., and in 1734 their son William Blackett married Lydia Wood there. One of William’s descendants, Thomas Blackett, (bapt. 1819 in Almondbury, Yorkshire) emigrated to Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, where in 1844 he married Isabella Bolan (b. 1818/19 in Northumberland). Thomas’s brother, Robert (1825-1876), also emigrated to Michigan in 1842 along with his brothers William and Richard, and married Ann Eliza Colton (1827-1861) in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1849. Thomas and Robert’s sister, Martha (1831-1919), also settled in Kalamazoo and married William Morley (1831-1905). For a descendancy chart of William Blackett and Dorothy Swan please click here.

John Blackett (1777/8-1858) was a clerk in the Ordnance at Harwich, Essex in 1841 and 1851 and was employed by the Ordnance as a store keeper as far back as 1814. According to the 1851 census he was born in “Middlesex, City of London”. The City of London did not form part of Middlesex and it is not, therefore, clear whether John was born in the City of London itself (i.e. the “Square Mile”) or in the surrounding area. Prior to his death he moved to Ipswich, Suffolk and was buried there.
John seems to have married at least three times, and by his marriage to Mary had a son Edmund Phipps Blackett (1830/31-1887) born in Harwich, who John seems to have named after the then head of the Ordnance Department, Hon. Edmund Phipps (see Odds and Ends). Edmund Phipps Blackett had at least three siblings, who were also born in Essex, though little is known of them. After Edmund’s marriage to Adelaide Elizabeth Collings (1840-1896) in London in 1861 he and his family moved to Cambridge. For a descendancy chart of John Blackett please click here.

Hudson Blackburn Blackett, the son of John Blackett (a cordwainer or shoemaker and himself the son of a John Blackett) and Mary Ann Train, was baptised in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland in 1813 and married Ann Anderson in 1837. He was a mariner and was lodging with his daughter Ann White and her family in 1881. Several of his descendants were given a Christian name of Hudson.
For some time the reason for John bestowing such unusual Christian names on his son was not known, although there are several references online to two Hudson/Hutson Blackburns, born c.1796 and 1809 respectively in Kentucky, USA. The true reason is, however, a little closer to home. John’s father was only 19 when he married Mary Ann Train and the couple married by licence in 1812. In the marriage bond the surety is stated to be Hudson Blackburn, waterman, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Hudson Blackburn had married Margaret Train in Newcastle in 1802 and was therefore almost certainly the uncle of Hudson Blackburn Blackett.

For a descendancy chart of Hudson Blackett and Ann Anderson please click here.

In 1703 John Blackett married Dorothy Applegarth in Richmond, Yorkshire. Four of their children were born in the village of Kirkby Ravensworth, a few miles to the north of Richmond. The family remained in Yorkshire for two generations before at least one branch moved north to County Durham.

It was from this branch that John Blackett (1769-1848) moved to London, later to be joined there by his younger brother Joseph (see A Blackett in Poetry). Although most of John’s children by his 2nd marriage remained in London, his youngest son, Ebenezer Edward Blackett (1821-1905), emigrated to South Australia, where he married Matilda Puddy (1829-1897) in 1852. Their son, Rev. John Blacket (1856-1935), became a Methodist minister and well known author (see Blacketts and Literature). A further branch, the family of Thomas Crosby Blackett (1829-1905) emigrated to New Zealand.

Although this tree can be connected to the main Blackett tree by a later marriage of a descendant of John Blackett and Dorothy Applegarth, the ancestry of John has not been established. For a descendancy chart of John Blackett and Dorothy Applegarth please click here.

In Rookwood cemetery in Lidcombe, Sydney, New South Wales is the grave of George Henry Blacket (he seems to have dropped the 2nd “t” from his name), together with his wife, Sarah Elizabeth, and youngest son William. George Henry was born in 1867 in the Penrith district of New South Wales and was the son of James Blackett and Rachel (nee) Campbell, who emigrated from Scotland to Australia some time between 1849 and 1853. George Henry is believed to descend from Malcolm (Blakater) Blackett and Jennet Cairns, who married in St. Ninians, Stirling, Scotland in 1726. Malcolm was the son of Malcolm Blaketer, but the line back from that Malcolm is not known. For a descendancy chart of Malcolm (Blakater) Blackett and Jennet Cairns please click here.

Thomas Blackett was born in East Herrington, now part of Sunderland, probably around 1820/21 and finally settled in Ryhope, where most of his descendants also lived. He is probably the Thomas Blackett, agricultural labourer, living in Silksworth, Bishopwearmouth in 1841 but by 1851 he was working on the railways as a labourer and living with his first wife in Monkwearmouth. After his first wife’s death he moved to Ryhope, where he was living in 1861 with his second wife and children. He gave his age in 1861 as 35, rather than 40, but this may be due to his having married a second wife 17 years his junior. He was then described as “Station Master”, but this may have been a temporary position as by 1871 he was again describing himself as a labourer, and in 1881 and 1891 as a platelayer (foreman in 1881). His age at his death in 1898 was shown as 74.
No record of his baptism has been discovered. For a descendancy chart of Thomas Blackett please click here.

Robert Johnson Blackett was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1814, the eldest child of James Blackett and Catharine Johnson, who married in Newcastle in 1812. He married Mary Ann Walton there in 1839. After the birth of their daughter Ann Johnson Blackett in 1840 they moved to London, where their sons John Walton Blackett and Robert Johnson Blackett were born. By 1851 they had moved back to the north-east and were living in Monkwearmouth, now part of Sunderland, where their children and their families settled. Robert was described as a paperhanger in 1851, but by 1861 he is described as “proprietor of houses”. His siblings and their families remained in the Newcastle/Gateshead area.
For a descendancy chart of James Blackett and Catharine Johnson please click here.

In 1733/4 Robert Richardson married Hannah Hopper in Medomsley, near Ebchester. Their son Robert Richardson married Ann Redshaw in St. Oswald, Durham City in 1777, where their youngest son, Blackett Richardson, was born in 1801 at Brome (sic) Hall. Blackett Richardson died in 1823 but the Christian name of Blackett was given to several members of the extended Richardson family over the 19th century, including (William) Blackett Richardson (1824-1895), who emigrated to New Zealand in 1859 and subsequently settled in New South Wales, Australia. He was baptised Blackett Richardson and seems to have added the “William” subsequently.

The reason for the original adoption of Blackett as a Christian name is not known, although one family rumour is that it derived from two elderly Blackett ladies living close by the Richardsons, who may have been godparents to Blackett Richardson. However, no godparents are mentioned in his baptismal record and we have come across no other instance of the surname of a godparent being adopted as a sole Christian name. However, in 1841 the family of Joseph Richardson, a farmer and an elder brother of Blackett Richardson 1801-1823, was living with his wife and children, including a son Blackett Richardson, aged 7, in Red Brier (sic), Framwellgate, Durham City, next to Thomas Blackett, an agricultural labourer and his wife and their married daughter Margaret Cook and her children. Thomas Blackett was the grandson of Thomas Blackett and Margaret Carter (see entry for The Blacketts of Houghton-le-Spring, Cox Green, Penshaw and Sunderland). Also living close by was (William) Blackett Richardson mentioned above and his parents and siblings.

Although the circumstances could suggest a family relationship between the Richardsons and the Blacketts, none has yet been found, other than the fact that Barbara Robinson (1804-1871), the aunt of (William) Blackett Richardson mentioned in the first paragraph above married William Blackett (1801-1865) in 1824. This William Blackett was the son of Cuthbert Blackett (see Joseph Blackett of Durham City). It may be no more than coincidence, but William’s brother Henry (1820-1907) emigrated to New Zealand in 1858, one year before (William) Blackett Richardson did likewise, as mentioned above.

For a descendancy chart of Robert Richardson and Hannah Hopper please click here.

It is also possible that George Blackett Richardson (abt 1894-1954) may descend from the Blackett Richardsons mentioned above, though no connection has been established. George, who dropped the second name of Blackett, was the son of William Blackett Richardson, a collier, of whom nothing else is known, other than his being shown as deceased in George’s 1920 marriage certificate. George was apparently raised in a Salvation Army family who disapproved of his enlisting in the Royal Marines in the First World War. He was demobbed in Portsmouth, Hampshire in 1920 and settled in Southampton.

A George Edward Blackett Richardson, the (presumably illegitimate) son of Jane Richardson, was baptised in 1868 in Whickham, Co. Durham, but nothing more is known about him.

Out of all the family lines connected to the Blacketts that we have encountered (and as at May 2011 we have well in excess of 25,000 names in the tree), that of the Mitford/Midford family is the most complex and enigmatic. The results of our research outlined below, and the conclusions we have drawn from them, inevitably rely in part on conjecture and we would welcome any further evidence to clarify the precise relationship. In the meantime our conclusions and the nature of the family relationships shown in the tree should be considered tentative and not entirely secure.

1. In 1772 Francis Mitford, a great-grandson of Christian Blackett, married Elizabeth Gibson in Astbury, Cheshire. Francis and Elizabeth had already had at least three children born between 1768 and 1771, presumably while the previous wife of Francis, Margaret Yardley (neeTalbot), whom he had married in 1761, was still living. Several of Francis’s descendants were given a Christian name of Blackett, and his youngest son, Michael Walter Blackett Mitford was the godson of Sir Walter Blackett, who bequeathed him an annuity.

2. Francis was married three times and had married his 2nd wife in the neighbouring hamlet of Swettingham in 1761. Swettenham is 4 miles from Peover Hall, Over Peover, (see Blackett Properties), where Sir Henry Mainwaring (1726-1797), great-great-nephew of Christian Blackett and Robert Mitford, was then living. A branch of the Mainwarings was based near Swettenham, which was their parish church and was where many of them were baptised and buried, and the two branches of the Mainwaring family, being just a short distance apart, would no doubt have visited each other regularly. Francis was the 3rd cousin of Sir Henry Mainwaring, and it is quite possible that while staying with Henry, Francis accompanied him on a visit to Swettenham, possibly for a Mainwaring baptism, marriage or burial, where he met his 2nd wife, Margaret. He then settled in the area, remarried, and died in Astbury in 1777.

3. Whilst this line of descent is reasonably clear, what is not is the connection, if any, between Francis Mitford, who descended from the Mitfords of Seghill, Northumberland, and two other notable branches of the Mitford/Midford family, where circumstantial evidence suggests a possible link.

4. The first of these is the link to the Mitfords of Mitford, Northumberland, a branch that contains several notable descendants including James Smithson, after whom the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. is named, and the “Mitford sisters” (see link to Wikipedia article), who included Diana Freeman-Mitford who married Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists prior to World War II. On his marriage in 1761 Francis Mitford gave his address as [Chipping] Cambden, in Gloucestershire, more than 80 miles from the village of Swettenham where the marriage took place, but only a few miles from Batsford Park, the home at the time of Elizabeth Edwards Freeman (nee Reveley), great-granddaughter of Barbara Mitford, a descendant of the Mitfords of Mitford. (Batsford was subsequently bequeathed to the Freeman-Mitfords.) We have found no link between the Mitfords of Mitford and the Seghill line later than the 14th century, (other than the probably unimportant reference outlined in paragraph 7 below), and it may be no more than coincidence that Francis was living close to Batsford in 1761. However we have found no other connection between Francis and the Chipping Cambden area that would explain his presence there.

5. The circumstantial evidence for the second link is a little stronger, and there are two possible versions of this. At his 1761 marriage Francis Mitford is described as a widower, aged at least 40, but no evidence of his first marriage has been discovered, nor of a marriage of his father, believed to be another Francis Mitford. In a letter dated 14 May 1918 from William Mitford of Toronto, Canada, to Daniel Midford, both descendants of one or other of these Francis Mitfords, William Mitford states that “our great-great grandfather, Francis Mitford” married a Miss Ogle of Kirkley Hall, a sister of the Very Rev. Newton Ogle, Dean of Winchester. Other references to the marriage have been found, though not identifying conclusively which Francis Mitford this was, nor the Christian name of Miss Ogle. If her marriage was to a descendant of this Mitford line the respective ages would suggest it was to Francis the younger as his first wife.

6. The possible alternative version stems from the family of the well-known author Mary Russell Mitford, the daughter of Dr. George Midford and Mary Russell. Dr. Midford (who adopted the spelling of “Mitford”¹) was widely believed to be related to the wealthy Ogle family, whom he visited in Northumberland with his daughter in 1806. To describe him as a “colourful character” is somewhat of a euphemism. Virginia Woolf in her biography “Flush” states that he, “in conformity with the canons of the Heralds College, chose to spell his name with a t, and thus claimed descent from the Northumberland family of the Mitfords of Bertram Castle…. But the mating of Dr. Mitford’s ancestors had been carried on with such wanton disregard for principles that no bench of judges could have admitted his claim to be well bred or to have allowed him to perpetuate his kind.” (It gets even stronger later on, as Virginia Woolf warms to her theme!) What is known, however, is that he was born in a relatively modest town-house in Hexham, Northumberland, the son of Francis Midford, also a surgeon of Hexham. On completing his medical studies he gained an introduction through Newton Ogle to his future wife, Mary Russell, who was 10 years his senior and descended from the family of the Dukes of Bedford. His wife brought to the marriage a not insubstantial inheritance which George Mitford subsequently squandered, as he did a further £20,000 won on the Irish lottery in 1797, when his daughter picked the winning numbers. (Eventually her only remaining possession bought out of these winnings was a Wedgwood dinner service bearing the Mitford crest – please see paragraph 8 below.) He was constantly running into debt throughout most of his life and spent time in a debtors’ prison.

7. Given his character, or lack of it, it might be supposed that George Midford invented his family links with the Ogles, as well as his Mitford ancestry, but they seem to have been credible enough, at least to his daughter. In Mary Russell Mitford’s account of how her parents met she states: “Dr. Ogle, Dean of Winchester, was related to the Mitfords, as relationships go in Northumberland, and having been an intimate friend of my maternal grandfather, had no small share in bringing about the marriage between his young cousin and the orphan heiress.” George Midford seems to have been a child of the 1756 marriage of his father Francis to Jane Graham, and if Francis had had a previous marriage to Dr.Ogle’s sister, George would have been Dr. Ogle’s step-nephew. The use of the word “cousin” in those circumstances would perhaps have been a little unusual, but Mary Russell Mitford clearly believed there to be a close family relationship between her father and Dr. Ogle. The truth of this is supported by the 1806 visit to Northumberland, copious details of which are contained in her diaries. Although Mary Russell Mitford and her father saw much of her father’s cousin Lady Alicia Aynesley (nee Alicia Midford), who also had Ogles in her ancestry, their companion and host for most of the extended visit was Nathaniel Ogle² , eldest son of Dr. Ogle, who had died two years previously, and they met other members of the extended Ogle family. Nathaniel remained a close friend of George Midford after the visit. (In her account of the Northumberland visit, Mary Russell Mitford does briefly mention refusing a dance to “my cousin Mitford of Mitford” at a ball at Alnwick Castle, but the reference to “cousin” may mean no more than that there was an assumed, though undefined, family link with that branch of the family.) This version of the relationship between the Mitfords and the Ogles is supported by Burke’s Commoners, (though the usual care should be taken in relying on that publication, which Oscar Wilde described as “the greatest piece of fiction in the English language”). More importantly, George Midford’s grandfather, George Mitford (1694-1750), yet another surgeon of Hexham, by his will devised lands in Kirkley to his wife for life. As mentioned above, the Miss Ogle who married Francis Mitford was of Kirkley Hall. Interestingly, this George Mitford is almost certainly the “George Midford of the Towne and County of Newcastle upon Tyne Barber Chyrugion [surgeon]” who was left a legacy of £5 “for a token” in the will dated 17 March 1711/2 of Robert Mitford of Seghill (1645-1713), the husband of the Christian Blackett mentioned in paragraph 1 above.

8. There is one more piece of evidence linking the family of the Seghill Mitfords (i.e. the descendants of Robert Mitford and Christian Blackett) to the family of Mary Russel Mitford. A plate believed to be a part of the Wedgwood dinner service bought out of Dr. George Midford’s lottery winnings (see paragraph 6 above) is still held by a descendant of the Seghill Mitfords living in Canada.

9. As indicated in paragraph 3 above the line of descent from the Blacketts and the Mitfords of Seghill appears secure. It follows therefore that for the 1918 letter mentioned in paragraph 5 to be correct, i.e. that the Francis Mitford who was a descendant of the Blacketts was the same Francis Mitford who married Miss Ogle, the line of ancestry back from Mary Russell Mitford must at some point join up with the Seghill line. No evidence to support that has been found. It seems clear that Mary Russell Mitford’s grandfather was Francis Mitford (1722-1768), a surgeon of Hexham, and that his father was the George Mitford, also of Hexham, the barber surgeon mentioned in paragraph 7. (This George was also the grandfather of Lady Alicia Ayneseley, Mary Russell Mitford’s 1st cousin 1xremoved, who accompanied her on the 1806 visit to Northumberland. George was also the father of Catherine Fenwick, who was widely known at the time as Mary Russell Mitford’s aunt, though she was in fact her great-aunt.) Several sources show this line of Hexham surgeons as descending from the Mitfords of Tyne Mills, Hexham. It is however possible that George senior did not descend from the Tyne Mills Mitfords, but was an estranged son, or possibly a grandson, of Robert Mitford and Christian Blackett (perhaps explaining the token legacy of £5 left to him in Robert’s will, as mentioned in paragraph 7 above). We have not had the courage to show this possible connection in the tree, nor a post-medieval connection, if any, between the Seghill and/or the Hexham Mitfords to the Mitfords of Mitford, pending further evidence emerging. Moreover, although it is our belief that there is a relatively close link between the Francis Mitford who married Miss Ogle of Kirkley and the family of Mary Russell Mitford, we have not shown this link, particularly as it is not known for sure which Miss Ogle married Francis Mitford, nor which Francis it was.

If you have followed the tortuous logic above without losing the will to live and can shed any further light on these complex relationships please contact us. We are grateful to Nick Mills and Fiona Mitford, whose knowledge of the Mitford family is far more extensive than ours, for supplying us with information. The research on which this article is based is, however, our own and any mistakes can be laid at our door and not theirs.

¹ The spelling of Mitford/Midford seems to have been interchangeable over many generations. As far as possible we have tried to follow the spelling shown in baptismal records.

² Nathaniel Ogle was the brother-in-law of the playwright and poet Sheridan and had also been acquainted during his army service with the poet and philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge (see also the reference to Coleridge on the Sockburn Hall page).

In 1833 Cuthbert Blackett married Margaret Johnson in St. Margaret’s, Durham City. The couple settled in the area around Houghton-le-Spring and Penshaw, where they had at least five children before Cuthbert died in 1846. His widow subsequently remarried. No baptism for Cuthbert has been found and all that is known of him is that he was a journeyman mason and was aged 34 at his burial. Sarah Blackett, presumably Cuthbert’s mother, a widow aged about 65, was living with him and his family in Painshaw [Penshaw] in 1841.

For a descendancy chart of Cuthbert Blackett and Margaret Johnson please click here.

In 1784 Thomas Blackett married Jane Hodgeson in Bedale, North Yorkshire. Thomas died in 1820 and Jane in 1845, both in Spennithorne, a few miles to the west of Bedale. Most of their descendants remained in Yorkshire, but their grandson, Thomas Blackett, was living in Durham City in 1861, where four of his children were born. Another grandson, Moses Cockfield, the son of Joseph Cockfield and Ann Blackett, emigrated to Quebec, Canada where many of his descendants were born. Moses’s brother Joseph also emigrated to Canada. For a descendancy chart of Thomas Blackett and Jane Hodgeson please click here.

A further branch of the Blacketts descends from Thomas Blackett, born 1803/04 in Leyburn, Yorkshire. Leyburn is only two miles from Spennithorne and it is very possible that the two families are closely linked. The connection has not however been discovered. For a descendancy chart of Thomas Blackett of Leyburn please click here.

In 1787 John Blackett married Mary Hutchinson in Ponteland, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland. At least five of their children were baptised there. Most of their descendants remained in the Newcastle area but their grandson John Blackett, a shoemaker, moved to the USA. John’s daughter Ann married Peter Ditchburn Sherwin in 1871/2 and many of their descendants were born in Pennsylvania.
For a descendancy chart of John Blackett and Mary Hutchinson please click here.

In 1858 William Alexander Blackett married Margaret Madden in Victoria, Australia. They had at least 9 children in Victoria before moving to Tasmania around 1877/78 where a further four children were born. William’s marriage record shows him as being born in Germany, the son of Alexander Hal Blackett, a sailor, and Mary Jane. The 1876 birth record of his son Francis Arthur Blackett, however, shows his place of birth as Montreal, Lower Canada. It is not clear which, if any, of these entries is correct, nor is anything further known of Alexander Hal Blackett.

For a descendancy chart of William Alexander Blackett and Margaret Madden please click here.

John Alexander Blackett was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne around 1830. No baptism for him has been found but his marriage entry shows his father as William, a blacksmith.

On his marriage in 1853 and at the baptisms of his children he was shown merely as John Blackett, but at his death in 1880 was shown as John Alexander Blackett, and his youngest son was christened James Alexander Blackett in 1864. Since James died when he was a few months old this could have prompted his father to adopt the middle name of Alexander. John’s son, William Fenton Blackett also gave the middle name of Alexander to two of his sons by his first marriage.

John, a tailor, married Grace (nee) Petty in 1853 in Bradford, Yorkshire, where his 9 children were born. He died there in 1880. For a descendancy chart of John and Grace Blackett please click here.

Michael Blackett was buried in Hamsterley, Co. Durham on 12 Sep 1724. He was a lawyer and seems to have been married four times. Administration to his estate was granted to his widow, Elizabeth “of Southside Parish of Hamsterley” in 1724. He is probably the Michael Blackett who appears in the Hearth Tax Rolls in 1666 and in the Halmote Court Surrenders (mainly of copyholds in Cockerton and Evenwood) 1669-1709 and in Licences to demise, mainly covering Darlington, Newbottle and Wolsingham 1677-1706, and possibly one covering Lynesack and Softley dated 1718, though this may relate to his son Michael, who was also a lawyer.

Although the tree covering the line of descent from Michael can be linked to the main Blackett tree through a marriage of a descendant, no baptismal record has been found for him, and his relationship to the other Blacketts living in and around Hamsterley at the time has not been established. For a descendancy chart of Michael Blackett please click here.

In 1771 Peter Blackett married Elizabeth Stanger in Whitby, Yorkshire, where at least three of their children were born. Their 2nd son, William Stanger Blackett (referred to in some records merely as Stanger Blackett), was a mariner, who married Sarah Widdicombe in Plymouth, Devon in 1795 before settling in Sunderland, County Durham, where at least three of their children were born. For a descendancy chart of Peter Blackett and Elizabeth Stanger please click here.

In 1768 Thomas Blackett married Ann Rowland in Hexham, Northumberland. Their son John had two sons: Thomas, who settled in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and William, who moved to Liverpool, Lancashire. Descendants of both branches eventually moved to County Durham. We have not so far discovered a baptism for either Thomas Blackett or Ann Rowland. For a descendancy chart of them please click here.

In 1786 Frances Blackett was baptised in South Shields, Co. Durham, the daughter of William Blackett and Ann, who had at least two more children baptised in South Shields. Frances married Roger Mould in Bishopwearmouth in 1802 and their descendants remained largely in the South Shields area. We have not identified the William Blackett in question. For a descendancy chart of him and Ann please click here.