Adam Blakeman

Rev. Adam Blakeman was born in Gnosall, Staffordshire, England, June 10 1596. His birthplace is frequently misspelled in websites due to transcription errors from old records.

Blakeman matriculated (entered college) at Christ Church, Oxford, May 28 1617. He was a preacher for some years in Leicestershire and Derbyshire, and in 1638 came to Connecticut. In 1639 he led the original settlers of Stratford, Connecticut, and served as the first minister of the church until his death, 7 September 1665. [Sibley, John Langdon. "Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts". Charles William Sever (1881), Vol. II, p. 140.]

Stratford, like a number of other New England towns of the 1630s, was founded as a Utopian community by Puritans fleeing persecution in England. The town's minister was also its political leader, and ruled both his flock and his town as the unquestioned representative of God.

During the 1600s (and until well into the 1800s) consistent spelling of names was not enforced, due to lower literacy levels and the absence of the standardization required by government bureaucracies. By 1800 Blakeman's descendants most often used the "Blackman" phonetic spelling of the name, although in the 1700s some alternated between the two spellings three times in successive generations. "Blakeman is the phonetic spelling of "Blackman" not the other way around. The surname was "Blackman" pronounced "Blakeman" in the dialect of that part of England where Gnosall is located.

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