Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: County Clare, Ireland
Surname/tag: Blood, Bloud, Bludd

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Contents 1 Edmund Blood, Founder & Enigma 1.1 Who was Edmund Blood? 1.1.1 The Family Histories of the Irish Bloods 1.1.2 Later Additions to the Story 1.1.3 Other Relevant Evidence 1.1.4 The Family Tales and Later Additions versus Documented History 1.1.5 A Historically-Viable Profile of Edmund Blood of Clare 1.2 Was Edmund Blood of Clare also Edmund Blood of Makeney? 1.3 How Edmund Blood of Makeney Got Mixed Up in All This 1.4 Conclusions 1.5 Sources

Edmund Blood, Founder & Enigma

Author: Garry M. Blood, 26 Jul 2023

Who was Edmund Blood?

The Family Histories of the Irish Bloods

Edmund Blood was the semi-legendary founder of the Bloods of County Clare in Ireland. Genealogical information pertaining to him comes exclusively from late 19th and early 20th century derivative sources, which stem from unpublished family records and oral histories maintained among the various branches of the Irish Bloods and now part of Manuscript (Ms) 12,816 at the National Library of Ireland.^[1] What was generally believed about Edmund by the early Bloods of Ireland was put down in writing in 1791 by a currently unidentified William Blood, and can be summarised as follows:

• Edmund arrived in Ireland "during the reign of Queen Elizabeth," but in 1791 the exact year was no longer remembered.
• He was an officer in the English army, but no mention was made of his rank.
• Aside from the fact he was an army officer, there is no reason given for his arrival in Ireland. Unlike later accounts that say he was part of an English army sent to suppress an Irish rebellion, the earliest account makes no mention that he was part of any such army or that his journey to Ireland was related to an Irish uprising.
• His unnamed first wife gave birth to his first son, Neptune, while on the sea crossing to Ireland.
• On this sea journey was "the Earl of Inchiquin and another nobleman who happened to be at that time on board."
• Edmund resigned his commission in the army shortly after arriving in Ireland.
• He began buying "considerable tracts of land" in an unidentified part of Ireland.
• Edmund would eventually have a total of two and perhaps three wives.
• Four sons by two wives are mentioned for Edmund: Neptune, Edmund, and Thomas by his unnamed first wife and William by his unnamed second wife.

Later Additions to the Story

Later authors, drawing on sources of unknown provenance or accuracy, added further details to Edmund's life, mainly in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but as recently as 2015:

• His father, named as Edmund Blood as well, had allegedly been a member of the "minor Tudor gentry" in England.^[2]
• His family was said to have been from Derbyshire in the English Midlands; specifically, they were said to have been from the village of Makeney in the parish of Duffield.^[1][2][3]
• Later accounts allege he came to Ireland as part of an army raised in the English Midlands by "the Lord Inchiquin of the day."^[3] Note here that "the Lord Inchiquin" has gone from someone who happened to be on the same ship as Edmund in 1791 to now being the entire reason for Edmund's presence on the ship and his journey to Ireland.^[2]
• The English army of which he was a part was allegedly sent to suppress a rebellion by the native Irish against English rule.^[2][3]
• Later accounts after 1791 suddenly supply a date of arrival -- Edmund and that army arrived in Ireland in the year 1595.^[1][2][3]
• Edmund was now not just a commissioned officer, but a captain (a position of much greater responsibility than an army captain of today); an 1837 pedigree specifies he was not just a captain but a captain of cavalry.^[1][2][3]
• He was alleged to have taken up residence in Kilnaboy Castle in western County Clare.^[1][2][3]
• He was said to have been a Member of the Irish Parliament for Ennis, the county town of County Clare.^[1][2][3]

While much of this sounds like later embellishment of the story, some of these later additions are either possibly or probably rooted in fact. A few have even been documented as accurate.

Other Relevant Evidence

To the above we can add two more items of relevance:

• In Ms 12,816, p.29, there is a handwritten extract made from the Journals of the Irish House of Commons referring to the general election held in Apr 1613:^[1]

"King James the 1st -- April 1613. A General Election of all Ireland was ordered, and took place in the above month, and on the 18th of May following a Parliament was holden at the Castle of Dublin. The following gentlemen were returned for the County of Clare & Borough. County: Daniel O'Brien, knight, brother of the Earl Thomond.^[4] Bertius Chanchye,^[5] armiger.^[6] Borough Inishe: Johannes Thornton^[7] [and] Edmundus Bloode."

Thornton and Bloode are noted together as being elected to represent Borough Inishe, the new electoral borough encompassing the county town of Ennis, and the extract even notes Borough Inishe as "[i.e. Ennis]." Thornton and Bloode were also both noted as being generosi, a Latin word meaning high born or noble. And all four men were collectively referred to as "gentlemen," a term of strict social rank at the time and not a general term for any adult male as it's often used today.

• An Apr 2023 Y-DNA test of a direct male descendant of Edmund Blood via his eldest son Neptune has shown conclusively that Edmund was a Derbyshire Blood as was reported by later sources in the 20th century. This Y-DNA sample grouped very closely with current living male Derbyshire Bloods, and the result showed a divergence from the main Derbyshire line probably occurred sometime in the 1500s.

NOTE: See this free-space profile for a full treatment of both the published and unpublished sources relevant to Edmund Blood.

The Family Tales and Later Additions versus Documented History

Fortunately for us, the history of 16th and early 17th century Elizabethan Ireland is relatively well documented. Using the known history, let's look at what both the 18th century Irish Bloods and the later 19th and 20th century contributors had to say about Edmund:

• He arrived in Ireland during the reign of Queen Elizabeth as an English army officer, with 1595 being the most commonly-quoted year. Queen Elizabeth ruled from 1558 to 1603 and the Irish uprising of 1594 to 1603, known as The Nine Years' War, was by far the most significant event in Ireland during her reign. It is entirely plausible that an English army officer, especially one with experience in the ongoing Anglo-Spanish War (1585-1604), might have been sent to Ireland to assist and advise the inexperienced English army stationed there.
• He arrived in Ireland during the reign of Queen Elizabeth as an officer in an English army sent to suppress an Irish uprising, with 1595 being the commonly-quoted year. This is a bit different from Edmund going alone to Ireland. An English army was dispatched to Ireland to put down the rebellion during the Nine Years' War but this happened in 1599, not in 1595. This 17,000-man army was recruited in England for the purpose, and was commanded by Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex. The Irish uprising started in 1594, but by 1595 the English weren't particularly hard pressed and in any event a ceasefire was declared in Oct 1595. No reinforcements were sent from England in 1595 because there was no need. It was only when the ceasefire ended and the English army suffered a series of defeats at the hands of the Irish rebels in 1598 and 1599 that Devereux and his force were sent to shore up the English position. So, it is plausible and historical that Edmund Blood could have arrived in Ireland as an officer in an English army, but that would have been in 1599, not 1595.
• He was a captain of infantry or a captain of cavalry. Either of these is plausible. To be commissioned a captain required extensive military experience and proven leadership ability. The only place Edmund could have obtained this experience was the Anglo-Spanish War, which had been ongoing in the Netherlands since 1585 and which had involved large numbers of English troops. Edmund going to Ireland on his own as a captain in 1595 is plausible, as is his participation in the 1599 Devereux expedition. About 2,000 of these veteran soldiers were in Devereux's army when it sailed for Ireland. Also in Devereux's army were 1,300 cavalry, meaning Edmund could have been a captain of cavalry as sometimes reported.
• He was associated with "the Lord Inchiquin" or "the Earl of Inchiquin." This is where there is a serious and irreconcilable difference between a 1595 arrival and a 1599 arrival. The person referred to here was Murrough O'Brien, the 4th Baron Inchiquin, who was a pro-English native Irish lord known to have campaigned in the Nine Years' War against the Irish rebels. If 1595 was indeed Edmund's year of arrival, then this could be plausible, even though there are no records that the Baron Inchiquin raised any reinforcements in England in any year, let alone 1595. But if 1599 was Edmund's year of arrival then the insurmountable problem is that Murrough O'Brien, the Baron Inchiquin in the 1590s, had been killed in fighting near Sligo in Jul 1597. So, either Edmund originally came to Ireland with O'Brien in 1595 or he came with Devereux in 1599 -- but it can't be both. Yes, there was a 5th Baron Inchiquin, Dermond O'Brien, but he was only four years old when Devereux's army sailed and therefore cannot plausibly be the Baron Inchiquin who recruited Blood or raised any forces in England.
• He settled in County Clare. If Edmund's arrival in Ireland was somehow associated with the Baron Inchiquin (so prior to Jul 1597), then it's surely relevant to the story that the part of west Clare in which he settled was within the Barony of Inchiquin. If Edmund arrived in 1599, then it's possible he was initially stationed in the west of Clare as an army officer. When Devereux arrived in Ireland, his first order of business was re-establishing English control over the south of country, to include the Province of Munster in which Clare is located. Clare had been the target of repeated rebel invasions, with the last one only just having been repulsed earlier in 1599. So, Clare was in a precarious position and Donough O'Brien, the pro-English Earl Thomond, would likely have appreciated the assistance. For Devereux, securing the south of Ireland involved parceling out his 2,000 veterans in small garrisons across the province of Munster. Edmund, likely one of these 2,000 veteran soldiers, would likely have been placed in command of one of the garrisons. It's entirely plausible that garrison was in west Clare and could well have been centered on Kilnaboy Castle, a new fortification owned by the Earl of Thomond, whom Devereux would have been keen to support.

A Historically-Viable Profile of Edmund Blood of Clare

From the above we can either establish or strongly infer certain biographic details about Edmund Blood of County Clare:

• He was an English Protestant - If he was an officer in the army then he was a Protestant; Catholics were not allowed to hold commissions or serve in public positions in the late 16th century. Also, history records that the MPs elected to represent the Borough of Ennis in 1613 (John Thornton and Edmund Blood) were both Protestants.
• He probably did come from a family of the English gentry - The Journal of the Irish House of Commons refers to him as a "gentleman" and as being "high-born" in its entry pertaining to his election as an MP for Ennis in 1613.
• He was probably well educated - A good education was a benefit of being born into the English gentry, is assumed of anyone described as a gentleman, and would be a necessary prerequisite to discharge the offices of military officer or parliamentarian.
• He had extensive military experience - The rank of captain was rarely offered to anyone outside the aristocracy who was not a veteran soldier with proven battlefield leadership experience. While purchase of commissions would later become common in the English and British armies this practice did not yet exist in the late 16th century, so Edmund could not have bought his commission.
• He had a connection with either the 4th Baron Inchiquin or the 4th Earl Thomond, or possibly both men - The earliest story says he crossed over with the anachronistically named^[8] "Earl of Inchiquin" who just happened to be on the same ship. Later, this earl morphed into the Baron Inchiquin. But the lands Edmund was said to have owned were in the Barony of Inchiquin which was itself within the Earldom of Thomond. When he was elected an MP in 1613, one of his fellow MPs from Clare was the earl's younger brother, Sir Daniel O'Brien. So, it appears likely Edmund had some relationship with the 4th Earl Thomond and (depending on his year of arrival) possibly with the 4th Baron Inchiquin as well.
• He was financially well-off - He had the means to purchase "considerable tracts of land" even after resigning his commission and losing that source of income.
• He came to Ireland in either 1595 or 1599 - 1595 is the date reported by some early and reputable derivative sources such as Burke's, but 1599 is the year in which we have a documented arrival of an English army in Ireland during the Nine Years' War. There are compelling arguments to be made for both dates.
• He was probably newly married when he departed for Ireland (married within the previous year) given that his first child was born on the voyage across the Irish Sea, meaning a marriage in 1594 or 1598 depending on which arrival date is correct.
• Based on the average age of marriage for English men in the late 16th century, we can estimate a year of birth for him 27 to 28 years prior to the birth of his first son on the sea crossing to Ireland. If 1595, that points to a year of birth around 1568. If 1599, then a year of birth around 1572.

Was Edmund Blood of Clare also Edmund Blood of Makeney?

Since the late 19th century, Edmund Blood of Makeney in the parish of Duffield, Derbyshire has been proposed, and widely accepted, as the man who would later become Edmund Blood of County Clare. But where did this conclusion come from? As we've seen, the Irish Bloods of the late 18th century didn't even know what county in England Edmund came from, let alone his village and parish of origin.

There are some serious problems with the hypothesis that these two Edmunds were the same man:

• Whether Edmund went to Ireland in 1595 or 1599 is immaterial as Edmund Blood of Makeney was still living in Makeney at least as late as May 1605, and court documents state he had lived there all his life to that point.
• There is no indication in any extant records that Edmund Blood of Makeney had any military experience to warrant his commission as an army officer, one example of which would have been the use of any former or current rank as a courtesy title in the lawsuit, such as "ensign" or "lieutenant," a tradition that continued in the United Kingdom until very recently. I'm being conservative here with ensign or lieutenant; most accounts call him a captain, a rank far more important in the late 16th century than a captain is today. A captain back then was closer in authority and responsibility to a modern colonel and captains were highly experienced soldiers with a proven ability to command troops in battle. That does not fit what we know of Edmund Blood of Makeney.
• There is no indication in any extant records that Edmund Blood of Makeney was high born or a gentleman, which we know Edmund Blood of County Clare was. Indications of such a status should have appeared in the 1604-1605 court records involving Edmund of Makeney, in which one would expect someone of such status to have been noted as an esquire or a gentleman, or even just called 'mister' in recognition of his social rank. These terms are not found in the court records, nor is there any other indication Edmund Blood of Makeney was someone of any elevated social rank.
• Edmund Blood of County Clare is alleged to have produced four sons in Ireland but no daughters; Edmund Blood of Makeney produced at least two sons and a daughter in England. If this Edmund went to Ireland, what became of these children? They did not die in Duffield parish, yet they do not appear in any Irish records and their names (Elizabeth, Zacharias, and Ismael) are not associated with Edmund Blood of County Clare or any of his descendant lines.
• Edmund's son Neptune could not have been ordained an Anglican clergyman on 12 Mar 1622/3 at Trinity College Dublin^[9] if he had only been born in late 1605 at the earliest -- this being the earliest year at which Edmund of Makeney could have possibly moved to Ireland. Ordination required the candidate to be at least 21 years of age, which Neptune would not have been in Mar 1623. And if Neptune had been born in Duffield parish, then a) there would be no reason for his unusual given name; and b) he would appear in the parish record there.
• Finally, while Apr 2023 Y-DNA testing of a direct descendant of Edmund Blood of County Clare does confirm that he was a Derbyshire Blood, the same testing shows he was genetically distant from the Dalbury Bloods of Derbyshire, from which the Edmund Blood of Duffield was only one generation removed. This indicates Edmund of County Clare was not from the Dalbury line and therefore could not be Edmund Blood of Duffield.

How Edmund Blood of Makeney Got Mixed Up in All This

The introduction of Edmund Blood of Makeney into the story came via Samuel Goodbehere of Birmingham in 1879, and not from anyone among the Irish Bloods.^[1] Where did Samuel Goodbehere get his information? It certainly appears he got it from the family of his wife, the former Mary Anne Blood of Birmingham. In a "Pedigree made from particulars sent to Mr. William Bindon Blood by Mr. Samuel Goodbhere of Birmingham in 1879," the Edmund Blood who was the eldest son of Edmund Blood of Makeney was "Presumed to be E[dmund] B[lood] who settled in Ireland." And how was Samuel's wife Mary Anne Blood connected to this family of Derbyshire Bloods? She was a direct descendant of Edmund's brother, Robert Blood, the founder of the Tamworth line of Bloods in Staffordshire. In that same pedigree in Ms 12,816, under Robert, brother of Edmund, there's a note that "The Bloods of Birmingham claimed descent from this Robert Blood." It appears that in the 19th century the Birmingham Bloods did some solid genealogical work and accurately traced their line back to Robert Blood, son of Edmund Blood of Makeney in Duffield. They would have noted in Edmund's will and probate documents that Robert had an older brother also named Edmund. I infer they were aware the Irish Bloods believed they were descended from an Edmund Blood from England, which they could have easily known from the various books, articles, and pamphlets published on the notorious Colonel Thomas Blood. By this time the story of Edmund Blood of County Clare included the detail that he had been recruited in the English Midlands for an army raised by the Lord Inchiquin, and here they'd found an Edmund Blood of the right age from the English Midlands. It wouldn't take much of a leap of logic to come to the conclusion they were the same men.

Conclusions

Based on the core items of historically-plausible and historically-consistent biographic detail we have about Edmund Blood of County Clare, we derive a picture of a young man from an upper-class family of the English Midlands, well educated, well off financially probably due to his family, an experienced soldier, and a risk taker. It's highly unlikely this man was Edmund Blood of Makeney. To claim they were the same man would require us to ignore much of the family history of the Irish Bloods, or ignore the Derbyshire records, or ignore much of both. It is simply not possible to square this circle without twisting the evidence beyond all recognition. What of the Y-DNA evidence? It merely proves Edmund of Clare was either a Derbyshire Blood or was from a branch that was still genetically very close to the Derbyshire Bloods. It doesn't prove which line of Derbyshire Bloods was his. In the period from 1575 to 1625, the majority of all known Bloods in England (57%) were from either Derbyshire or Nottinghamshire. In other words, just being an English Blood at all would give him well over a 50/50 chance of being a Midlands Blood, and a 30% chance of being a Derbyshire Blood. This means that, while useful, the Y-DNA evidence isn't nearly the smoking gun it seems at first.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7} An account of the family of Blood, mainly of Co. Clare, descended from Edmond Blood, M.P., c. 1595, with illustrations of arms. Ms 12,816, National Library of Ireland: Dublin. Online NLI catalogue entry at http://sources.nli.ie/Record/MS_UR_011385
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7} Hutchinson, Robert. The Audacious Crimes of Colonel Blood: The Spy Who Stole the Crown Jewels and Became the King’s Secret Agent. Orion. Kindle Edition.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6} Blood, Sir Bindon, Maj Gen, GCB, GCVO. Four Score Years and Ten, published by G. Bell and Sons Ltd., London: 1933, pp.1-2. Available online at https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.208528
4. ↑ This part is in Latin; the original reads miles, filius Comitis Thomond.
5. ↑ There was a transcription error here. The second Clare MP's name was actually Boetius Clancy.
6. ↑ An armiger was a person entitled to the use of an achievement of arms, and in the early 17th century was the equivalent of "esquire," so the social rank below a knight.
7. ↑ John Thornton was at this time the High Sheriff of County Clare. Later in the year his successor, Samuel Norton, would assume the position.
8. ↑ The Earldom of Inchiquin and the title "Earl of Inchiquin" were only created in 1654. From 1654 onwards, the two titles ran in parallel; the Earls Inchiquin were also the Barons Inchiquin. But in both 1595 and 1599 the title "Earl of Inchiquin" did not exist. The confusion probably stems from two things. First, by 1791 when William Blood compiled his account, the exact year of creation of the Earldom of Inchiquin could have been forgotten and later Irish Bloods began to anachronistically project the later title too far into the past. Second, the fact that the 1st Earl Inchiquin, Murrough O'Brien, bore the same name as his grandfather the 4th Baron Inchiquin probably contributed significantly to the confusion between the two titles.
9. ↑ Burtchaell, George Dames and Sadleir, Thomas Ulick, editors. Alumni Dublinenses: A Register of the Students, Graduates, Professors and Provosts of Trinity College in the University of Dublin (1593-1860), Alex Thom & Co., Ltd, Dublin, Ireland: 1935 -- p.76. Available online at https://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/concern/works/70795b624.