Page:A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Colonial Gentry Vol 1.djvu/315

 BURKE'S COLONIAL GENTRY. 287 Engineering at Chatham, 1865—8 ; governor, Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, 1869—75 ; inspector-gene- ral of Fortifications and director of Works, War Office, 1875 to 1880; attached to the Special Embassy to Berlin in 1878; and attended the Berlin Conference in 1880. Field- Marshal Sir J. L. A. Simnions was b. in 1821 ; educated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich ; m. first, 1846, Ellen Lintorn (d. 1851), daughter of John Lintorn Simmons, Esq. of Keyns- ham, co. Somerset ; and secondly, 1856, Blanch, daughter of Samuel Charles Weston, Esq. of Rutland-gate. He has no male issue. These two sons of Captain Thomas Frederick Simmons are the only known relatives (bearing the surname of Simmons) of Mr. Winston Churchill Simmons in Europe, and with their deaths the family name will die out in England. II. John. III. Charles. IT. James, of whom presently. I. Frances. II. Mary. The 4th and youngest son, James Simmons, Esq. of Champigny, Hobart, Tasmania, b. in 1797, was sometime an officer in the Royal Artillery, which he left soon after his marriage, went to Tasmania in 1823, and held an imperial appointment in the Department of the Royal Engineers up to the time of his death. He m. Jane Ryrie Hall (who was b. 1803, and d. 1886), and d. in 1846, having had issue, Winston Churchill, of Churchill, Richmond, Tasmania. James Gordon, m. Jane, daughter of G. Stokell, Esq., and has issue, Kenneth ; Leslie ; and Ethel Frances Lintorn, m. Ralph Terry, Esq., and has issue, nine sons and two daughters. Josephine, m. Captain Charles Payne, R.N., and has issue, four sons and two daughters. Arms — Sa., gutte d'eau, a dolphin naiant embowed or, vorant a fish arg., a canton erm., thereon a mural crown gu. Crest — A stump of an oak tree sprouting, in front thereof, a mount, thereon a branch of laurel fructed, in bend sinister, all ppr. Motto — Stabilitate et victoria. Residence — Churchill, Richmond, Tas- mania.

Blaxland of Fordwich. BLAXLAND, EDWARD TREMAYNE, Esq. of Fordwich, Broke, via Whittingham, New South Wales, Australia, acting manager of branch of Commercial Bank, b. July, 1864 ; m. at St. Andrew's, Lismore, New South Wales, 1st December, 1890, Mary Jane, eldest daughter of the late John Sheehan, Esq. of Nowra, New South Wales, and stepdaughter of the late Thomas Hood, Esq. of South Woodburn, New South Wales.

Lineage. The Blaxlands are of great antiquity, and were in possession of the Isle of Thanet be- fore the Norman Conquest. It was taken from them by William the Conqueror, and divided among several of the families of his followers. In one or more of the oldest churches in the Isle of Thanet, such as Minster Church, may be seen down the aisles, numerous marble slabs, with inscriptions and effigies of the Blaxlands. There are three manors in Kent which still retain the name of Blaxland. John Blaxland or de Blockisland, of Blaxland Towers, the ancestor of this family, is mentioned in the oldest chronicles, as far back as when St. Augustine came to England. He was present at the christening of King Ethelbert and Queen Bertha, the first Christian king and queen of England, on Whit-Sunday, 2nd June, 597, and in their presence presented St. Augustine with a grant of land for the future abbey of St. Augustine, the first missionary home in Britain. Part of the ruins of the abbey still remain, and on the site stands the present Abbey of St. Augustine. With King Richard I at the Crusades the name of Reginald de Block- island is among those who received honours and rewards from the king. One John Blaxland was captain of the guard of Queen Elizabeth. He m. Elizabeth, daugh- ter of John Lowen, the poet, who was with Beaumont and Fletcher (of the intellectual coterie of Shakspeare) at the celebrated White Hart. In 1730 the coat of arms was granted to John Blaxland, of the parish of St. An- drew's, Holborn, co. Middlesex, who was the son of John Blaxland, of Luddenham Court, co. Kent, and grandson of John Blaxland, of Allen Court, in the parish of Minster, in the Isle of Thanet, co. Kent, by Frances, his wife, one of the daughters and co-heirs of Geoffry Sandwell, of Monckton, in the Isle of Thanet, a descendant of John de Sandale, who was admitted canon of York, 6th May, 1314, chancellor of England, 1315, and elected bishop of Winchester, August, 1316, continuing in that see till his death, at his seat in Southwark, 2nd November, 1319,