Ofspring Blackall
Encyclopedia
Ofspring Blackall Bishop of Exeter
and religious controversialist, was born in London.
s' Company and later alderman of the City of London, and his wife, Martha (bap. 1625, d. 1701?), daughter of Charles Ofspring, rector of St Antholin, Budge Row
, and trier of the second presbyterian classis (or eldership) of London. Blackall's father owned land in several counties as well as property in the city, and although he conformed to the established church may have retained some puritan sympathies. During Blackall's youth his parents resided in Lordshold Manor, an ‘ancient brick house’ in Dalston
, Middlesex
(VCH Middlesex, 10.89). He was educated in nearby Hackney, perhaps at the free school of which Robert Skingle was master, before being admitted as a pensioner to St Catharine's College, Cambridge
, on 26 April 1671. He graduated BA
in 1675, proceeded MA
in 1678, and was elected in 1679 (by the interest, it was rumoured, of William Wake
) to a fellowship, which he resigned in 1687. He was ordained deacon on 11 March 1677 and priest on 19 December 1680. The university awarded him the degree of DD
in 1700.
, Essex
; he resigned this for the rectory of St Mary Aldermary
, London, to which he was presented by the dean and chapter of St Paul's on 6 November 1694. He also held the city lectureships of St Olave Jewry from 1695 to 1698, and St Dunstan-in-the-West from 1698. He was appointed chaplain
to William and Mary, although it was later alleged that he had been a nonjuror and had refused to swear allegiance to the new monarchs for two years.
Blackall was nominated to the bishopric of Exeter by the personal determination of Queen Anne, upon the recommendation of John Sharp, archbishop of York
, but without the knowledge of her ministers, whose politically expedient recommendations the queen, mindful of the royal prerogative, deemed insufficiently orthodox. It was consequently remarked wittily that he was the ‘queen's bishop’. He was consecrated at Lambeth
on 8 February 1708. In order to supplement his episcopal revenues he was permitted to hold, in addition to his bishopric, the deanery
of St Buryan
, Cornwall
, the rectory of Shorbrook, Devon
, and the offices of archdeacon and treasurer of Exeter. He was a diligent bishop in his diocese
, and he was also instrumental in the institution of charity schools in Exeter. He lived to see the establishment of two such schools for boys and two for girls, of fifty pupils each.
John Toland
. In his Life of John Milton
(1699), Toland had disputed Charles I's authorship of Eikon basilike. In a brief aside Toland remarked that if such a recent deception could remain undiscovered, it was not surprising that the dubious authorship of some ancient Christian writings had likewise gone undetected. Blackall understood that Toland had slyly insinuated that parts of the New Testament
were forgeries. In a sermon before the House of Commons on 30 January 1699, Blackall called on the Commons to act against this denial of the authenticity of the revelation of God, which if left unchecked would undermine public morality as well as Christian doctrine. Toland replied with Amyntor, or, A Defence of Milton's Life (1699), which attacked Blackall in a highly personal manner and accused him of theological ignorance. Toland disingenuously claimed he had disputed the authenticity not of the New Testament, but of ‘spurious’ apocryphal Christian works, of which he provided an extensive catalogue. Blackall's response, Mr Blackall's Reasons for not Replying to a Book Lately Published Entituled Amyntor (1699), ably demonstrated that Toland's words should most naturally have been taken to have referred to the New Testament, but Blackall nevertheless acknowledged Toland's apparent retraction. Blackall's altercation with Toland had brought him to prominence as a defender of revealed religion against the attacks of the deists. Consequently he was chosen to deliver the Boyle lectures
in 1700. These consisted of seven sermons, which he preached at St Paul's Cathedral, on the theme ‘The sufficiency of a standing revelation’.
Ten years after his exchange with Toland, Blackall found himself embroiled in controversy again, this time with a fellow clergyman. On 8 March 1709, the anniversary of Queen Anne
's accession, Blackall preached a sermon before the queen in St James's Chapel, on the text Romans 13: 4. It was later published, with the title The Divine Institution of Magistracy (1709). Its themes echoed those of a sermon which Blackall had preached on the same occasion in 1705, at St Dunstan's, and which had also been published. It was a strong attack on the doctrines of popular sovereignty and the right of resistance, in which Blackall maintained that the magistrate's authority was a ‘Portion of the Divine Authority … entrusted with him by God’ (p. 3). It also maintained the independent jure divino basis of clerical authority in spiritual matters. Benjamin Hoadly
, in Some Considerations Humbly Offered to the … Bishop of Exeter (1709), took offence to both sermons, which, he alleged, condemned the revolution of 1688–9. Hoadly claimed that the revolution had involved resistance to James II, but that such resistance was justified by the necessity of self-preservation. Blackall, in The Lord Bishop of Exeter's Answer to Mr Hoadly's Letter, dismissed Hoadly's premise that civil authority derived from an original contract. He undertook to reply again to Hoadly only if he kept to issues of scriptural interpretation, and avoided speculations concerning matters such as an alleged ‘State of Nature’ about which the scriptures were silent. Hoadly's subsequent Humble Reply failed to comply with Blackall's conditions, and he did not therefore respond to it. The numerous pamphlets which were published on either side during the ensuing controversy included an anonymous work in support of Blackall, entitled The Best Answer Ever was Made (1709), by the Irish nonjuror and formidable controversialist Charles Leslie. As Blackall was by now a bishop, Hoadly's attack on him was later cited to justify the forthright treatment Hoadly received in the Bangorian controversy
, after he himself had been elevated to the episcopal bench.
Ironically Blackall's same accession-day sermon of 1705, The Subjects Duty, had been attacked on its first publication by tory
patriarchalist writers, who accused him of being a republican. The anonymous work An essay upon government: wherein the republican schemes reviv'd by Mr. Lock, Dr. Blackal &c. are fairly consider'd and refuted (1705), as well as linking Blackall's name with that of John Locke
, took Blackall to task for contending that the precise form of government in any nation was a matter of human, and not divine, institution. Blackall suffered further abuse in a pamphlet entitled Dr Blackall's Offspring (1705).
Despite being attacked from both sides Blackall was considered by contemporaries to have distinct high church
and tory principles. Gilbert Burnet
went so far as to judge that, although Blackall claimed to be loyal to the government, ‘his notions were all on the other side’, that is, the Jacobite
side, and that he ‘seemed to condemn the Revolution
, and all that had been done pursuant to it’ (Bishop Burnet's History of his Own Time, ed. G. Burnet and T. Burnet, 2 vols., 1724–34, 2.488). In fact Blackall was a consistent ‘revolution tory’ and maintained the high-church doctrine
s of passive obedience and non-resistance to sovereign
powers, while denying the Filmerian tenet of divine hereditary right. By holding that sovereignty was always absolute, but that it belonged in the English constitution to the monarch in parliament, Blackall was articulating an important theory by which tories reconciled themselves to the revolution.
During his lifetime Blackall's reputation as a preacher was considerable, and his Works were published after his death (2 vols., 1723, edited by Blackall's friend, William Dawes
). His major literary work was a series of eighty-seven sermons issued as Discourses on the Sermon on the Mount. These sermons are both expository and pastoral, and in an uncomplicated style; but receded into relative obscurity.
. An earnest account of Blackall's life and death, and particularly of the sufferings of his final illness, can be found in William Dawes's preface to Blackall's Works. Blackall was buried on 2 December in Exeter Cathedral
, on the south side of the choir. In accordance with his will, no funeral sermon was preached, and his grave was not marked by any monument or inscription. His will was proved on 26 January 1717. He was granted Arms.
Bishop of Exeter
The Bishop of Exeter is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Exeter in the Province of Canterbury. The incumbent usually signs his name as Exon or incorporates this in his signature....
and religious controversialist, was born in London.
Early life and education
Baptized on 26 April 1655 at St Gregory by Paul's, the son of Thomas Blackall (bap. 1621, d. 1688), freeman of the HaberdasherHaberdasher
A haberdasher is a person who sells small articles for sewing, such as buttons, ribbons, zips, and other notions. In American English, haberdasher is another term for a men's outfitter. A haberdasher's shop or the items sold therein are called haberdashery.-Origin and use:The word appears in...
s' Company and later alderman of the City of London, and his wife, Martha (bap. 1625, d. 1701?), daughter of Charles Ofspring, rector of St Antholin, Budge Row
St Antholin, Budge Row
St Antholin, Budge Row, or St Antholin, Watling Street, was a former church in the City of London, demolished in 1874. Its successor church is still in existence as St Anthony and St Silas, Nunhead..-History:...
, and trier of the second presbyterian classis (or eldership) of London. Blackall's father owned land in several counties as well as property in the city, and although he conformed to the established church may have retained some puritan sympathies. During Blackall's youth his parents resided in Lordshold Manor, an ‘ancient brick house’ in Dalston
Dalston
Dalston is a district of north-east London, England, located in the London Borough of Hackney. It is situated northeast of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London...
, Middlesex
Middlesex
Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...
(VCH Middlesex, 10.89). He was educated in nearby Hackney, perhaps at the free school of which Robert Skingle was master, before being admitted as a pensioner to St Catharine's College, Cambridge
St Catharine's College, Cambridge
St. Catharine’s College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1473, the college is often referred to informally by the nickname "Catz".-History:...
, on 26 April 1671. He graduated BA
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in 1675, proceeded MA
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
in 1678, and was elected in 1679 (by the interest, it was rumoured, of William Wake
William Wake
William Wake was a priest in the Church of England and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1716 until his death in 1737.-Life:...
) to a fellowship, which he resigned in 1687. He was ordained deacon on 11 March 1677 and priest on 19 December 1680. The university awarded him the degree of DD
DD
- Computing :* dd , a program that copies and convert files and data* dd, an HTML element for specifying definition data* Dolby Digital, the name for audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories...
in 1700.
Cleric
On 14 January 1690 Blackall was instituted to the rectory of South OckendonSouth Ockendon
South Ockendon is settlement and Church of England parish in the Thurrock borough and unitary district in Essex in the East of England, United Kingdom.-History:...
, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
; he resigned this for the rectory of St Mary Aldermary
St Mary Aldermary
Ashlar-faced outside and Gothic throughout, St Mary Aldermary is an Anglican church in Bow Lane in the City of London. The church was badly damaged in the Great Fire of London in 1666, and rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren.-History:...
, London, to which he was presented by the dean and chapter of St Paul's on 6 November 1694. He also held the city lectureships of St Olave Jewry from 1695 to 1698, and St Dunstan-in-the-West from 1698. He was appointed chaplain
Chaplain
Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...
to William and Mary, although it was later alleged that he had been a nonjuror and had refused to swear allegiance to the new monarchs for two years.
Blackall was nominated to the bishopric of Exeter by the personal determination of Queen Anne, upon the recommendation of John Sharp, archbishop of York
Archbishop of York
The Archbishop of York is a high-ranking cleric in the Church of England, second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and metropolitan of the Province of York, which covers the northern portion of England as well as the Isle of Man...
, but without the knowledge of her ministers, whose politically expedient recommendations the queen, mindful of the royal prerogative, deemed insufficiently orthodox. It was consequently remarked wittily that he was the ‘queen's bishop’. He was consecrated at Lambeth
Lambeth
Lambeth is a district of south London, England, and part of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is situated southeast of Charing Cross.-Toponymy:...
on 8 February 1708. In order to supplement his episcopal revenues he was permitted to hold, in addition to his bishopric, the deanery
Deanery
A Deanery is an ecclesiastical entity in both the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residence of a Dean.- Catholic usage :...
of St Buryan
St Buryan
St Buryan is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom.The village of St Buryan is situated approximately five miles west of Penzance along the B3283 towards Land's End...
, Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
, the rectory of Shorbrook, Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
, and the offices of archdeacon and treasurer of Exeter. He was a diligent bishop in his diocese
Diocese
A diocese is the district or see under the supervision of a bishop. It is divided into parishes.An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese. An archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or had importance due to size or historical significance...
, and he was also instrumental in the institution of charity schools in Exeter. He lived to see the establishment of two such schools for boys and two for girls, of fifty pupils each.
Public life and works
Blackall came to public prominence in 1699 when he engaged in a controversy with the Irish deist and pamphleteerPamphleteer
A pamphleteer is a historical term for someone who creates or distributes pamphlets. Pamphlets were used to broadcast the writer's opinions on an issue, for example, in order to get people to vote for their favorite politician or to articulate a particular political ideology.A famous pamphleteer...
John Toland
John Toland
John Toland was a rationalist philosopher and freethinker, and occasional satirist, who wrote numerous books and pamphlets on political philosophy and philosophy of religion, which are early expressions of the philosophy of the Age of Enlightenment...
. In his Life of John Milton
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
(1699), Toland had disputed Charles I's authorship of Eikon basilike. In a brief aside Toland remarked that if such a recent deception could remain undiscovered, it was not surprising that the dubious authorship of some ancient Christian writings had likewise gone undetected. Blackall understood that Toland had slyly insinuated that parts of the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
were forgeries. In a sermon before the House of Commons on 30 January 1699, Blackall called on the Commons to act against this denial of the authenticity of the revelation of God, which if left unchecked would undermine public morality as well as Christian doctrine. Toland replied with Amyntor, or, A Defence of Milton's Life (1699), which attacked Blackall in a highly personal manner and accused him of theological ignorance. Toland disingenuously claimed he had disputed the authenticity not of the New Testament, but of ‘spurious’ apocryphal Christian works, of which he provided an extensive catalogue. Blackall's response, Mr Blackall's Reasons for not Replying to a Book Lately Published Entituled Amyntor (1699), ably demonstrated that Toland's words should most naturally have been taken to have referred to the New Testament, but Blackall nevertheless acknowledged Toland's apparent retraction. Blackall's altercation with Toland had brought him to prominence as a defender of revealed religion against the attacks of the deists. Consequently he was chosen to deliver the Boyle lectures
Boyle Lectures
The Boyle Lectures were named after Robert Boyle, a prominent English/Irish natural philosopher of the 17th century. Boyle endowed a series of lectures in his will, which were designed as a forum where prominent academics could discuss the existence of God....
in 1700. These consisted of seven sermons, which he preached at St Paul's Cathedral, on the theme ‘The sufficiency of a standing revelation’.
Ten years after his exchange with Toland, Blackall found himself embroiled in controversy again, this time with a fellow clergyman. On 8 March 1709, the anniversary of Queen Anne
Anne of Great Britain
Anne ascended the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702. On 1 May 1707, under the Act of Union, two of her realms, England and Scotland, were united as a single sovereign state, the Kingdom of Great Britain.Anne's Catholic father, James II and VII, was deposed during the...
's accession, Blackall preached a sermon before the queen in St James's Chapel, on the text Romans 13: 4. It was later published, with the title The Divine Institution of Magistracy (1709). Its themes echoed those of a sermon which Blackall had preached on the same occasion in 1705, at St Dunstan's, and which had also been published. It was a strong attack on the doctrines of popular sovereignty and the right of resistance, in which Blackall maintained that the magistrate's authority was a ‘Portion of the Divine Authority … entrusted with him by God’ (p. 3). It also maintained the independent jure divino basis of clerical authority in spiritual matters. Benjamin Hoadly
Benjamin Hoadly
Benjamin Hoadly was an English clergyman, who was successively Bishop of Bangor, Hereford, Salisbury, and Winchester. He is best known as the initiator of the Bangorian Controversy.-Life:...
, in Some Considerations Humbly Offered to the … Bishop of Exeter (1709), took offence to both sermons, which, he alleged, condemned the revolution of 1688–9. Hoadly claimed that the revolution had involved resistance to James II, but that such resistance was justified by the necessity of self-preservation. Blackall, in The Lord Bishop of Exeter's Answer to Mr Hoadly's Letter, dismissed Hoadly's premise that civil authority derived from an original contract. He undertook to reply again to Hoadly only if he kept to issues of scriptural interpretation, and avoided speculations concerning matters such as an alleged ‘State of Nature’ about which the scriptures were silent. Hoadly's subsequent Humble Reply failed to comply with Blackall's conditions, and he did not therefore respond to it. The numerous pamphlets which were published on either side during the ensuing controversy included an anonymous work in support of Blackall, entitled The Best Answer Ever was Made (1709), by the Irish nonjuror and formidable controversialist Charles Leslie. As Blackall was by now a bishop, Hoadly's attack on him was later cited to justify the forthright treatment Hoadly received in the Bangorian controversy
Bangorian Controversy
The Bangorian Controversy was a theological argument within the Church of England in the early 18th century, with strong political overtones. The origins of the controversy lay in the 1716 posthumous publication of George Hickes's Constitution of the Catholic Church, and the Nature and...
, after he himself had been elevated to the episcopal bench.
Ironically Blackall's same accession-day sermon of 1705, The Subjects Duty, had been attacked on its first publication by tory
Tory
Toryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...
patriarchalist writers, who accused him of being a republican. The anonymous work An essay upon government: wherein the republican schemes reviv'd by Mr. Lock, Dr. Blackal &c. are fairly consider'd and refuted (1705), as well as linking Blackall's name with that of John Locke
John Locke
John Locke FRS , widely known as the Father of Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social...
, took Blackall to task for contending that the precise form of government in any nation was a matter of human, and not divine, institution. Blackall suffered further abuse in a pamphlet entitled Dr Blackall's Offspring (1705).
Despite being attacked from both sides Blackall was considered by contemporaries to have distinct high church
High church
The term "High Church" refers to beliefs and practices of ecclesiology, liturgy and theology, generally with an emphasis on formality, and resistance to "modernization." Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term has traditionally been principally associated with the...
and tory principles. Gilbert Burnet
Gilbert Burnet
Gilbert Burnet was a Scottish theologian and historian, and Bishop of Salisbury. He was fluent in Dutch, French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Burnet was respected as a cleric, a preacher, and an academic, as well as a writer and historian...
went so far as to judge that, although Blackall claimed to be loyal to the government, ‘his notions were all on the other side’, that is, the Jacobite
Jacobitism
Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...
side, and that he ‘seemed to condemn the Revolution
Revolution
A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
, and all that had been done pursuant to it’ (Bishop Burnet's History of his Own Time, ed. G. Burnet and T. Burnet, 2 vols., 1724–34, 2.488). In fact Blackall was a consistent ‘revolution tory’ and maintained the high-church doctrine
Doctrine
Doctrine is a codification of beliefs or a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the body of teachings in a branch of knowledge or belief system...
s of passive obedience and non-resistance to sovereign
Sovereign
A sovereign is the supreme lawmaking authority within its jurisdiction.Sovereign may also refer to:*Monarch, the sovereign of a monarchy*Sovereign Bank, banking institution in the United States*Sovereign...
powers, while denying the Filmerian tenet of divine hereditary right. By holding that sovereignty was always absolute, but that it belonged in the English constitution to the monarch in parliament, Blackall was articulating an important theory by which tories reconciled themselves to the revolution.
During his lifetime Blackall's reputation as a preacher was considerable, and his Works were published after his death (2 vols., 1723, edited by Blackall's friend, William Dawes
William Dawes
William Dawes, Jr. was one of several men and a woman who alerted colonial minutemen of the approach of British army troops prior to the Battle of Lexington and Concord at the outset of the American Revolution....
). His major literary work was a series of eighty-seven sermons issued as Discourses on the Sermon on the Mount. These sermons are both expository and pastoral, and in an uncomplicated style; but receded into relative obscurity.
Sermons
- 1708. BLACKALL, Offspring. The rules and measures of alms-giving, and the manifold advantages of charity schools. A sermon preach'd at St. Peter's in Exeter, September the 26th, 1708. First preach'd, and now printed, to promote the setting up of charity schools, for the instruction and education of the children of the poor in that city, and other paces in the diocess. By Offspring, Lord Bishop of Exon. To which is added, his letter to the clergy of his diocess, upon the same subject. - Exon : printed by Sam. Farley, for Phil. Bishop , 1708. - 32p ; 4°. - *WSL; Dredge p. 42; Plymouth Athenaeum p. 50; Plymouth Public Library L2897; DUL 4764; Devon & Exeter Institution, appendix, p. 127.
- The divine institution of magistracy, and the gracious design of its institution. A sermon preach'd before the Queen, at St. James's, on Tuesday, March 8. 1708. ... By Ofspring Lord Bishop of Exon. .... - London : : printed by J. R. for W. Rogers,, 1709.. - 24p. ; ; 8+.
Family life
Blackall married Anne Dillingham (d. 1762) of London, probably the daughter of James and Elizabeth Dillingham. Seven of their children—Theophilus, John, Charles Ofspring, Elizabeth, Ann, Mary, and Jane—survived the death of their father on 29 November 1716 in Exeter. Blackall had fallen from a horse in the spring of that year, and as a consequence he suffered a long and painful illness during which he developed gangreneGangrene
Gangrene is a serious and potentially life-threatening condition that arises when a considerable mass of body tissue dies . This may occur after an injury or infection, or in people suffering from any chronic health problem affecting blood circulation. The primary cause of gangrene is reduced blood...
. An earnest account of Blackall's life and death, and particularly of the sufferings of his final illness, can be found in William Dawes's preface to Blackall's Works. Blackall was buried on 2 December in Exeter Cathedral
Exeter Cathedral
Exeter Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter at Exeter, is an Anglican cathedral, and the seat of the Bishop of Exeter, in the city of Exeter, Devon in South West England....
, on the south side of the choir. In accordance with his will, no funeral sermon was preached, and his grave was not marked by any monument or inscription. His will was proved on 26 January 1717. He was granted Arms.
Archival documents
- (Ofspring OR Offspring) Blackall search at the The National Archives
- National Church Institutions Database of Manuscripts and Archives contains related information on manuscript and archive collections held at Lambeth PalaceLambeth PalaceLambeth Palace is the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury in England. It is located in Lambeth, on the south bank of the River Thames a short distance upstream of the Palace of Westminster on the opposite shore. It was acquired by the archbishopric around 1200...
Library (LPL) and the Church of England Record Centre (CERC). - Oxford Libraries Information System
Portraits
- National Portrait Gallery (London) Portraits of Offspring Blackall (Blackhall)
- Devon Libraries Local Studies Service The Rt. Reverend Dr. Ofspring Blackall late Ld. Bishop of Exeter