Page 24 - ‘A Blaker Family History’ The family history of Joseph Blaker (1916-2007; ‘Joe’)

© The Blaker Society
© The Blaker Society

Catharine’s death in 1847, Cordelia (1788-1854) inherited the house, and
her will stated that the house was to be sold and divided up between the
rest of the siblings. It is not certain whether Ann Kemp Blaker bought the
house or not, but according to census records, she was living there from
1854.
• The Blaker Recreation Ground in Brighton was a gift from
Sir John George Blaker, a descendant of Edward Blaker who built Kemps,
who was mayor of Brighton from 1895 to 1898, and chief military
representative of Brighton during the First World War. Sir John’s gift of
some 1.7 hectares was for ‘the free use and enjoyment of the inhabitants

and visitors to Brighton for the purposes of recreation’. He also donated
£1,000 for the building of a clock tower and to provide for future
maintenance of the park.

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• Edward Blaker was MP for Shoreham in the 17 century.

• Harry Blaker was one of the first surgeons appointed to
Brighton’s Royal Sussex County Hospital. He attended Queen Victoria
when she was in residence at the Royal Pavilion – for which he received
an honorarium of £300. He vaccinated the Prince of Wales (later to
become Edward VII) and Princess Victoria ,who became the Empress of
Germany and mother of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Sompting
Reason for Interest
• John Blaker (1705-1761) married Elizabeth Swift; St.
Mary’s Church, Sompting; December 1733
• John Blaker (1705-1761) buried St. Mary, Sompting;
October 1761
• Elizabeth Swift (1710-1783) buried: St. Mary, Sompting,
Sussex; July 1783

Location
Sompting is a village and civil parish in West Sussex, located 4.8km north-east of
Worthing, and close to Lancing, at the foot of the southern slope of the South
Downs. The busy A27 road, which follows the old Roman road to Chichester,
bisects Sompting.

Location of Sompting, West Sussex

History
The name Sompting (known as ‘Sultinges’ in the Domesday Book) is said to come
from the Old English for ‘dwellers by the marsh’ (‘Sompt’ + ‘ingas’).

The south part of the parish is low-lying alluvial land, which was once part of the
tidal estuary of the Broadwater or Sompting brook. Land in the south of the
parish provided meadow and pasture. The plateau on which the settlements of
Sompting and Cokeham lie, and the lower slopes of the downs, have remained