'The Blake Millions' – Presented by Helen Sheridan

 

 

Miss Eliza H Hudson - First met Robert Dudley Blake when she was an eleven year old in 1811. He took the upper rooms in her mother’s house at 4 Little George Street in Westminster in 1811, which he kept until 1818. For a short time thereafter R D Blake took a furnished apartment in Camberwell, where he owned some properties, close to the new home of the Hudsons, whom he continued to visit. In the Spring of 1819 R D Blake went to the Continent for ten months. On his return from the Continent he took rooms at the house of Mr Bliss at 19 Adam Street Adelphi, and continued to visit the Hudsons. R D Blake also had property in Sussex and used sometimes to go and stay there.

Eliza first met Helen Blake in or around 1830, when R D Blake introduced her as his wife. Afterwards Eliza paid visits to Handcross House in Sussex and remained on intimate terms with the Blakes for the remainder of their lives. Eliza was told that the Blakes had married in Scotland in the year 1819, that Helen Blake before her marriage had been made a ward of Chancery. That Helen Blake’s father died when she was young and that her mother had remarried (either to her cousin or to her first husband’s cousin). That Helen Blake had never been to Ireland but was keen to do so.

Eliza attributed the General’s secrecy about his marriage to the difference in age between them, and also the fact of her wardship of Chancery

That Helen had inherited £4,000, and that there had been some difficulty in obtaining it.

They had no children, but that before 1830 Helen had suffered a miscarriage after a road accident.

That Helen suffered pain in her right hand as a result of trying to play a demanding piece on the pianoforte, and that she generally would get someone else to write for her if possible.
Douglas Pitt Gamble - That his father, John Richard Gamble, was a close friend of General Blake, as Douglas himself became in due course.

John Gamble acted as a go-between between General Blake and his brother Sir Francis, and his sister Mrs Stag. In his role as a go-between, John Gamble visited the Blake family home in Northumbria. One of the family difficulties that occasioned this need had arisen from the idea that General Blake was living in sin with “a person of very low origin”. However, John Gamble expressed his opinion to the Blake family that General Blake was lawfully married to the lady in question, and that on his return to London, he John Gamble would endeavour to ascertain the facts.

Two days after this visit, General Blake invited John Gamble to a meeting. The invitation came from the General at his Adam Street address. At that meeting the General showed John Gamble the marriage certificate to verify their married status.

John Gamble also raised the delicate matter of Mrs Blake’s supposed illegitimacy, as claimed by the Blake family. General Blake answered “Well so she is. She never saw or knew her father whom I believe was a captain of a trading vessel between Galway and Baltimore. Her mother ill-treated her, and when she was about seventeen I ran away with her, took her to Scotland and married her at a place near Glasgow.”

Douglas Pitt Gamble also stated that he had repeatedly heard Mrs Blake say that she had not a relation in the world, and that General Blake had said the same thing on several occasions.

George Farquharson King - a partner of West, King, Adams & Co, the General’s and Mrs Blake’s solicitors over a long period of time. Mr King did not know what Helen Blake’s maiden name was.

Having done business with them for many years, Mrs Blake had frequently informed both Mr King and his late partner Mr West, that she had no relations whatever.

The law firm had some years before drawn up the draft will at her request, and some revision of that draft had been done a short time before she died.