Blacketts have lived in Cumberland and Westmorland for several centuries. In 1430 an attorney for Robert Blaket appeared at the Court of Common Pleas in Westminster to obtain 40 shillings (£2) owing to Blaket by William de Osmoderlawe of Ermynwaye, Cumberland [probably Armathwaite in modern-day Cumbria). The earliest family we have come across, however, is that of Edward Blackett, who was buried in in Penrith on 2 Feb 1582 and his wife Helen, who died a month later. They appear to have had at least 6 children born in Penrith or in the neighbouring village of Morland and their descendants were living in Penrith at least as late as 1687. For a descendancy chart of Edward Blackett and Helen please click here.
A further family lived at Sandford, near Warcop, Cumberland, where Nicholas Blackett married Elizabeth Bank in 1627. Warcop is less than 20 miles from both Barnard Castle and Middleton-in-Teesdale in Co. Durham and it seems likely that these Blacketts descend from Blacketts of County Durham. For a descendancy chart of Nicholas and Elizabeth please click here.
No connection has yet been found between these familes and John Blackett (bapt. 16 Oct 1670) of Appleby-in-Westmorland, (probably the son of John Blackett (d.1719) and grandson of William), who married Julia, or Julia Ann, Bellas in 1702. John’s great-grandson, Thomas, b. 1747, lived for some years in Barbados, where his son, Stephen, was born in 1780. Stephen married his first cousin, Mary Blackett, born in Barbados in 1782, the daughter of William Blackett (b.1752 Appleby, Westmorland) and Rebecca Ross. The marriage took place in Appleby, Westmorland, England in 1808. No connection has yet been found between these Blacketts and other Blacketts who are known to have lived in the Island around that time. Another great-grandson of John, John Blackett (1805-1856) moved to Shoreditch, London, where he married in 1837 Sarah Nicholson of Bampton, Westmorland. They had at least six children born in Shoreditch and the neighbouring Hoxton. For a descendancy chart of John Blackett and Julia Bellas, (which now forms part of the Main Blackett Tree due to a later marriage) please click here.
A number of prominent Barbadian Blacketts of mixed descent are believed to be descended from the Appleby, Westmorland branch of the Blacketts, including The Honourable and Right Reverend Monsignor Vincent Harcourt Blackett, a member of the Barbados Privy Council. The precise line of descent is, however, still being investigated.
For a possible connection to the Blacketts of south-west England please see Devonian and Cornish Blacketts.
A further line of Westmorland Blacketts descends from Thomas Bleckett (sic) who married Margaret Chappelhow in 1686 in Bolton, a few miles north-west of Appleby. The family of their eldest son Thomas seems to have moved south to Kendal by 1744, where two of his daughters were married that year. For a descendancy chart of Thomas Blackett and Margaret Chappelhow please click here.
At least four children of Stephen Blackett, a descendant of Luke Blackett (please see Whickham and Lamesley Blacketts) settled in Whitehaven, Cumberland where a number of their descendants were born. We have found no connection between these descendants and the other Cumberland and Westmorland Blacketts.
John William Blackett was born around 1824 in Barbados, the son of John Blackett according to the record of his marriage in 1856 to Mary Anna Nials. The couple had at least four children, the eldest of whom, Joseph Nathaniel Blackett had moved to London by 1891, where he married Eliza Papworth in 1893. Joseph and Eliza's eldest child was born in Arbroath, Scotland in 1893 but by 1897 the couple had moved back to London where four more children were born. Joseph , Eliza and their four surviving children sailed for Jamaica in 1904, possibly en route to Barbados, but no further records of the family have been discovered. For a descendancy chart of John William Blackett please click here.
George Milton Blackett was born in Barbados in 1929 and subsequently emigrated to the UK, where he married Jubilee Caroline Callender in Reading, Berks. in 1959.
Preliminary work has started on compiling the family trees of various Blacketts in Barbados, though it is far too early to speculate on whether a connection will be found between them and the Blacketts of Westmorland mentioned above. Please click on the following names to see their descendancy charts:
Thomas Blackett and Elizabeth Howard Nightingale
Anthony Blackett
Thomas Blackett and Bentham Looney
Thomas Blackett and Ruthy Bella
Joseph Alfred Blackett
Isaac Blackett
Edward Blackett
Alexander Blackett
Richard Edward Blackett
Paul Blackett
James Thomas Blackett
It should be stressed that these charts are only preliminary, largely compiled from the LDS site and should be treated with care pending further research. If you can add details to them or have information on other Blackett families of Barbados please contact us.