Sir Valentine Blake, 3rd Baronet (died 1652) was an Irish merchant and politician.

Biography

Blake was the eldest of three sons of Sir Thomas Blake and Juliane, daughter of Geoffrey Browne. He was admitted to the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

on 19 July 1628, was knighted on 3 October 1629, and sat in the

Parliament of Ireland The Parliament of Ireland () was the legislature of the Lordship of Ireland, and later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1297 until the end of 1800. It was modelled on the Parliament of England and from 1537 comprised two chambers: the Irish Hou ...

of 1634–35 as MP either for

Tuam Tuam (; , meaning 'mound' or 'burial-place') is a town in Ireland and the second-largest settlement in County Galway. It is west of the midland Region, Ireland, midlands of Ireland, about north of Galway city. The town is in a civil parishe ...

or Galway county. He was a member of Galway's town council by 1638 and is listed as an

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

in 1641. He succeeded his father the following year. Elected MP for Galway Borough in 1639, Blake was expelled from the

Irish House of Commons The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until the end of 1800. The upper house was the Irish House of Lords, House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, ...

in June 1642 for association with the

Irish Rebellion of 1641 The Irish Rebellion of 1641 was an uprising in Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland, initiated on 23 October 1641 by Catholic gentry and military officers. Their demands included an end to anti-Catholic discrimination, greater Irish self-governance, and ...

. This was a result of his activities in Galway early in the year, which included aiding the amassing of a military force to oppose the British garrison at Forthill, overlooking the town. He served as Mayor from 1643–44 and was a highly active member of the

Irish Confederation The Irish Confederation was an Irish nationalist independence movement, established on 13 January 1847 by members of the Young Ireland movement who had seceded from Daniel O'Connell's Repeal Association. Historian T. W. Moody described it as "t ...

. He supported the

Ormonde Ormonde is a surname originated in Ireland (Ormonde) and Scotland (Ormond (surname), Ormond), but also occurring in England, United States, Portugal (mainly in Azores, as a variation of the scottish surname Drummond_(surname), Drummond) and Brazil. ...

peace treaties of 1646 and 1649. He and Sir Richard Blake of Ardfry were captured by the soldiers of

Owen Roe O'Neill Owen Roe O'Neill ( Irish: ''Eoghan Ruadh Ó Néill;'' – 6 November 1649) was a Gaelic Irish soldier and one of the most famous of the O'Neill dynasty of Ulster. O'Neill left Ireland at a young age and spent most of his life as a mercenary ...

in June 1648 but were released unharmed. He was one of the Galwegians who supported negotiations to secure aid from

Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine Charles IV (5 April 1604 – 18 September 1675) was Duke of Lorraine from 1624 until his death in 1675, with a brief interruption in 1634, when he abdicated under French pressure in favor of his younger brother, Nicholas Francis. Life He came ...

, in 1651. This was to no avail and he was one of the six townsmen who signed the articles of surrender of the town on 5 April 1652. His will was proved in April 1654, and he was buried in the Loretto chapel of St. Francis's abbey, Galway. With his wife, Eleanor, third daughter of Sir Henry Lynch, he had four sons and three daughters. Much of the family property was confiscated by the Cromwellian government but substantially restored to the following generation. The family remained of note as local landowners and politicians into the 20th century. The current holder of the title is Sir Anthony Teilo Bruce Blake, 18th Baronet, born in 1951.

References

* ''History of Galway'',

James Hardiman James Hardiman (February 1782 – 13 November 1855), also known as Séamus Ó hArgadáin, was a librarian at Queen's College, Galway and an important historian. Hardiman is best remembered for his '' History of the Town and County of Galway'' (1 ...

, 1820. * ''Old Galway'',

Maureen Donovan O'Sullivan Mary Josephine Donovan O'Sullivan was professor of history at Queens College, Galway (now NUI Galway) from 1914 to 1957. Biography One of ten children, four of whom survived infancy, Donovan was born at Fair Hill Road in Galway on 24 November ...

, Oxford, 1942. * ''Roll of Honour: The Mayors of Galway'', William Henry, Galway, 2002. * ''Dictionary of Irish Biography'', p. 590, Cambridge, 2010. {{DEFAULTSORT:Blake, Sir Thomas Politicians from County Galway Mayors of Galway People of the Irish Confederate Wars Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Galway constituencies Baronets in the Baronetage of Ireland Irish MPs 1634–1635 Irish MPs 1639–1649 17th-century Irish politicians Irish merchants