JOSEPH BLAGUE, fourth child and eldest surviving son of Joseph Blague, of Saybrook, Connecticut, was born in Saybrook, October 7, 1694. His mother was Martha, daughter of Nathaniel Kirtland, of Lynn, Massachusetts; after her husband's death, in September, 1704, she married Captain William Southworth, of Little Compton, Rhode Island, by whom she had a son, who graduated in 1727. Daniel Buckingham, of Saybrook, was appointed young Blague's guardian in 1709. His father's will had provided that this son should assist his mother in the shop, and that a younger son, Samuel, should “be brought up to learning, if he be capable of it;" but this order was not followed.
He settled in his native town as a merchant, and owned a wharf erected by his father on Saybrook Point. From 1731 until his death he held a commission as justice of the peace. He was also a deacon in the church at Saybrook, now Old Saybrook, for some years before his death. He died in Saybrook, September 28, 1742, in his 48th year.
He married, April 18, 1717, Mary, daughter of the Hon. John Hamlin, of Middletown (in the record of the marriage she is called “of Saybrook”), who bore him five sons and two daughters, all of whom, except one son, survived him. His widow died in 1762. The youngest son graduated at this College in 1750. The elder daughter married the Rev. William Hart (Y. C. 1732).
Mr. Blague was a large owner of landed property and of shipping, and left an estate of over £9000. In a codicil to his will (September 15, 1742) he directs that, of his “interest in the Library belonging to Saybrook, Lyme, &c., and which is to y” vallue of thirty pounds,” one half shall be sold, and “y" money laid out for y' benefit and in order to the education of the Nehantick Indians in Primers, Psalters, and Bibles, if they shall need.”
