More about DNA

In the last newsletter I told of the recent result that Stuart Blinco of Slough had contributed a DNA sample revealing a direct link of his family group back to Adam de Blencow.

Most of our present-day family groups can be traced to origins close to Marston St Lawrence. Even if there is no ‘paper trail’ to prove it, it is easy to speculate that some un-recorded younger son of the family had moved to a village within walking distance or to one that could be reached easily on horseback. The numerous Blincos of the Slough-Windsor area descend from William Blincko, a farmer and Petty Constable of Hedgerley who married Sarah Nash at St George's Chapel, Windsor, in 1692. William was baptised in Iver (son of William and Susannah) in 1671. Iver is some 60 miles from Marston and there is no known ‘paper trail’ linking them back to the main line of our family tree. However, there are two possible origins:

William (1548-1569), son of John Blencowe of Marston St Lawrence and Elizabeth Secole, died in Amersham where he had been betrothed to Margaret Saunders. Five years later William's younger brother John (1553-1605) married Margaret. Amersham is about 14 miles from Iver. John and Margaret's son John (1575-1643) married Mary Waleston of Ruislip some time before 1600 and Ruislip is only 6 miles from Iver. Both these events indicate a family connection with the area. William of Hedgerley would have been maybe three generations down from a contemporary of John Blencowe and Mary Waleston.

Another new development

I had reported that the DNA analysis of Chris Blencowe of Toronto showed a direct descent from Adam de Blencow; his earliest known ancestor was shown as:

?
A farmer near Steyning
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William Blencowe
c.1805-1873
Brighton
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(two generations)
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Chris Blencowe
Toronto

and I had speculated that the ‘farmer of Steyning’ might be descended from the 16thC Hugh Blencowe of nearby Storrington and maybe through him from the Blencowes of Cumbria. This turned out be quite wrong!

Ron Currell, who lives near Peterborough, was researching the same family group via the 1851 Census and found that William Blencowe (c.1805-1873) had been born in Runwell in Essex having ended up in Sussex through his employment on the railways! Family tradition that his father was a farmer was correct but in quite a different county.

Turning to the database I found that William was probably a younger brother of George ‘The Inventor’ whose career is described at some length in our book. Ron tracked down the Runwell parish records and confirmed this. George (and William) descended from Thomas Blencowe, Surgeon's Mate on H.M.S. Dragon who died in 1741. Jill Dudbridge had speculated that Thomas was a the son of Thomas Blinkoe, a blacksmith of London, one of the last of a long line of Blencowes descended from the Marston family.

The importance of this result is clear: all the male descendants Thomas of H.M.S. Dragon will have the same DNA in the male chromosome. It also clinches (at least to my satisfaction) Jill's suggestion that Thomas was son of Thomas the blacksmith and, as a Surgeon's Mate, perhaps continuing his grandfather's career as an apothecary.