Hunter, trapper, and diarist born in Hamilton Inlet (Nunatsiavut) in 1843 – died in Hamilton Inlet in 1935.
Thomas L. Blake was born in 1843 in Hamilton Inlet, a small village on the coast of present-day Nunatsiavut. He was the eldest son of William Blake Jr. and Lydia Campbell. He was of both English and Inuit descent: his paternal grandfather, William Blake, came from Devonshire, England to work on fishing vessels, while his maternal grandmother was Inuk. His mother taught him to read and write, and he later left home to study in Nova Scotia. When he returned, he worked as a teacher in Lester Point. He spent most of his life hunting, trapping, and fishing with his relatives. Thomas L. Blake was married four times; his wives were Hester Ann Sheppard, Sarah Jane Oliver Blake, Mary Goudie, and Caroline Osmond. He had at least two children, daughters named Millicent Blake Lodor and Flora Baikie.
In 1883, Thomas L. Blake began to keep a written diary. The diary’s short entries include information about his work and travels as well as observations about his community, the weather, and the climate. By keeping this diary, he was following in the footsteps of his mother, Lydia Campbell, who was the first person from Nunatsiavut to publish a book (Sketches of Labrador Life, 1894). Other members of his extended family were also writers; these include Margaret Baikie, author of Labrador Memories (1918), and Elizabeth Goudie, author of Woman of Labrador (1973). Thomas L. Blake’s daughter, Millicent Blake Lodor, carried on this tradition when she published Daughter of Labrador in 1989.
In 1977, Thomas L. Blake’s other daughter, Flora Baikie, donated a copy of his diary to Them Days, an organization that keeps an archive of documents relating to Labrador and publishes a quarterly oral history magazine. Excerpts from Thomas L. Blake’s diary were published in Them Days in 1984 and in 1999. In 2001, Them Days published the full text in book form under the title The Diary of Thomas L. Blake, 1883-1890.
Thomas L. Blake died in 1935 in Hamilton Inlet, at the age of ninety-two.