Blackstocks are a Scottish family whose Chief was officially recognized in about 1565 where his Arms “Blackstock of that ilk” appears in one of the Lyon Court heraldic manuscripts namely the Workmans Manuscript where the Arms are blazoned “Argent, three trunks of trees, coupled under and above sable”.
The name comes from a locality (now unknown) although the many of the family resided in the Dumfries area, becoming affiliated with the Maxwells in 1570 when John Blakstok signed the Band of Dumfries.
William Blackstok witnessed a notarial instrument of 1517, also William Blackstock (the same?) was appointed clerk of court in 1524.
John Blackstock had a tenement in Edinburgh in 1549 and 150 years later before Agnes Blackstock had a tenement in the same city.
James Blackstok was a tenant of Andrew Hay of Craignethan in 1659, John Blackstock was a merchant in Dumfries in 1641, Robert Blackstock was a tenant in the barony of Mousewall in 1673, and John Blackstocks was burgess of Peebles in 1689.
David Blackstocks was appointed constable in Littleclyde in 1712, William Blackstock was a tanner in Minigaff in 1767, and Robert Blackstock was a shoemaker in Dumfries in 1738.
Nine more of the name are recorded in the Commissariot Record of Dumfries.
According to Gilbert Burns, a Miss Jane Blackstock was the heroine of his brother Robert Burns poem ‘O Poortith Cauld’.