Blackburnes at the Crossroads of History - Paperback

by Ivan Lee Weir (Author)

"Michael Blackburne was hanged at Tyburn Prison for a crime he did not commit." So begins a fascinating short history of one of England's forgotten heroes, Michael Blackburne, who died because he supported the monarchy in the Second English Civil War, 1647-1649, called by Charles Spencer "the bloodiest war in English history." The author is a member of the Blackburn lineage, which stretches backward to a time before the Norman Conquest led by William the Conqueror in 1066. Weir has searched digitized libraries and documents of antiquity to learn the true story of Coronet Michael Blackburne, and besides writing an interesting historical narrative setting forth the results of his study, he has imaginatively brought the Blackburnes to life in a modern 'restoration' play-The Tragedy of Coronet Michael Blackburne--that takes as its central characters Blackburn(e)s from the 17th and 20th centuries.

Author Biography

Ivan Lee Weir is the great grandson of Ida Mae and Oscar Taylor Blackburn who emigrated to the United States from Pontefract, England in 1887. The Blackburns spent most of their long, 68 year married lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota where Oscar earned a living as a silver and copperplate engraver, as well as running an antiquarian bookstore, dealing in rare and antique artifacts, starting a watch repair shop when he was 80, and with his wife assembling a bookplate collection containing over 3,200 items ranging in age from the late 16th through the first half of the 20th century. This collection is now owned by the author whose two books pursue themes taken from the Blackburn engravings. Born and raised in northern Minnesota, Ivan Lee Weir left during the early 1960s to 'travel the world', first to Afghanistan in the Peace Corps, and later to Lesotho, Africa as a data consultant. He earned master's and Ph. D. degrees in literature and sociology, and after his retirement from a career in social science research, took several trips to Central American countries to study Spanish. He traveled with his wife to Europe and the British Isles, including a stop in Pontefract. In 2015, he published a privately printed book called The Ida Mae and Oscar Taylor Blackburn Bookplate Collection with his daughter.