Blacketts of Essex and Cambridge

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 Clarke had a son Edmund Phipps Blackett (1830-1887) 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 five siblings, who were also born in Essex, and at least six half-brothers and sisters. 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.

This was not the first Blackett connection with Cambridgeshire. Robert Blackett and his wife Anne had 7 children born in Sawston, south of Cambridge, between around 1600 and 1612. Some of this family remained in the county but one son, Arthur Blackett moved to London and married Ellen Barnes in Southwark, Surrey in 1627 before settling in the east end of London, where they had at least 6 children. For a descendancy chart of Robert Blackett and Anne please click here. (Our thanks are due to Steve Keown for alerting us to this family.)