GENEALOGICAL SUMMARY: FOUR GENERATIONS

1. Richard1 Drake, a serge maker who was bom about 1610-20; married Thomazine [--?--] before 1647 (possibly by 1640, if they were also parents of the Mary who was transported with them).(34) Residents of South Petherton Parish in county Somerset, England, during the period 1647-50,(35) they removed to Bristol in the adjacent county of Gloucester, where--on 6 September 1658--they indentured themselves to Andrew Ball, mariner, in return for transportation to the New World.(36) Neither Richard and Thomazine nor the Mary Drake who shipped with them have been located past that date. Known children were:

+ 2. i. John2 Drake, baptized 3 May 1647; married about 1675, Jemima
Parnell; died 1689-94.
+ 3. ii. Thomas Drake, baptized 7 June 1650; died after 1686.

 

2. John2 Drake (Richard1) was baptized 3 May 1647 in South Petherton Parish, county Somerset, England,(37) and was presumably born within the preceding eight months, as his ten-year indenture (on 6 September 1658) (38) suggests that he was still eleven years old. He is presumed to have served his term in Isle of Wight County--but probably not for the Bristol couple Edward and Elizabeth Gibbs, who held the indenture of young Thomas Drake, since John's headright was claimed by both Hodges Council and Colonel Arthur Smith.(39) About 1675, John married Jemima Parnell, sister of Thomas Parnell.(40) He patented land in Isle of Wight in 1682 but forfeited it by 1690, the year that the tract was regranted to one William Fowler.(41)

His default might be attributed to his death, perhaps from the devastating plague that swept Virginia in the winter of 1689.(42) His widow appears in two records of 1694, including a deposition in which she gives her age and implies her widowhood.(43) She has not been tracked past that date.

There is no documented list of the children of John and Jemima Drake. In the absence of direct evidence identifying offspring of either John or Thomas, an exhaustive study of available records has been made for indirect clues. It is obvious that there were two sets of Johns, Thomases, and Richards in the next generation in Isle of Wight. A relationship is obvious, and there are no other candidates for their parentage except the original John and Thomas from South Petherton and Bristol. On the basis of ages, property locations, and narning patterns, a reconstruction is proposed. Generally speaking, of the two sets of siblings within the third generation (i.e., second generation in Isle of Wight), one set was clearly older, the other younger. Of these, the older set apparently remained in the Isle of Wight area. The younger set moved to northern North Carolina about 1715-25 and were born too late to have been children of John2 Drake (Richard1).

Probable issue of John2 and Jemima (Parnell) Drake were as follows: (44)

+ 4. i. Thomas3 (TD) Drake, born about 1675; married about 1702, Ann Griffin; died between 15 March 1753 and 11 May 1758 in Southampton County, Virginia.
+ 5. ii. Richard (R) Drake, born about 1677; married Sarah [--?--]; died before 1761.
+ 6. iii. John Drake, born about 1680; died after 15 March 1753.

 

3. Thomas2 Drake (Richard1) was baptized 7 June 1650 in South Petherton Parish, county Somerset, England,(45) after a probable birth on 1 April of that year. In the nearby port city of Bristol, on 6 September 1658, his father bound the family to the mariner Andrew Ball to finance their transportation to the New World--young Thomas for a term of twelve years.(46) A record of 1669 shows him serving his indenture in the household of Edward and Elizabeth Gibbs, from whom he was to gain his freedom on 1 April 1671; (47) however, his headright was claimed by Colonel Arthur Smith.(48) Marital information on this Thomas is not known. He appears to be the Thomas Drake who purchased land from Lawrence Hobby in Chowan County, N.C., in 1717;(49) if so, he died by 1727, when his land was sold by his apparent first-born son.(50) There is no known will and no proved list of his children. However, by analogy to the foregoing rationale for the children of John2 Drake, the probable issue of Thomas2 Drake--born while he was still a resident of Isle of Wight--were as follows:

7. i. Aaron3 Drake, born about 1685;(51) witnessed a deed of Barnaby McKinney to Joseph Brachaw, 18 July 1715, in Isle of Wight.(52) As the proposed son of Thomas, he probably moved across the colony line to North Carolina between that summer of 1715 and 1717; by 1719 he had become a patentee himself in Chowan,(53) and in 1720 he was recorded as a member of Captain Robert Patterson's company along Chowan's Meherrin River.(54) In 1723, the year that precinct split to form Bertie, Aaron purchased land from Hobby also; (55) and in 1727 Aaron (with one Robert Scott) sold to Samuel Elson(56) a tract that included the fifty acres Hobby had previously sold to Thomas. Unless there is an unrecorded deed between Thomas and Aaron, this land should have passed to the latter by inheritance.

+ 8. ii. Richard Drake, Jr., born about 1690; married Margaret [--?--]; died between 28 February and 13 September 1759 in Southampton County, Virginia.(57)

9. iii. Arnold Drake, who appears in extant records only at his death. On 21 July l719 in Chowan, the administration of his estate was granted to his widow Mary.(58) The inventory taken shortly after names one Thomas Drake (who could be either father or brother) as a creditor.(59)

+ 10. iv. John Drake, Jr., born about 1695; married Sarah Bryant; died about January 1728/29.(60)

11. v. Thomas Drake, born about 1695.(61) If the 1717 Chowan deed from Hobby and the 1719 reference to one Thomas Drake in the estate of his presumed brother Arnold (62) pertain to his father rather than to him, then the younger Thomas is first found in the North Carolina records in 1725, followed by appearances in 1733/34 and 1739.(63)

 4. Thomas3 (TD) Drake (John2, Richard1), born about 1675;(64) died in Southampton County, Virginia, between 15 March 1753 (the date his will was drafted) and 11 May 1758 (the date of its recording).(65) About 1702, he married Ann Griffin, daughter of Owen and Mary (Hunt) Griffin.(66) Known to researchers as TD, for the mark by which he signed his legal documents, Thomas also appears in records as Thomas, Senr., to distinguish him from his son Thomas and the Thomas Drake who subsequently removed to North Carolina. Thomas3 (TD) patented land in Isle of Wight in 1713, 1723, and 1731;(67) after 1732, he inherited much of the estate of his mother-in-law.(68) He appears consistently in the records of Isle of Wight from 1706 until 1749, when his portion of the county was cut away to form Southampton. Children identified for Thomas 3 (TD) and Ann (Griffin) Drake were as follows: (69)

12. i. John4 Drake, born about 1702.(70)
13. ii. Thomas Drake, who made his will in 1783. (71)
14. iii. William Drake.
15. iv. Lazarus Drake.
16. v. Mary Drake.

5. Richard 3 (R) Drake (John 2, Richard 1), born about 1677;(72) married Sarah [__?__];(73) died between 1757 (when he sold land in Southampton(74)) and 1761 (when his daughter sold lands she had inherited from him).(75) In 1713 Richard patented land in Isle of Wight;(76) and in 1727 he witnessed the will of Mary Bodie, the mother-in-law of Thomas3 (TD) Drake, Richard's proposed brother.(77) Upon the creation of Southampton, Richard's lands (like those of his proposed siblings) fell into the new county. The only known child of Richard3 (R) and Sarah [--?--] Drake was

17. i. Sarah4 Drake, wife of John Oney in 1761.(78)

6. John 3 Drake (John2, Richard1), occasionally called John, Sr., in the records of Isle of Wight to distinguish him from younger Drakes of the same name,(79) was born about 1680;(80) died after the 15 March 1753 draft of his will.(82) John first appears in the records as a tithable of Mrs. Eliza Caufleld in adjacent Surry County in 1696.(83) A 1703 disagreement with William West in Isle of Wight put him under court order to beg West's forgiveness.(84) He patented land in 1725 (86) and appears in other records of 1722/23 and 1736.(85) By an unknown wife, this John was the father of (86)

18. i. Mary4 Drake.
19. ii. Ann Drake.
20. iii. Joshua Drake.
21. iv. Thomas Drake.
22. v. Barnaby Drake.
23. vi. Timothy Drake.
24. vii. Esther Drake.

8. Richard3 Drake (Thomas2, Richard1), born about 1690;(87) appears in records as Jr. to distinguish him from Richard (R) Drake. He patented land in Isle of Wight in 1717,(88) near his Drake cousins,(89) and in 1746 he received patents to still-other tracts of land.(90) His will, dated 28 February 1759, was recorded the following 13 September.(91) His only known wife was Margaret [--?--] who may be the mother of the following children named with her in his will:

25. i. Francis4 Drake, who lived for a time in Edgecombe County, North Carolina. It has been long asserted that he was the Francis known to be a son of the Reverend Bamfield Drake (of the Drakes of Buckland) and hence a collateral descendant of Sir Francis. It is also claimed that he was the father of one James Drake of Nash County, North Carolina (q.v. no. 34). Both assertions, although widely published, lack supporting evidence.(92)
26. ii. Matthew Drake.
27. iii. Nathaniel Drake.
28. iv. Tristam Drake.
29. v. William Drake.
30. vi. Brittain Drake.
31. vii. Richard Drake.
32. viii.Edmond Drake.
33. ix. Martha Drake.

A purported account of the descendants of Richard3 Drake appears in Historical Southern Families;(93) however, this essay contains much misinformation and must be used with caution.

10. John3 Drake, Jr. (Thomas2, Richard1), born about 1695;(94) died between 5 January 1728/29 and May 1729.(95) The name John Drake (presumably his) appears among six Drake signers (including two other Johns) on an Isle of Wight petition dated 22 May 1723.(96) In 1725 he purchased land in Bertie Precinct, North Carolina, from John Tiney.(97) adjacent to the land of one Thomas Drake, who appears to be his brother. About that same year, he married Sarah Bryant, daughter of James Bryant. On 5 January 1728/29 young John drafted his will, naming his father-in-law as executor of his estate.(98) The one child provided for in his will was

34. i. James 4 Drake, born by 1729. On 10 December 1760, as a resident of Edgecombe County, North Carolina, he sold the tract that John, had purchased from John Tiney.(99) As a resident of Nash County (cut from Edgecombe in 1777), he won a place in Wheeler's Historical Sketches of North Carolina for his role in a Revolutionary War skirmish.(100) There are several accounts of different branches of this family; unfortunately, most of them are flawed by their unfounded identification of James as son of Francis Drake of Edgecombe and grandson of the coveted Reverend Bamfield Drake.