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3 unusual facts about Christopher Blackett


Christopher Blackett

Blackett was born a Blackett of Wylam and the eldest son by the second marriage of John Blackett, a High Sheriff of Northumberland, whose family descended from Christopher Blackett, an elder brother of Sir William Blackett, and Alice Fenwick, sole heir of her father.

His youngest son, Rev John Alexander Blackett (1803-1865), in 1855 inherited the Whitfield, Northumberland estates of his wife's uncle, William Ord, and changed his name to Blackett-Ord.

John Blackett

He was the oldest son of Christopher Blackett, a Member of Parliament representing Northumberland South.


Blackett of Wylam

William Hedley, Timothy Hackworth and Jonathan Forster all worked at Wylam Colliery for Christopher Blackett (1751-1829), and there produced the famous early steam engines Puffing Billy (1813-1814) and Wylam Dilly (1815)

Flued boiler

Through the Wylam colliery and its owner Christopher Blackett, Hedley would have been familiar with Trevithick's engine.


see also

Blackett of Wylam

John Blackett (died 1714) was the son of John (above), grandson of Christopher Blackett of Hoppyland (1612-1675) and the greatnephew of Sir William Blackett.