George Blakely

     
     Only brief mentions of George Blakely have been found. In a notice of the marriage of his daughter Matilda to Isaac Davis that appeared in the Mobile Daily Commercial Register & Patriot, 12 April 1841, he is called "Col. George Blakely, late of Quebec, Lower Canada."¹ In Isaac Davis' obituary that appeared in the Galveston Weekly Civilian on 20 August 1861, he is called "Councilia George Blakely."² The last named source also relates that he was "nearly connected to General Ross." From his granddaughter Agnes Davis' bible, we learn that her mother - George's daughter Matilda - was born in Montréal, Quebec, but the names of Matilda's parents are not given. Family tradition is that Agnes' grandfather disowned her mother for marrying a Catholic, and Matilda's obituary states that she was a convert. Assuming the obituary is accurate, George Blakely was Protestant. However, Matilda Blakely was already a Catholic, either by birth or conversion, before she married Isaac Davis, a Jew who converted to the Catholic faith well over a year after he and Matilda married. Family tradition, therefore, may be wholly inaccurate, or George Blakely may have disowned his daughter for marrying a Jew.

     If all but family tradition is correct, and that can't be assumed, George Blakely was living in Montreal in 1818 when Matilda was born. He was a colonel, probably in some branch of the British service. Judging by Matilda's birth year (1818), he was the right age to have fought in the War of 1812. "Late of Quebec..." could mean that he died there, but more probably that he moved, presumably to Mobile. The title of "Councilia" is a mystery. He may have been a councilman, a lawyer or a consul. If he was the latter - a foreign dignitary living in Mobile - it would account for him not appearing in the usual records. "Nearly connected" probably means closely related. The only General Ross found that fits the time frame is Major General Robert Ross who is famous as the British general whose troops burned Washington in 1814. General Ross was born in 1766 in Ross-Trevor (now Rostrevor), County Down, Northern Ireland, but no genealogical information has been located. The Blakely surname does, however, appear in Northern Ireland records in the seventeen and eighteen hundreds, and it is likely that George Blakely was an Ulster Scot whether or not he was related to General Robert Ross.²