JOHN DRAKE

• Death Notes
  • 2 John Drake died on 17 August 1659 at Windsor, Hartford Co., CT. He was buried on 18 August 1659 at Windsor, Hartford Co., CT.
    

• General Notes
  • John Drake1
    
    
        
    
    John the emigrant, came to Boston, 1630; bought land at Taunton, but did not settle; came to Windsor before 1639. "Aug. 17, 1659, John Drake, Sr, dyed accidentally as he was driving a cart loaded with corn to cary from his house to his son Jacob's; the cattle being 2 oxen, and his mare. In the highway, against John Griffin's, somethng scared the cattle, and they set a running, and he laboring to stop them by taking hold on the mare, was thrown down on his face, and the cart-wheel went over him, brake one of his legs, and bruised his bodye so that he was taken up dead, being carried to his daughter's house, had life come again, but dyed in a short time, and was buried on the 18th of August, 1659."
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    Genealogists have labored over the genealogy the Drake family for many years and various compiled records insist that the patriarch of the Connecticut family was the John Drake who was a passenger on the John and Mary during its 1630 voyage from Plymouth, England to Massachusetts Bay. Robert Charles Anderson, F.A.S.G. in his NEHGS Register article in Volume 147, April 1993, does not include this John Drake in his synthetic passenger list. (A synthetic list is one developed from specified contemporary records when actual lists do not exist.) His research determined that another John Drake, who subsequently returned to England, has been confused with the John Drake I (?-17 Aug 1659) who settled in Windsor, CT and appears in town records in 1640. In his book, The Great Migration Begins, Anderson writes that John Drake derived from Hampton in Arden, Warwickshire, England. The son of John Drake I, John Drake II, is granted land at Massacoe (Simsbury) in 1667. There has also been some confusion as to him being the true recipient of this grant. The grandson of John Drake II, John Drake III, recorded the birth of a child in Simsbury in 1674 while no record appears to place John Drake II as a resident of Simsbury except the registration of his children's births in Windsor Town Records which puts "Simsbury" after his name. To determine the correct John Drake it is necessary to look at the land records and bear in mind that men had to be 21 years of age to own land. In 1667, John Drake III born 14 Sept 1649, would have been 18 years of age and unable to contract for land ownership. This legal requirement would place John Drake II as the Drake who received the land in Simsbury.While it has been proved to our satisfaction that John Drake I was not of the John and Mary party, his actual origin in America is not easily proved. An interesting clue exists in his probate file and refers to trips his son, Job, made to "Pascataway" on his behalf. At the time of this probate in 1659, it appears that this refers to the New Hampshire area of Piscataqua where several Drake families resided. No obvious links were uncovered in New Hampshire State or Town records by our researchers. To confuse matters more, Drakes also founded the township of New Piscataqua or Piscataway, NJ in 1666.
    
    These "problems" might intrigue some current day Drake descendants enough to research the original records in these areas.  http://www.simsburyhistory.org/family-history.html