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[IN MEMORY OF?]
ROBERT BLANTERN,
OF THE HARE BUTTS,
WHO DIED NOVEMBER 14TH 1879
AGED 72 YEARS

ALSO OF MARY ANN
RELICT OF THE ABOVE,
WHO DIED AUGUST 31ST 1882
AGED 75 YEARS.

ALSO OF JOHN
SON OF THE ABOVE,
WHO DIED JUNE 26TH 1882
AGED 37 YEARS.

ALSO OF MARY ANN
DAUGHTER OF THE ABOVE
AND WIFE OF HENRY SWINNERTON
OF BERRINGTON,
WHO DIED DECEMBER 22ND 1892
AGED 58 YEARS.

Robert Blantern was baptised at Whitchurch, Shropshire on 24 Sep 1807, son of John and Sarah Blantern. He married Mary Ann Slack at Great Bolas on 19 Mar 1834; Mary had been baptised in that parish on 8 Mar 1807, daughter of Samuel Slack and his wife Sarah.

Robert and Mary Ann Blantern appear on the 1871 census living at Waters Upton; Robert was described as a landowner. Living with the couple was their daughter Eliza, aged 24, who had been born at High Offley, Staffordshire. Another daughter of this couple was named after her mother: Mary Ann Blantern was baptised at Great Bolas on 12 Nov 1834 although it appears that her birthplace was Waters Upton.

The will of Robert Blantern of Harebutts in Waters Upton, farmer, was proved on 9 Dec 1879 at Shrewsbury by two of his offspring: son John Blantern, a farmer living at the Old Lea, High Offley, and daughter Eliza Morgan, wife of Robert Morgan, of Bolas Heath. Robert Blantern’s personal estate was valued at under £600.

Robert’s son John Blantern was born at Waters Upton in 1845. The 1881 census shows John, unmarried, a farmer of 148 acres, living at Old Lea Farm, High Offley, Staffordshire with his widowed mother. Both he and his mother died in 1882. John’s will was proved at Lichfield exactly one month after his death; the probate record shows that he died at Old Lea and that his personal estate was valued at £880 9s. 5d.

For more on Robert and Mary Ann’s daughter Mary Ann Swinnerton, see Memorial Inscriptions: Swinnerton.