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Notes on f^t iFawCls of IBvaUt
"If I can be of any further use to you or Mr. Salisbury in elucidating any
points connected with our pedigree, pray command me, as it will give me great
pleasure to be useful in the genealogy of the American branch of the family
of Drake.
" The difference between the pedigree I send and yours is that John Drake is
the great nephew, w/ //le great grandson, of Sir Bernard Drake. This agrees better
with Richard Drake's bequest of ;^io. 'to my nephew William Drake's second son,'
and Mr. Francis Drake's bequest 'to John Drake, my cousin William's son.' Hoping
this will be of use to you,
I remain
Yours faithfully,
W. T. Tyrwhitt Drake."
We are also favored with a later note to us from Sir William Richard
Drake himself, giving pedigrees of the Prideaux and Dennis families,
which, as will appear, were in the line of ancestry of John Drake the
emigrant. Sir William writes that the Prideaux pedigree is taken " from
the notes contained in Westcote's 'View of Devonshire in 1630,'" and
that of the Dennis family "mainly from the Herald's Visitations of 1564."
Sir William has kindly sent us also the very interesting " Notelet," men-
tioned in the Rev. W. T. T. Drake's note, printed on the occasion of the
removal, in 1878, of the monument of Richard (53) Drake Esq. of Esher, of
the time of Queen Elizabeth, from the old church of St. George at Esher, to a
more modern Esher church. Among other interesting items, including full
copies of Wills, the "Notelet" gives particulars of Richard Drake's taking
part in the defence of England against the Spanish Armada, and informs us
that the manor-house of Esher became the place of entertainment, under
guard, of certain Spanish prisoners of high degree who were in the Armada.
The pedigrees here referred to present John Drake the emigrant to
New England as a great grandson of the Sheriff of Devon by a line
derived from Robert of Wiscombe, a brother of Sir Bernard and Richard
Drake Esq. of Esher.
The fact that a John Drake Esq. and Raleigh Gilbert Esq.—both
relatives of this John Drake (see his Gilbert descent in our Pedigree)
219
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