[3] After College, Blake began a four-year apprenticeship as a clerk at the Toronto mercantile firm of Ross, Mitchell and Company, beginning around 1850.
[1] In 1872, Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald appointed Blake junior vice-chancellor on the Ontario Court of Chancery to replace Oliver Mowat, who had resigned to succeed his brother as premier.
[2] In 1881, Blake resigned from the bench and returned to the practice of law at his old firm, of which his partner, John Alexander Boyd, had just left following his appointment as Chancellor of the High Court of Justice of the Province of Ontario.
Together, Rebecca and Samuel were the parents of one son and two daughters, including:[2] His wife died in London, England while visiting her sister Margaret.
After her death, the 74-year-old Blake married his 32-year-old housekeeper and private secretary, Elizabeth Baird (1876–1969) on October 18, 1909, in Rio de Janeiro.