Family-histories and genealogies : containing a series of ...

tt^otes on m iFatnflff of mvuUt
were members of the Council of Plymouth, may have influenced him to
emigrate to New England ;
and
the Puritanism of the Drakes of Esher
doubtless encouraged his emigration.
We will first sketch the history of the Drakes of Devonshire, and
then give, with more precision, the place in it of the emigrant John Drake.
We condense what is to be found in Burke's " Landed Gentry,"^ Burke's
"Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies,"' Prince's "Worthies of Devon"'
and vol. VIII. of Nichols's " Herald and Genealogist."'
" Sir William Pole makes mention of Robert le Drak who in the
thirty-first year of Edward I. [1303] held Hurnford cum Terra de la
Woode of Dertington, and prior to that of others of this family who were
37 possessed of several lands in Devonshire." John^ Drake Esq. of Exmouth,
CO. Devon, described as " a man of great estate and a name of no less antiq-
uity," married in the time of Henry V. [1413-22] Christiana daughter
and coheir of John Billet Esq. of Ashe, by which aUiance the estate of
Ashe, in the parish of Musbury, came to the Drake family. The heir
of this family was always called John, with one exception, for ten genera-
tions following. From John Drake above mentioned descended, in the
38, 39 seventh generation, Sir Bernard'' Drake, his brother Robert'' of Wiscombe,
40 and Richard (53) Drake Esq. They were sons of John^ Drake of Ashe and
Exmouth, High Sheriff of Devon in the fourth year of EHzabeth (1561-62),
by his wife Amye (or Ann) " daughter of Roger Grenville Esq. of Stow,
CO. Cornwall." Sir Bernard Drake Knt., of Mount Drake and Ashe, " was
a very distinguished person and 'employed in several great offices at sea,'
being much in favour with Queen Elizabeth, who conferred the honour of
^ A Geneal. and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland. By Sir
Bernard Burke. London, 1879,
i. 475-76-
' A Geneal. and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England, Ireland and
Scotland. By John Burke . . . and
pp. 167-68.
John Bernard Burke. .
. . Second Ed. London, 1844,
" Daumonii Orientales Illustres, or The Worthies of Devon. ... By John Prince. ... A
New Ed. . . . London,
1810, pp. 328-31.
' The Herald and Genealogist. Edited by John Gough Nichols. . . . London,
1874, viii. 310-12.