Thread: The Blackmores
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Old 14-04-22, 00:02
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Default The grandchildren - final part - Henry

Henry Blackmore of Lincolns Inn was only 18 when he married Margaret Shaw of St Andrew Holborn on 16 April 1719. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageview...49?pId=5683979

We don’t know what his father thought, since Thomas junior treated all his four sons equally in his will dated 13 March 1720/1, leaving them one shilling each and all decision making to his wife: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageview...048?pId=332179



The party line was, however, clear. His sister Ann in her will dated 13 February 1721/2 left him one pound. His mother Ann said “my youngest son Henry MARRIED WITHOUT MY CONSENT AND TO THE DISHONOUR OF HIS FAMILY, for which reason I give him ten pounds and no more” Even Raymond, by 1740 only left him a nominal amount.

So, who was Margaret, and how on earth had she upset the family to such a degree? Margaret was either the daughter or niece of Benjamin Robertshaw, Headmaster of Burnley Grammar School. Benjamin’s son Benjamin, born 1679, says in his will “my sister Mary Shaw of Church near Blackburn in Lancashire the daughter of my late brother Jonas Robertshaw which daughter now lives or did lately live with her aunt Margaret Blackmore/at Fulledge near Burnley in Lancashire and the daughter of my said sister Margaret Blackmore/whose name is now Mary Hargreaves” I assume that we have three beneficiaries here: sister Mary Shaw, an unnamed Robertshaw niece and Mary Hargreaves nee Shaw (who married Jeremiah Hargreaves in 1736)
A Margaret Robertshaw of Burnley married a John Shaw of Accrington in 1713. So Margaret was a widow, and probably at least five years older than Henry Blackmore. And she came to the marriage with a daughter, Mary Shaw.
Is it coincidence that a John Shaw, victualler of Chancery Lane made a will dated 2 March 1718/9 naming a daughter Mary (but no mention of a wife). It was proved on the day he was buried – 14th April 1719. Henry Blackmore married Margaret on 16th April 1719. Is it possible that Margaret did lose no time whatsoever in remarrying? Certainly, she and this John Shaw both came from St Andrew’s Holborn.


Her brother Benjamin Robertshaw was a colourful and contentious churchman, Vicar of Penn at the time of Henry’s marriage: https://www.pennchurch.uk/1-rev-benjamin-robertshaw/ His politics were firmly Jacobite, his fortune non-existent, not at all the sort of person to appeal to Ann Blackmore.


Henry and his wife lost no opportunity in moving away from the sphere of his mother’s influence. According to Wikipedia, Henry sank the first pit in the Fulledge Colliery in or about 1720. According to an article in the Burnley Express, https://www.burnleyexpress.net/sport...urnley-2742169 he bought the Fulledge estate in 1721 for £2200. His grandfather had left him property in Old Jewry, various annuities and £500 in 1709. It sounds as if all of this was sunk into Fulledge.


Henry spent the rest of his days in Burnley. After Margaret died, he married Betty Holt, the daughter of William Holt, an apothecary. Eventually, he transferred the colliery business over to his new father in law.



Henry was buried in Burnley on 13 November 1764: https://search.findmypast.co.uk/reco...BUR%2F00715073
His will was proved in the Archdeaconry court of Chester in December 1764.



Of all the grandchildren, Henry seems the most engaging. He was involved in local society, being a churchwarden at the local church. A memorandum book of his survives, with details of payments to servants. I would love to see that will, to find out whether he was in truth more warm hearted than his siblings!
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