Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Blake, Malachi
BLAKE, MALACHI (1687–1760), dissenting minister, was born at Blagdon, near Taunton, and was the son of the Rev. Malachi Blake. The family, a collateral branch of that of Admiral Blake, descends from William Blake of Pitminster (died 1642), whose second son was John (1597-1615), the father of John (1629-1682), the father of Malachi (born 1651). This last-named, the presbyterian minister of Blagdon, and founder of the dissenting cause at Wellington, Somersetshire, was implicated in Monmouth's rebellion, and fled to London in disguise. His second son Malachi, born in 1687, was presbyterian minister of Blandford, where he died in 1760. He published: ‘A Brief Account of the dreadful Fire at Blandford Forum in the county of Dorset, which happened 4 June 1731. With sermons [4 June 1735] in remembrance, and serious address to the inhabitants of the town,’ London [1735]. His younger brother, William (1688-1772), a woolstapler, was father of Malachi (1724-1795), presbyterian minister of Whitney and Fullwood, and of Willian (1730-1799), presbyterian minister of Crewkerne [see Blake, William, 1773-1821].
[Blake pedigree, MS.; Murch's Hist. Presb. and Gen. Bapt. Churches in West of England, 1835, p. 244.]