Drakes and Markes

From: "David Drake" Subject: Drakes and Markes Date: Wednesday, 21 May 2003 8:31 AM Dear Roy, I continue to be impressed and thankful for your wonderful website. It's a great asset, and much appreciated by all! I'm sorry to trouble you with an e-mail, but I wanted to ask your advice, as my question involves the Drakes of Pitminster/Churchstanton. Here is the background to the question, in brief: I'm from the same lineage as Paul Drake and Charles E. Drake M.D., and I'm indebted to their work. As you know, Charles' excellent piece on the Isle of Wight VA Drakes traces our earliest known ancestor to Richard Drake (m. Thomazine). He finds records of the baptisms of Richard's two sons (John and Thomas) in South Petherton, Somerset, in the early 1650's, but he finds no mention of Richard and Thomazine in any of the town's (or church's) earlier records. The reason for their presence in South Petherton is not understood, and their ancestry is the heart of my question. The vicar of the church at the time of the baptism(ca. 1650, if I recall) was Robert Marke. He simultaneously served another church, in Merriott, which, although nearby, was considered a part of Crewkerne (and thus, I believe, a part of Chard). Now, in ca. 1641, a Robert Marke signed the Protestation oath, in Pitminster. I am told by a Marke researcher that this record is at the House of Lords. An interesting set of coincidences and questions emerge: Pitminster was an area of settlement for a significant Drake lineage; there is, simultaneously, a coincidence of the Robert Marke name in both Pitminster and South Petherton (and in a parish associated with Chard); and we have a Richard Drake in South Petherton, having his sons baptized by Robert Marke, even though Richard seems to have no prior documentable connection with the town. (pardon the syntax of that last paragraph...I hope you see what I was trying to say!) I'm sure genealogy is filled with these intriguing coincidences, and I'm sure this was nothing more. Still, I wanted to pass it along to you in case it might be of some future value. Thanks for your patience if you've read this far!! Best, David Rush Drake (Massachusetts)