Rev. Marmaduke Blakiston

The Blakistone family of Maryland descends from the Blakistons of Newton Hall, a branch of the ancient family of Blakiston of Blakiston in the Palatinate of Durham. An elaborate pedigree, published in Surtees’ History of Durham (iii., 162 ffl., 402), carries the line back to the year 1341, and from this pedigree the earlier portion of the following genealogy is derived. The arms and crest, as given by the same authority, are as follows: Arms: arg., two bars, and in chief three dunghill cocks, gu., Crest: A dunghill cock or, crested, armed, wattled, and collared gu. The immediate ancestor of the Maryland family was Rev. Marmaduke Blakiston.

The Rev. Marmaduke Blakiston, of Newton Hall, immediate ancestor of the Maryland family was the fifth son of John Blakiston of Blakiston, by his first wife Elizabeth, daughter and co-heir of Sir George Bowes, of Dalden and Streatham, Kent. He was vicar of Woodborne, rector of Redmarshall in 1585, rector of Sedgefield in 1599, and prebendary of Durham, and was buried at St. Margaret’s, Crossgate, September 3, 1639. He married, June 30, 1595, Margaret James, who was buried at St. Margaret’s, March 10, 1636. Their children were: Tobye, of Newton Hall; John, mentioned below; Thomas, vicar of North Allerton and prebendary of Wistow, ejected during the civil wars; Robert, rector of Sedgefield and prebendary of Durham on the resignation of his father in 1631; Ralph, rector of Ryton, county Palatinate; Henry, of Old Malton, county York; Peter, sometime of Old Malton; George, sheriff of Durham in 1656, emigrated to Maryland with his family in 1668, settled in St. Mary’s county and died the following year; Frances, married John Cosin, Lord Bishop of Durham; Mary, married Ralph Allenson, merchant in Durham; and Margaret, married Thomas Shadforth of Eppleton, county Palantinate.

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From http://www.dangel.net/AMERICA/Blackstone/BlackstoneManuscript.html:

The Rebellion of the Northern Earls was the first serious threat to the position of Elizabeth, and members of the Blakiston family joined it. The Rebellion was led by the Earls of Northumberland, and Westmoreland. It began on November 14, 1569, with the destruction of Protestant devices in Durham cathedral, and the celebration of the mass there. On November 16, a proclamation was issued at Darlington, pledging their loyalty to the "Queen" and blaming diverse news, set up nobles around her for destroying the true faith. In spite of their public pronouncements, however, the rebels supported Mary Stuart, and wished to see her wed to England's leading Catholic, the Duke of Norfolk. The Rebellion lasted just over a month before collapsing in total failure. The Earl of Sussex and Sir George Bowes, Martial of the Army, were commissioned to deal with the rebels, and in the returns which they sent to London, the names of several Blakistons did appear.

Marmaduke Blakiston actually composed some of the manifestos [during the rebellion of the Earls of Northumberland against Queen Elizabeth], but fled to Brussels with the Earl of Westmoreland and was later pardoned.

It is also known that Marmaduke Blakiston, the brother of John, was involved in the Rebellion and the subsequent papal bull, excommunicating Elizabeth, the government began to tighten its legislation against recusants (or practicing Catholics). In 1578, John Blakiston had to do homage for his manor, and take the oath of Supremacy.

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From “A History of the House of Percy” by Gerald Brenan, edited by W.A. Lindsay, Windsor Herald, Volume I, London Freemantle & Co., 217 Piccadilly W, MCMII:

At the head of 500 horsemen two earls descended upon Durham, which surrendered after a mere show of fight. Pilkington, who had been made bishop of the diocese after old Cuthbert Tunstall had refused to take the Oath of Supremacy, was expelled; but Northumberland protected him from the anger of the troops and escorted him to a safe retreat. High Mass was then sung in the cathedral for the first time in many years; and, according to Camden, a great bonfire of the Protestant prayer-books was made in the cathedral yard. While time was being spent in this wise, a messenger arrived from Sussex. The President of the North was in dread lest the insurgents, by pushing on at once to York, might crush him before reinforcements arrived from the South. He appealed to the earls’ sense of loyalty to disband their men and return to their homes. To this Northumberland made answer that “they must now seek all the ways they could to serve their turn; …for seeing their lives in danger, they were determined to lose them in the field.”

It is likely that the earls would now have marched upon York, but that they deemed their army too small for the task as yet. To replenish it, they set about issuing proclamations to the people. The surrounding country was strongly devoted to Catholicism; but action was needed, rather than words, to induce the people to follow St. Cuthbert’s banner. An attack upon York, or the freeing of Queen Mary, would have done far more for the insurgents’ cause than a library of proclamations and the burning of every Book of Common Prayer in the bishopric.

The first public appeal was issued on November 15, and dealt exclusively with religious grievances (Note: Both this and the second proclamation are said to have been the work of one Marmaduke Blackston or Blakiston, a gentleman of good family attached to the rebel cause. (Deposition of Hamelyng, in Haynes’ Burghley Papers, p. 594)):

“We, Thomas Erle of Northumberland and Charles Erle of Westmoreland, ye Queene’s trewe and faithful Sub, to all the same, of this old and Catholique Religion: Know ye we, with many other well-disposed Persons as well of ye Nobility as other, haue promised our Faith to ye Furtherence of this, our good Meaning Forasmuch as diuers disordered and evil disposed Persons about ye Que’ May, haue by their subtill and crafty Dealings to advance themselves, overcome in this Realme ye true and Catholike Religion towards God, and by ye same abused ye Queene, disordered ye Realme, and now, lastly, seeke and procure ye Destruction of ye Nobility: Wee therefore haue gathered ourselues together, to resist by Force, and ye rather by the Helpe of God and you, good People, to see Redress of these Thinges amiss, with the restoring of all ancient Customs and Libertys, to Gods church, and this noble Realme; leaste, if we should not doe it ourselves, we might be reformed by Strangers, to ye great Hazard of ye State of this our Country, whereunto we are all bounde. God Save ye Queene!”

Two days later a second proclamation was issued simultaneously in the towns of Darlingotn and Richmond. It contained an attack upon Cecil, as well as a threat of foreign invasion; and was as follows:

“Thomas, Earl of Northumberland, and Charles, Earl of Westmoreland, the Queens most true and lawful subjects, and to all her Highness people sendeth greeting.

“Whereas, divers newe sette upp nobbles about the Queene’s Majestie, have and doe dailie not onlie goe about to overthrow and put down the ancient nobilitie of this reelme, but also have misused the Queene’s Majesties personne, and alsoe have by the space of twelve years now past, sett upp and mayntayned a newe found religion and heresie, contrarie to God s worde; for the amending and redressing whereof divers foren powers doo purpose shortlie to invade thes realms, which will be our utter destruction if we doe not ourselves speedily forfend the same.. Wherefore we are now constreyned at this tyme to go aboute to amende and redress it ourselves, which if we shold not do and forenners enter upon us, we sholde be all made slaves and bondsmen to them. These are therefore to will and require you, and euery of you, being above the age of sixteen yeares, and not sixty, as your duty towards God doth bynde you for setting for the of his trewe and catholick religion, and as you value the commonwealth of your contrie, to come and resort unto us with all spede, with all such armour and furnayture as you, or any of you, have. This faile you not herein, as you will answere the contrarye at your perils. God Save the Queene.”

The fears of Sussex, as to the spread of the Rising, were by this time communicated to others of the great Protestant nobles. Lord Shrewsbury implored Cecil to have the Queen of Scots removed from Tutbury. “The castell,” he wrote, “is very weke and not able to resist…and the enemy is within 54 miles.” The Puritans well knew what an effect the appearance of a free Queen Mary, with an army to support her, would have upon the people of the North. [%E2%80%A6]

“I counsel you,” [Queen Elizabeth] concludes, “to preserve for our use all goods and lands within your sheriffwyck, belonging to the rebels.” As a means of securing the confiscation thus urged upon him, Gargrave advised that all Catholics refusing “service and communion,” should be attainted and put to death for heresy, in case the charge of rebellion could not be proved against them. This suggestion was eagerly adopted: but Cecil showed himself by no means satisfied with the mere execution of “Popish recusants.” He held that preliminary torture, and the starvation of heretic prisoners, would produce an excellent effect among the northern malcontents, besides serving to bring to light the connection of Norfolk and other great lords with the late Rising.

[%E2%80%A6] Thomas Plumtre, who had celebrated mass in Durham Cathedral, was arraigned before the Provost Marshal, convicted of being a Popish priest, and sentenced to death. “On arriving at the place of execution, his life was offered to him if he would renounce the Catholic faith.” He refused; and was hanged outside the great doors of Durham minster, which were left open “so that he could look upon the altar which he had profaned.” According to Surtees, his body was left thus hanging for ten days. Several of the Catholic aldermen and other leading townspeople of Durham suffered at the same time. The following noblemen and gentlemen were attainted and declared outlaws: “[%E2%80%A6] Marmaduke Blakestone [%E2%80%A6]”

From http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/biog/blakiston.htm (John Blakiston, regicide):

Born at Sedgefield in County Durham, John Blakiston was the third son of Marmaduke Blakiston, who was a prebendary of Durham Cathedral and a noted Arminian. During the 1630s, [John] Blakiston emerged as a Puritan and anti-episcopalian, with deep religious convictions that ran contrary to those of his father. rminianism was a movement that took its name from Jacob Arminius (1560-1609), a Dutch theologian who challenged the Calvinist doctrine of predestination. During the early 17th century, the term was applied to a small group of Anglican clergymen who favoured a return to the ceremony and ritual of the pre-Reformation Church, which ran counter to the prevailing Puritanism of the Church during the reign of King James. His successor Charles I favoured the Arminians because they advocated ordered practices of worship and obedience to the King's authority as head of the Church.

Sources

• Richardson, Douglas. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. 2nd ed. 2011, p. 216.

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REV. MARMADUKE BLAKISTON of Newton Hall, Durham, Vicar of Woodborn, Northumberland; Rector of Redmarshall, Durham, 1585; Rector of Sedgefield, Durham, 1599; Archdeacon of the East Riding of Yorkshire; Prebendary of Wistow; 5th son by his father's 1st wife.
Father: John Blakiston, Esq.[1][2][3][4][5]; M, #94755, b. circa 1535 Mother: Elizabeth Bowes (b. c 1536, d. abt 31 Jul 1582), daughter of Sir George Bowes and Muriel Eure, circa 1556 at Streatlam, Durham, England. Spouse: Margaret James, m. 30 Jan 1595, at St. Mary-the-Less, Durham, County Durham. Buried in St. Margaret's, Crossgate, Durham 10 March 1636. Rev. Marmaduke Blakiston was also buried there 3 September 1639. Children: Toybe Blakiston, Gent. John Blakiston, Esq. Rev. Thomas Blakiston Rev. Robert Blakiston Rev. Ralph Blakiston Henry Blakiston, Gent. Peter Blakiston George Blakiston Frances Blakiston, m. Dr. John Cosin, Bishop of Durham Mary Blakiston, m. Ralph Allenson Margaret Blakiston', m. Thomas Shadforth, Esq.

Rev. Marmaduke Blakiston of Newton Hall, Durham, Vicar of Woodborn, Northumberland; Rector of Redmarshall, Durham, 1585; Rector of Sedgefield, Durham, 1599; Archdeacon of the East Riding of Yorkshire; Prebendary of Wistow; 5th son by his father's 1st wife.