"He was descended from pious and worthy ancestors; a collateral branch of the family of that virtuous man, great officer, and true patriot, Admiral Blake. His grandfather, the Rev. Malachi Blake, a Nonconformist minister, resided at Blogden, four miles from Taunton. This gentleman, by his pious labours, laid the foundation of the dissenting congregation at Wellington, in the county of Somerset. After the defeat of the Duke of Monmouth, to whose cause he had been friendly, he was obliged to flee from home, and went to London disguised in a lay-dress, with a tye-wig and a sword."
This minister had three sons, John, Malachi, and William; and it is from the last named that the Blakes of Bishop's Hall are descended. But who was the father of Malachi Blake himself? He was probably a son or grandson of one of the admiral's brothers—but of which?
Permit me to add to this Query another remark. I am engaged in writing a Life of Admiral Blake, and shall be extremely grateful to any of your correspondents who can and will direct me, either through the medium of your columns or by private communication, to any new sources of information respecting his character and career. A meagre pamphlet being the utmost that has yet been given to the memory of this great man, the entire story of his life has to be built up from the beginning. Fragments of papers, scraps of information, however slight, may therefore be of material value. A date or a name may contain an important clue, and will be thankfully acknowledged. Of course I do not wish to be referred to information contained in well-known collections, such as Thurloe, Rushworth, Whitelock, and the Parliamentary Histories, nor to the Deptford MSS. in the Tower, the Admiralty papers in the State Paper Office, or the Ashmole MSS. at Oxford. I am also acquainted, of course, with several papers in the national collection of MSS. at the British Museum throwing light on the subject; but while these MSS. remain in their present state, it would be very rash in any man to say what is not to be found in them. Should any one, in reading for his own purposes, stumble on a fact of importance for me in these MSS., I shall be grateful for a communication; but my appeal is rather made to the possessors of old family papers. There must, I think, be many letters—though he was a brief and abrupt correspondent—of the admiral's still existing in the archives of old Puritan families. These are the materials of history of which I am most in need.
Hepworth Dixon.
84. St. John's Wood Terrace.
Minor Queries.
John Holywood the Mathematician.—Is the birthplace of this distinguished scholar known? Leland, Bale, and Pits assert him to have been born at Halifax, in Yorkshire; Stanyhurst says, at Holywood, near Dublin; and according to Dempster and Mackenzie, at Nithsdale, in Scotland.
Edward F. Rimbault.
Essay on the Irony of Sophocles, &c.—Who is the author of the Essay on the Irony of Sophocles, which has been termed the most exquisite piece of criticism in the English language?