William Drake

concerns

This William is the same as William Drake, of Elmstead.

brief biography and family

William Drake married Joan Merrylis 12 Oct 1578, at the age of 25, at St Andrew in Halstead, Essex, England. They had ten children (birth order, perhaps): Robert, Thomas "The Elder," Joshua, Isabel, Joseph, Joan, Thomas "The Younger," Alice, Ellen and Elizabeth.

William and his wife, Joan, were extreme Puritans who rejected the established Church of England. In the records of the Archdeacon of Colchester's Court we find them being fined for not attending the parish Church in 1611, and again in 1615 he was presented by the Churchwardens of Elmstead "for not coming orderly to Church on the Sabbath Daye" (spelling of the time).