Sir Walter Blount, 1st Baronet

Family and Education b. c.1594, 1st s. of Sir George Blount of Sodington, and Eleanor, da. of William Norwood of Lockhampton, Glos. educ. Balliol, Oxf. 1610, aged 16; I. Temple 1611. m. by 1611, Elizabeth (d.1656), da. of George Wilde I* of Droitwich, 7s. (1 d.v.p.) 4da.1 suc. fa. 1611; cr. bt. 5 Oct. 1642. d. 27 Aug. 1654.2 sig. Walter Blounte.

Offices Held

Sheriff, Worcs. 1619-20;3 commr. sewers, Glos. and Worcs. 1629,4 charitable uses, Worcs. 1632, 1640,5 swearing the officers of the corporation of Kidderminster, Worcs. 1636,6 sequestrations (roy.), Worcs. 1643.7

Member, Fishery Soc. 1633.8

Biography The Blounts had been seated at Sodington manor in Worcestershire, six-and-a-half miles from Bewdley, since the fourteenth century.9 The family had repeatedly represented Worcestershire in the Middle Ages but under the Tudors their influence faded. Blount succeeded his father in January 1611 while still a minor. In his will, Sir George Blount asked that his property should ‘descend by course of inheritance only’, regardless of any guardianship.10 Blount was left property in Staffordshire, but his principal inheritances were the manors of Sodington and Timberlake in Worcestershire, and Marbrook in Shropshire. However, the manor house at Sodington was left to his mother for ten years. Blount also inherited from his father saltpits in Droitwich, which entitled him to membership of the corporation.

Blount was married by October 1611, when his father-in-law, George Wilde I, requested that he be specially admitted to the Inner Temple. Wilde was a prominent lawyer but came from a mercantile family, and the fact that Sir George Blount, who presumably arranged the match before his death, was prepared to contemplate such a union for his heir may suggest that the Blounts were not prosperous. Indeed, it may have been financial problems that in 1618 caused Blount to sell land worth £3,000.11 Blount does not appear to have held any significant public office except the shrievalty in 1619. This was probably due to his Catholicism; in 1640 he was indicted for recusancy in Middlesex.12

Blount’s election for Droitwich in 1624 probably had the support of his friend Sir Thomas Russell†, who owned 15 bullaries in the borough.13 However the major factor was his connection with the Wildes. His father-in-law had represented the borough three times in Parliament, and though George died in 1616 his son John regularly sat for Droitwich thereafter. John’s puritanism does not seem to have made him hostile to Blount. Indeed, John was one of Blount’s trustees and secured the special admission of two of Blount’s sons to the Inner Temple in the 1630s.14 Blount left no trace in the surviving records of the 1624 Parliament.

Created a baronet in October 1642, Blount supported the king in the Civil War. His manor house at Sodington was burnt by the parliamentarians and he was captured at Hereford in December 1645. He was subsequently imprisoned in Oxford and the Tower.15 In accordance with the 1652 Act of the Commonwealth to sell forfeited estates Blount’s lands were disposed of in 1653.16 He died on 27 Aug. 1654 at Blagdon in the Devon parish of Paignton, the inheritance of the wife of his eldest son George. He was buried there two days later. No will or administration has been found. A monumental inscription is in the family chapel in Mamble parish church.17 The family recovered Blount’s estates after the Restoration. None of his descendants are known to have sat in Parliament.

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629 Authors: Glyn Redworth / Ben Coates Notes 1. Al. Ox.; A. Croke, Geneal. Hist. of Croke Fam. ii. 145-6, ped. facing p. 154; CITR, ii. 60; VCH Worcs. iv. 289. 2. VCH Worcs. iv. 289; CB. 3. List of Sheriffs comp. A. Hughes (PRO, L. and I. ix), 159. 4. C181/4 f. 18. 5. C93/14/12, 93/18/14. 6. J.R. Burton, Hist. Kidderminster, 74. 7. Docquets of Letters Patent 1642-6 ed. W.H. Black, 74. 8. SP16/231/15. 9. VCH Worcs. iv. 285. 10. PROB 11/117, ff. 137-8. 11. Kyre Park Charters ed. J. Amphlett (Worcs. Hist. Soc. 1905), pp. 76-7. 12. Mdx. County Recs. iii. 145. 13. C142/580/97; C22/419/30. 14. CITR, ii. 189, 229; CCC, 2644. 15. VCH Worcs. iv. 287. 16. A. and O. ii. 632; CCC, 2644. 17. VCH Worcs. iv. 289; Devon RO, 3134A/PR1.

The Blount Baronetcy of Sodington, [Mamble] in the County of Worcester, was created in the Baronetage of England on 5 October 1642 for Walter Blount , High Sheriff of Worcestershire in 1619 and Member of Parliament for Droitwich from 1624 to 1625. He later fought as a Royalist in the Civil War. He was captured in 1645 and imprisoned in the Tower of London. In 1652 he was convicted of treason and his estates at Sodington Hall, Worcestershire, and at Mawley Hall, Shropshire were sequestered. The family recovered the estates after the Restoration of Charles II. (from wikipedia "Blount Baronets" entry, citing "A History of the County of Worcester Vol 4" (1924) pp285-289 from British History Online)

Sir Walter Blount, 1st Baronet (1594 – 27 August 1654) of Sodington in the parish of Mamble in Worcestershire, was a Member of Parliament for Droitwich in 1624 and supported the Royalist cause in the Civil War.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Walter_Blount,_1st_Baronet

Origins

Blount was the eldest son of Sir George Blount, Knight, of Sodington in Worcestershire by his wife Eleanor Norwood, a daughter of William Norwood of Leckhampton of Gloucestershire, and Elizabeth Lygon, daughter of William Lygon and Eleanor Dennis.[1]

Career

He matriculated at Balliol College, Oxford on 12 October 1610 aged 16 and entered the Inner Temple in 1611. He served as Sheriff of Worcestershire in 1620. In 1624 he was elected Member of Parliament for Droitwich.[2] He was created a baronet on 5 October 1642. He was a Royalist during the Civil War and was taken prisoner by the Parliamentarian forces at Hereford in December 1645, and was imprisoned at Oxford and in the Tower of London. His house at Sodington was burnt down by Parliamentarian soldiers and his estates were confiscated on 2 November 1652 and sold in 1655.[1]

Marriage and children

Blount married Elizabeth Wylde (c. 1591–1656), a daughter of George Wylde of Droitwich, Serjeant-at-Law, by his wife Frances Huddleston,[1][3] by whom he had 13 children, including:

1. Sir George Blount, 2nd Baronet (died 1667), eldest son and heir, who married Mary Kirkham, only daughter and heiress of Richard Kirkham of Blagdon in the parish of Paignton in Devon, by his wife the heiress of Oldham near Tilbury in Essex.[4] Blagdon remained a seat of the Blount family until it was sold to Montagu Edmund Parker (1737–1831) of Whiteway House,[5] near Chudleigh in Devon, Sheriff of Devon in 1789. A plasterwork heraldic escutcheon dated 1708 survives in the great hall of Blagdon showing the initials "EB" for Edward Blount[6] (d. 1726) (3rd son of 2nd Bt.) the Latin motto Lux Tua Via Mea ("Your light is my path") and the arms of Blount (Barry nebuly of six or and sable) impaling Gules, seven mascles vair 3,3,1 (Guise). Edward Blount (d. 1726) married Anne Guise, a daughter of Sir John Guise, 2nd Baronet. In 1727 his 2nd daughter Mary Blount (1701/2 – 1773) married Edward Howard, 9th Duke of Norfolk.[7]
2. Eleanor Blount, who married firstly Robert Knightley, and secondly Walter Aston, 3rd Lord Aston of Forfar.

Death and burial

Blount died aged 60 at Blagdon in the parish of Paignton in Devon, the home of his daughter-in-law Mary Kirkham, and was buried at Paignton on 29 August 1654.[1

Disputed Children

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Blount-102

James Blount was falsely identified as the son of Walter Blount, Bt. in a 1872 genealogy. "The problem is that Sir Walter Blount, Baronet, did not have a son named James Blount. See Alexander Croke, The Genealogical History of the Croke Family, Originally Named Le Blount, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1823), II, 145-146.... The key to establishing Capt. James's parentage and background is the will of Charles Blount, uncle of Capt. James. Charles Blount's will, dated Dec. 19, 1655, includes the following bequest: "I give and bequeathe unto my cozen James Blount one of the Sonnes of my late brother James Blount Esquire deceased the summe of fiftie pounds in case he be liveinge or such returned from beyond the seas where now he is to demand the same." This will was filed in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Folio 172, and is indexed in Vol. 54, Wills 1653-56, PCC, Public Record Office, London. [3]

Likewise, Capt. Thomas Blount who died in Chowan Precinct, North Carolina in 1706 has been listed as a son of Sir Walter Blount. This Capt. Thomas Blount is proven to be the son of the above mentioned James Blount.

More About Walter BLOUNT and Elizabeth WYLDE: Marriage: 02 Nov 1602, Sodington, Worcestershire, England.

Children of Walter BLOUNT and Elizabeth WYLDE are:

• Walter BLOUNT, b. 1603, Sodington, Worcester, England, d. date unknown, Dvp Died Young, , , France.
• George BLOUNT, b. 1605, Sodington, Worchester, England, d. 12 Nov 1667, Mawley, Shropshire, England.
• William BLOUNT, b. 1608, Sodington, Worcester, England, d. 1630.
• Thomas BLOUNT, b. 1612, Sodington, Sodington, Worchester, England, d. Bef. 28 Mar 1706, Kendricks Creek, Albemarle Co., NC [NO]
• Edward BLOUNT, b. 1614, Sodington, Worcester, England, d. date unknown, Died Young.
• Elizabeth BLOUNT, b. 1616, Sodington, Worcester, England, d. 1653.
• Anne BLOUNT, b. 1617, Sodington, Worcester, England, d. date unknown.
• Frances BLOUNT, b. 1618, Sodington, Worcester, England, d. date unknown.
• Eleanor BLOUNT, b. 1622, Sodington, Worcester, England, d. 03 Dec 1674.
• William BLOUNT, b. 1630, Sodington, Worcester, England, d. date unknown.
• Peter BLOUNT, b. 1632, Sodington, Worcester, England, d. date unknown.
• Richard BLOUNT, b. 1635, Sodington, Worcester, England, d. 19 Sep 1656, Surrey, Virginia.
• John BLOUNT, b. 1637, Sodington, Worcester, England, d. date unknown.
• James BLOUNT, b. 1643, Sodington, Worcester, England, d. 17 Jul 1686.

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References

1. George Edward Cokayne Complete Baronetage 1625 to 1649
2. W R Williams Parliamentary History of the County of Worcester
3. spelling as in Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition. 1999
4. Prince, John, (1643–1723) The Worthies of Devon, 1810 edition, London, p. 555, biography of Sir John Kirkham (1472–1529)
5. Risdon, Tristram (d. 1640), Survey of Devon, 1811 edition, London, 1811, with 1810 Additions, p. 378
6. Pevsner, Nikolaus & Cherry, Bridget, The Buildings of England: Devon, London, 2004, p. 844
7. Debrett, John, Baronetage of England "Blount of Sodington"