Adam 1309 - 1388
Landholder, soldier & magistrate, Adam acquired a considerable amount of land, much of it related in some way to his military service and perhaps to his close friendship or even kinship with William Baron of Greystoke. Adam was granted arms in 1357.

Thomas - 1411
Appointed Justice of the Peace in 1404, Thomas enjoyed the rise in status of his family and expanded his real estate portfolio. The gentry status enabled him to marry well. Rental income, as well as services from his tenants rather than farming his lands, supported a comfortable lifestyle.

Elizabeth Vieuxpont
Elizabeth heiress of Nicholas Vieuxpont brought into the family the benefits of an affluent Cumbrian family with interesting connections. This was a period of pestilence and bloodshed, with Blencow & Greystoke villages left in smoking ruins in 1345 due to the marauding Scots.

William - 1420
By now there were 2 homesteads, merely castellated peel towers: probably the Old Blencow Hall & the beginnings of the Peel towers of Blencow Hall. Peel towers were a feature of Boarder homes built to protect the family & their cattle from constant Scottish plundering.

Richard
Blencow Hall had adjacent buildings added to the peel tower. Richard acquired more lands and buildings yet was still considered to be of the lower gentry. This was the time leading into the civil war & Richard trod wearily acting as a courier for both sides. This earned him the reputation as being "a man of small possessions deserving more to be hanged than to be paid!"

Eleanor Crackenthorp
Eleanor was from a prominent and wealthy Westmorland family at Newbriggin Hall, connected by marriage to most of the leading houses in Cumbria. Her Crackenthorp arms are carved over the doorway at Blencow Hall.

Winifred Dudley
Winifred was the second cousin of Guildford Dudley, husband of Lady Jane Grey who became Queen of England for 9 days in July 1553. On the eve of her execution in 1554, Lady Jane wrote to her sister the words Vivere mori, mori vitae (roughly translated as "live to die, dying is living" or "Live still to die, that you may by death purchase eternal life." This quote has become the Blencowe motto. Lord Guildford Dudley was beheaded alongside Jane at the Tower of London.

Anthony - 1580
Anthony married the granddaughter of Lord Dudley. He lived in Blencow Hall.

Anthony 1530 - 1618
Anthony Blencowe was Provost of Oriel College, Oxford from 1574 to 1618.

Sir Henry 1562 - 1643
Sir Henry lived on rents from his tenants rather than commercial farming. He received a knighthood from James I. He served twice as High Sheriff of Cumberland. Sir Henry is best known for converting the homestead into what we now know as Blencow Hall which remained much as Henry left it until its recent extensive renovation.

Sir Christopher 1598 - 1669
Sir Christopher's lifetime spanned one of the most tumultuous periods in English History with the conflict between Crown and Parliament erupting in to war in 1642 with the Battle of Edgehill. In 1648 Penrith fell to the Roundheads resulting in the troops causing severe damage which may have included the gaping fissure in the south tower on Blencow Hall.

Christopher 1643 - 1678
Christopher attended St John's College Cambridge He was Justice of the Peace in Carlisle and died aged 34 leaving 4 children under 4..He leased Blencow Hall to John Jacques. (See next article on page 10).

Henry 1676 - 1721
Henry inherited the estate aged 2. First wife Dorothy Sisson -(page 11). He studied at Cambridge. He moved to Whitehaven & leased Tangier House.

Henry 1712 - 1763
Inherited the Blencow estate but never lived there as an adult. He was a Lawyer. His marriage to distant cousin Mary linked the Northamptonshire family back to the Cumbrian line. Mary Prescott was the only surviving child of Alexander Prescott and Mary Blencowe (a daughter of Sir John).

Henry 1752 - 1787
Henry Prescott Blencowe 1 was a Lawyer in London and later Thoby in Essex, who died at 35 leaving 7 children. The eldest sons of the last 4 generations of this line were all christened Henry Prescott Blencowe.

Henry 1775 - 1847
Henry Prescott Blencowe 2 sold Blencow Hall in 1802 to the 11th Duke of Norfolk who had earlier remodeled Greystoke Castle. It continued as a tenant farm until sold in 1988.

Rebecca Everard
The Everards were a wealthy family of merchants in King's Lynn, Norfolk and later developed the Everard's Shipping Company. Vol.23 No.4 2008.