Blackman, John
BLACKMAN, JOHN
Carthusian biographer of Henry VI; b. Bath and Wells diocese, 1407–08; d. January 1485(?). Blackman was educated at Merton College, Oxford; he was a fellow of the college c. 1439 and subwarden c. 1443. From 1444 to 1452 he was precentor of Eton College, and in December of 1452 he was nominated warden of King's Hall, Cambridge. He had received an M. A. from Oxford by 1439 and a bachelor of theology by 1452. In July of 1457, he resigned his post as warden and subsequently entered the London Charterhouse, possibly as a clericus redditus rather than as a monk. Later he moved to witham charterhouse in Somerset; it is probable he died there.
As a secular priest, Blackman was closely associated with Henry VI, and c. 1480 he composed a brief essay in praise of the king's virtues. Blackman also owned a large collection of manuscripts, some written in his own hand, consisting of patristic, academic, and devotional texts. He gave most of them to the Witham Charterhouse.
Bibliography: j. blackman, Collectarium mansuetudinum et bonorum morum regis Henrici VI, first printed by Coplande c. 1510, ed. and tr. m. r. james, Henry the Sixth (Cambridge, Eng. 1919). e. m. thompson, The Carthusian Order in England (New York 1930) 316–322. a. b. emden, Biographical Register of the Scholars of the University of Cambridge before 1500 (Cambridge, Eng. 1963) 670–671.
[r. lovatt]