William John Blake : Short Biography

William John Blake

William John Blake was born in 1840 on his family’s estate, Blakemount in Kilkeedy Parish, east County Clare. Soon after this, the family lost their land during the famine, and this probably precipitated William’s decision to emigrate to Australia and the Victorian gold fields around Ballarat.
It is not known when he arrived but in 1865 he was established in Ballarat as a coachbuilder, and in February 1866 he married a 19-year-old Irish lass, Honora Reilly, at Saint Aloysius Catholic Church in Ballarat. Honora had come from Gort in County Galway, Ireland emigrating to Australia with at least two of her sisters Margaret and Catherine. It is possible that William and Honora may have first met in Ireland as Gort was only 12 kilometres from Blakemount. Their first son, William John Blake Jr was born in Castlemaine near Ballarat in 1868.
The family then moved to Eldorado another gold field further north in Victoria. William established a business here as a Coachbuilder, and two more children are born, Alecia in 1870 and Edward who is born in 1871 but dies in 1872.
In 1874 the family moved to Wagga Wagga, further north in New South Wales. There was no gold here, but it was a rapidly developing service centre with a population of over 1,000 and William quickly established a very successful coach building business on Johnston Street. He was so successful that in 1880 he sold the business to a former employee, Peter Rae and another man, John Wright to concentrate on his growing landholdings around Wagga.
Serious problems become evident however when Honora left William and Wagga, and with their daughter, Alecia moved to Sydney where she established a grocery and drapery business. William forms a relationship with another lady, Minnie Bollard who is 27 years younger than himself. The relationship was confirmed by the birth of a son in 1890.
In June 1891, there is significant flooding on the Murrumbidgee river which severely affects William’s main landholding at Cockatoo Island, downstream from Wagga. He is declared bankrupt in 1892. In a submission to the bankruptcy hearing, he states that he is “not expert in writing or in keeping books”. Expressing surprise about the proceedings, he said that he “always considered he had a surplus and never regarded himself as insolvent”. He concedes that the impact of the flood on his 9,000 sheep at Cockatoo Island was substantial, but he blames foreclosure on mortgages by the Australian Joint Stock Bank for his financial difficulties.
The couple has another son who is born in Wagga in 1892, but by 1893 their third child is born in Cunnamulla, Queensland. By 1895, at the age of 55, William had established himself again as a coachbuilder in Cunnamulla, Queensland. Minnie died at the age of 33 suffering from puerperal fever following the birth of their sixth child in 1900.
The business thrives and makes the transition to motor vehicles over time. In 1915, William’s son Ashley joined his father at was then known as W. J. Blake’s Coach and Motor Works. Ashley enlisted in the AIF as a motor driver in 1916 but on his return in 1919, he re-joined the family business which later became a car dealership known as Blake’s Motor Garage located at Blake’s Corner, Cunnamulla. The Blake’s Motor Garage was sold following Ashley’s death in 1939.
William John Blake Jr, the son of William and Honora, had remained in Wagga when his father moved to Cunnamulla. He established a successful business as an auctioneer and commission agent which still exists to this day in Wagga. He was a Wagga Wagga Council Alderman from 1899 until 1908 and served as Wagga’s Mayor from 1904 to 1906.
William Jr kept in touch with his father in Cunnamulla and together with his half-brother, Ashley he was an informant listed on the death certificate of their father, William John Blake Sr when he died in Cunnamulla at the age of 82 in 1922.