Blake, Sir Thomas (d. 1642), 2nd baronet, landowner, and mayor of Galway, was the elder son, of the two sons and three daughters, of Sir Valentine Blake (qv) of Galway and his first wife, Margaret, daughter of Robuck French of Galway. He was appointed a sheriff of the county of the town of Galway on 29 September 1611 during his father's mayoralty, though the latter was removed from office for failing to swear the oath of supremacy. He married Juliane, daughter of Geoffrey Browne of Galway, and had four sons and several daughters. He succeeded his father as 2nd baronet on 2 January 1634. An alderman of Galway, he acted as the town's MP in 1634–5, probably replacing his late father at a by-election, and served as mayor in 1637–8 and mayor of the staple in 1638. The owner of extensive landed properties in counties Mayo and Galway he was among the Co. Galway landowners who submitted to Lord Deputy Wentworth's (qv) demand to acknowledge royal title to the county for plantation purposes in February 1637. Following the outbreak of the 1641 rising, tensions emerged in Galway between the townspeople and the garrison. Blake was among those killed when a piece of ordnance, built by the inhabitants, exploded upon firing; his eldest son, Valentine (qv), succeeded as 3rd baronet.
Sources
HMC, Rep. 10, app. 5, 463, 484–91; CSPI, 1633–47, 149; G.E.C., Baronetage, i, 244; Martin J. Blake, Blake family records 1300 to 1600 (1902), 148–50; Martin J. Blake, Blake family records 1600 to 1700 (1905), 272–3; Kearney, Strafford in Ire., 247; Burke, Peerage (1970), 274–5; Paul Walsh and Paul Duffy, ‘An extract from Strafford's inquisition: Galway corporation property, 1637’, Galway Arch. Soc. Jn., xlix (1997), 63