John Drake of Windsor, Connecticut

THE DESCENDANTS OF JOHN DRAKE OF WINDSOR, CONNECTICUT COMPILED BY THE DIRECTION OF FRANK B. GAY Trustee of the Timothy Drake Fund AND Includes the Manuscript of the Late HARRIE BEEKMAN DRAKE RUTLAND, VT. THE TUTTLE COMPANY 1933 TO THE MEMORY OF TIMOTHY DRAKE A STUDENT OF GENEALOGY AND SIDNEY DRAKE HIS BROTHER A MAKER AND LOVER OF BOOKS INTRODUCTION The making of a family genealogy usually begins in the laudable efforts of hunting out one's grandfather and grand mother on both sides. The discovery that these forebears had parents with strange and unfamiliar names, piques a natural curiosity and before one realizes it, the "bee is buzz ing in the bonnet" and soon a strong start is made on the long and toilsome road,-who, what and where, were these "new people," who were born, lived and died lamented so long ago, but with whom, we, now are a living part. In most of us somewhere in our consciousness is stored away more or less of a Sherlock Holmes detective sense. We de light in solving picture, mathematical, cross-word and other puzzles. So here in tracing a family pedigree is the most absorbing puzzle of all; the compensation begins to appear immediately though the end is never reached and many of the riddles must always remain unsolved. Mr. Timothy Drake was a well-known citizen of Hartford; rather tall and quite spare, of the "Brother Jonathan" type; the hair worn longer than prescribed by fashion; sober in manner and somewhat slow in speech, very neat, his clothes were of an earlier generation in style and cut. Honest and sincere but not effusive or a spendthrift of affection or money. A Conneciticut Yankee from head to toe. He became deeply interested in his family like most New Englanders from the parent stock; he was proud, and sensitive to blood and kindred. His profession of civil engi neer and land surveyor exercised in Hartford and the sur rounding country, the searching of deeds, boundaries, wills, inventories and distributions, all led him in his business to a cognizance of many family relationships, and considerable local history. This fostered a natural bent and early he began to set down in his surveyor's note book or on any handy bit of paper, the names that interested him. On retiring from active life, he began to arrange these notes especially of the Drake name. He invited correspondence and con versation, but soon found there were many Drakes not of his brood. As he grew older this annoyed him, and I remem- The Descendants of John Drake ber several occasions on which his nerves got the better of him and he spoke in no uncertain terms of those long gone as well as some living, who did not know or care what Drakes they were. He died leaving no immediate heirs. The bank which he made his executor found his papers in some disorder but carefully saved many of them; but I am certain that others disappeared. He had led me to suppose that his genealogy could be taken up and carried on to a reasonable completeness. In his will he left a sum of money for this purpose. For many years he had been searching for a certain Esther Drake who married an ancestor of mine. Mr. Drake many times stopped me on the street or elsewhere, saying, "I am on Esther's trail," or "I am sure we shall soon have her for sure."* He urged me, therefore, to become one of the trustees of this genealogical fund. I demurred, not being a trained genealogist. Then Mr. Drake said, "You will not have to do the work. You will hire my old friend and neighbor, Mr. M., who has done genealogies and who has talked with me about my Drake genealogy. He knows what I want, but I want you and Mr. B. to consult with him and to look after. the fund. There will be enough to pay you all." U nfortu nately Mr. M. died shortly before Mr. Drake; Mr. B. de clined to serve and for some years I did not qualify as trustee. The executor wished to settle the estate and urged me to undertake the work. The World War took the attention of most of us and not much was done. The actual compilation was turned over to an experienced genealog;.st, Miss Alice M. Gay, and her faithful, intelligent work has been carried on in the face of many discouragements. While the family is not as large as some others, of the name, it has been a peculiarly hard one to untangle and trace. The results are here. No consideration of profit has entered into this pub lication. It was thought best during the boom time and high prices, to delay the printing, but the time yielded new and valuable material. The scope of the work was in a measure fixed by the donor, but as he had talked with me of his prob able English origin and ancestors and of his efforts while in *Later investigation proved that Esther was born Mills and was a Widow Drake when my ancestor married her. Introduction Vll England to find them, it was felt that he would approve of further search there. While the results were somewhat largely negative, and are inferential, they were well worth the effort. The earliest documents found relating to Timothy ref er to a business venture entered into with his brother Sidney. They are contracts to publish a book in which it was agreed that they "share equally the cost of getting up the work and that all stereotype plates, maps, engravings and other appur tenances (sic) shall be (their) joint property." All expenses and profits were to be equally divided. This was signed 18 April, 1849. The East and the then West had been deeply interested in the affairs of the Southwest and Mexico; the war with that country was now happily finished and the golden glamour of California was at its height. The time seemed propitious to the brothers for publishing a large work on that region. On April 9th, Sidney had met in Baltimore and signed a contract with the Hon. Brantz Mayer, a well known and highly esteemed author, who had travelled widely and had been Secretary of Legation in Mexico. The compensation was to be $2,000.00 for a work of 700 pages. A later addition gave the author $1.50 per page, if the work exceeded that limit, which it did by 136 pages. The book was to be elab orately illustrated from drawings by Francis B. Mayer,* artist-nephew of the author, who was to furnish not to exceed 100 drawings for the sum of $375.00." Thus in 1850, "Mex ico, Aztec, Spanish and republican, with notices of New Mex ico and California" appeared in two octavo volumes with this imprint: "Hartford: S. DrakeandCompany. 1851." It was reissued in one volume in 1852 and 1853. Timothy Drake lived on Main Street until Sidney's death when he removed to the latter's home, No. 6 Sumner Street, Hartford; about 1900, he built the house No. 758 Asylum Avenue, where he remained until his death, in 1910. He rests forever in a casket enclosed in a metal chest, near the south-west corner of Cedar Hill Cemetery, Hartford. For years he had been a consistent member of the "Connecti- *So called in contract; Mantle Fielding calls him Frank. viii The Descendants of John Drake cut State Spritualist Association, Inc." to which he gave liberally. In closing, the genealogist and the subscriber venture the hope that the time and work put into this book will serve the purpose so deeply and kindly desired by the Donor. It is wished also that it be a monument to his memory. FRANK B. GAY, Hartford, 1933. Trustee. PREFACE It is a difficult task to express my grateful appreciation of the assistance that has been given to me in the preparation of the Drake Genealogy. I cannot mention by name, every one who has sent me family records, the librarians and their assistants, who have given me help, and the friendly gene alogists whose advice has aided. Their help cannot be over estimated. I wish to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Louis Stough ton Drake, for his generosity in allowing me to use the records of the Drake family, gathered about forty years ago by his brother, the late Harrie Beekman Drake. Mr. Drake had reached many members of the family, who are no longer living, whose knowledge and remembrance of family records went back a generation before my work began. These re cords have added many names to the genealogy, and have helped to identify some of the Drakes in my own records, whom I had not been able to place. To Mrs. Mary McFarren of Watervliet, N. Y., I am in debted for the very complete records of the descendants of Salmon Drake, of Stafford, Conn., and Cherry Valley, N. Y., to Mr. Louis Frank Drake for tracing the family of Roger Drake, in Corning and Leroy, N. Y., and to Miss Ella Mar shall Harrall, for records of the Lemuel Drake descendants in South Carolina. It was hoped that an examination of the English records might give some information about John Drake's immediate family before he came to America, and I was fortunate to have the assistance of Mrs. A. May Osler, of London, in this work. While all that we hoped to find was not realized, it has seemed of interest to print abstracts of the wills of some of John Drake's near of kin.

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