Isabell (Wilkinson) Blood (abt. 1619 - aft. 1706)

Born about 1619 in Ruddington, Nottinghamshire, England [uncertain]

Wife of Richard Blood Jr. — married 15 Apr 1639 (to 7 Dec 1683) in Saint Saviour, Southwark, London, England

Descendants

Died after 12 Jun 1706 after about age 87 in Groton, Middlesex, Province of Massachusetts Bay, New England

Problems/Questions Profile manager: John Putnam [send private message]

Disputed Origins

A previous version of this profile listed Isabell's parents as Henry Wilkinson and Mary (Watkinson) Wilkinson. It also listed her place of baptism (and presumably birth) as St Andrew's Church, Kildwick, Yorkshire, with a year of birth of 1621. There is absolutely no evidence to support this. See Biography and Research Notes below.

Biography

Isabell (also Isabel, Isabelle, Issabel, Issable) was almost certainly born in Ruddington, Nottinghamshire. She was the youngest of eleven children of Robert Wilkinson of Ruddington, possibly by his later wife Elizabeth (previous married name More).^[1] Her year of birth of 1619 is an estimate based on studies showing that in early 17th century England the bride was on average two years younger than the groom; her husband Richard was born in 1617. But an alternate YOB of 1621 used by some could be correct. A third proposed YOB of 1606 should be treated with extreme caution (see Year of Birth in Research Notes).

Isabell's father Robert died around 29 Nov 1630, and in his will of 20 Sep 1630 Isabell is listed last of the daughters, after her sister Anne. That she was still young is apparent from her lack of a married name, unlike all her sisters except Anne. In his will, her father left her "...one great coffer, standing at my son Richard's, and all the rest of my goods and chattels, which are at said son Richard's, and one black two year old heifer, and one black cow calf at the stake, and one land on the [F.....] peaselands and to be sown with barley, at the charges of my executrix, and two shillings in money..." [spelling modernized].^[1] Given her father's socio-economic class this is a pretty impressive inheritance, especially for the youngest daughter (Isabell received one of only two parcels of land bequeathed to any of the children). Despite her being the daughter of a labourer, this inheritance may have made her appear a more equitable match for Richard Blood, whose family appears to have been of the lower yeomanry by the time of their marriage.

It is highly likely that Isabell married Richard Blood at St Saviour’s Church (now Southwark Cathedral) in Southwark, Surrey, on 15 Apr 1639^[2] (see paper, “Did Richard Blood marry Isabell Wilkinson at St Saviour’s Southwark in 1639?" in images for this profile). The most likely explanation for the location is that they were on route to New England via the port of London, and the requirement for adults to be either married or part of a family unit to board ships for the Puritan colonies would have mandated they marry prior to departing.

In his 25 Nov 1642 last will and testament, one Henry Wilkinson of Nottingham left £3 to "my cousin Isabell Blood in Newe England."^[3] Henry's will is useful to understanding Isabell in four ways:

1. By cross-referencing Henry's will with the 1630 will of Robert Wilkinson of Ruddington we are able to confirm that Robert Wilkinson was Isabell's father. See "Comparative Analysis of the Wills of Robert Wilkinson and Henry Wilkinson" in images for this profile.
2. It shows that the Nottingham Wilkinsons were related to both the Ruddington Wilkinsons and the London Wilkinsons, as he identified individuals in all three groups as relatives of his. By extension this means that Isabell was also related to the same London Wilkinsons. It is reasonable to infer that this was the large Wilkinson family resident in St Saviour's Parish Southwark, in the early 17th century. This definitely gives Isabell a family connection to London and perhaps even to the specific parish in which it appears she later married Richard Blood.
3. It proves that Isabell was married to Richard not later than 25 Nov 1642 and probably earlier. Given the relatively poor state of trans-Atlantic personal communications at the time, we can infer that for Henry to have known that Isabell was married to a Blood, that marriage is more likely to have happened in England prior to their departure and not later in New England.
4. It establishes that Isabell and Richard were in New England not later than 25 Nov 1642. Given that virtually all English migration to the New England colonies had ended by Jan 1641, in almost all cases it would be accurate to say that anyone in the colony in 1642 had arrived there before the end of 1640. This further strengthens the proposition that they emigrated in 1639, otherwise it becomes very difficult to explain why they would have gone to London in Apr 1639 to get married if it was not part of their journey to the New World.

Isabell and Richard settled in Lynn upon arriving in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, where Richard was a landowner and possibly one of the owners of the Saugus Iron Works (see Research Notes for Richard Blood). Isabell eventually relocated to Groton with Richard and their children sometime between 1660 and 1662 (see Richard’s Biography for more details), and spent the rest of her long life there.

On 5 Mar 1661 Isabell signed an endorsement to a deed of sale of land in Lynn by Richard to another colonist, probably part of his effort to liquidate his assets in Lynn due to the move to Groton. In the endorsement, Isabell agreed to relinquish her dower rights to the property as was legally required for the sale to be binding.^[4] In entering the deed into the county land record, the copyist also copied Isabell’s legal mark (a tilde, ~) from the original document. While not a certainty, the use of a legal mark usually indicated the person had never learned to write. This would make Isabell the exception among the early colonial Bloods, all of whom are known to have used autograph signatures. This would, however, be consistent with her father Robert Wilkinson having been a common labourer and therefore unable to afford her an education.

From May to Dec 1678 husband Richard was taken to court by the town of Groton for allegedly helping daughter Hannah “escape justice” for having a child out of wedlock, being accused of assisting her in fleeing the town and then covering up the truth. Isabell (referred to as “Goodwife Blood”) and son James were called to testify in the case.^[5]

Richard died on 7 Dec 1683 and Isabell never remarried. We know that in about 1691 she moved in with her daughter Hannah and son-in-law Joseph Parker, because on 5 Sep 1705 Parker petitioned the court concerning Isabell, stating that she had been in his care for some 14 years.^[6]

On 12 Jun 1706, the colonial House of Representatives granted Parker the lands formerly belonging to Richard Blood, provided he continue Isabell’s care during the rest of her life and provide for her “a decent funeral at her decease.”^[6] It is therefore generally accepted that her death occurred after this date, although with the slow pace of communications at the time this is not a given (i.e., she may have died before the House issued their judgement, but they were not yet aware of this).

Research Notes

Year of Birth: In Joseph Parker’s petition of 1705 concerning Isabell he stated she was “about 99 years of age.” This would mean a year of birth of 1606, and that she was 11 years older than Richard. This does not square at all with what we know from her father's will, which is she was the youngest daughter and not only were she and her next older sister, Anne, unmarried, but Anne was still unmarried in Henry's will of 1642. This implies Anne and Isabell were still quite young in 1630. Understanding the historical and social context in which Parker's petition was drafted might provide some insight into what's going on here. The Puritans regarded the elderly with awe and reverence, and often deferred to them simply because of their seniority within society. It is possible that “about 99 years of age” was simply Parker’s way of saying “she’s very old but I’m not sure how old.” Or, he might have been inclined to misrepresent her as older than she was in order to have the Puritan reverence for the elderly play to his advantage. There are indications that he manipulated other facts in the 1705 petition to support his case, so there is precedent for this view. All in all, I think it's more probable that Isabell was either Richard's age or slightly younger.

The Child Gap, 1639 to 1644: Assuming Isabell did marry Richard in 1639, the five-year gap between then and the birth of son Joseph in about 1644 requires explanation. However, as most of the individual vital records from Lynn for that period no longer exist, there would be no surviving evidence of births in that gap, especially if the child did not survive to adulthood. It is possible Isabell and Richard lost one or more children during this time, not uncommon at all in the era. This could explain why Richard did not appear to follow the usual Blood convention of naming his first son for himself –- he may very well have done so, but that child died young and no record has survived. In fact, Sara (b.1648) is the first child for which a birth record survives. We only know of Joseph and James because they lived to adulthood and therefore produced records later in their lives.

Blood-1690 14:58, 6 April 2021 (UTC)Garry M Blood

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Will of Robert Wilkinson of Ruddington, 20 Sep 1630 (digital image of original document), Nottinghamshire Archives, County House, Castle Meadow Road, Nottingham NG2 1AG, United Kingdom; Document Reference PR/NW. Online database entry at http://nawcat.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqServer=AP266-0029&dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqPos=21&dsqSearch=%28Title%3D%27Robert%20Wilkinson%27%29
2. ↑ "Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812," database with images, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1624/images/48220_263021009500_3388-00280?pId=160761849 : accessed 5 Mar 2021), digital image of original parish book, Marriages, 1639, 15 Apr, Richard Blood & Isabell Wilkinson, p[er] li.
3. ↑ Will of Henry Wilkinson of Nottingham, 25 Nov 1642 (digital image of original document), The National Archives, Bessant Drive, Richmond TW9 4DU, United Kingdom, Document Reference PROB 11/195/420. Online database entry at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D876181
4. ↑ Massachusetts Land Records, 1620-1986, Essex County, Deeds, 1639-1658, Vol. 2, pp.125-126, entry 41. Published by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Massachusetts State Archives, Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
5. ↑ Case of Groton vs. Richard Blood, 24 May to 18 Dec 1678, (digital images of nine documents comprising the case file), Middlesex County Court Folio Collection, Folio 79, entry 1678-79-3, Published by the Massachusetts State Archives, Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Online at https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/210946
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} The Essex Genealogist, 1997, p.80 (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2011.)

Other Sources:

• Harris, Roger Deane. The Story of the Bloods: including an account of the early generations of the family in America in genealogical lines from Robert Blood of Concord and Richard Blood of Groton, G.K. Hall & Company, Sanbornville, New Hampshire, United States: 1960. The Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/storyofbloodsinc00unse

Acknowledgements

• WikiTree profile created through the import of Thomas Sheffield Descendants.ged on Dec 21, 2011 by Michael Sheffield & Erin Proctor.
• WikiTree profile Wilkinson-1367 created through the import of Putnam2-1_2010-01-02_2011-02-16_2011-10-11.ged on Oct 12, 2011 by John Putnam. See the Changes page for the details of edits by John and others.