Drake, Thomas

Thomas Drake first appears in the Weymouth town records of 1663 where heis listed in the inventory of property owners. He owned lot 70 of thefirst division, which consisted of six acres on the "Brauntry lyne", andlot 33 of the second division, which contained eighteen acres. Theprevious list of land owners was made Nov. 26, 1651. Some authoritiesstate that since his name does not appear on the list, that he was notyet in town and that he arrived in this country around 1653, but thatappears to be mere speculation. In fact, he could have been in thiscountry and even in Weymouth at the time, but, as we will see shortly,may have been too young to own land. He must have definitely been here byabout 1656 to have married a Weymouth girl and had a child born about1657.
Plymouth Colony Deeds record large purchases of land by him on July 29,1682, near Taunton River in Freetown, half of which he sold June 12,1688, to Ralph Paine of Rhode Island. Thomas was a soldier in KingPhillip''s War. On June 24, 1676 he was a member of the garrison atPunkapouge where he saw at least two month''s service. [The DrakeGenealogy/1] He died between July 20, 1692, when he was chosen to be on agrand jury, and Aug. 30, 1692, when the appraisal of his estate was madeand he was referred to as "lately deceased". His estate was valued at237.02.02. [The Drake Genealogy/2]

A claim has been made that Thomas Drake of Weymouth was the son ofWilliam and Margaret (Westover) Drake, born in Coylton, Devon, Englandand baptized at St. Andrew''s Church there Sept. 13, 1635. While noconclusive proof for this assertion seems to exist, there is somecircumstantial evidence. One of the nine children of William and Margaretwas Elizabeth, baptized Dec. 10, 1632. Thomas of Weymouth most likely hada sister named Elizabeth based on the statement by Ezekiel Hamlin in hiswill dated July 21, 1690, "My will is yt my brother Thomas Drak ofWeymouth & My friend Mr. Thos. Walker and James Ingles be my over seers".Ezekiel Hamlin and Elizabeth Drake were married in Boston on June 8 [Aug.8?], 1654. On the other hand, Thomas Drake of Weymouth appears to havebeen born in 1628 based on a document dated March 7, 1677-8 that begins,"Thomas Drake aged 49 years ...". As seen elsewhere in this work,documents are not guaranteed to give the correct age of a person,although it''s probably more of a rarity when they reflect a wrong age.Therefore we are left with a viable, though unprovable, possibility ofThomas'' origin in Coylton.

The 1896 Drake genealogy claims Thomas came to this country with hisrelative John Drake of Taunton, MA and Windsor, CT and his sister Joan aswell as sister Elizabeth. Unfortunately no proof is given for any ofthese relationships. John may have been his oldest brother (bap. CoyltonMarch 24, 1621-2). While there was a sister Joan, no record of her isfound in America nor is any documentation given in the book for theclaim. The parents, William and Margaret, both died about 1636. It is notinconceivable that the care of the younger children fell to the oldestchild, John, once he reached maturity. Furthermore, he may have broughtthe family with him to America, but more proof would need to be foundbefore this hypothesis could be taken for fact. [New England HistoricGenealogical Register]