Follow up: So who was Nath Blencow, son of Ann from Haws, whose Bible ended up with Ben Lamprey by 1709?

Thank you to members who pointed out that Hawes is in North Yorkshire. We are looking for one in Northamptonshire and we have found two Nathaniel/Ann combinations that may fit the description and are in Northamptonshire.

Nathaniel Blencowe born 1678 at Farthinghoe died 1753 in Chalcomb. Father James the Elder died c.1730 and his mother Anne died after 1741. Son, Nathaniel, mentioned her in his will of 1741 — proved in 1753.

Nathaniel (c.1689-1730), the youngest son of Francis Blincoe (1639-1692) and Ann/Anne Harris is also a possibility. The Blencowe spelling changed with each child.

We do presume that Anne was literate, as her grandfather, Robert Harris, taught Hebrew, Ancient Greek and Latin in order to put himself through Oxford University. His son, Malachi also attended Oxford. As Malachi only had 3 children, all girls, I can imagine Anne would have had a basic enough knowledge of Latin to have inscribed the book.

As both Anne's father and grandfather were ministers and Robert was a Divine of Westminster, it stands to reason that Anne would give her son a bible. The family bible would have gone to the elder son, John, not to Nathaniel.

Francis and Anne spent much of their lives at Radstone and Halse. When visiting Halse I was corrected with my pronunciation Hal-sie to what I heard as Halls perhaps it should have been Haws? Anne died in Halse in 1719 and was buried at Marston St Lawrence with Francis. Nathaniel married Hannah Blackwell in 1716; however, the bible was long gone by then. Perhaps like modern children he didn't value the book and either lost it or gave it to young Ben Lamprey by 1709.

Blencowe Families’ Association > Newsletters > Vol. 27 No. 3 May 2012 > Page 9 < >
updated: 29 January 2016