Vol
5 Number 1 January 2000 PART
ONE For
some time past I have been intending to set down in writing some
notes 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 note 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 14 February, 1797.
I have endeavored to trace his antecendents 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 now come to light. Of other Blackleys then resident
in Ireland, Margaret, sister of William Blackley (otherwise unsung
in Blackley history) married William Harkness of Dungannon (see
Burke: Landed Gentry of Ireland 1904 edition)
about 1740, and there was also a Samuel Blackley who bought building
sites in Frederick Street and Earl Street, Belfast from Lord Donegal
in 1805 and 1813.
In the family tree compiled by my great-uncle, the Rev. W. L. Blackley, John Blackley is referred to as John Blackley "of Ballymena". He is believed to have founded the Belfast Linen Company and to have been a man of considerable wealth. he was blind for the last twenty years of his life. The Belfast Newsletter of 20 February 1791 published a notice saying: "on Monday evening last died Mr. John Blackley of this place whose character in life was that of a very honest man". In those days insertions were not put in on payment and our ancestor must have been considered as important. 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, his family crossing the sea and settled 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 dernesne 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 1636 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 fo1lows: "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 Burkets 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 L.G. of Ireland. I do not see any prospect of discovering the antecendents 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 Harkness 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 William Hartley, and John's wife, married 1797, being Temperance, daughter of Travers Hartley, who was H.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 thes people have any connection with the Irish Blackleys and the tree prepared for Burke's L.G. is believed to be complete in accounting for all the descendants of John Blackley and his wife Sarah. Should present day Blackley 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 Thinity 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 Hartlye, 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 families 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 William, 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 Lord 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 Carrickf ergus 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 td England with a regiment of horse which he had raised and found himself enrolled in the Parliamentary arm in 1642 and opposed to his King of Edgehill. This was not to his liking so he quickly went over 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. |
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