Blake family of Dover Forge

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A man named James Blake was apparently a boardinghouse manager at Dover Forge in 1826.  He was paid for ‘4 hands in full @ $2 a week’ and ‘washing for ditto’, a total of $3.50, by the Dover Forge on 10 Jun 1826.[i]  James Blake was paid $1 on June 28, 1826 for hauling 1 hogshead of molasses from Toms River to Dover. A few weeks later, on 9 Aug 1826, he was again mentioned as carting molasses from Toms River to Dover.

On 11 Nov 1826 he was paid for work he had done at the forge. Then, on 15 Dec 1827, there is an entry that mentions an ‘execution’ (court order?) for James Blake against Oliver Perry in favor of Allen Cowdrick, Thomas Clayton, and Lewis Chambers; as he ran a boarding house, it may be that he had an order to evict Oliver Perry, but it’s not clear who the other names were or why this would be in their favor.

James does not appear anywhere in Ocean County on the 1830 Federal Census. There is only one man by that name in New Jersey in 1830, though it’s not certain this is the same man as he may have left the state or died before then.


[i] Dover Forge Account Book, 1826-1828, Dover Forge Collection, Monmouth County Historical Society, Freehold, New Jersey

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