Gazette 18 9/3/2000 Notes
ON THE BLACKLEY FAMILY By Travers Robert Blackley, Gurrane Fermoy, 0f Cork, Eire Introduction | Searching for the Blackley's of Blackley Hall | The Travers Pedigree and the Forsescue Connection | The Blackley's in the 19th Century | The Authors Immediate Family Introduction For some time past I have been intending to set down in writing somenotes about our family, and a request by Burke to supply a family tree for inclusion in their 1958 edition of The Landed Gentry of Ireland has provided the needed stimulus. A family tree of sorts was already in the possession of the editors, but owing to the habit followed in our family of repeating the name Travers Robert in succeeding generations, it contained some pardonable omissions and inaccuracies. As an appendix to these notes I attach a copy of the tree finally supplied to Burke which I hope and believe to be accurate. In this tree it will be seen that the earliest Blackley of whom we have certain knowledge is my great, great grandfather, John Blackley who married Sarah Hartley and died in Belfast on the 14th of February, 1797. I have endeavoured to trace his antecedents and contemporaries from Ballymena and Belfast sources but with little success, and as most Irish records were hosed in the Four Courts and destroyed by fire in the troubles of 1922, it is unlikely that further information will come to light. Of other Blackleys then resident in Ireland, Margaret sister of William Blackley (otherwise unsung in Blackley history) married William Harkness of Dunngannon (see Burke: Landed Gentry of Ireland 1904 edition) about 1740, and there was also a Samuel Blackley who bought buildings sites in Frederick Street and Earl Street, Belfast from Lord Donegal in 1805 and 1813.
Searching for The Blackley's of Blackley Hall There is a pleasant story current in the family that we descend from the Blackleys of Blackley Hall, Lancaster and that a Sir John Blackley backed the Stuarts and lost his head and his property by doing so, This family crossing the sea and settling in Co. Antrim. Why they should have selected this Williamite stronghold I cannot imagine.But researches cast doubt on the existence of any Lancaster Blackleys. I have a copy of "A History of the Ancient Chapel of Blackley in Manchester Parish" published in 1854 by the Rev John Booker, M.A., a former incumbent of Blackley. This contains a sketch of Blackley Hall and a scholarly account of the disposal of the demesne and properties. In 1355 Reginald la Warre, Lord of Manchester gave his little 'pasture of Blackley' to a kinsman. In 1411 it was held by Sir John Assheton; in 1430 by Reginald West, knight from whom it passed to the Byrons in 1566 and then apparently back to the Asshetons who were in possession in 1617. By them it was sold to the Leghs in 1656 who continued as owners of the estate up to 1814 when by order of the High Court of Chancery, the property was offered for sale in 34 lots, the hall and four acres of land being purchased by William Grant of Ramsbottom, Esquire, for £1,500; in 1815 the old house was pulled down. From this account it appears that nobody of the name of Blackley ever owned or lived at Blackley Hall. I should add that the Society of Genealogists hold a copy of Blackley Parish Register 1655-1750 and that no person named Blackley appears in it. Who then was Blackley of Blackley Hall, whose Coat of Arms, which we use, is shown both in Burke's General Armory and also I believe in Fox-Davies book of Crests? Lancaster Herald, to whom I wrote, replied as follows. ''The Arms referred to in Burke's General Armory as pertaining to the family of Blackley or Blakey of Blackley Hall were granted towards the end of the 16th Century to Symon Blakey of Blakey Co. Pal. Lancaster, by Robert Cooke. The latter was Clarence aux King of Arms from 1567 to 1592 and the Grant was probably made in 1589" "The Arms shown in our records are identical with those described by Burke, that is to say Gules a Chevron Vair between three Crosslets Or - And the Crest - A dragon's head Vert gorged with a crest Coronet Or".. "I made further searches to see whether any of Symon Blakey's descendants had entered a pedigree of pedigrees linking with the original Grantee but I am afraid I could find none". I then wrote to Burke's Peerage Ltd., asking if they could throw any light on Blackley of Blackley Hall, and they replied that they did not hold the sources from which the Armory was compiled and so were unable to help. The Arms have appeared on our silver since about 1800 and after 150 years of usage, I see no reason for ceasing to make use of them. but as at this stage there is not means of ascertaining our ancestors claims to entitlement, I have thought it better to omit them from our page in "Burke's Landed Gentry of Ireland". I do not see any prospect of discovering the antecedents of John Blackley, and Sir Arthur Vickers, Ulster King of Arms, has suggested to my uncle, H. L. Blackley, that we may have been illegitimate offspring of some good family connected with the Williamite plantation of Ulster. Be that as it may, they seem to have married into good county families. Margaret married a Harckness of Garryfine. And John Blackley himself married Sarah Hartley, daughter of John Hartley, eldest son of Samuel Hartley (see Hartley of Beech Park). John's sons Robert and John, both married Hartleys, Robert's wife, married 1788, being Anne, daughter of Willian Hartley, and John's wife, married 1797, being Temperance, daughter of Travers Hartley, who was M.P. for Dublin in the last Irish Parliament. Outside Ireland Blackley is not an uncommon name and there are twelve Blackleys in the London telephone directory and six in Montreal. Blackley is the name of a well known tea shop in Malta and I have seen the name over a shop in Ayr. But none of these people have any connection with the Irish Blackleys and the tree prepared for "Burke's Landed Gentry" is believed to be complete in accounting for all the descendants of John Blackley and his wife Sarah. The Travers Pedigree and The Fortescue Connection Should present day Blackley's be concerned about old family connections, they can find them in the Travers pedigree which goes back to Walter Travers Goldsmith (i.e. Banker) of Nottingham, died in 1575. He had four distinguished sons, one of whom, Walter Travers, was Provost of Trinity College, Dublin 1594-1598. Oddly enough, this family appears unconnected with the equally famous Travers family of Timoleague, Co Cork (see Pedigree of Travers Family printed for private circulation 1898, one copy in my possession, one held by H. L. Blackley). Our connection with them is through Alice Travers who married James Hartley of Dublin and was the mother of Travers Hartley, M.P. She was the last of the Travers line and an oil painting of her is in the possession of our cousin Ninian Falkener of Dublin. Still older is our Fortescue connection. The Fortescues are one of the few familie s who can produce an uninterrupted line of ancestry back to and beyond the Norman Conquest (see History of Family of Fortescue, compiled by Thomas (Fortescue) Lord Clermont, 2nd Edition 1880, copy in my possession). Richard le Fort saved Willian, Duke of Normandy, at the battle of Hastings, protecting them with his shield and thereby won for his family the motto 'forte scutum salus ducum'. Later a Sir John Fortescue was Third Chancellor of England to King Henry the Sixth. The Irish Fortescues came to Ireland in the person of Sir Faithful Fortescue who was made Constable of Carrickfergus Castle in 1606. He acquired large properties in the Counties of Antrim, Down, Louth and Cork, some by Crown grant and some by purchase. On the breaking out of the Civil War, Sir Faithful returned to England with a regiment of horse which be had raised, and found himself enrolled in the Parliamentary army in 1642 and opposed to his King at Edgehill. This was not to his liking so he quickly went over to the King's side, together with his regiment, and charged at the side of Prince Rupert. After the battle he joined the King at Oxford and until his death enjoyed considerable royal favour. His great, great grandson was John Fortescue of Malahide, born 1739, died 1831. It is only recently that I realized that my grandfather Travers Robert Blackley (born 1833, died 1888) and my grandmother Honorine nee Gibson, (born 1844, died 1934) were second cousins both being great grandchildren of John Fortescue and of his wife Suzette de la Hertelle, whose father Joseph Sieur de Pierreville, Marquis de la Hertelle, was one of the ennobled offspring of Louise Quatorze.
As
a boy I remember a silver kettle invariably used by my grandmother
and she told me it had been given to her mother, nee Honoria
Fortescue, by her cousin, Lady Goodricke (nee
Fortescue) . This is now in my possession together with
four lovely Georgian tablespoons bearing the Goodricke
crest which presumably came from the same source. Her
son, Sir Harry Goodricke, was master of the Quorn
and died unmarried in 1833, when the baronetcy became extinct.
My great grandfather John Gibson of Kilboy Cloyne,
was a close friend of Sir Harry and used to stay
regularly with him to hunt with the Quorn and perhaps it was through
him that he met his wife Honoria. Kilboy was
sold in l867 after my grandmother's marriage and since then has
changed hands several times and is now in danger of being pulled
down. It is an early Georgian house, quite lovely in shape and
size and it is easy to imagine what Kilboy was like when the gracious
life was lived there. There seems to have been a close friendship
as well as relationship between Blackleys and Fortescues
and I think that the Blackley property at Farndreg Co. Louth must
have come to us through them and I imagine that it is a virtue
of this property that Burke rates us as landed. The coruscation of the Four Courts destroyed the early records of Farndreg but there is a document dated 1860 which I have seen and which is in the possession of Messrs. Allen Halpin of Cavan. A Schedule to this document records as an encumbrance on the estate dated 2nd Jan. 1847, a recognizance entered into by the said Travers Robert Blackley in the matter of the Fortescue minors, conditioned that the said Travers Robert Blackley should account as guarding of the minors. It will observe that this T.R.B.' (1807-1870) gave his three youngest children Fortescue names. He also presented to the Friendly Brothers House in Dublin in 1850 a looking glass inscribed ' in memory of brother Matthew Fortescue". This Matthew Fortescue was Master of the Louth Hunt from 1822 to 1837. In 1900 out of this great Louth family only one childless man, Colonel M.C.E. of Stephenstown, Co. Louth, was still alive.
The Blackley's in the nineteenth century To return to the Blackleys. John Blackley (d 14 Feb. 1797) and Sarah his wife (d, 2 July 1802) and twelve children of whom but four survived their father, and only one, viz. Mrs Anne Montgomery survived both parents. The elder son, Robert, married Anne daughter of William Hartley. They had no sons but four daughters - Sally, Anne Martha and Kate, of whom only Kate married, her husband being Rev. Robert Drummond, D.D. Robert Blackley died on 31 Jan. 1800. His sister Anne married Robert Montgomery and had one child, a son, Robert, who died at Sandymount Belfast on 8 Sept. 1851. His daughter Jane married as his second wife, on 10 May 1885, her cousin Travers Robert Blackley (1801-1870). She was greatly beloved by her stepchildren. John
Blackley (b.1767 d.1801) the second son of John
and Sarah Blackley from who we descend, was a man of
means and position and was settled in Dublin before the years
of his marriage to Temperance Hartley in 1797.
He lived at 2 Belevedere Place, Mountjoy Square. He was extremely
good- looking and I have a lovely miniature of him dated 1789
which has been generally ascribed to Sir Thos. Lawrence,
afterwards President of the Royal Academy. But
the signature is quite clearly "G. Lawrence" which proves
beyond doubt that the painter was George Lawrence,
a famous Dublin miniature painter of that time. From his wife
Temperance nee Hartley, we inherit the silver
entree dishes which were inscribed on one side with the Arm
of Travers Hartley (apparently as M.P. for Dublin he
obtained his own coat of arms) "Ermine of a chief gules;
a rose with a flour de lis on each side - Crest: a demi-stag,
horned" and on the other, the arms of the Last India company
to whom supposedly be rendered a service. I also hold printed copies of the electoral rolls of the Parliamentary election of 1782 and among those who voted for our ancestor was Napper Tandy immortalized in "The wearing of the Green". Travers Hartley was a close friend of Gratten. Both were strongly opposed to the Act of the union in 1801. And oddly enough their descendants were equally strongly opposed to Home Rule as advocated by Gladstone and his liberal successors. This apparent inconsistency is explained by the fact that before 1793 Catholics had no vote and up to 1829 no representation in Parliament which was an entirely Protestant body. Under Home Rule the great majority of the seats would have been held by Catholics as indeed has come to passing the Dai of today.
John Blackley entered the legal profession but I do not think he ever practiced. He and Mary Haverfield had three children, Susan born 1836, John Henry (Jack) born 1839, and Frederick Travers, born 1841. Susan (cousin Susie), I am sorry to say, I never met; she was a person of character and charm. My grandmother Honorine who did not suffer fools gladly had a great liking and regard for her. She was a close friend of Andrew Lang and translated from French and German sources large numbers of fairy-tales since incorporated in his books. She lived at Bristol and died there in 1916. Jack was a regular soldier and spent 40 years in the Royal Artillery without ever going into action, retiring as a Colonel. He stayed with us at Drumbar in about 1906 and gave me a pony but this kindly act in no way lessened the terror which he inspired in me. Frederick appears to have been the family rake and is believed to have run off with his Colonel's wife and through her, money. He deserves to be remembered for sending from Canada to my father, while a boy at charterhouse, the ham of a bear. During his married life he had a house at Ascot and by all accounts a pretty gay time was had there. I have not discovered the name of his wife but she was darkly referred to in the family as "a very wicked woman ". He died in poor circumstances in Dinard in 1899. Neither John nor Susan married and Frederick died childless and so faded out the senior branch of this family. In 1833 he met with an accident and had to have a knuckle removed which impaired his surgical powers. He resigned the Dundalk post and again settled and practised in Dublin living at No 139 Lower Leeson street, In 1839 his wife's failing health made it necessary to give up his profession and move his whole family down to Beech Hill, a country place near Armagh Elizabeth died on 17 March 1853. He married, as his second wife, on 24 April 1855, his cousin, Jane Montgomery and the children were all devoted to her. He died on 10 Nov 1870 at 23 Upper Sackville Street [then the Friendly Brother House). 1 cannot discover where he was buried. I now pass to the next generation. Temperance (1827-1863) the eldest sister married Matthew Weld O'Connor of Oldscastle. He was one of the toughest of Irish landlords and got an unenviable reputation during the famine of 1847 which may not have been deserved At any rate he was not an absentee. W.F.T. O'Connor was at Charterhouse with my father and had a distinguished career in India ending as Resident in Nepal.
William Lewery (1830-1902) was the only Blackley to achieve national distinction. A brilliant linguist he married Amelia, the daughter of Dr. Friedlander, who had been his tutor in Germany and with him produced a German*English Dictionary [Blackley & Friedlander], which for a time was a standard work. He entered the Church and held various livings in the diocese of Winchester of which his friend and the famous Dr Sumner was Bishop and became an Honorary Canon of the Diocese. I remember meeting his widow ('Aunt Mary') who lived in the Minster House at Winchester in the early 1920's. She had published privately an account of his activities (Kegan Paul) and I remember it embodied a sermon on thrift preached by him in Westminster Abbey in 1879. My father, as a schoolboy, used to stay with him while he was Rector of Whitechurch [Hants] and was impressed by his wit and by his eye for a horse. Today he is generally accepted as the originator of the scheme for national insurance. For the last 13 years of his life he was vicar of St. James-the-less, Westminster, He died at 75 St. George's Square on 25 July 1902 and is buried at Woking necropolis (grave no. 143304). His daughter Hilda married the Rev. F.N. Harvey who had been a friend of my father at Oxford and who kept wicket for Hampshire, Travers
Robert (1833-1888) my grandfather, like his two elder
brothers was educated on the Continent, and was a good linguist
and until he died kept a house in Paris. He had a commission as
Major in the Royal Longford Rifles but I do not think his duties
were exacting. For some years after his marriage he and his wife
lived with her parents at Rutland Square, Dublin About 1873 some
friends suggested that he should come to Belfast and put money
into some business there He bought a house called Park Lodge about
five miles out of Belfast and would have left his family much
better off if he had not tried his hand at business. He died at
the early age of 55 and is buried in the City Cemetery, Belfast.
On his death my grandmother was left with the task of bringing
up five children varying in age from my father aged 21 down to
Humphrey aged 2, on an income of £250 per annum. She was
the most remarkable woman I ever knew. Left in what might have
appeared to others as financial straits she sent her son Fred
to Haileybury and Humphrey to Berkhamsted and
both to Trinity College Dublin, where they took their degrees
in Medicine while her daughters went to the Alexandra College,
she used to take a house by the sea for the children's summer
holidays and never owed a penny in her life. How she did all this
has ever been a mystery to her admiring descendants. Though obviously
possessed of unusual financial acumen, she used to say in all
sincerity that she never understood money. Born eight years before
the death of the Duke of Wellington she grew old gracefully, never
criticizing the day in manners, which was a legacy of the war,
but retaining all the attractiveness of a great Victorian. That
decay was never observed in her house for we all instinctively
reached up to the standard which she set. In the earlier days
of her widowhood and when I first knew her she lived at 23, Earlsfort
Terrace, Dublin. A feature of the Earlsfort Terrace house was the china (including bedroom utensils) bearing the family crest. Two specimens are now in my possession. Both then and at 27 Clyde Road to which she moved in 1912 she held firmly the reins of family Government and until her death in 1934 her house and letters formed the point of contact and clearing agency for news She lived to see her great grandchildren born and will always remain for her descendants a shining example of a long life, well lived. From about 1900 she was always known to us as Gaggie. With
her lived her sister Fanny Gibson. A painter
of considerable merit she exhibited regularly at the Royal Hibernian
Academy. As a thinker she was in advance of her time and a passionate
sympathy for the underdog made her a champion of unpopular causes.
She was suspected of pro-Boer sympathies during the South African
War and shocked her conventional family by supporting the Redmondites
and the Irish Nationalist Cause. By some of us she was regarded
as eccentric but of her kindness and generosity to diverse charities
there is no question. One story told of her, illustrates her dislike
of publicity. At some missionary meeting she appeared to be putting two pence into the plate: and a sovereign slipped out from between them. Gaggie (d. 29 Sep. 1934) Aunt Fanny (d.14 Feb. 1932 their brother Captain John Lewis Gibson, 15th Regt, (d. 26 Feb. 1872) and their father John Gibson (d.11 Jan. 1873) are buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery Dublin plot C4171-135). The authors immediate family To return to the Blackleys, my great-aunt Elizabeth Marie (1837-1900) was beautiful, clever and talented and apparently did not lack chances of marrying, for numerous eligible’s are known to have sought her hand, including Lord Rayleigh, the artist. Why she never accepted any of them is not known. My father was born in a house in upper Fitzwilliam St., Dublin, on 6th Jan. 1867. He went to Charterhouse in September 1880, passing into the Middle Shell. I remember seeing his first letter from there announcing with pride, 'there are boys bigger than me in the Lower Shell'. He left in December 1863 and went to a crammer in Somerset to prepare him for entry to Oxford. His school career was undistinguished and a suspected weak heart prevented him from playing games. He was spare man for the 'Shooting VIII' which his grandson captained seventy years later. He went up to Exeter college, did three years at Oxford, captained his college at Association Football and played sometimes for the Corinthians then in their heyday. After going down he learned land agency in Co. Antrim, a profession at that time much sought after by 'walking' gentry' who had no land of their own. He was a time assistant agent to Lord Massereene and Ferrard and in 1895 became agent to the Farnham estate in Cavan, an appointment which he led for the next 27 years. My father took his work seriously but found plenty of time to live the pleasant country house existence at those days, with the shooting and other amusements which it brought. His game book which was lost during the troubles of l922 was a useful index of the places at which he was a visitor including Shane's Castle the house of the O'Neills which like many other Irish houses was burnt in 1921, I remember it occurred frequently. He was a good diner out and knew intimately all the great characters of the North and had a fund of stories about them in which the famous Colonel Jimmy McCalmont and a certain John Harrison usually figured. Colonel McCalmont was returned unopposed as a member of one of the Antrim constituencies for 30 years and during the whole of his parliamentary career he never opened his mouth. His much enduring and very lovable wife was a close friend of my grandmother I remember meeting her at the Naze Races in 1920. In 1898 my father married Ethel, daughter of Col. B. W. Cuming of Crover, Ballyjamesduff, who had commanded the 79th (Cameron) Highlanders and had served with them in the Crimea. she was one of nine brothers and sisters. Her brothers were what Wavell has described as far ranging wildfowl, their lives devoted to service, sport and adventure, and her sisters married men of the same type. My uncle E.D. Cuming, himself a writer of note, and the greatest authority of his day on R.S. Surtess, has written a record of the family, which is in my possession, Alas, as has so often happened in the last fifty years, the last of them, my cousin Eric Cuming, was killed when just twenty, while commanding "D" company of the 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Fusiliers in their last action in 1915, A boy of great promise he had by then won a Military Cross and Bar and it is believed in the family that he was considered for a still higher award. I was born on 10th March, 1899, and two days later my mother died of a blood-clot She lies buried beside her parents in Ballymachugh Churchyard near Crover. A little more then two years later my father married Ida, daughter of Richard Allen, a Cavan solicitor, whose wisdom and kindness had gained for him universal regard and affection. Unfortunately he did not transmit these amiable qualities to his daughter, and the marriage was not a happy one. Ida set out to bring me up as her own son. Any reference to the Cumings was taboo and of course I was never allowed to go to Crover, a rambling family house on the shores of Sheelin where my grandmother lived on until 1909. A policy of appeasement led my father into accepting this insane arrangement which not only caused me much childish unhappiness but prevented me from meeting any of my mother's family until I was over 21. My sister Enough was born in 1904. A word about Drumbar where I lived for my first 22 years may be of interest. It was originally the Farnham dower-house and is rather smaller than Curran. Our staff consisted of a cook, parlour maid and housemaid. A laundry woman came to wash once a week. and our outside staff consisted of a coachman and a gardener. There was never any difficulty in getting staff. If one became a casualty, a letter to a Registry Office in Dunlin produced an immediate replacement. The cook was paid £11 per annum and the others to scale. It should be remembered however that labour-saving devices, main water supply, electric light, Aga cooker, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, refrigerators and motor transport did not exist. Our water was pumped by hand from a well daily and our light was provided by oil lamps. our range of visiting was within the radius to be reached with a horse and trap and explains why on a return to Cavan in 1947 I knew so little of the country beyond that radius. Owing to its physical characteristics Cavan was not a hunting country and our chief recreation was shooting in winter and tennis in summer. My father was, like Lord Farnham, a fierce Ulsterman and Orangeman, and in the years just before the first war, carried a strong influence among those who armed and drilled and organized to prevent the coercion of Ulster under Irish Home Rule. Irishman have long memories and he paid the price after the war when the British Government with Lloyd George at their head abandoned the Loyalists in an attempt to buy peace with the extremists. The Irish rebellion which took place in l916, was badly mismanaged by its organizers and was put down without much difficulty and it was not until 1919 that the malaise which follows brought Sinn Fein out again as an active force and from then onward circumstances became increasingly unpleasant. to quote from an obituary in the Times, they "forced Lord Farnham to leave Ireland, abandon his home and with his family to submit to exile". For two years a detective, tactful but not to be eluded, followed them round to provide police protection. For his land agent there was neither exile nor police protection and he remained at his post while troops, Black and Tans, and R.l.C. were successively withdrawn; meanwhile his mail used to bring pictures of coffins and that detestable weapon of Irish patriots, anonymous threatening letters. These used to arrive at breakfast and were of course concealed from his family. But
they made no noticeable difference to the characteristic gusto
with which he attacked his bacon and eggs. The climax was reached
on the night of 8th April, 1922 when a murder gang of about 25
armed men carrying rifles and apparently Mills bombs (I picked
one up afterwards) came and broke into the house By a stroke of
fortune my sister and stepmother were away and I was home from
Oxford, another piece of luck was a full moon in a clear sky which
illuminated our attackers. My father and I sleeping with our revolvers
under our pillows (such were the times) were awakened by the barking
of our dog shortly before midnight and saw our assailants outside
the front door. They hammered on the door calling upon my father
to open it. It would have been easy but bad tactics to shoot their way into our glass porch. I remember those minutes waiting for them to break down the doors as the worst of my life, but when battle was joined all fear left me. At such close range it was almost impossible to miss even with weapons of such inaccuracy and after we had fired nine shots they drew off carrying their dead and wounded with them. Of their intentions there can be no doubt. Only a few months before they pulled out Dean Finlay of Bawnboy, an old clergyman of 79 years and shot him in front of his wife. Thus ended our life at Drumbar and we were I think, lucky to get out of Ireland alive. For the next few years my father had a house at Pinner and worked with Leckhampton until my stepmother's behaviour passed the limits of human endurance and with the assent of her daughter and myself my father left her and spent the remaining 13 years of his life in rooms in Ebury street and at the Junior Charlton Club where I enjoyed many happy evenings in his company during my leaves from the Sudan. He died on 31st Jan. 1938 and is buried in Brookwood cemetery. Fred and Humphrey married soon after the 1914-1918 war and brought great happiness to themselves and to our family by their marriages. Fred went into practice in Bristol, and during the war joined the R.A.M.C., winning a mention in dispatches. After the war he joined the Ministry of Health and was stationed at Exeter and afterwards at Southampton. A keen horseman and fisherman, he contrived to find time to hunt up to 1914 and to fish up to the end of his life. On reflection I would say that he had the most balanced temperament of us all and inherited from his mother more than his share of her reliability. He died on 5th Nov. 1948. and is buried at Southampton. Humphrey began his medical career as assistant to Dr. Lumsden in Guinness' brewery and in 1914 became a partner in a practice at Warminster. He too served with the R.A.M.C. and then returned to resume his practice. Both he and Fred lived in lovely houses and were unfailingly generous in the hospitality shown to my father, myself and my family. After the second world war Humphrey returned to his old haunts and at the date of writing he and Joyce are living at Fitzwilliam Lodge, Blackrock, and Mary, Fred's widow, is living at 17 Herbert park, Dublin. Winnie died in London in 1912. 1 did not know her well but I remember being much impressed at the time by Gaggie telling me that all her life she had never told a lie. This struck me as unusual. Vera married in 1912 Hubert Hamilton whose sister Mary afterwards married Fred. He was a barrister of some distinction and later became a County Court Judge under the Irish Free state. They had for many years a house in Burlington Road and later bought back Moyne, a lovely house near Durrow, with 600 acres of land which had originally been a Hamilton property. Hubert died on 21st February, 1946 and his son Paul lives at Moyne while Vera is living at 9 Elgin Road, Dublin. And there I will close this account of family affairs down to and including my father's generation. It has been made possible through the helpfulness and generosity of various members of the family who have given me papers on which these notes are largely based. These will be preserved for passing to these who come after in the hope that one day some younger Blackley will add another chapter. I would also record the great assistance given to me by Mr. Horace B. Jones of 20 Edgar Road, Sanderstead. Surrey himself a Fellow of the Society of Genealogists who discovered and gave me the book on Blackley parish and produced other valuable information about the Travers and Blackley families. TRAVERS R. BLACKLEY
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