Career
Blake was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 25, 1831. He received a classical education and moved to Orange, New Jersey, in 1846. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1852 and commenced practice in Orange.
Blake was elected as a Republican to the Forty-sixth Congress, serving in office from March 4, 1879, to March 3, 1881, but declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1880.
After leaving Congress, he resumed his law practice in Orange, and became president of the Citizens" Gas Light Company of Newark, New Jersey, in 1893. He died in West Orange, New Jersey, on October 10, 1899, and was interred in Rosedale Cemetery in Orange.