Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol I (1901).djvu/277

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

Blakiston Blakman

215

---

and designed fortifications, and soon became the best known of the European residents— 'le véritable roi d'Hakodate' — keeping open house for travellers, especially those with scientific interests. In 1872 he contributed to the 'Journal of the Royal Geographical Society' (vol. xlii.) a narrative of a journey round Yezo, containing information as to the topography, climate, forests, fisheries, mines, and population, and first calling attention to the existence of a pre-Ainu race of pit-dwellers.

During Blakiston's residence at Hakodate he paid great attention to the ornithology of Yezo. He made an extensive collection of birds, which is now in the museum at Hakodate, and in 1878 compiled, with Mr. H. Pryer of Yokohama, a catalogue of the avifauna of Japan {Ibis, 1878, pp. 207-50), revised and republished in the 'Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan' in 1880 and 1882, and finally in London in 1884. He demonstrated that the birds of Yezo belong to the Siberian as distinct from the Manchurian sub-region of the Pahearctic region ; and the zoo-geographical line of division formed by the Strait of Tsu-garu has been termed Blakiston's line (v. Auk, 1892, ix. 75-6). In 1883 he read to the Asiatic Society {Trans, xi. 1883) a paper on 'Zoological Indications of the Ancient Connexion of the Japan Islands with the Continent.' Seven new species of Japanese birds are named after him (for list see Auk, l. c.)

In 1884, after a visit to Australia, New Zealand, and England, Blakiston retired from his business and left Japan for the United States. He settled eventually in New Mexico, died 15 Oct. 1891 at San Diego, California, and was buried at Columbus, Ohio. On 16 April 1885 he married Anne Mary, daughter of James Dun of Dundaff, London, Ohio. By her he left a son and a daughter.

Besides the works already mentioned, Blakiston published in 1883 at Yokohama a book called 'Japan in Yezo,' consisting of articles reprinted from the 'Japan Gazette,' and a number of papers in the 'Ibis' (on the birds of British North America and Japan), in the 'Chrysanthemum,' the 'Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan,' and the 'Proceedings of the United States National Museum.' His Canadian specimens are at Woolwich ; and, besides the collection at Hakodate, he gave Japanese birds to the United States National Museum. To the gardens of the Zoological Society of London he sent living animals.

[Obituary notices in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, December 1891, pp. 728-729; the Ibis, 1892, p. 190; and by Dr. L. Stejneger in the Auk, 1892, ix. 75-6; writings as cited above ; private information from his brother, Mr. Matthew Blakiston, F.R.G.S.]

H. E. D. B.

BLAKMAN, BLAKEMAN, or BLACKMAN, JOHN (fl. 1436-1448), biographer, was admitted a fellow of Merton College, Oxford, in 1436. Nothing is known of his parentage, but a family of the name flourished at Eynsham in Oxfordshire in the sixteenth century {Harl. Soc. v. 193). In 1439 he was one of the two guardians of the 'old university chest,' receiving an acquittance in respect of his office on 3 July of that year. Although not one of the original fellows of Eton, he was fifth on the list at the date (1447) of the promotion of William of Waynflete [q. v.] to the see of Winchester. He probably vacated his fellowship at Merton upon his election at Eton, for in the accounts (20 May 1448 to 9 May 1450) of contributions received towards, the building of the bell-tower at Merton, to which he gave 6s. 8d., he is not styled a fellow of the college. His position at Eton brought him into contact with Henry VI, of whom he wrote in Latin an interesting memoir. It was printed in 1732 by Thomas Hearne [q. v.] in his 'Duo Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores' (i.e. Otterbourne and Whethamstede). The work is a collection of anecdotes illustrating the various virtues of the king. Blakman expressly states that he writes as well from personal knowledge as from the information of Henry's attendants. Among these he names 'masters Bedon and Mannynge,' and Sir Richard Tunstall, the king's chamberlain. Thomas Mannynge was dean of Windsor (1452-62), a preferment he vacated after his attainder by the Yorkist parliament in 1461 (Le Neve, Fasti, iii. 372 ; Rot. Parl. v. 477 b, 480 b). Sir Richard Tunstall was attainted by the same act (ib. pp. 477 a, 479 a) [see Tunstall, Cuthbeet]. Bedon was perhaps John Bedon (B.D. 1455 ; Boase, Reg. Univ. Oxf. p. 6). A biography drawn from such sources naturally became a panegyric, but it was not improbably composed for a purpose. It was written after Henry VI's death and, to judge by the language used by the author about the Yorkists, after the accession of Henry VII. The canonisation of Henry VI was long a favourite project of Henry VII, who petitioned it of three popes in succession—Innocent VIII (1484-1492), Alexander VI (1492-1503), and Julius II (1508-1513) (see Wilkins, Concilia, iii. 640; Busch, England unter den Tudors, i. 238, 386). Blakman's apotheosis was doubtless