According to Shattuck’s Memorials251, “(1.) JAMES BLOOD, who came to Concord about 1638, and d. there intestate, Dec. 17, 1683, is supposed to have been the ancestor of the families in New England that have borne his name. It is said by tradition that he was from Cheshire, England, though two of his sons, in 1649, then in Concord, sold an estate in Puddington, Northamptonshire, which might have been their place of nativity. He was a contemporary, and is said (with how much truth we are unable to say,) to have been a brother or near relative of Col. Thomas Blood, who d. Aug. 24, 1680, distinguished in history, during the reign of Charles II., as one of the most remarkable characters of his age. (See note in Scott’s novel -- Peverill of the Peak, near the end. See also, Pictorial History of England, Vol. III., p. 708.) The family possessed large wealth. Ellen, the wife of James Blood, d. in Concord, Aug. 1, 1674. The following are supposed to have been their children:...” Details on their five children follow; the data for Richard, who was an original proprietor of Groton, appear under his name.

Note that Claude W. Barlow, cited in M. B. Lawrence252 doesn’t believe that Richard Blood was the son of James and Ellen Blood: “The oft-repeated statement that he [Richard Blood] was son of JAMES and ELLEN BLOOD, who came to Concord about 1638, seems most improbable, in view of the fact that Richard was not mentioned in the extended controversy over the estate of James Blood.”

Map to be entered from Wheeler’s Concord showing location of James Blood’s house; this house was on the site that was later occupied by Rev. William Emerson’s Old Manse on the eastern approach to the North Bridge.

----------------

Re: James Blood (1605) & Ralph Waldo Emerson
Posted by: Dee (jhsb@aol.com)
Date: January 27, 1999
Reply to: Re: James Blood (1605) & Ralph Waldo Emerson

Peter,

You do ask interesting questions. As posted before James Blood's
house went to his son James 2, dtr Sarah (Blood) Wilson, dtr Hannah
(Wilson) Brown to son David Brown who sold it in 1768 to Rev.
William Emerson, grand father of Ralph Waldo Emerson. (Later the
home of Nathaniel Hawthorne).

The curator of the Concord Library, kindly sent me the following
information with regards to the Old Manse containing parts of the
original James Blood home.

'The answer is that this is unclear. Paul Brooks's book The Old
Manse and the People who lived there (1983) comments on the
thoughts of Concord historian Ruth Wheeler on this question. 'In
her paper entitled North Bridge Neighbours, she writes 'When the
Wilson house became available, it seemed a suitable place for the
parsonage. Extensive changes were made. Perhaps the old house was
torn down or burned. It seems probable that the central hall and
the two north rooms were added, the roof raised to make four
chambers upstairs, and the second chimney built to provide four
more fireplaces'. Recent reserch, however, has revealed no trace of
a former building incorporated into the present one.'

On your question re Paul Revere and Bloods of 1776. It appears we
did better than that. Capt. John Buttrick the Colonial officer who
gave the famous order at the North Bridge' "Fire, for God's sake,
fire" and 'started' the revolution's first attack. His ancestory is

Robert 1 Blood and Elizabeth Willard (d of Maj. Simon) Elizabeth 2
Blood and Samuel Buttrick (William 1) Johnathan 3 Buttrick and
Elizabeth Wooley, Capt John 4 Buttrick.

Capt. Isaac Davis, the first man killed at the Battle of the North
Bridge, Concord, 'appears to be a decendant of Dolar Davis and
Majory Willard (sister of Maj. Simon Willard)' re Concord library,
but his line is not clear.