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Blakeland estates Calne Wiltshire England was assessed on the Wiltshire Roll of Subsidies granted in 1286 to Edward I. The Blake family took its name from Blakeland a parish in that county.

The first mention of Blake in ancient records as a surname, occurs in the Wiltshire Roll of Subsidies, granted to Edward the First, in the fifteenth year of his reign, A.D. 1286, when Robert de Blakeland was assessed to that King's Requirements. His descendant, Robert Blake (dropped the particle de and the particle land from his surname. He was assessed to the subsidies of Edward the Third, in 1347 to an amount far exceeding that of any other inhabitant of the town. He lived in the township of Calne, adjoining the family estates at Blakeland. He married Anned Cole and they had a son Henry Blake.

Cutter, William Richard. New England Families Genealogical and Memorial: Third Series, Volume III.1915. Reprint,Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1996.

The name is a corruption of Welsh ap Lake from ap signifying from, or son and lake -the son of Lake. Ap lake was one of the Knights of "Arthur's Round Table". The name Blake is recorded in its present form in the hundreds rolls of 1273, in which appears Hans le blake.