Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 05.djvu/213

 Riley believes that he took his name from Blanquefort, near Bordeaux, called Blanckeforde in the 'Annals of Waverley,' p. 404. Blaneforde's name is mentioned in a notice of the historians of St. Albans in a fragment printed in the Rolls edition of the 'Annals of John Amundesham.' For a Blaneford, evidently in Somerset, see a charter of Edward II in Dugdale's 'Monasticon,' vi. 415. 

BLANKETT, JOHN (d. 1801), admiral, served as volunteer and midshipman in the Somerset with Captain (afterwards Sir Edward) Hughes, and was present in her at the reduction of Louisbourg, 1758, and of Quebec, 1759. He was thus led to consider the possible existence of a north-west passage, concerning which, on his return to England, he presented a report to the admiralty. In 1701 he was made lieutenant, and after the peace in 1763 obtained leave to go to Russia in quest of exact information concerning the then recent discoveries on the east coast of Asia. In 1770 he was lieutenant of the Albion, with Captain Barrington, and in 1778 was first lieutenant of the Victory, then carrying the flag of Admiral Keppel, and was made commander 30 Jan. 1779. He was then appointed to the Nymph sloop, and sent out to the East Indies to join Sir Edward Hughes, by whom he was posted into the Ripon on 23 Jan. 1780. The ship was shortly afterwards ordered home, and Blankett held no further appointment during that war. After the peace of 1783 he commanded the Thetis frigate in the Mediterranean, where he was specially noticed by the King of Naples, who at different times accompanied him on a cruise, and presented him with his portrait set in diamonds. In July 1790 he sailed for China in the Leopard in command of convoy, and on his return was appointed to the America as commodore of a small squadron sent to the Cape of Good Hope. There, in August 1795, he was Joined by the squadron under Sir George Elphinstone (afterwards Lord Keith), under whom he served at the reduction of that settlement (, Naval History (ed. 1860), i. 333-6). In June 1798 he was appointed to the Leopard, with orders to proceed to India. On his arrival on the station he was sent as senior officer to the Red Sea, where he commanded during the subsequent operations in Egypt. He became rear-admiral in Feb. 1799. In August 1800 he went for a short time to Bombay, and had the good fortune on the passage to pick up the Clarisse, a very active French privateer, which, a few months before, under the command of Robert Surcouf, had been the terror of the commerce of the Indian seas. By January he was back in the Red Sea, and in the Gulf of Suez from April to June. His constitution had been already severely tried, and the terrible heat of the Red Sea summer proved fatal to him. He died on board the Leopard near Mocha on 14 July 1801. He is described as an unusually good linguist, having a perfect mastery of French, Italian, and Portuguese; and as being universally esteemed, not only as a good officer, but as an accomplished and amiable gentleman, notwithstanding a certain irritability induced by gout. 

BLANTYRE, Lords. [See Stuart.]

BLAQUIERE, JOHN, (1732–1812), politician, the fifth son of John Blaquiere, a French emigrant, who settled in London as a merchant, was born 5 May 1732. He was for some time in the counting-house of a London merchant, and then entered the army. His first official employment was as secretary of legation in France with Lord Harcourt, 1771-2, and when that nobleman went to Ireland in 1772 as lord lieutenant, Blaquiere accompanied him as his chief secretary (1772-7). He represented a number of constituencies in the Irish parliament : Old Leighlin until 1788, Carlingford from that date to 1790, Charleville 1790-7, and Newtown from 1797 until the extinction of the Irish parliament. In 1801 he was elected for Rye in the parliament of the United Kingdom, and in June 1803 he was returned for Downton in Wiltshire. One of Blaquiere's first experiences on Irish soil was a duel with a Mr. Beauchamp Bagenal in 1773, but he soon received considerable advancement. He was sworn of the privy council, invested in 1774 with the military order of the Bath, created a baronet 5 July 1784, and raised to the Irish peerage Baron de Blaquiere on 30 July 1800. He became bailiff of Phoenix Park, alnager of Ireland, and commissioner of the paving board. Many of the chief improvements in Dublin were effected under his care, and even envy allowed that, pluralist as he was, his money was spent in his adopted country. A gourmet with social and convivial tastes,