| Blencowe Families' Association Newsletter | Volume 3 Number 2 August 1988 |
Genealogy came to me through fire, fury and pain. Fire because our Importer' business in Managua. Nicaragua, burnt to the ground during the Sandinista take over in July 1978. Fury, for t am anti-communist and also was opposed to the Somoza regime, yet In replacing his dictatorship by the despotic Sandinista helrarchy, the country jumped out of the political caldron onto a national funeral pyre.
But perhaps Latin America Is not ready for democracy nor will be for many decades. Pain, a deep pain, 20 years research on a particular aspect of Latin American history went up in flames. So I turned to genealogy for consolation.
Like most Blencowes - or any of the variant spellings - I was brought up on the legend that Adam de Blencow, of Blencow, Cumberland, M served at the Battle of Crecy (26.8.1346) as the Baron of Greystoke's standard bearer, Ridel, a Scot, had been dead a good many years. His sons, also Scots living in Scotland were not allowed to inherit lands in England by the English law of the time, so the property was without claimant.
Another curious fact. The Cumberland Subsidies of 1332 levied by Ed. III to raise money for the Exchequeror were taxes of the 15th and 10th on all moveable belongings. Adam owned goods to the value of £4. 19s in Greystoke, and 16 shillings 4 pence in Skelton. His but I have failed to find proof of this belief and even that the Baron was at Crecy. At this time the Scots - allied with France - constantly menaced the border land with England after their overwhelming victory at Bannocburn [6] in 1314. Ed.Ill did not draw on his northern Lords to augment his force for the invasion of France so that when the Scots under their King David II, who was taken prisoner, marched south, they were completely decimated at Neville's Cross (17.10.1346). It seems highly probable the Baron of Greystoke participated in this battle and surely with with him, his trusted servant Adam de Blencow.
After Crecy, Edward arrived before Calais. Immediately full preparations for an extensive siege of the fortified town began; streets and houses con- structed, with markets, stalls and shops supplying all the necessities for the dally life of the besieging army. The neighborhood was plundered and looted to replenish foodstocks and to entertain the troops as was the custom of the time. The Baron Greystoke joined the army before Calais after the Battle of Neville's Cross.
Dated 30.1.1348 Westminister, Patent Rolls, Adam received a pardon 'for his good services in Gascony[7] in company of Henry, Earl of Lancaster, of the King's suit for all felonies and trespas ses in Cumberland[8] before the passage of the Earl to the said part, wherof he Is appealed, and of any consequent outlawries". These trespasses were the granting of the lands of John Rldel in the hamlets of Newbiggin and Blencow, to Adam by the Baron of Greystoke, without having paid the corresponding fine (fee) in the hanaper (the King's Tresury). John name doesn't figure on the list for the will of Blencow. He only acquired this land when he took over the lands of John Ridel. And so Adam found his way Into Burke's Landed Gentry of England.
I have traced my own family from DevIzes, Willshire[9], my father, Sidney Blencowe, M.I.C.E., and Grandfather, Harry Blencowe, were born, to Bath, Somerset[10] birthplace of my great grand father, Henry Blencowe, to Westminister, London, where my great, great, great grand father, John Blen- cow, leased two properties, one his aboe and the other his bakery, In Chandler Street, which no longer ex- ists; it has been absorbed by Gros- venor Square, where now stands the American Embassy. Luckily he left a will, naming his two sons, Walter and Joseph. It was Joseph who left London at the beginning of the 19th century and set up in Bath as a boot and shoe maker.
In a letter from a great aunt of mine to my father dated In the 1920's she states she was under the impression her great grand father John of Chandler Street, London, came from Brackley, Northamptonshire[11] If true, this is the branch descended from Adam's third son John, who In the 1400's established themselves around Marston Saint Lawrence, Nothamptonshire[12], and were probably tenants of Priory of Shene in Surrey. At the dissolutions of the Monasteries, 1537, Thomas Blin- cow purchased the manor and manor farm from Henry Vlll for L180, see his Inquisition post Mortem, E identally, a frugal and thrifty husbandman to have possessed that amout of ready coinage for Henry would never have accepted paper. Ingot we trust.
In the one- name reseach I have on cards over 2.000 Blencowes of all spellings, photocopies and extracts of wills, Indentures and other various manuscripts; also births, marriages and deaths registered at Saint Catherine's from Inception 1837 to 1900; the I.G.I.s for all counties of England augmented by extracts from parish registers and other data taken from a variety of sources.
If I can be of assistance to anyone please contact me giving as many details as possible and I will see If I have any information recorded.
Jill Dudbridge, London, England
[1] Windsor, about :0 miles west of London
[2] CRECY and CALAIS towns located in Northwestern France.
[3] GREYSTOKE 'STOVE 5 miles west of Penrith, England
[4] NEVILLE'S CROSS, the Scots were defeated at Neville's C=ross near Durham, by Henry Percy and Ralph Neville during a bit. tie between the English and the Scots, 17 Oct 1346, in which David Bruce, King of Scotland. friendly to France, invaded England as a result of Edward III's conquests in Normandy
[5] BLENCOW, 1 mile NE of Greystoke.
[6] BANNOCKBURN, about 2 1/2 miles southeast of Stirling, Scotland
[7] GASCONY, Province in Southwestern France
[8] CUMBERLAND, a Shire in Northwestern Aberystwyth England, Area now known as Cumbria
[9] DEVIZE, 13 miles east of Bath
[10] BATH, 104 miles west of London
[11] BRACKLEY, 65 miles northwest of London
[12] MARSTON ST. LAWRENCE 12 miles northwest of Brackley
[13] THOBY PRIORY. ESSEX. I couldn't find Thoby Priory, but Essex is a Shire about 30 miles northeast of London
[14] THE HOOKE, SUSSEX, I don't know about The Hooke. butSussex is a Shire on the coast south of London
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