Blake house is named after Robert Blake, b. 1599, d. Aug. 7, 1657.

One of England's greatest admirals, established the navalsupremacy of Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth over the Dutch and Spanish. He earned his first laurels by resolute defence of Lyme and Taunton for the parliamentarians in the English Civil War. Entrusted with the demoralized parliamentarian navy in 1649, he nevertheless destroyed the royalist fleet. The first Anglo-Dutch War (1652-54) consisted largely of Blake's victories over the ably led Dutch fleets. In 1655, Blake ravaged the pirate strongholds of the Barbary States, and in the winter of 1656-57 he blockaded the entire Spanish coast. His last naval action was to destroy a Spanish fleet at Tenerife, Canary Islands, in April 1657.