Adam Blakeman was a Gnosall native and Puritan minister who emigrated from England to the New World in the 1630s before founding and leading the city of Stratford, Connecticut. Adam Blakeman was baptised into the Church of England on June 10, 1596 in Gnosall. The son of John Blakeman (1570- 1626), a schoolmaster, and Thomasine (neé Jurdane, 1560-1643). Adam’s family had lived in or near Gnosall for at least four generations. Adam wanted to become a minister at an early age, and attended Christ Church, Oxford in 1617 before graduating the year later. Studying divinity, his professors during his time at Oxford would have included many of the authors of the King James Bible. He married Jane Wheeler (1600-1674) in 1619, and they had their first child, John (1624-1662), in 1624. After travelling around the countryside for a time, Adam and his family settled in Great Bowden, Leicestershire and later in Heage, Derbyshire. During this period he began preaching his increasingly strongly-held Puritanical views. His teachings were controversial and led Adam to face persecution and forced him to leave his posts on more than one occasion. Adam must have been very charismatic, however, as he successfully led many in his ministry to abandon England and travel to the New World. Adam, his wife Jane, and perhaps three of their children travelled to Boston aboard an unknown ship (possibly the Planter) in 1635 or 1638. In 1639, Blakeman and his followers arrived at the confluence of Housatonic and Naugatuck Rivers and established a new “plantation” there. The area had recently been vacated after the Pequot War (1636-1638) had forced the indigenous Paugusset tribe from their lands. Originally known as Cupheag (a Quiripi word meaning “enclosed place” or “place of shelter”), the settlers later renamed the town “Stratford” in honour of the birthplace of William Shakespeare. Adam ruled the town until his death in 1665, as the political and spiritual leader of the area. He was friends with another Puritan leader, the founder of the Connecticut Colony, Thomas Hooker. Hooker and Adam were both major proponents of the ideas of sola scriptura and the priesthood of believers, and Adam participated in the Synod of 1646-48 to draw up the Cambridge Platform, which described a Congressional church government that both Adam and Hooker had advanced. Hooker said of Adam: “ For the sake of the sacred and solemn simplicity of the discourse of this worthy man, if I might have my choice, I would choose to live and die under Mr. Blakeman’s ministry. ” In 1651, Stratford and its residents were embroiled in the witch trial and hanging of Goodwife Bassett, a local woman who’s story remains a mystery. What is known is that almost all of the residents of Stratford took part in the trial and hanging, and as Adam was the community’s leader, it seems likely that he played some part in the crime. Adam was preceded in death by his eldest child, John, in 1662. He had a tumultuous relationship with some of his other five children, which included a falling out with his son Deliverance (who, according to Adam, kept “wicked company”) and a disagreement with his son Benjamin, both of which were significant enough for Adam to mention them in his will. Adam held a large library for the time (49 books at the time of his death), and willed his Latin books to his son-in-law when his son Benjamin signalled his disinterest in becoming a minister. He left his English books to be distributed among his children and grandchildren. Adam died on September 7, 1665 in Stratford. In his will, Adam made his “dear wife” his sole executor and left many decisions to be made by her judgement. Much of the document serves as an epitaph, reiterating his strong religious conviction: I give, bequeath my soul and body into the hand of my most merciful Saviour and redeemer by whose merits and satisfaction (though in myself a vile and miserable creature) I hope for mercy and salvation, renouncing all things in me and done by me as dross and dung. Sources • Endress, Richard. American Mosaic: The Known Ancestors of Robert Hilton Squires II. N.p.: FriesenPress, 2022. • Gnosall village records as made available by Gnosall History. • Knapp, Lewis G., and Stratford Historical Society. In Pursuit of Paradise: History of the Town of Stratford, Connecticut. 1st ed. West Kennebunk, Me.: Published for the Stratford Historical Society by Phoenix Pub., 1989. • The Will of Rev. Adam Blakeman

Kindly submitted by Harry Blakeman from Vancouver, Washington who is the 10th great-grandson