Blake (family)
The Blake family (cambro-Norman "le Blac") from Galway is one of the 14 Anglo or cambro-Norman families that are called the tribes of Galway ( English Tribes of Galway ) and for centuries the city and the surrounding area in ruled Irish County Galway and built country houses and castles including Ardfry, Ballyglunin, Castlegrove, Menlo and Renvyle.
The Blakes illegally attribute their ancestry to a knight of the Round Table . The ancestors of the Blakes came to the island in 1170 with Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke (called Strongbow) and became one of the most powerful families in Galway City in the 14th century. Most of these Normans did not come from England, but from Wales , which is why medievalists refer to them as Cambro Normans . There is no record of when individual families came to Galway.
The name Blake was first mentioned in the town's history in 1320, when it was part of a deadly dispute with the Athy family . In 1440 there was another dispute between the tribes. Those involved include John, the son of Henry Blake, and members of the Lynch , Ffrench , Deane , Skerett , Athy , Lawless, and Martyn families .
Richard Caddell (alias le Blake), from whom the lines of the Blakes in Athenry and Galway descended, was sheriff of Connacht in 1303 . A Blake has been mayor of the city about 20 times. A member of the Ardfry family, descended from Richard Blake, was chairman of the Confederate Catholics of Ireland in Kilkenny in 1647. Martin Blake is mentioned in a deed of Charles II as sheriff of Galway in 1689 . In 1800, Joseph Henry Blake (1765-1803) received the title of nobility. He became 1st Lord of Wallscourt . The descendants of the Blake family still reside in and around Galway in County Mayo and County Kildare , which are three swathes of land called Blakestown.
Blakes Castle stands in a prominent place in Galway.
literature
- Adrian Martyn: The Tribes of Galway: 1124-1642 ISBN 978-0-9955025-0-5 , 2016