# Adam Blakeman

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{{Short description|English priest (1598–1665)}}
{{for|the English footballer|Adam Blakeman (footballer)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2019}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix = Reverend
| name             = Adam Blakeman
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|1598|06|10|df=y}}
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1665|09|07|1598|06|10|df=y}}
| education        = Christ Church, Oxford
| occupation       = Reverend
}}

'''Rev. Adam Blakeman''' (10 June 1598 – 7 September 1665) was an English [Church of England](/source/Church_of_England) clergyman who was an early migrant to [New England](/source/New_England) and a founder of [Stratford, Connecticut](/source/Stratford%2C_Connecticut).

Blakeman was born in [Staffordshire](/source/Staffordshire), [England](/source/England) in 1598, according to his matriculation records at [Christ Church College, Oxford](/source/Christ_Church_College%2C_Oxford).<ref>Starr, Frank Farnsworth, ''Various Ancestral Lines of James Goodwin and Lucy (Morgan) Goodwin of Hartford, CT'', Volume 2, page 75 (1915)</ref>  (There is a 1596 baptismal record for an Adam Blakeman at [Gnosall](/source/Gnosall), [Staffordshire](/source/Staffordshire), but the [Oxford University](/source/Oxford_University) records suggest that was a different (though likely related) Adam Blakeman.)

Blakeman matriculated (entered college) at [Christ Church, Oxford](/source/Christ_Church%2C_Oxford) on 28 May 1617. He was a preacher for some years in [Great Bowden](/source/Great_Bowden), [Leicestershire](/source/Leicestershire), and in [Derbyshire](/source/Derbyshire), and in 1638 went to [Connecticut](/source/Connecticut).  In 1639 he led the original settlers of [Stratford, Connecticut](/source/Stratford%2C_Connecticut), and served as the first minister of the church until his death on 7 September 1665.<ref>Sibley, John Langdon. ''Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts''. Charles William Sever (1881), Vol. II, p. 140.</ref>

Stratford, like a number of other [New England](/source/New_England) towns of the 1630s, was founded as a [Utopian](/source/Utopian) community by [Puritans](/source/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 17th century (and until well into the 19th century) 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'' spelling of the name, although in the 18th century some alternated between the two spellings three times in successive generations. Records of Christ Church, Oxford use the Blakeman spelling and the name Blakeman is still common in [Coventry](/source/Coventry), England. ([Office for National Statistics](/source/Office_for_National_Statistics), [UK Census 2001](/source/UK_Census_2001))

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blakeman, Adam}}
Category:1596 births
Category:1665 deaths
Category:People from the Borough of Stafford
Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford
Category:People from Stratford, Connecticut
Category:People from Great Bowden

{{England-reli-bio-stub}}

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Adam Blakeman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Blakeman) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Blakeman?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.