Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Staffordshire, England
Surnames/tags: Blood Bloud Blud

Contents 1 The Bloods of Staffordshire 1.1 Staffordshire Bloods from 1487 to 1750 1.2 Staffordshire Families 1.2.1 The Bloods of Burton-upon-Trent (1584) 1.2.2 The Bloods of Abbots Bromley (1615) 1.2.3 The Cheadle Bloods (1617) 1.2.4 The Uttoxeter Bloods (1619) 1.2.5 The Tamworth Bloods (1623) 1.2.6 The Checkley Bloods (1632) 1.2.7 The Handsworth Bloods (1814)

The Bloods of Staffordshire

Author: Garry Michael Blood, 24 Mar 2023

Staffordshire in the West Midlands

Genetic evidence shows that at least one line of the Staffordshire Bloods is a branch of the Derbyshire Bloods and documentary evidence shows that at least one other line is also a branch of the Derbyshire Bloods. Given the proximity of Staffordshire to Derbyshire, it's possible all the early Blood families of Staffordshire originated in that neighbouring county.

The name first appears in association with Staffordshire with Thomas Bludde, who witnesses a feoffement granted in 1487 involving lands in eight locations in and around Uttoxeter.^[1] However, there is no way to tell where Thomas was from, and he may not have been from Staffordshire at all.

Staffordshire Bloods from 1487 to 1750

The heatmap below shows all records of Bloods in Staffordshire from 1487 to the end of 1750. In this period the Bloods were in two primary concentrations, in a cluster extending from Cheadle to Uttoxeter centered on Checkley in the north and a cluster in and around Tamworth in the south.

Staffordshire Families

The Bloods of Burton-upon-Trent (1584)

Bloods appear in the parish of Burton-upon-Trent, of which the main town is Burton-on-Trent, in 1584. Given that the parish records date from 1539, this strongly indicates the Bloods likely only arrived in the parish in the 1580s. The first family is that of Humphrey Blood (spelt Bloode or Blude) and his wife Joanne, who had two children:

• Robert Bloode, baptised at the parish church of St Modwen on 18 Apr 1584
• Edward Blude, buried at St Mowden's on 24 Feb 1589/90

The last record of a Blood in Burton-upon-Trent between 1590 and 1673 is a single baptism, of Anne Blude on 1 Nov 1600, the daughter of John and his wife Jone. The subsequent 73-year gap indicates the previous Blood presence went extinct relatively soon after 1600.

The next record, in 1673, is of Elizabeth Blood of Burton, who married William Watson at St Modwen's on 2 Feb 1672/3. After this record we have another gap, this time of 53 years, before Bloods once again reappear in Burton-upon-Trent.

A long-term Blood presence was established in the parish in 1726 when William Blood and his wife Dorothy started a family there, with:

• Dorothy, baptised at St Modwen's on 9 Jul 1726
• William, baptised at St Modwen's on 26 Dec 1727
• Mary, baptised at St Modwen's on 2 Jan 1730/1
• Sara, baptised at St Modwen's on 26 Aug 1733 & buried on 22 Dec 1737
• Anna, baptised at St Modwen's on 7 Jun 1735 & buried on 22 Dec 1737
• James, baptised at St Modwen's on 6 Nov 1737
• Joseph, baptised at St Modwen's on 4 Oct 1741
• Samuel, baptised at St Modwen's on 21 Nov 1746

While we don't know where William and Dorothy arrived from, if they were in fact from elsewhere, the family of Robert Blood, which arrived just after them in 1729, definitely originated in Tamworth. However, as William was not a name used by the Tamworth Bloods, the William of 1726 was not from there.

The Bloods of Abbots Bromley (1615)

There was a small and brief Blood presence in the parish of Abbots Bromley in the early 17th century. Francis Blood married Elizabeth Hewett there on 27 Jun 1615. Over ten years later and with no children recorded for the couple, Elizabeth was buried on 18 Sep 1625. Francis, who had completed his will on 14 Sep, was himself buried on 19 Sep, just one day after Elizabeth. They most likely fell victim to the Plague of 1625, which killed about 70,000 people across England and reached its peak in October of that year.

The Cheadle Bloods (1617)

The Cheadle Bloods are first recorded on 23 Nov 1617 with the burial of Mary Blood at the parish church. An identifiable family is noted there from Mar 1619/20 with the baptism of the only recorded child of William and Margaret Blood:

• Margaret Blood, baptised 2 Mar 1619/20 at the parish church of St Giles in Cheadle.

A more substantial Blood family appears in 1647 with William Blood and his wife Joan/Jone/Joanne. This family consisted of:

• John Blood, baptised 26 Apr 1647 at St Giles' church.
• Thomas Blood, baptised 1 Apr 1649 at St Giles' church.
• Ellen Bloud,^[2] baptised 1 Jun 1661 at St Giles' church.
• Alice Blood, buried 23 Dec 1663 at St Giles (possibly a child of this couple).
• William Blud, baptism unrecorded but buried 16 Mar 1663/4 at St Giles' church; he is noted as "the sonne of William Blud."
• Dorothy Blud, baptised 24 Apr 1664 at St Giles' church (probably a child of this couple born after William's death in Mar 1664; mother is listed as Jone and there was no other Blood family active in the parish).
• Thomas Blood, buried 24 Apr 1672 at St Giles' church (possibly a child of this couple born before William's death in Mar 1664 but unrecorded, as was definitely the case for William; no mother listed).
• John Blood, buried 20 Nov 1686 at St Giles' church (probably a child of this couple born before William's death in Mar 1664 but unrecorded, as was definitely the case for William; mother is listed as Joanne and there was no other Blood family active in the parish).

The Uttoxeter Bloods (1619)

While Thomas Bludde of the 1487 feoffement was involved with lands in and around Uttoxeter, we have no way of knowing where he was from, and that the same man may have been involved in a deed in Ashover in Derbyshire in 1474 tell us we can't be sure he was from Staffordshire at all, let alone Uttoxeter.

The first Bloods securely documented to Uttoxeter appear in the parish record there in 1619. However, the Uttoxeter parish record dates from 1596, so the fact the first Bloods only appear in there in 1619 indicates the family did not have a presence in the parish much before the first decades of the 17th century.

The earlies Blood presence in Uttoxeter is sporadic, with a small family appearing in 1619 with the baptism and burial of Elizabeth, daughter of James Blood, on 2 and 3 Aug 1619. After that, the next Blood family doesn't appear until 1644, when John and Ann Blood start a family there. This family consists of only one child, Thomas, who was both baptised and buried in Jan 1644/5. It appears Ann then died the following year.

There is then another gap until 1649 when Thomas and Elizabeth Blood start a family in Uttoxeter, having a bit more success that James or John previously, with three children, John, George, and Elizabeth.

The Bloods of re-appear sporadically in the record during the rest of the 17th century, but never appear to consist of more than a single family that produces a few children then disappears for a while before another family (often with different names) appears to continue on. It does not appear the Blood presence in Uttoxeter in the 17th and 18th centuries could be characterised as anything other than "thin."

Uttoxeter Bloods to 1750

The Tamworth Bloods (1623)

A recent find in the parish records for Tamworth allows us to make a very solid case that the Robert Blood who founded the Tamworth line in about 1623 was a Derbyshire Blood from Makeney in the parish of Duffield. I've made it five generations past Robert, into the late 18th century, and the Tamworth line is still reasonably strong at that point. The Bloods of Birmingham in the late 19th century maintained that they descended from the Tamworth line, and it turns out that Thomas Blood of Tamworth, a great-great-grandson of founder Robert Blood, moved to Birmingham and started a family there in 1754 (see the page for the Warwickshire Bloods.

The Family of Robert Blood of Tamworth Parish

Of the four sons born to Robert Blood in Tamworth, only his third son Richard had offspring, of which he had many. So many, in fact, that Richard is at least as responsible for the Bloods of Tamworth as his father.

The Family of Richard Blood of Tamworth Parish

The Checkley Bloods (1632)

The Checkley Bloods were founded by the two oldest sons of the same Robert Blood who founded the Tamworth line, born from his first marriage in Dalbury, Staffordshire. These two brothers, George and Edmund, were joint tenants of a farm in the village of Beamhurst in the parish of Checkley where they both started families.

The Family of George Blood of Checkley Parish

The Family of Edmund Blood of Checkley Parish

The Handsworth Bloods (1814)

The 19th century Bloods of Handsworth, Staffordshire were founded by Richard Blood, a Birmingham Blood and therefore a descendant of the Tamworth line. So, when Richard moved his family from Birmingham in Warwickshire to Handsworth sometime between 1814 and 1816, he was simply returning his branch of that line back to Staffordshire.