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by David Copus
[email protected]
April 17, 2003
Re: Identity of JOHN DRAKE of Windsor, CT
I descend from John Drake, Windsor, CT through
his daughter Elizabeth.
I understand that for many years learned
researchers generally agreed that John Drake of Windsor, CT probably
came to the colonies from England in 1630 on the Mary & John
and was the son of William Drake of Wiscomb, Southleigh parish, co.
Devon, who was unquestionably a member of the royally-descended Drake
family of Ashe, Musbury parish, co. Devon. The pedigree of that
royally-descended family has been heavily documented.
Recently, however, this "traditional" lineage
has been disputed by two very prominent American genealogists, Robert
Charles Anderson, of Salt Lake City, UT, and Douglas Richardson, of
Tucson, AZ. I believe that their rejection of the "traditional"
ancestry of John Drake of Windsor, CT may ultimately prove to be
correct. However, the issue must be considered at least somewhat
unsettled until more definitive evidence is collected.
The evidence supporting the "traditional"
ancestry linking John Drake of Windsor to the Drakes of Ashe is well
known and can be briefly stated as follows: (1) His granduncle,
Richard Drake, mentions John, son of William Drake, in a 1603 will as
being under twelve years of age; (2) The 1619 will of his father,
William Drake, mentions his son John; (3) An Oct. 1630 Massachusetts
Bay Colony record mentions John Drake as applying to be free; (4) John
Reading, of London, refers to John Drake as being in New England in a
May 26, 1631 letter to John Winthrop; (5) Francis Drake (John Drake’s
first cousin once removed) mentions John Drake, son of William, in his
will of 1634 as being in New England; (6) records of Tauton, Plymouth,
show a John Drake owning land around 1638 or 1639; (7) Windsor, CT
records show John Drake owning land in 1640; (8) most of the
passengers on the Mary & John had settled in Windsor, CT by
1635/36; and (9) three children of John Drake of Windsor married
children of adult passengers on the Mary & John. See
Frank B. Gay’s The Descendants of John Drake of Windsor,
Connecticut, The Tuttle Co. 1933, pp. xiii-1, Robert Charles
Anderson, The Great Migration Begins, New England Historical
and Genealogical Society, Boston, 1995, Vol. 1, p. 581, and Burton
Spear, Search for the Passengers of the Mary & John 1630,
Toledo, OH, 1985, Vol. 1, p. 17.
In my admittedly limited and amateurish search,
I have found no scholar who seriously questions the notion that John
Drake of Wiscomb, Southleigh parish, co. Devon [an undisputed member
of the royally-descended Drake family of Ashe] emigrated to the
Massachusetts Bay Colony on the Mary & John in 1630. Nor has my
search found any scholar who disputes the proposition that the John
Drake who (a) applied to be free in Oct. 1630 in the Massachusetts Bay
Colony and (b) was referred to in John Reading’s May 26, 1631 letter
was the same John Drake of Wiscomb, Southleigh parish, co. Devon.
Indeed, Anderson himself declares this conclusion to be "sound and
acceptable." "Some Doubts About the Parentage of John Drake of
Windsor, Connecticut," The American Genealogist, 63:193-206,
193 (Oct. 1988). In addition, all scholars appear to agree that the
John Drake who owned land in Tauton, Plymouth, is the same John Drake
who appears in Windsor, CT, in 1640.
The agreement stops there, however. Anderson and
Richardson, at least, hotly contest the "traditional" conclusion that
the John Drake of Tauton, Plymouth/Windsor, CT is the same John Drake
who applied to be free in Oct. 1630 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
They assert that there were two John Drakes in New England in the
1630s and that John Drake of Windsor was not the John Drake of Wiscomb
and, therefore, was not a member of the Drake family of Ashe.
In the October 1988 TAG article noted above, Anderson first
challenged the "traditional" ancestry of John Drake of Windsor, CT,
and advanced four grounds for his challenge: (1) John Drake of Ashe is
not named in the wills of four immediate family members between 1647
and 1678, thus leading to the likelihood that John Drake of Ashe must
have died before 1647 and therefore could not have been the John Drake
of Windsor, CT, who did not die until 1659; (2) Virtually no overlap
exists in the names used by the Drakes of Ashe and the names of the
sons and grandsons of John Drake of Windsor, thereby leading one to
conclude that they must be from two different families, and John Drake
of Windsor did not name any of this three sons after two male
relatives who had remembered him in their wills; (3) There is no
record in New England of a John Drake between Oct. 19, 1630, when a
John Drake applied to be made free in the Massachusetts Bay Colony,
and 1638/39, when a John Drake was listed as one of the earliest
proprietors of Tauton, Plymouth Colony, thus leading one to conclude
that the John Drake who applied to be made free in 1630 must have
"died shortly after his arrival in New England" without leaving any
other trace of his presence in New England; and (4) John Drake of
Windsor, CT did not have the social status "that one would expect of a
scion of the Drakes of Ashe." See Robert Charles Anderson,
"Some Doubts About the Parentage of John Drake of Windsor,
Connecticut," The American Genealogist, 63:193-206 (Oct. 1988).
More recently, Douglas Richardson has joined
Anderson in challenging the traditional link of the John Drake of
Windsor, CT to the Drakes of Ashe, Musbury parish, co. Devon.
According to Frederick Lewis Weis, Ancestral Roots of Certain
American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700, with Additions and
Corrections by Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr., 7th ed., 1993
[formerly, Ancestral Roots of Sixty Colonists Who Came to New
England between 1623 and 1650], p. 197, in 1993 Douglas Richardson
was preparing for publication an article showing that the John Drake
of Windsor, CT was from Hampton-in-Arden parish, co. Warwick, and not
connected with the Drakes of Ashe, Musbury parish, co. Devon.
According to Ancestral Roots, Richardson’s forthcoming article
would show that "in the local parish registers [of Hampton-in-Arden,
John Drake had] by a first wife, children of the same names and ages
as John Drake of Windsor and at the time of his appearance in the New
England records a wife of the same given name as that of John of
Windsor." Ancestral Roots further noted that Richardson’s
forthcoming article would document John Drake of Warwick’s status as a
tradesman, thus matching the social status of the John Drake of
Windsor, CT. In addition, according to Ancestral Roots,
Richardson surmised that John Drake of Warwick emigrated to New
England in 1638 with "Rev. Ephraim Hewett of the adjacent parish of
Wroxall, co. Warwick, along with the Griswold and Bissell families."
Finally, Ancestral Roots stated that Richardson’s imminent
article would be "complete with full evidences on this matter and the
identity of the first wife."
Unfortunately, Douglas Richardson has never
published his article on John Drake. However, a review of the on-line
IGI index provides the following information from the parish registers
of Hampton-in-Arden, co. Warwick: (a) John Drake, whose mother was
Lettic and whose father was John Drake, was christened on Aug. 25,
1616; (b) Ester Drake, whose mother was Lettice and whose father was
John Drake, was christened on Jan. 18, 1618; (c) Job Drake, whose
mother was Lettice and whose father was John Drake, was christened on
March 5, 1620; and (d) Elizabeth Drake, whose mother was Elizabeth and
whose father was John Drake, was christened on Jan. 9, 1625.
Three of these children – John, Job, and
Elizabeth – match the children’s names and approximate ages of the
children of John Drake of Windsor, CT. There is no record in Windsor,
CT of a child named Ester. Conversely, there are no records in the IGI
Hampton-in-Arden parish register index for Jacob or Mary Drake, two
other children of John Drake of Windsor, CT. Although the IGI index
does not list the surname of Lettice, Richardson has informed me in a
recent private e-mail that her surname was Shakespeare. He did not
cite a source for that opinion. The only information that I have found
on the surname of John Drake of Windsor’s wife Elizabeth is Henry R.
Stiles, The History and Genealogies of Ancient Windsor,
Connecticut, Hartford, CT, 1892, Vol. 2, p. 178, which says that
"The Rockwell Geneal. gives her name before m. as Elizabeth
Rogers." I have not tracked down the "Rockwell Geneal."
referenced by Stiles.
Further, the IGI on-line index records at least
two Jacob Drakes in co. Devon, albeit at a later date and in parishes
different from Musbury and Southleigh, the core parishes for the
Drakes of Ashe: (a) Jacob Drake, son of Henary Drake, was christened
on April 29, 1655 in Barnstaple parish, co. Devon; (b) Jacob Drake,
son of Francis Drake, was christened on Oct. 16, 1673 in Ide parish,
co. Devon; and (c) Jacob Drake married Susanath Hockaday on March 8,
1691 in Ide parish, co. Devon.
I am working on two avenues in an effort to show
the correctness of the traditional link between John Drake of Windsor,
CT and the Drakes of Ashe, Musbury parish, co. Devon. First, I am
searching for evidence that Job or Jacob Drake was in New England
before the Hewett party arrived in 1638. So far, I have found only an
undocumented statement that Jobe Drake was present in Windsor in
1635/1636. R. R. Hinman, A Catalogue of the Names of the First
Puritan Settlers of the Colony of Connecticut; with the Time of their
Arrival in the Colony, and their standing in society, together with
their place of residence, as far as can be discovered by the records,
Hartford, 1846, pp. 11, 22. Second, I am searching for evidence
that the John Drake of Hampton-in-Arden, co. Warwick is actually the
son of William Drake, of Wiscomb, Southleigh parish, co. Devon, and
thus a bona fide member of the family of the Drakes of Ashe, Musbury
parish, co. Devon. I have found nothing yet to support this premise
beyond the ambiguous appearance of two Jacob Drakes in co. Devon. I
have not yet tried to connect those Jacob Drakes to the Drakes of
Ashe.
Because neither of the two approaches discussed
immediately above has born fruit, I have – at least temporarily –
abandoned my effort to establish the correctness of the traditional
link between John Drake of Windsor, CT and the Drakes of Ashe, Musbury
parish, co. Devon. |
