Chapter 9

Our Drakes of New Hampshire and New Jersey

Francis-1-Drake, a royalist, arrived in New Hampshire around 1639, shortly before the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony took over the area. For political and religious reasons, in the late 1660s, he followed neighbors to the town of Piscataway (Edison) in the New Jersey Colony. Here he was licensed to keep an inn and was made a captain in the militia. His son John-2-Drake became a yeoman and was the town’s first Baptist minister. In later years, John moved a few miles north to West Field (Plainfield), where he lived with his son Isaac-3-Drake Sr., a mill owner. Isaac-4-Drake Jr. died young and his widow married next a Drake cousin from Piscataway and moved there with her children. Nathan-5-Drake chose the tailor trade and settled in Columbia (Hopewell), Hunterdon (Mercer) County, in central New Jersey. His son Abraham S. Drake [Chapter 8], also a tailor, moved to Kentucky in 1804.

Francis-1-Drake (est.1615/1620-1687)

Thanks to recent research done by Albert Nathaniel Drake,1 our immigrant ancestor, Francis Drake is now believed to have descended from Robert Drake (1529-1600) of Wiscombe Park, Southleigh, Devonshire, the ancestral shire of the Drakes, through his son Capt. Humphrey Drake. Capt. Humphrey died (c.1600) leaving an illegitimate son, George, born to a girl in the Netherlands, to be raised by his uncles, including Henry Drake (1555-1641) who had a son Thomas Drake and a stepson Francis Champernowne, son of Anne (Crewkerne) Champernowne, widow of Sir Arthur Champernowne. The early records of New Hampshire show a Thomas Drake as early as 1633 and Francis Champernowne in 1639. George, Francis and Nathaniel Drake appear by the 1640s; George presumably Francis’ father and Nathaniel his brother. Francis most likely immigrated with Francis Champernowne, in 1639, in his early 20s. They were around the same age. Our Francis is first found in the records in 1646 signing an agreement to have a committee lay out land in the area. By then he would have been in his early 30s. He settled near Champernowne on the east side of the Great Bay at Greenland, where the Winnicut River enters from the south, in what is now Rockingham County, New Hampshire.2 The Great Bay is a large tidal bay, navigable at high tide, but at low tide is a bed

1 Albert Nathaniel Drake, Jersey Blue Spirit, 2007. (Francis was not the son of Robert Drake (1578-1667/9) of Exeter/ Hampton, New Hampshire, as some claim.) 2 John S. Jenness, Notes on the First Planting of New Hampshire and on the Piscataqua Patents, 1878. p.68-69 Map showing Champernowne home. The book gives the interesting details of the early settlement of this area. (archive.org)

91 Our Kentucky Ancestors - Slaughters, Fishers, Drakes and Pralls of black ooze, transversed by narrow channels. The bay was surrounded by fine meadows, pasture land and tall stands of timber. Settlers had began moving into the area at an early date without any official deed and no apparent opposition. A ferry system was set up. The Drake’s home appears to have been on a portion of the present golf course near the Champernownes. It is possible that he was a tavern holder here as well as in New Jersey. The Piscataqua region was an important source of fish for England, as well as lumber and masts for their ships. To quickly summarize the complicated history, the land was given to two feudal landowners, or proprietors, by the Council for New England, a joint stock company chartered by James I, and later divided between them: Capt. John Mason (New H a m p s h i r e ) a n d S i r Ferdinando Gorges (Maine). Both left the management of their territory to agents who proved incompetent. The Puritan leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, to the south, took advantage of the discontent and in 1643 absorbed the whole region into their colony. Under the laws of Massachusetts, only Puritans could hold office. Royalist, especially at Strawberry Bank (Portsmouth), resisted and in 1652 there was open rebellion by the inhabitants. By this time, however, the King of England had been beheaded (in 1649) and England, itself, was being run by Puritans, so the royalist had little redresses. Meanwhile, Francis married around 1648 Mary,3 said to be Mary Walker, daughter of Joseph Walker of Portsmouth, born in 1625 thus in her 20s.4 Three of their children survived: George, Elizabeth, and John.5 In 1654 Greenland was annexed to Portsmouth. Both Francis and Nathaniel participated in Portsmouth affairs, serving as surveyor of the highway and on the grand jury. The monarchy was restore in England in 1660. The Puritans were now out and Charles II was in charge. Wanting all of North America, the king gave the Dutch colony on the Hudson River to his younger brother James, Duke of York, who sent his fleet across the Atlantic and took New Netherland in 1664. James gave the land between the Hudson and Delaware rivers to two proprietors, Sir George Carteret and Lord Berkeley, who named it New Jersey. Emboldened by the king’s move, several of New Hampshire old timers, unhappy with the Puritans, petitioned the king to take them, too, under his wing. The King’s commissioners,

3 The sale of land in 1668 gives his wife’s name was Mary. 4 longislandsurnames.com: Joseph Walker. Joseph d. November 7, 1683 in Portsmouth. Children: Mary, George, Samuel, and Francis. 5 Drake, 6: George b, 1650; Elizabeth b. 1652; John b. 1655. Gives no sources.

92 Chapter 9: Our Drakes of New Hampshire and New Jersey however, sided with Massachusetts. In July of 1665 Francis Champernowne, our Francis, and others addressed a petition to the king: “Sorrow they the said commissioners were so evilly entertained by the Bay Government, & themselves so much disappointed of that good which they hoped to receive by their means. By way of request that the King would take them into his immediate protection. That they might be governed by the knowne laws of England. That they might enjoy both the sacraments which they say they have bin too long deprived of. They concluded with desire of all temporal Blessing &c. The Subsribers: Francis Champanoo, Abraham Corbit, Henry Sherborn, James Johnson, John Pickerin sen., Francis Drake, Robert Burnam, Edward Hilton, John Foulsham.” 6 Around this time, a small group of Baptists and Quakers, John Martin, the Hull brothers, and Hugh Dunn, who lived on the west side of the Great Bay at the south end of the Oyster River Plantation, and the Gilmans who lived up the Squampscott River, moved south to New Jersey.7 In December of 1666, they purchased the western portion of Woodbridge and named their town Piscatagua after their home in New Hampshire; the name was later corrupted to Piscataway. Francis followed a few years later. He was now around 50 years of age. Per historian Walter C. Meuly: “There is little doubt that one of the mainsprings for the migration to Piscataway was the escape from Puritan rule.”8

Drakes move to New Jersey

Francis and Mary sold their home in Greenland on August 5, 1668,9 and most likely sailed soon after to New Jersey. A royalist, Francis probably gladly signed the liberal “Concessions” which provided religious freedom and the promise of land if one swore allegiance to the king and the two proprietors. The Piscataway town center was on the main trail (Woodbridge Avenue) at present Plainfield Avenue, in what is now Edison, New Jersey. The village was laid out around a commons, similar to a New England town. (The old burial ground still exists.) Each settler was allotted a home lot and various

6 Nathaniel Bouton, Provincial Papers: Documents and Records Relating to the Province of New Hampshire from the earliest Period of its Settlement, 1623-1686, Vol.1, 278: petitioners list, 277, 278. (archive.org) 7 Hugh Dunn lived on Lamprey River, John Martin lived less than a half mile to the north on Lubberland Creek (Moody Point). John Martin is most likely the ancestor of Isaac-4-Drake’s wife Ruth Martin, but the link has not been found. 8 Walter C. Meuly, History of Piscataway Township 1666-1975, 1976. Drake, 6: The deed was recorded in 1717, 52 years after it was sold. 9 Charles Henry Pope, The Pioneers of Maine and New Hampshire, 1623 to 1660, 1908, 58. (archive.org)

93 Our Kentucky Ancestors - Slaughters, Fishers, Drakes and Pralls outlying land for grazing and cultivation. Eight miles to the east was Woodbridge’s town center and another eight miles to the north was the town center of Elizabethtown, the colonial capital, named for Sir George Carteret’s wife. Francis’ home was on 25 acres immediately south of the “tryneing place,” the commons where the militia drilled, thus near present Park Way. He received the official patent on July 30, 1678.10 On July 15, 1673, the colonial government granted him a license to keep an ordinary (inn/ tavern), the first one on record for Piscataway.11 Inns not only provided lodging, meals and drink, but were also a place where locals gathered, so Francis was well informed of all the local politics and gossip. Life in the community was disrupted in 1674, for almost a year, when the Dutch made an unsuccessful attempt to reclaim the colony. Once restored to England, the colony was divided into East and West Jersey, with East Jersey under one proprietor, Sir George Carteret. Piscataway was now the westernmost town in East Jersey, strategically located at the head of navigation of the Raritan River and on the Assunpink Trail, the main route to the falls of the Delaware River (Trenton) in West Jersey. On December 11, 1674, the Colonial Council, back in charge at Elizabethtown, appointed a constable for each of the towns; for Piscataway, they chose Francis. The constable was responsible for collecting the proprietor’s quitrent, so Francis was a man both the governor and Sir Carteret trusted. From 1675 to 1678, he served as captain in the town militia. This was especially convenient, since militias often met at the local tavern. In 1678, however, he asked to be discharged, possible due to his age; he was in his early 60s.12 From all this, it is evident that Francis had become one of the leading men in the village. In 1675, along with the other settlers, he officially received his portion of the town land due him. The record book records: “Here begins the Rights of Land due according to the Concessions.” The first name listed is: “Francis Drake of New Piscataway, wife and son John, George Drake and wife,” each received 60 acres beside a home lot and meadow.13 This indicates that son George had married by this time. Daughter Elizabeth Drake married Hugh Dunn, one of the original associates from New Hampshire, on December 19, 1670, a year after they arrived while still in her teens, and started her family. Son John Drake married in his early 20s, on July 7, 1677,14 Rebecca Trotter, daughter of William & Cutbury Trotter, of Elizabethtown, who had come from Newbury, Massachusetts. Son George Drake married on November 13, 1677, as his second wife,15 Mary Oliver, daughter of William & Mary (Ackerly) Oliver, original settlers of Elizabethtown who had come from New Haven.16

10 William Nelson [Nelson, Patents and Deeds], Patents & Deeds and Other Early Records of New Jersey 1664-1703, 1899, 211: 1692 George Drake and wife Mary of Piscataway to Samuel Walker of Boston, New England, merchant, for a house lot in Piscataway, 25 a, as patented to Capt. Francis Drake July 30, 1678, N.E and E road, S. Mrs. Higgins, W.S.W a small brook, N.W the trayning place and unsurveyed land. 11 Nelson, Patents and Deeds, 35. 12 Nelson, Patents and Deeds, 36 (constable/view meadow), 38 (Capt.). 13 Nelson, Patents and Deeds, 46. 14 New Jersey Historical Society [NJHS, Vol.4}, Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, Vol.4. 34. (google ebook) 15 NJHS, Vol.4, 34. 16 Genealogies of New Jersey Families, from the Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey, 624.

94 Chapter 9: Our Drakes of New Hampshire and New Jersey

Francis apparently retired in 1678 and turned the inn over to Benjamin Hull, for we find Hull receiving a license to keep an ordinary on September 2, 1678.17 Francis, still with the title Capt., died nine years later in the summer of 1687, around 70. An inventory of his personal estate, valued at £67.7.0, was taken on September 29 and on October 28 letters of administration were granted his son George “planter,” with Benjamin Hull, “gentleman,” as fellow bondsman. An account of the estate, dated August 20, 1688, shows George’s payment to his mother, sister Elizabeth Dunn, brother John Drake, Samuel Walker of Boston merchant (Mary’s brother), etc., in all £68.3.6.18 Mary is said to have died a year later on July 29, 1688. The family home was sold in 1692 to Samuel Walter “of Boston, New England, merchant,”19 who soon relocated to Piscataway. The two brothers appear to have been opposites: George a captain in the militia and John a Baptist pastor.

Children: George Drake (c.1650-c.1710) m.1 ___, m.2 November 13, 1677 Mary Oliver ( -after1709). Elizabeth Drake (c.1653-after1691) m. December 19, 1670 Hugh Dunn. John-2-Drake, Pastor (c1655-1740) m.1 July 7, 1677 Rebecca Trotter (July 5, 1655-after 1798), m.2 1702 Elizabeth (Bonham) Slater; m.3 1708 Barbara Scott.

John-2-Drake, Pastor (c.1655-1740)

John, the younger son of Francis and Mary (Walker) Drake, was born c.1655, at Greenland on the Great Bay, then part of the town of Portsmouth (New Hampshire) at the mouth of the Piscataqua River. The entire region, at that time. was then under the control of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In his early teens, c.1668/9, he moved with his family to New Jersey and settled on the Raritan River in the town of Piscataway. He undoubtedly helped his father built their home near the town commons. In 1675, John, now an adult, was allotted 60 acres as well as a home lot and meadow.20 John married on July 7, 1677,21 in his early twenties, Rebecca Trotter, the 22-year-old daughter of William and Cutbury (Gibbs) Trotter of nearby Elizabethtown. Rebecca came to New Jersey with her parents from Newbury, Essex County, Massachusetts, in 1665, when she was around ten. Newbury, on the Merrimack River, was settled by Puritans in 1635. Her father, said to have been born April 4, 1630, to George Trotter & Gertrude Wren of Byers Green, Durham, in northern England, appears to have been a non-conformist. In 1660 he was charged “for slanderous speeches” and was to “make public acknowledgement next

17 Nelson, Patents and Deeds, 42. 18 William Nelson [Nelson, Calendar of Wills] Archives of the State of New Jersey, First Series, Vol. XXIII; Documents relating to the Colonial History of the State of New Jersey,Volume XXIII. Calendar of New Jersey Wills Vo. 1, 1670-1730, 1901 (alpha order), 142: Capt. Francis Drake. 19 Nelson, Patents and Deeds, 211. 20 Nelson, Patents and Deeds, 46. 21 NJHS Vol.4, 34.

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Lecture Day.” 22 In 1665, a number of families from Newbury, attracted by the New Jersey Colony’s liberal provisions and religious freedom, moved south, bought land from Elizabethtown, and founded Woodbridge, named for their pastor, who did not join them. The Trotters also moved, but settled in Elizabethtown, the colonial capital. In 1667 her father’s house lot was described as lying west of the Elizabeth River. It was here that John would have come courting. In 1676, her brother Samuel acquired 90 acres in right of his father, so we know her father died a year or so before she married. Her other siblings were Benjamin, William, Robert (an early settler of Baltimore, Maryland), Mary, Abigail, and Sarah (m. Joseph Martin). 23 John and Rebecca are believed to have settled near the Raritan River in that portion of Piscataway which is now the small community of Highland Park, or at least according to the Highland Park website. A ferry and new landings had been established there, so it would have been a logical location. Each settler was giving various tracts of land throughout the area, so it is difficult to identify an actual home site. John was a yeoman, basically a self-sustaining farmer who owned and worked his own land. In New Jersey they were also referred to as planters and their farms as plantations. The homesteads generally included a barn, orchards, vegetable gardens and farmyard animals. On the outlying tracts they grazed their livestock and grew various grains. From 1678 to 1699 they had over a dozen children: John, Francis, Samuel, Joseph, Benjamin, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Ebenezer, Ephraim, Rebecca, and Abigail, Meanwhile, John, and probably Rebecca, joined the Baptists. Their small group met in various homes or barns with John, his brother-in-law Hugh Dunn, and Edmund Dunham serving as lay readers. Baptists were non-conformists who believed that only adult believers should receive baptism. They read and interpreted the bible in their own manner and their leaders were not required to have a university education. They often did not receive a salary. When the town built a small meetinghouse in the center of the village, at present 2136 Woodbridge Avenue, in 1686, to hold court, etc., the Baptists used it as a place to gather. Three years late, in 1689, Mr. Thomas Killingsworth, a Baptist minister recently arrived from England, came and helped them form an official congregation, ordaining John, in his mid-30s, as their pastor.24 The congregation at that time consisted of John, Edmund Dunham, Nicholas Bonham, John Smalley, Hugh Dunn and John Fitz Randolph and undoubtedly their families. They continued to meet in the town hall for the next fifty years. Unfortunately the records of the church were destroyed in August of 1781, during the Revolution.25 26 Baptist pastors at that time were referred to simply as Mr. or Brother, the title, Reverend, did not come into use until around the late 1750s, after John had died.27 He would not have been addressed in that manner.

22 Orra Eugene Monnette, First Settlers of Piscataway and Woodbridge, 1930, 634,635: The year after their marriage they were fined for "defiling the marriage bed." It is not clear what this meant to the strict Puritans. 23 Edwin F. Hatfield, Rev., History of Elizabeth, New Jersey; including The Early History of Union County, 1868, 95, 96,160. 24 Abram Dunn Gillette, Minutes of the Philadelphia Baptist Association, from A.D. 1707 to A.D 1807, by Philadelphia Baptist Association, 1851, A Brief Narrative of the Churches 13+. (books.google.com) 25 J. F. Brown. History of the First Baptist Church of Piscataway. Found in History of the First Baptist Church of Piscataway with an account of its Bi-Centennial Celebration June 20th, 1889, and Sketches of Pioneer Progenitors of Piscataway Planters, 1889. Geo Drake, P.A. Runyon, W. H. Steele (committee on publication), 11. (archive.org > Open Library) 26 David Benedict, A General History of the Baptist Denomination in America and other Parts of the World, (1813) Vol. I. 565. (archive.org) 27 Gillette, 77: The first use of “Rev.” appears in a testimonial during the 1758 Association meeting and by 1761 was being used through out the minutes.

96 Chapter 9: Our Drakes of New Hampshire and New Jersey

A major shift in colonial government occurred in 1681. Sir George Carteret died and his heirs sold the East Jersey Colony to twenty-four proprietors, predominantly Quakers and Scottish merchants. They moved the capital to Perth Amboy at the mouth of the Raritan, a commercial advantage for Piscataway. To better govern, the colony was divided into counties: Piscataway and Woodbridge in Middlesex County; Elizabethtown in Essex County; etc. Meanwhile, John did his civic duty, serving at times as overseer, constable and assistant judge of Middlesex County. In 1692 with Hopewell Hull he represented Piscataway in the General Assembly.28 Rebecca died in her mid-40s, sometime after the birth of little Abigail on May 10, 1699. John, with around eleven children still living at home, married c.1704 Elizabeth (Bonham) Slater, widow of Edward Slater, with a son Edward and four daughters, Philoreta, Phebe, Elizabeth and Aleeshia.29 Elizabeth was the daughter of Nicholas Bonham Sr., born about 1665, thus in her late 30s.30 Her brother Nicholas Bonham Jr. was active in the church with John, so she was probably also a Baptist. The couple are said to have had two children of their own, Mary and Elizabeth, but they only had a few years together. John married his third wife in 1707. Meanwhile, East and West Jersey were reunited in 1702 by Queen Anne. On July 8, 1707, John, age c.52, now with both his and Elizabeth’s children to care for, married in Philadelphia, Barbara Scott. The service was in the Presbyterian Church,31 located at that time on the south side of High (Market) Street at Bank Street. John may have been in Philadelphia, at the time, to help his fellow Baptists form an Association. In September of 1707 the Baptist from Piscataway, Middletown, and Cohansey in New Jersey and Philadelphia and Lower Dublin (Pennepek, a few miles north of Philadelphia) formed the Philadelphia Baptist Association (the first of it’s kind) with the objective of having autumn meetings, where issues could be discussed. The churches were independent; the meetings were solely to advise and settle disputes. John was nominated in 1712 to serve with ten others to help settled a dispute brought to the Association by the Philadelphia churches.32 In 1729, in his early 70s, due to old age, he discontinued preaching but continued to administer the ordinances.33 At some point, possibly after his marriage to Barbara, he moved about nine miles north to West Field in Elizabethtown, Essex (Union) County, the area which is now Plainfield, where he farmed. The area was first settled in 1684 by a small group of immigrants, Presbyterians, who came with George Scot, Baird of Pitlochie, who chartered the ship Henry & Francis of New Castle. The group had “been banished for owning the truth...” The area was named Scot’s Plain in memory of George Scot, who had died on route. It was later corrupted to Scotch Plains.34 Scot left a son and a daughter; could Rebecca have been related in some way?

28 Nelson, Patents and Deeds, 159, etc. 29 Nelson, Calendar of Wills, 422: Feb 11, 1702/3 Slater, Edward, Inv. of personal estate.; Administration granted to widow Elizabeth Slater May 29, 1704. Children named in John Drake’s will. 30 Sherry Sharp’s online site “Our Family History.” 31 Monnette, 601. 32 Gillette, 26. (Not all of the meeting records have survived, so we do not a complete look at John’s participation.) 33 Gillette, 13. (This source says Killingsworth became Piscataway’s first preacher, that Drake was not ordained until 1715. but it also says (p.14) that Killingsworth settled in Cohansey in 1790 as their pastor, which is correct.) 34 Nelson, Patents and Deeds, 85: Patent to George Scott of Pitlochie, Scotland, 500a, as a present for having written a pamphlet, inviting to emigrate to New Jersey and for freighting the Henry and Francis, etc. Footnote: Scot and his wife died on the voyage.

97 Our Kentucky Ancestors - Slaughters, Fishers, Drakes and Pralls

On September 21-23, 1734, John attended the Baptist Association in Philadelphia. His name is the first listed in the minutes, so he was still held in high esteem by his peers.35 He was then around 79. Meanwhile, in 1731, the Baptists in Piscataway bought land at present 334 Plainfield Avenue, a mile and a half north of the town center, where the present Stelton Baptist Church stands. They did not build, however, until 1748,36 so it was never John’s church. John, “of Essex County, yeoman,” had a will drawn up on April 7, 1740, and died about a year later in his mid-80s. The will was proved on September 29, 1741. It mentions numerous children, grandchildren and stepchildren. For his executors, he appointed his son Isaac’s wife Hannah, and her sons Samuel and Isaac. Wife Barbara is not mention in the will, so apparently had died by then. The inventory of his estate totaled only £5.3.0.37 John was most likely buried in the graveyard at the commons, next to the present-day St. James Episcopal Church, but no stone has survived. Most of his many children continued to live in the Piscataway area. The main exceptions were Benjamin, who moved west to Hopewell Township, Huntington (Mercer) County, New Jersey, and Abraham, who moved north to Roxbury Township, Morris County, New Jersey.

Children:38 John Drake (June 2, 1678-c.1751) m. December 9, 1697 Sarah Compton. Francis Drake (December 23, 1679-April 26, 1733) m. November 10, 1698 Patience Walker. Samuel Drake (1680- ) m. September 19, 1700 Elizabeth Hull. Joseph Drake (October 21, 1681- ) m. 1703/4 Anne Walker, m.2 Hannah (Blackford) Manning. Benjamin Drake (c1683/4-1763) m. by 1715 Mary Runyon, m2. Ann Boutcher, m.3 Hannah (Seabrook) Van Horne. Abraham Drake (April 1685-1758/63) m. c1704 Deliverance Wooden. Sarah Drake (1686- ) m. 1704 Benjamin Hull, m.2 Isaac Fulsen. Isaac-3-Drake Sr. (January 12, 1687/8-1759) m. Hannah (Blackford) Manning Drake. Jacob Drake (May 10, 1690- ) m. Christiana Molleson, who m.2 Peter Bebout. Ebenezer Drake (July 19, 1693- ) m. Nov 10 1723 Anna Dunn. Ephraim Drake (1694- ) m. Mercy Piatt. Rebecca Drake (November 21, 1697- ) m. 1713 Joseph Fitz Randolph. Abigail Drake (May 10, 1699- ). Mary Drake ( -by1740) m. ____Davis. Elizabeth Drake ( ).

Isaac-3-Drake (1688-1759)

Isaac, one the many sons of John and Rebecca (Trotter) Drake, was born on January 12, 1687/8, in Piscataway, Middlesex County, East Jersey, and grew up in the family home, believed to have been in that area which is now Highland Park. He was 14 when his father married widow Elizabeth Slater and 19 when Barbara Scott became his stepmother.

35 Gillette, 36. 36 Brown, 57. 37 New Jersey Archive First Series, Vol.30 (Calendar of Wills 1730-1745), 151. Isaac has been mistranslated as Jonas. 38 Monnette, 231, 601, 602. Elizabeth, Samuel, Sarah, Ephraim. Drake, 23,24.

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By then New Jersey had been reunited. In 1702 Queen Anne acquired the governance of East and West Jersey from the proprietors and created one royal colony - but kept the two capitals, Perth Amboy and Burlington! Isaac married in his late 20’s his brother Joseph’s widow Hannah (Blackford) Manning Drake (b.1678), daughter of Samuel Blackford Sr. who left a will dated February 23, 1711/2, naming a daughter Hannah Drake. She was ten years older than Isaac. Hannah had married first, on January 19, 1698/9, in Piscataway, Benjamin Manning, son of Jeffry Manning. Benjamin died on January 28, 1701/2, leaving her a son Benjamin (Israel) Manning.39 She married next Isaac’s older brother Joseph Drake, who died sometime after 1715, leaving a child Samuel, whom Isaac would refer to as a son in his will.40 Hannah grew up in northern Piscataway, on the south side of Bound Brook in present South Plainfield. Her siblings were Benjamin, Daniel, Samuel, John, Mary (m. Ling), and Providence (m. Runyon). The Blackfords and Mannings were Baptists. Isaac and Hannah settled in West Field (Plainfield), the western portion of Elizabethtown, Essex (Union) County; their son Nathaniel is said to have been born in “Westfield” in 1725.41 Their homestead, located roughly where the circle is on the map, was on Green Brook which flows out of the Watchung Mountains, then southwest, skirting the base of the mountains, into Bound Brook, then the Raritan River. Their home was strategically located at the intersection of the Piscataway road (Plainfield Avenue) and the Old York Road (Rte 28) which linked New York to Philadelphia via Amwell. At some point, Isaac became a mill owner. Mills were expensive to build, for they required carefully engineered gears; the grist mill used expensive millstones and the sawmills sharp sash saws. A man had to have capital to built and operate them, thus Isaac had to have been a man of means. Saw mills provided the necessary boards, clapboards, and shingles for new homes and barns and the grist mills ground their grains, thus Isaac was also an important and necessary person in the community. The family continued to attend the Baptist meetings in Piscataway, but for civil affairs, Isaac had to travel to Elizabethtown, about thirteen miles to the east. Father John Drake probably lived with them. When he died in 1741, he left a will appointing as his executors, not his son Isaac, but Isaac’s wife Hannah and her sons Samuel and Isaac,42 the eldest sons of his two sons Joseph and Isaac. He apparently had a great deal

39 Manning family: http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~janroots/manning.txt 40 Genealogies of New Jersey Families (above). 134: Hannah Blackford Manning Drake, widow of Isaac’s older brother Joseph who died after 1715. 41 Drake, 23: sawmill and gristmill. (Drake gives no source, but does provide an interesting discussion of Isaac.) 42 New Jersey Archive First Series, Vol.30 (Calendar of Wills 1730-1745), 151. Various transcripts mistakenly record the name ”Jonas” instead of “Isaac.”

99 Our Kentucky Ancestors - Slaughters, Fishers, Drakes and Pralls of respect for Hannah. Possibly the mills were built with her money and she was the brains of the operation. She, however, chose not to serve, on account of age and other inabilities. Stepson Samuel Drake married, for his daughter Martha is named in his father’s will. His wife is said to have been Jane Laing. The Laing family were mostly Quakers. Son Isaac-4-Drake Jr., in his mid-20s, married on February 23, 1743/4, Ruth Martin of Middlesex County. He died young, in his early 30s, and Ruth, married next in 1752 Nathan Drake and moved to his home in Piscataway. [See below.] Son Daniel Drake probably married but his wife’s name is not known. He became a deacon in the Baptist Church as did his brother Nathaniel.43 Youngest son Nathaniel Drake, around age 21, married in 1746 Dorothy Retan. His father, with the help of his brothers and slaves, built a home for him at what is now 602 West Front Street in Plainfield. The house still stands, but greatly remodeled. Originally, it was a one-and-a-half-story building with four rooms and a lean-to kitchen on the first floor, and a loft above. The house has been registered as a historic place and is now a city-owned museum, because Gen. George Washington used the home in June of 1777 to consult with his officers. Meanwhile, the “Great Awakening” of the 1730s and 1740s brought more people into the Baptist church. By 1746 the Piscataway church had over 100 members, so fourteen members living to the north in West Field asked to be dismissed and on September 8, 1747, came together to form the Scotch Plains church. Benjamin Miller (1715-1781), a native of Piscataway, was ordained their minister and Isaac’s stepson Samuel Drake served as the first clerk. Their meetinghouse was about four miles up Green Brook at the intersection of Mountain and Park avenues, 44 where the present church stands. The congregation was immediately accepted into the Philadelphia Baptist Association.45 Scotch Plains was the home church of Rev. James Manning (1736-1791), who was instrumental in the founding of the College of Rhode Island, now Brown University, in 1764. He was the son of James and Grace (Fitz Randolph) Manning, thus a great-grandson of Pastor John-2-Drake through his daughter Rebecca. He was baptized by Rev. Benjamin Miller. At age 18, in 1756, he attended the Baptist Academy in Hopewell, Hunterdon (Mercer) County, New Jersey, then attended the College of New Jersey, which had recently moved to Prince Town (Princeton), graduating in 1762. He was ordained in the Scotch Plains Baptist church in 1763. 46 47 Hannah died first, for she is not mentioned in Isaac’s will. Isaac Sr. died in the winter of 1758/9, around age 71. He was most likely buried in the Piscataway Baptist Church cemetery at its new location (334 Plainfield Road), since he left a legacy to the Piscataway church in his will, but no tombstone has survived. Hannah was probably buried there as well. His will, drawn up on January 3, 1756, describing him as “of the Borough of Elizabeth, Essex County,” was witnessed by Jeremiah Manning, James Manning, and Reune Runyon. It was probated on January 24, 1759. He appointed sons Samuel and Daniel the executors and named his children, Samuel, Daniel, Nathaniel and

43 Rev. J. H. Parks, et al., History of the Scotch Plains Baptist Church, 1897, 46. (archive.org) Drake 31-37: Nathaniel Drake. 44 Parks, 8: Samuel, etc. 45 Gillette, 57. 46 Reuben Aldridge Guild, Life, Times and Correspondence of James Manning, 1864, 24-27. (archive.org) 47 Brown University web site. http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php? serial=M0100

100 Chapter 9: Our Drakes of New Hampshire and New Jersey

Hannah, wife of George Lang, and grandchildren, Martha, daughter of Samuel, and Isaac, Nathaniel and Sarah, children of Isaac deceased.48 Thirty years later, in 1788, Nathaniel’s sons by his first wife, Abraham, Cornelius and Isaac, moved to Mason County, Virginia (Kentucky).49

Children of Benjamin Manning and Hannah Blackwell: Benjamin (Israel) Manning (December 30, 1700-c.1782), Knowlton, Sussex, NJ.

Children of Joseph Drake and Hannah Blackwell: Samuel Drake ( - ) m. Jane Laing?

Children of Isaac Drake and Hannah Blackwell: Isaac-4-Drake Jr. (c.1719-c1750) [mar. lic.] Feb 23 1743/4 Ruth Martin of Middlesex. Daniel Drake, Deacon ( -Oct 1 1777) m. ? Nathaniel Drake (est.1725-October 2, 1801) m. 1746 Dorothy Retan [Ruttin, Rutan] (d. February 10, 1781); m2 widow Elizabeth Bishop. Hannah Drake ( ) m. George Lange/Laing.

Isaac-4-Drake Jr. (c.1719-c.1750)

Isaac Jr., eldest son of Isaac and Hannah (Blackford) Drake, was born around 1719 in West Field (Plainfield) Elizabeth, Essex (Union) County, New Jersey, and grew up along Green Brook in the shadow of the Watchung Mountains. Described as “of Essex,” he married in his mid-20s on February 23, 1743/4, Ruth Martin “of Middlesex.” 50 Ruth’s parents have not been identified. She is undoubtedly a descendant of John Martin, one of the original setters from New Hampshire, possibly through his son Thomas’ son John who had a son Samuel, the cordwainer who put up the bond money. They settled in Essex County. Isaac died young, not much over 30, around 1750. He did not leave a will and no estate papers have been found. Ruth, left with three young children, married next on November 8, 1752, Nathan Drake from Piscataway. He was described as a cordwainer (shoemaker) when he and Samuel Martin, also a cordwainer, put up the bond for the marriage. His identity has not been proven. Since Nathan is short for both Nathaniel and Jonathan, he may have been Jonathan Drake Jr. (b.1723), son of Jonathan Drake Sr. (b.c.1689), a younger son of George Drake (b.c.1650), the older brother of John-2-Drake. If so, he was around 29 at the time. In the winter of 1758/9, Ruth’s father-in-law, Isaac-3-Drake Sr., died, leaving her three children by Isaac Jr., Isaac, Nathaniel and Sarah, an inheritance. Sons Isaac and Nathaniel (Nathan) became tailors and settled some thirty miles to the southwest, in Hopewell Township, Hunterdon (Mercer) County, New Jersey, where they

48 New Jersey Calendar of Wills 1751-1760, 97. New Jersey #2633, 2338G. 49 Parks, 16. Drake, 36. 50 William Nelson, New Jersey Marriage Records 1665-1800, Baltimore 1982, 109.

101 Our Kentucky Ancestors - Slaughters, Fishers, Drakes and Pralls would be confused (by genealogist) with the grandchildren of their father’s uncle Benjamin Drake. The date of Ruth’s death is not known. She may still have been alive in 1779 when son Nathan was in Piscataway for the birth of his son Enoch on October 9, 1779, during the Revolutionary War.

Children: Isaac Drake (c.1744-1798) m. Sarah Hunt. Nathaniel/Nathan-5-Drake (October 6, 1746-November 26, 1816) m.1 May 25, 1770, Tamar Jones, m.2 January 19, 1802 Jerusha (Smith) Larison. Sarah Drake (c.1750- ).

Nathan-5-Drake (1746-1816)

Nathan, son of Isaac and Ruth (Martin) Drake, was born on October 6, 1746,51 in West Field (Plainfield), Essex (Union) County, in colonial New Jersey. He was four when his father died and six when his mother married next Nathan Drake and moved the family to nearby Piscataway, Middlesex County, an important town on the Raritan River at the head of navigation. Here he learned the tailor trade, as did his older brother Isaac. At some point, Nathan and his brother moved some twenty-five miles to the southwest and settled in the village of Columbia, Hopewell Township, Hunterdon (Mercer) County, possibly using their grandfather’s inheritance to start their business. Columbia, now called Hopewell, is in the northeastern corner of Hopewell Township at the head of Beden Creek which flows east, into the Millstone River, then into the Raritan River before entering the Atlantic at Perth Amboy. The area was first settled around 1705 by Jonathan Stout, a Baptist from Middletown (Holmdel), Monmouth County, New Jersey. Stout, along with Benjamin Drake (Nathan’s great uncle) and other Baptists in the township, formed a congregation on April 23, 1715. For many years they met in their various homes with visiting ministers and the town became to be known as Hopewell Baptist Meeting. The religious revivals of the 1730s and 1740s increased their numbers, as it had in Piscataway, mentioned above, and they were finally able to erect a meetinghouse, a stone church, and attract a full time minister, Rev. Isaac Eaton. (The present brick church, built in 1822, sits on the site today; the last service was in 1974.) Around the time Nathan arrived, the Hopewell congregation, with 211 members, was the largest in the 31-member Philadelphia Baptist Association. 52 53

51 Nathan Drake’s Bible [Nathan Drake Bible (1801)] published in 1801, was left to his youngest son Elijah Drake whose death is recorded in the bible. He died young with no heirs. His widow married next in 1834 Walter G. Offutt. In 1858 E. F. Offutt gave the bible to Dr. Drake “as a token of esteem from a friend.” Dr. Drake was Abraham’s son Dr. Benjamin P, Drake. The bible passed down to his son Roger Quarles Drake Sr. (1846-1905), then to his son Roger Quarles Drake Jr. (b.1881) of Mt. Sterling, KY. On February 11, 1923 Roger Jr’s wife Lillian Word Drake replying to a letter from Frances Slaughter Bell saying that the bible was so very old and very much dilapidated from handling to weather a trip, so sent a portion of the data to her in a letter. 52 See Betty Harrell Gerlack, Our Baptist Ancestors of New Jersey and Rhode Island: Stout, Bollen, Throckmorton, Ashton, and Higgins, 2014. 53 Gillette, 100: 1766. Scots Plains, with Rev. Benj. Miller, was second largest with 156, followed by Philadelphia with 137.

102 Chapter 9: Our Drakes of New Hampshire and New Jersey

The village had grown in importance with the success of the well-respected Baptist Academy, started by Rev. Isaac Easton in 1756. The school attracted many talented men such as James Manning, mentioned above, and David Thomas, who founded congregations in Virginia, including the one in Culpeper County, where the Slaughter family lived, mentioned in Chapter 1. The school’s success quickly led to the formation of the College of Rhode Island (Brown University) in 1767, which unfortunately led to the closing of the academy. Nathan married at age 23 on May 25, 1770, Tamar Jones [Joans54] age 28. Both the marriage date and Tamar’s birth date (April 13, 1742) are recorded in his bible (published in 1801). The license was issued May 21, 1770, with Nathan and John Hart, Esq., putting up the $550 bond money. (Hart was a prominent man in the community and at the time was serving in the colonial assembly; six years later he was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.55 56) The witnesses to the marriage license were Gersham? Craver and Joseph Eaton. Both Nathan and Tamar signed,57 so we know Tamar was educated and still single at the time. She had joined the Church on December 23, 1764, when she was 22.58 Her parents have not been identified.59 She may have family connections with the Harts and Eatons. The family home was near the center of the village, on the main road leading west to Marshall’s Corner (W. Broad Street-Hopewell Pennington Road). Years later, in 1810, when Nathan sold the land, the property was described as being 40 acres adjoining Stricker’s

54 The name Joans appears in transcripts of both Nathan’s and his son Abraham’s bible. Possibly Nathan’s 1801 bible was kept by his second wife, who inadvertently recorded it wrong. The marriage license and Hopewell Baptist church records clearly gives Jones. 55 John Hart donated the land on which the Baptists built their church. He died in 1779. A John Hart is found in the Philadelphia Baptist Association records. Some sources say he was a Presbyterian. 56 Thomas Armitage, A History of the Baptists, 1887, 722: in 1767 John Hart of Hopewell, signer of the Declaration of Independence, was a prime movers along with James Manning, Rev. Samuel Jones, John Gano and others in the establishing of Brown College. 57 William Nelson, New Jersey Marriage Records 1665-1800, Baltimore 1982, 110: May 21, 1770. A copy of the original is in the possession of the author; Tamar’s signature too difficult to read, but text clearly has Jones. 58 The Town Records of Hopewell, New Jersey (and the Baptist Church Records) [Town (& Church) Records of Hopewell], 1931 (NJ Colonial Dames), 135: Dec. 23 1765 Tamar Jones. 59 Tamar was possibly related to the Jones of Pennepek Baptist Church, Lower Dublin Township, Pennsylvania, the mother church of the Baptists. Samuel Jones (1657-1722) with John Eaton, George Eaton and others organized the church in 1687; Samuel later served as a deacon then a pastor.

103 Our Kentucky Ancestors - Slaughters, Fishers, Drakes and Pralls

(formerly Stout), Benjamin Park, James Stout, Hezekiah Stout, and was made up of three lots purchased at different times.60 The Baptist church was just down the road, at present 48 West Broad Street. Their names appears on the August 1797 church membership list.61 The tailor shop was most likely next to the house. Tailoring took great skill and detail. Typically, a customer would bring the fabric/material to the tailor, who would then take measurements, create a pattern, cut and sew, all of which required being good at math, good with ones hands, and knowledgeable of the latest European fashion. He would have been a person who related well with people.

The Revolutionary War begins.

In 1775 news arrived from Boston. Col. Joab Houghton, according to his grandson, “while attending worship in the Baptist meeting-house at Hopewell, N. J., met a messenger out of breath with the news of the defeat at Lexington. He kept silence till the services were closed, then in the open lot before the sanctuary detailed to the congregation: The story of the cowardly murder at Lexington by the royal troops, the heroic vengeance following hard upon it, the retreat of Percy, and the gathering of the children of the Pilgrims around the beleaguered hills of Boston. Then pausing, and looking over the silent crowd he said slowly: “Men of New Jersey, the red coats are murdering our brethren in New England. Who follows me to Boston?” Every man in that audience stepped out into line and answered “I”! There was not a coward nor a traitor in old Hopewell meeting-house that day.” 62 Nathan, in his 30s, was undoubtedly there. During the early years of the Revolution, central New Jersey, being the route between New York City and Philadelphia, was hit hard: the Battle of Trenton (December 26, 1776), the Battle of Princeton (January 1, 1777), the Battle of Millstone (January 20, 1777), Battle of Bound Brook (April 13, 1777), the Battle of Monmouth (June 28, 1778) and others. The war records list a Nathan Drake, tailor, so we know he served.63 The war also effected the local church. In 1776 the Hopewell Baptist Church had a total membership to 246. That was almost double the size of any other congregation in the Philadelphia Baptist Association, which by then had about 40 churches and a membership of 3,013. In 1777 Philadelphia was occupied by the British army so the Association was unable to have their annual October meeting. In 1778 they selected Hopewell, out of all their churches, to be the site of that year’s gathering. George Washington was also in the area, using as his headquarters, the former home of Joseph Stout, dec’d, (Jonathan, Richard-1). The next year, the Association resumed meeting in Philadelphia.64 The war shifted to the southern colonies and on October 19, 1781, Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia. Nathan and Tamara lost their first child at birth in 1773. Then came Gedion Drake, born on July 13, 1776, followed by Ira E. Drake on November 8, 1777. Per the family bible, they were in Piscataway on October 9, 1779, when Enoch Blackwell Drake was born, so they may have been visiting Nathan’s mother. Little Gedion died on July 6, 1781, age 5, while Tamar was pregnant with Abraham Stout Drake, born on September 21, 1781. Abraham was apparently named in honor of Deacon Abraham Stout of Hopewell who died in 1777 at age 42

60 Hunterdon County Deed Book 16:421. 61 Town (& Church) Records of Hopewell, 150. 62 Armitage, 791. 63 Frances Slaughter Bell notes (no source): Nathaniel, Nathan J, and Nathan, tailor. 64 Gillette, 157, 158, 159,163. Alice Blackwell Lewis, Hopewell Valley Heritage, 57: Washington Headquarters.

104 Chapter 9: Our Drakes of New Hampshire and New Jersey from wounds from the Battle of White Plains.65 He was probably a local hero. Five years later, in 1786, their last child, William Henry Drake, was born. A handwritten note on a bible record66 says he died the same day, but we find him alive and well in 1830, as seen below. With the war over, many began moving to the Kentucky region of Virginia. One of these was Rev. John Gano, a native of Hopewell. Gano was born in Hopewell Township in 1727 and was baptized in the Hopewell Baptist church. He attended, but did not graduate from, the College of New Jersey (Princeton) and was ordained a pastor in the Scotch Plains church in 1754. As a young man he made various trips to Virginia and the Carolinas. In 1760 he founded the church in New York City which grew rapidly during his years there. During the Revolution he served as chaplain in the Continental Army, and afterwards, in the spring of 1787, set out for Kentucky and established a Baptist church in Lexington. He undoubtedly kept in touch with the brethren in Hopewell.67 In the 1790s sons Enoch B. and Abraham S., began their apprenticeship as tailors. Their older brother Ira E. Drake probably did so as well, but died in 1795 at age 18. The first to marry was Enoch Blackwell Drake, who at age 19, married on June 14, 1798, Rachel Drake, daughter of Isaac & Sarah (Hunt) Drake. The bible confirms they were first cousins.68 Her father died the same year, 1798, without leaving a will; Enoch Hunt was appointed administrator, with our Nathan and Nathan Hunt as his bondsmen.69

Tamar dies and Nathan remarries.

Tamar died on February 22, 1801, at age 59. She was undoubtedly buried in the Baptist Church cemetery, but no stone survives. The Church recorded her death on February 24.70 A year later, on January 19, 1802, Nathan, age 55, married next widow Jerusha (Smith) Larison, probably in her 40s, and moved to her farm. Jerusha joined the Hopewell Baptist church on July 19, 1801, perhaps in anticipation of the wedding,71 for there is no indication that her family were Baptists. She and Nathan had two children of their own, Elijah and Elizabeth. It was around this time that Nathan acquired his bible, published in 1801, transcripts of which have provided so much valuable information. Jerusha was the daughter of Ethan Smith. Her sister, Temperance, was the wife of Hart Olden of Princeton, New Jersey, and mother of Charles Smith Olden (1799-1876), who became a New Jersey state senator 1845-1850, a member of the new Republican Party founded in 1854, and governor of New Jersey from 1860-63. Her brother was Dr. Charles Smith, a wealthy and prominent citizen of New Brunswick, New Jersey. Jerusha had married first in 1780 David Larison (1747-1800), youngest son of James Larison (1695-1792) & Kesiah Parke of Hopewell, and by him had four children: Jonathan, Amos, Charles and Enoch Larison, all of whom moved to Ohio. David Larison’s farm was next to his father’s

65 Abraham Stout’s home was two miles west of the Meeting House (Hopewell) on the Amwell-Hopewell line. He was the son of John Stout (James < David < Richard-1). Garrison Prall’s [Chapter 10] wife Mary’s brother Jediah Stout married Abraham Stout’s daughter Polly Stout and her brother Benjamin Stout married his daughter Rachel Stout. They all moved to Kentucky in the early 1790s. 66 Abraham S. Drake Bible (pub. 1813) owned by daughter Julia Thompson. 67 Lewis, 40-44. 68 Per Enoch B. Drake bible in possession of Hiram T. Drake of Foster, KY, in 1920. 69 Russell B. Rankin correspondence to Frances Slaughter Bell. 70 Town (& Church) Records of Hopewell, 155. 71 Town (& Church) Records of Hopewell, 155.

105 Our Kentucky Ancestors - Slaughters, Fishers, Drakes and Pralls tract at Furman’s Corner (Marshall Corner after 1833) north and northwest of Stoney Brook. Marshalls Corner, an unincorporated area about half way between Hopewell and Pennington, is near the junction of the present Hopewell-Pennington Road and Route 31, the main north- south highway through western New Jersey. The Larisons were early settlers in the area. William Larison, son of “John the Dane,” died in 1749 in old age naming five sons James, William, Thomas, John and George.72 In 1807, Nathan bought the Larison place from Jerusha’s eldest son, Jonathan Larison,73 who then moved to Hamilton County, Ohio, settling about 12 miles north of Cincinnati. Three years later, in 1810, Nathan sold his property in Hopewell.74 Meanwhile, in 1804, sons Enoch B. and Abraham S. moved to Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky. Enoch and Rachel settled on Cane Run along the wagon road from Lexington to Georgetown, per the 1806 census. Abraham S. Drake set up a shop in Lexington and married in 1805 Hannah Prall, daughter of Garrison & Mary (Stout) Prall {Chapter 9] of neighboring Amwell, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, who moved to Kentucky in 1791. Her mother’s family had attended the Hopewell Baptist Church, so the families must have known each other.

Nathan moves to Kentucky

At age 68, Nathan decided to join his sons in Kentucky. On May 14, 1814, he and Jerusha were dismissed by the Baptist Church75 and on May 23 they sold the Larison farm to Benjamin Blackwell.76 They were in Kentucky by October 2, when he and son Abraham S, bought 60 acres “on the waters of Elkhorn” (Cane Run, north of Lexington) for $3,000.77 This became his farm. Young Elijah H. and Elizabeth undoubtedly lived with then. Son William Henry Drake may have been married by then. Nathan had only a few more years to live. He died on November 26, 1816, on his farm where he was buried.78 Jerusha was appointed administrator. The accounting began in April of 1817 and ended June 15, 1819. The estate totaled $1899.73. The largest items were the sale of land which brought in $1590 and a June 1816 note of $1000 with 2 years interest of $180 (thus at 9%) paid out to son Abraham. Dr. Benjamin Dudley was paid for attending him and Charles Humphrey for serving as the attorney. The inventory, taken on December 14, 1816, listed the normal house and farm items: a feather bed $30, corner cupboard $11, tables, chest, wagon and harness $58, 2 horses at $20 each, hogs and sheep $13, 2 milking cows $34, pitch fork, hand saws, cider mill, barrel of vinegar, one stack of wheat and two of oats $30, four and a half tons of hay $54, 27 barrels corn $37, 900 weight of pork $39, etc. all totaling $441.95. The final balance was $543.97 to Jerusha and her two children. 79 80

72 Ralph Ege, Pioneers of Old Hopewell, 1908, 235-238. 73 Hunterdon County Deed Book. From Jonathan Larison and wife Catherine, 100 acres undivided half of... except right of dower of Jerusha Drake mother of said Jonathan. 74 Hunterdon County Deed Book, 16:421: 40 acres to Jacob Servis. 75 Town (& Church) Records of Hopewell, 162. 76 Hunterdon County Deed Book, 22:513. 77 Fayette County Deed Book I:45. 78 Dr. Geo F. Doyle, Clarke County Historical Society. “Nathan Drake died on a farm near Lexington KY 1816 and is buried there.” 79 Fayette County Will Book D, 152. 80 Fayette County Will Book E:42. Jarusha Drake admin.

106 Chapter 9: Our Drakes of New Hampshire and New Jersey

I n J u l y o f 1817 the 60-acre farm was sold to Adam Keiser.81 82 Jerusha, now c.60, married next on August 21, 1819, David Stout (1732-1827) son of Jonathan Stout Jr. (Jonathan of H o p e w e l l , R i c h a r d - 1 o f Middletown), age 87.83 She died three years later on September 3, 1822. Abraham S. wrote the date in his bible. Son Abraham S. Drake died, apparently suddenly, in 1831, not quite 50. [Chapter 8] Son Enoch B. Drake, c.1811, before Nathan arrived, moved to Byrd Township, Brown County, Ohio, north of the Ohio River, about eighty mile northeast of Lexington. He married second in 1849 Nancy Kerr. The 1850 census lists him in Bryd Township, age 70, tailor, born in New Jersey with wife Nancy 58, born in Pennsylvania. He died on January 15, 1862, age 83. Son William Henry Drake in 1820 was in manufacturing in Lexington with wife and two little daughters. In 1824 he drops off the tax list and in 1830 we find him with the two daughters and a young son living next to Enoch Drake in Brown County, Ohio. In 1850 he is shown as age 65, farmer, born in New Jersey with wife Rachel, 63, born in New Jersey. Of Nathan’s two children by the second marriage, Elizabeth Drake died as a teenager in 1820. Elijah H. Drake, went into the retail business with Abraham and married on October 7, 1829, Emerine Thomson, daughter of Clifton Thomson of Fayette County. He died at the young age of 31 in the 1833 epidemic. His widow married next on December 3, 1834, Dr. Walter G. Offutt (c.1804-1869) and in 1850 was living in Woodford County, Kentucky. In 1858 E. F. Offutt (no address or relation given) gave the Nathan Drake Bible (published 1801) to Abraham’s son Dr. Benj. P. Drake, “as a token of esteem from a friend.”

Children of Nathan Drake and Tamar Jones: Isaac Drake (March 22, 1773-March 22, 1773). Died in infancy. Gedion Drake (July 13, 1776-July 6, 1781). Died age 5. Ira [Ura,Uriah] E. Drake (November 8, 1777-August 20, 1795). Died age 18.

81 Fayette County Deed Book, Q:154 60 acres. 82 E. Polk Johnson, A History of Kentucky and Kentuckians, 1912, Vol.3, 1603: “Adam Keiser ... a pioneer settler. His first purchased of land was in what is now the city of Lexington and included the present site of the Eastern Kentucky Insane Asylum. It was then heavily timbered and inhabited by Indians....” (archive.org) 83 Herald F. Stout, Stout & Allied Families, 1950, 5, 13, 33.

107 Our Kentucky Ancestors - Slaughters, Fishers, Drakes and Pralls

Enoch Blackwell Drake (October 9, 1779-January 15, 1862) m.1 June 14, 1798 (1st cousin) Rachel Drake (March 23, 1781-December 2, 1847), dau of Isaac Drake; m.2 June 19, 1849 Nancy Kerr (d.April 24, 1859). Children:84 Ura Eaton Drake (April 25, 1799- Rebeka Drake (December 21, 1800- ). Elizabeth Drake (July 16, 1802-Mach 20, 1817). Spencer Drake (July 1, 1805-October 17, 1835). Katherine Drake (September 4, 1807- ). Nathan Drake (August 26, 1809-April 2, 1847). Abraham Stout Drake (September 4, 1811-September 25, 1813). Rachel Stout (February 24, 1814- ). Enoch Blackwell Drake (November 21, 1815- ). Noah Drake (April 25 1818- August 1896). Josiah Drake (February 28, 1822-January 6, 1841). Sarah Drake (July 15, 1825- ). Abraham Stout Drake (September 22, 1781-September 8, 1831) m. October 30, 1805 Hannah Prall [Chapters 8 & 10] William Henry Drake (January 2, 1786- ) m. Rachel ____ Children: 2 daughters. William Drake (c.1820- ).

Children of Nathan Drake and Jerusha (Smith) Larison: Elijah H. Drake (November 2, 1802-June 23, 1833) m. October 7, 1829 Emerine F. Thomson (January 15, 1813- ). Died without issue. Elizabeth Drake (September 26, 1804-September 10, 1820). Died age 16.

84 Enoch Blackwell Drake bible in possession of Hiram T. Drake of Foster, KY, in 1920 when he corresponded with Russell B. Rankin of New Jersey who passed the information on to Frances Slaughter Bell.

108