Drake One-Name Study

(Click on picture to enlarge) Harry Drake

Drake
One-Name Study

Topics

About the Drake One-Name Study
Origin of the surname
Historical occurrences
Distribution of the name
Data
Links
Contact Details

About the Drake One-Name Study

If you are interested in family history and your name is DRAKE (or you are descended from a family with the DRAKE name) I shall be delighted to hear from you and will be pleased to share what I know about your ancestry.

As children, we were intrigued by our grandmother's assertion that our Drakes were related to Sir Francis Drake, and this led to the One-Name Study, I now know of several families definitely descended from the old Devon families connected with Sir Francis, but also I know of many others in England and abroad who have held beliefs for generations that they are related to Sir Francis. Some of these latter claimants are in possession of artefacts which lend support.

The photograph is of Harry Drake b 1897, son of John Drake and Charlotte of Staines, who died 4 Sep 1918. This line may descend from a brother of Sir Francis Drake.

Origin of the surname

The Drake name probably derives from a nickname, possibly from dragon or the male duck. The name was widespread from the twelfth century with significant concentrations in Devon, Dorset, Norfolk and the West Riding of Yorkshire.

Historical occurrences

Reginald le Drake owned land in Tiverton, Devon in the reign of Henry III

William Drake of Shibden, Halifax, Yorkshire is mentioned in 1275 in the reign of Edward I

Drake of Ashe is an old Devon family traced to the 14th century. A prominent Drake family (Tyrwhitt-Drake from the 19th century) has been in Buckinghamshire since 1603. This line originates from the Drake of Ashe family in Devon, and a male line can be traced back to the 15th century.

Ralf, John and Richard Drake are the first of the Tavistock, Devon family to be mentioned in the reign of Edward III

A Drake family was in possession of Horley Green, Northowram, Yorkshire, from the thirteenth to the nineteenth century. These Drakes were said to have come from Devon by Francis Drake, the eighteenth century antiquarian (see below). The arms of Drake of Ashe (the Devon family) were carved on the centre gable of the north side of the house at Horley Green.

Sir Francis Drake (c1540-1596) - the famous explorer, circumnavigator and Admiral who later lived at Buckland Abbey, Devon. Buckland Abbey was subsequently occupied by Sir Francis' brother and his descendants. Buckland Abbey is now owned by the National Trust and is open to the public.

Captain Nathan Drake - a Royalist in the Civil Wars, he kept a diary of the siege of Pontefract (1645)

Samuel Drake - Vicar of Pontefract, a Royalist who served the King at the Siege of Newark (1646)

Francis Drake (1696-1771) was a surgeon, antiquarian and author of 'Eboracum' (1736), which has the following eminent Drakes among the 540 subscribers. Sir Francis Henry Drake Bart, William Drake Esq of Shardeloes, Bucks, William Drake Esq of Barnoldswick Cotes, Rev John Drake, Vicar of Smeeton, Vicar of Pontefract and Prebendary of York, Rev Samuel Drake, Rector of Treeton and of Holme on Spalding Moor, Rev Thomas Drake, Rector of Norham, Northumberland, Rev Nathan Drake, Minor Canon of Lincoln, Rev Samuel Drake, Minor Canon of Lincoln, Rev Joseph Drake, Rector of Burleigh, Rev Francis Drake of East Hardwick, Rev William Drake of Hatfield, Captain William Drake and Thomas Drake of Halifax

This Francis Drake, who owned the property at Horley Green, Northowram, for a period, also produced a Drake pedigree which can be seen in 'The History & Antiquities of the Parish of Halifax' (1775) by John Watson, who adds 'The above pedigree is such as, for antiquity and authenticity, will not often, in private families, be exceeded; it begins before surnames were in use, and it is extracted from ancient deeds, and other evidences, which are still preserved, and collected together. Tradition says, that this family came originally from Devonshire, where was lately an opulent family of the name of Sir William Drake, which had been long settled there, and of which the famous Sir Francis Drake was a branch.'

Roger Drake (d 1765) - Governor of Calcutta during the Black Hole incident in 1756

Nathan Drake (1766-1836) - author of 'Shakespeare and his Times' (1817) and 'Memorials of Shakespeare' (1828)

Ashday Hall, Southowram, Yorkshire, long in the possession of the Holdsworth family, came into the possession of William Drake through his wife Phoebe (nee Holdsworth) in 1792. Ashday Hall remained in Drake possession until the late 1800s, and was then owned by Sir Gillery Piggott, and in her widowhood by Lady Piggott (nee Frances Drake).

Francis Marion Drake (1830-1903) - Governor of Iowa 1896-1898, and after whom the Drake University at Des Moines, Iowa, was named.

Elizabeth Beatrice Fuller Eliott Drake of Buckland Abbey (1862-1937) - author of the two-volume 'The Family and Heirs of Sir Francis Drake' (1911)

Alfred George Drake (1894-1915) - a corporal in the Rifle Brigade - was awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously.

Sir John Henry Eugen Vanderstegen Millington-Drake KCVO (1889-1933) - was British Ambassador in Montevideo in World War II, when his false intelligence trail was key to the eventual scuttling of the German raider ‘Graf Spee’ in the River Plate. Contact Paul Millington of the Millington ONS for more details on this family.

Arthur Eric Courtney Drake (Sir Eric Drake) (1910-1996) – Chairman of British Petroleum 1969-1975 and knighted in 1970.

Michael Drake (1946-2011) – a British born planetary scientist who moved to the United States and did important work following many NASA space missions. Latterly he fought for the expedition to collect asteroid samples, which was announced in May 2011 and planned to launch in 2016.

Distribution of the name

In the nineteenth century Drakes were most abundant in the West Riding of Yorkshire, mainly in the Northowram area of Halifax, but also in Thornton, near Bradford, as well as in Huddersfield, Leeds, and Sheffield. In other parts of England, the main accumulations were in Devon (predominant areas being Plymouth and Newton Abbot), Dorset (Dorchester and Blandford), East Anglia (Norwich and Ipswich) and many were in London (especially the East End) and Essex.

Data

I have the General Registration BMD entries for the Drake name from 1837 to 1950 (with family lines identified and with marriage certificates for many). I have extracted Drakes from the 1841-1911 UK Census. Prior to the start of General Registration in 1837, I have many lines back to the 1600s and 1700s.

Although my collection of data has been mainly English, I have many contacts throughout the world who have shared their data with me.