Quick Facts
Biography
Nicholas Blundell, of Crosby (1669–1737), lord of the manor of Little Crosby was seated at Crosby Hall, Lancashire, and is best known for his diaries which provide a first-hand insight into the life of 18th-century English gentry.
Family
The eldest son and heir of William Blundell, also known as ‘the Cavalier’ (being a Knight of Malta) for his exploits during the English Civil War, Nicholas Blundell's notebook was first published in 1880 by the Revd. T. E. Gibson A Cavalier’s Note Book and was referenced by Lady Antonia Fraser in her work on English 17th-century women: The Weaker Vessel (Phoenix Press, London, 2002 paperback, originally published 1984).
Blundell married The Hon. Frances Langdale and had two daughters, the younger of whom, Frances (Mrs Henry Peppard), reassumed the surname and arms of Blundell by Royal Licence upon succeeding to the ancestral estates; his descendants remain seated at Crosby Hall, now in Merseyside.
Devoutly Catholic since the Middle Ages, his family were among the leading English recusant landed gentry prior to Catholic Emancipation in the 19th century, and progenitors of various cadet branches including the Weld-Blundell and the Blundell-Hollinshead-Blundell families.