• DRAKE ANCESTRY
  • ROYAL LINE TO DRAKE FAMILY
  • SUMMARY OF ANCESTRY: JOHN, of Exmouth, Eng., b. 1360
    • Three Hundred Colonial Ancestors and War Service
    Author: Elizabeth M. Leach Rixford
    Call # R929.1 R62t
    Tuttle Co. Vermont 1934 Pages 80-83

    DRAKE ANCESTRY

    (Page 582) Arms--Argent; a wivern with wings displayed; gules. It is a maxim with the heralds that the more simple a coat of arms, the more ancient it is; this is too obvious to need any other proof in support of it, than the repetition of the maxim; which eminently applies to the arms of DRAKE.

    The crest of this coat, as given by Guilim, is an "Eagle displayed," which seems to have been laid aside for the "dexter arm erect, holding a battle-axe," some ages ago, but wherefore does not appear. The motto has always been: Aquila non capit muscas.

    The figure in the shield, or escutcheon, is called by heralds a Wivern, which is another name for the fabled Dragon of antiquity. Draco or Drago, is the Roman name of Drake, and as late as the time of Sir Francis Drake, writers frequently coupled his name with that of Dragon. Lope de Vega calls him by no other name throughout his long poem of ten books, which he composed about him; and Sir Winston Churchill (who married a DRAKE) says, Sir Francis found no Dragon more terrible than himself to guard the treasures of the Spaniards; and surely the Spaniards had reason, if any people could have, to imagine that Sir Francis Drake was descended and that, too, in no remote degree, from the old master of all that was terrible.

    The Romans had among their legions DRACONARII, who were the bearers of their standards; hence the name DRAKE may have been derived from that Roman officer. The Romans got the name from the Greeks, and it seems to have been known other than an ideal one, from the Mediterranean to the Baltic, in earlier and later times.

    We find that the DRAGON was displayed in the banners of the Britons as early as 1448, and that churches have borne the emblem from time immemorial.

    Another coat of arms was granted by Queen Elizabeth to Sir Francis, the great navigator. The family of Drake has been distinguished in England from the earliest ages by a long array of noble men--soldiers, navigators, clergymen, martyrs and authors. But our limits forbid us from entering more into etails; the curious reader will find these items in the little work from which we have made the preceding extracts. It is sufficient for our purpose to say that among the many noble families of the name, in Great Britain, the family who held their seat at Ashe were ever prominent, and from them it is supposed that the Drakes of New England were descended.

    Of this family was JOHN, one of the Council of Plymouth, a member of the original company established by King James, in 1606, for settling New England. Several of his sons came hither and settled, viz.: Richard, who came over with two or more sons, and nine daughters, and settled at Hampton, N. H.; and John, who came to Boston in 1630 and settled in Windsor. From these are descended all of the name in America.

    John married Elizabeth Rogers.

    JOHN DRAKE, SR. (1640), had a lot granted to him twenty-two and one half rods wide. He had three sons and two daughters, all born before he came to Windsor. His son Job had a lot granted to him. He married Mary, daughter of Henry Wolcott, 1646, and had two sons and five daughters. The second son, John, had a lot granted to him. He married Hannah, daughter of Deacon Moore, and had five sons and six daughters, 1649-1674. The third son, Jacob, married Mary, daughter of John Bissell, and had no children. He had the homestead.

    JOHN DRAKE, JR.2, married Hannah Moore, November 30, 1648; was one of the first settlers at Simsbury; inventory presented September 12, 1689;

    Simsbury property amounted to œ393/15s.; had a son John (now of Danbury) who in 1708 chose a guardian; she d. February 16, 1686.

    Children:

    JOHN3, b. Sept. 14, 1649.

    JOB4, b. June 15, 1651.

    HANNAH, b. Aug. 8, 1653.

    ENOCH5, b. Dec. 8, 1655.

    RUTH, b. Dec. 8, 1657.

    JOHN DRAKE, the father of Ruth, was descended from the illustrious English family of that name, which had its seat at Ashe.

    In England the name has long been borne by many distinguished as navigators, clergymen, martyrs and authors. Among the foremost of these English families is that which has its seat at Ashe, County Devon, and from it descended the greater portion of the Drakes of Massachusetts and

    Connecticut.

    The line of ancestry of the Windsor (Conn.) Drakes may be thus summarized:

    ROYAL LINE TO DRAKE FAMILY 

          EDWARD I, King of England.                   = Eleanor, dau. of Ferdinand 

          III, King of 

                                                         Castile. 

    

          Lady Elizabeth Plantagenet.                  = Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of 

          Hereford 

                                                         and Essex. 

    

          Lady Margaret de Bohun, m. in 1325.          = Hugh de Courtenay, 2nd Earl 

          of Devon. 

    

          Margaret, dau. of Hugh, Earl of Devon.       = Theobald Granville, son of 

          Sir Theobald 

                                                         Granville. 

    

          William Granville, of Stow, in Cornwall,     = Philippa, dau. of William 

          Lord Bonville. 

          d. about 1450. 

    

          Sir Thomas Granville, of Stow, High          = Elizabeth, sister of Sir 

          Theobald Gorges. 

          Sheriff, 21 Edward IV. 

    

          Sir Thomas Granville, of Stow, K. B., d.     = Isabel, dau. of Sir Otes 

          Gilbert, of Compton. 

          6 Henry VIII. 

    

          Roger Granville, Esq., of Stowe, Sheriff,    = Margaret, dau. and coheir 

          of Richard Whitley, 

          Temp. Henry VIII, d. in 1524.                  of Efford. 

    

          Amyre, dau. of Roger Granville, of Stow.     = John Drake, Esq., of Ash, 

          Co. Devon, d.1558.
    SEE DRAKE ancestry No. 6, John Drake.
    (See Burke's "Royal Families," Vol. II, Pedigree cxxix.)
    References: "History of Windsor, Conn.," 1859, page 583.
    "Memorial History of Hartford, Conn.," Vol. II, pg. 549.

    For Royal Line, See Vol. I, Families Directly Descended from all the Royal Families in Europe.

    SUMMARY OF ANCESTRY:

    1. JOHN, of Exmouth, Eng., b. 1360; m. Christian, dau. of John Billet; he acquired the estate of Ashe. His widow m. (2) Richard Francheyney.

    2. JOHN, m. Christian, dau. of John Antage, and settled at Otterton; founded the Otterton family of Drake, through his son. He was unlawfully excluded from Ashe by his half-brother, Christopher Francheyney

    (son of his mother by her second marriage).

    3. JOHN, inherited Otterton; m. a Cruwys, of Cruwys, Morchand.

    4. JOHN, of Otterton, m. Agnes, dau. of John Killoway.

    5. JOHN, settled first at Axmouth, and by a suit-at-law recovered Ashe.

    He m. Margaret, dau. of John Dole of Rill.

    6. JOHN, inherited Ashe; m. Anne, dau. of Roger Greenville; his son, Bernard, inherited Ashe.

    7. ROBERT, settled at Wiscomb, parish of South Leigh, County Devon.

    8. WILLIAM, of Wiscomb, County Devon.

    9. JOHN, b. at Wiscomb, County Devon, about 1590 or 1600; m. Elizabeth Rogers. He came to Boston about 1639; he d. from the result of an injury, Aug. 17, 1659. His widow d. Oct. 7, 1681, it is stated, "at 100th year of age." If so, she must have been several years older than her husband, or else, which is more probable, he was b. at a considerably earlier date than stated above.

    10. JOHN, b. about 1635; m. Hannah, dau. of Thomas Moore. ("Soc. Col. Wars," page 151--John Drake, Jr., 1656-1739, deputy to General Court Assembly of N. J., 1698; King Philip's War, page 450--John Drake credit 02-1400.

    11. RUTH, b. Dec. 1, bapt. Dec. 6, 1657; m. Samuel Barber, of Windsor, Jan. 25, 1677; Samuel Barber was bapt. Oct. 1, 1648.

    12. RUTH BARBER, b. July 24, 1683; m. (2) Apr. 18, 1706, William Phelps, who was b. Feb. 4, 1668/9.

    13. LIEUT. SAMUEL2 PHELPS, b. Apr. 5, 1708; d. Aug. 14/17, 1754; m. 1731, Ruth Phelps, who was b. Jan. 23, 1713.

    14. JOEL PHELPS, b. 1732; m. Sept. 8, 1757, Jerusha Nash, b. Oct. 5, 1734; d. Sept. 20, 1813.

    15. PHINEAS PHELPS, b. Apr. 10, 1707; d. Apr. 20, 1813; m. Lydia Lawrence, who was b. Jan. 15, 1762, and d. Sept. 20, 1813.

    16. NASH DAVID PHELPS, b. Oct. 4, 1796; d. Apr. 15, 1884; m. St. Armand West, Que., Apr. 20, 1821, Elizabeth Hungerford, b. Feb. 7, 1798, and d. Jan. 7, 1878.

    From here same as Summary of Arms Ancestry, 8th to 10th Generations; Colonial Daughters of the 17th Century, p. 136, No. 772; and Daughters of the American Colonists, 1931, pp. 26-36, No. 2089; ancestry traced by the author of this book.