[Raine's North Durham, pp. 313-11. 316-17; Cooper's Biog. Dict. p. 284; Biog. Dict. of Living Authors (1816), p. 29; Gent. Mag. lxxxviii, i. 641 (1860), ix. 445-6.]
BLAKE, JAMES (1649–1728), also known as James Cross, jesuit, born in London in 1649, entered the Society of Jesus at Watten, in Belgium, in 1675, and was admitted a professed father 1 July 1675. He is named in Titus Oates’s list of jesuits in 1678 as Mr. Blake, alias Cross, living in Spain. On 3 April 1701 he was declared provincial of his brethren in England, and he held that office for nearly four years. He was chaplain at Mr. Mannock's, Bromley Hall, Colchester, from 1720 till his death, on 29 Jan. 1728. His only published work is ‘A Sermon of the Blessed Sacrament, Preached in the Chap l of his Excellency the Spanish Ambassador on Corpus Christi day, June 3, 1686,’ London, 1686, 4to, reprinted in vol. ii. of ‘A Select Collection of Catholick Sermons,’ London, 1741, 8vo.
[Foley's Records, v. 98, 108, 161, 5:17, vii. 64, Oliver’s Collections S. J.; Backer's Bibl. des Ecrivains de la Compagnie da Jésus (1869), i. 653.]
BLAKE, JOHN BRADBY (1745–1773), naturalist, son of John Blake of Great Parliament Street, Westminster, was born in Great Marlborough Street, London, on 4 Nov. 1745, and received his education at Westminster School. In 1766 he was sent out to China as one of the East India Company’s supercargoes at Canton. There he devoted all his spare time to the advancement of natural science. His plan was to procure the seeds of all the vegetables found in China which are used in medicine, manufactures, or food, or which are in any way serviceable to mankind, and to send to Europe not only such seeds, but also the plants by which they are produced. His idea was that they might be propagated in Great Britain and Ireland, or in some of our colonies. His scheme was attended with success. Cochin-China rice was grown in Jamaica and South Carolina; the tallow-tree prospered in Jamaica, in Carolina, and in other American colonies; and many of the plants the seeds of which he transmitted were raised in several botanical gardens near London. He likewise forwarded to England some specimens of fossils and ores. By attending too closely to these pursuits he contracted a disease, of which he died at Canton on 16 Nov. 1773, when he had just entered the twenty-ninth year of his age.
[Biog. Brit. (Kippis), ii. 359, Annual Reg. xviii. pt. ii. 30-5.]
BLAKE, MALACHI (1687–1760), dissenting minister, was born at Blagdon, near Taunton, and was the son of the Rev. Malachi Blake. The family, a collateral branch of that of Admiral Blake, descends from William Blake of Pitminster (died 1642), whose second son was John (1597-1615), the father of John (1629-1682), the father of Malachi (born 1651). This last-named, the presbyterian minister of Blagdon, and founder of the dissenting cause at Wellington, Somersetshire, was implicated in Monmouth's rebellion, and fled to London in disguise. His second son Malachi, born in 1687, was presbyterian minister of Blandford, where he died in 1760. He published: ‘A Brief Account of the dreadful Fire at Blandford Forum in the county of Dorset, which happened 4 June 1731. With sermons [4 June 1735] in remembrance, and serious address to the inhabitants of the town,’ London [1735]. His younger brother, William (1688-1772), a woolstapler, was father of Malachi (1724-1795), presbyterian minister of Whitney and Fullwood, and of Willian (1730-1799), presbyterian minister of Crewkerne [see Blake, William, 1773-1821].
[Blake pedigree, MS.; Murch's Hist. Presb. and Gen. Bapt. Churches in West of England, 1835, p. 244.]
BLAKE, ROBERT (1599–1657), admiral and general at sea, of a family formerly of Bishop's Lydiard, near Taunton, and afterwards merchants of Bridgwater, was born at Bridgwater in August 1599, the eldest of the twelve sons of Humphrey Blake and of Sarah, daughter and coheiress of Humphrey Williams of Plansfield. He received his early education at the grammar school of the town, and in 1615 was sent up to Oxford, where he matriculated as a member of St. Alban Hall, whence he removed shortly afterwards to Wadham College, then recently founded. Here he remained for nearly ten years, graduating in due course, and standing for a Fellowship at Merton, though without success. According to the tradition, the cause of his failure was his short, squat, ungainly figure, which offended the artistic sense of the warden. In 1625 he left Oxford. His father had died intestate and far from wealthy. When Plansfield had been sold, and all available property had been realised, there was little more than 200'll'. a year. Two of the elder brothers went to push their fortunes in London, the younger ones were still at school; Robert, with his second brother Humphrey, would seem to have continued the business, and not without success, for a few years later, and through the rest of his life he was in
