Life

Blackmore came of an 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...

 family, and was the second son of William Blackmore of London, a member of the Fishmongers' Company, whose elder son, Sir John Blackmore, knight, was in the confidence of Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....

, and became governor of St. Helena after the Restoration. William was educated at Merchant Taylors' School

Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood

Merchant Taylors' School is a British independent day school for boys, originally located in the City of London. Since 1933 it has been located at Sandy Lodge in the Three Rivers district of Hertfordshire ....

 and Lincoln College, Oxford

Lincoln College, Oxford

Lincoln College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is situated on Turl Street in central Oxford, backing onto Brasenose College and adjacent to Exeter College...

, and graduated M.A. there, although he is not mentioned by Anthony Wood

Anthony Wood

Anthony Wood or Anthony à Wood was an English antiquary.-Early life:Anthony Wood was the fourth son of Thomas Wood , BCL of Oxford, where Anthony was born...

.

Having been ordained deacon he was appointed in December 1645 to the rectory of Pentlow

Pentlow

Pentlow is a village and civil parish in the Braintree district, in the county of Essex, England. Nearby settlements include the villages of Foxearth and Cavendish and the hamlet of Pentlow Street...

, Essex, sequestered from Edward Alston. On 1 September 1646 his resignation of Pentloe was accepted by the committee for plundered ministers, and he moved to London, and became curate to Thomas Coleman

Thomas Coleman

Thomas Coleman was an English clergyman, known for his scholarship in the Hebrew language, which earned him the nickname ‘Rabbi Coleman’, and for his Erastian view of church polity. In the Westminster Assembly he was the clerical leader of the Erastian party, alongside the lawyer John Selden...

 (‘Rabbi’ Coleman, who died March 1647) at St. Peter's, Cornhill. He was ordained presbyter by the Fourth London Classis on 20 April 1647, but did not take the covenant

Solemn League and Covenant

The Solemn League and Covenant was an agreement between the Scottish Covenanters and the leaders of the English Parliamentarians. It was agreed to in 1643, during the First English Civil War....

, and was duly presented to the rectory of St. Peter's by the corporation of London on 13 May 1656, after the death in 1655 of William Fairfax, D.D., sequestered in August 1643.

On 1 December 1646 the London presbyterians published a defence of their system, Jus Divinum Regiminis Ecclesiastici; or the Divine Right of Church Government of which Blackmore wrote the part relating to ordination. William Maxwell Hetherington

William Maxwell Hetherington

William Maxwell Hetherington was a Scottish minister, poet and church historian.-Life:He was born in the parish of Troqueer, near Dumfries...

 (History of the Westminster Assembly p. 288) describes the book as ‘the most complete and able defence of presbyterian church government that has yet appeared.’ In 1648 Blackmore was one of the scribes to the London provincial assembly. He signed (probably on 20 January 1649) the presbyterian remonstrance to Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....

 on the meditated death of the king. He was one of the thirteen clergy arrested on a charge of complicity in Christopher Love

Christopher Love

Christopher Love was a Welsh Protestant preacher and advocate of Presbyterianism at the time of the English Civil War. In 1651 he was executed by the government, after it was discovered that he had been in correspondence with the exiled Stuart court...

's plot in 1651; having been freed through the influence of his brother Sir John, he rendered assistance to Love during his trial.

In 1662 Blackmore seceded with the nonconformists, and retired to 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...

, where he lived on his ample means and gathered a small congregation. In April 1672 he was licensed as "a presbyterian teacher in his own house" in Hornchurch

Hornchurch

Hornchurch is a large suburban town in England, and part of the London Borough of Havering. Hornchurch is in North-East London .It is located east-northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the locally important district centres identified in the London Plan. It comprises a number of shopping...

, near Romford

Romford

Romford is a large suburban town in north east London, England and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Havering. It is located northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan...

. He died at Hare Street, a hamlet within a mile of Romford, in 1684, and was buried at Romford on 18 July.

Family

He married (1) on 1 May 1660 Mary Chewning, from Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

, Kent, who died in November 1678, and (2) before 1681, Sarah Luttrell, who survived him. His only son, Chewning Blackmore, born on 1 January 1663, was educated for the ministry at the Rev. John Woodhouse's academy, Sheriff Hales

Sheriff Hales

Sheriffhales is a scattered village in Shropshire, England, north-east of Telford, north of Shifnal and south of Newport....

, near Shifnal

Shifnal

Shifnal is a small market town in Shropshire, England. It forms part of The Wrekin constituency, and is about east of Telford. It has a railway station on the Shrewsbury-Wolverhampton Line and is near to the M54 motorway.-Early medieval time:...

, Shropshire

Shropshire

Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...

, settled at Worcester

Worcester

The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...

 in 1688 as assistant to Thomas Badland (ejected in 1663 from Willenhall

Willenhall

Willenhall is a town in the Black Country area of the West Midlands of England, with a population of approximately 40,000. It is situated between Wolverhampton and Walsall, historically in the county of Staffordshire...

, Staffordshire

Staffordshire

Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

, and died 1689), and remained there till his death on 2 August 1737. He married in 1694 Abigail (died in April 1734), daughter of Edward Higgins, and left two sons: (1) Francis, presbyterian minister at Evesham (1728–30), Coventry (1730–42), and Worcester (1743–61), and (2) Edward Chewning, presbyterian minister at Stoke, near Malvern

Malvern

-England:* Malvern, Worcestershire* Malvern Hills, a ridge of hills on the boundary of Herefordshire and Worcestershire* Malvern Hills , a local government district in WorcestershirePlaces in or near Malvern, Worcestershire...

.