20TH GENERATION

985088. Robert DRAKE ^{(322) (312)} was born about 1310 in Great Waltham, England. He died before 1392.

At the court held on April 25, 1331, "Robert, son and heir of Nicholas Drake" paid his entry fine for the "land of mollond (...of which) his father died seised." Therefore, Nicholas must have died in 1331 and Robert, being the eldest son, acquired his property. Like his father, Robert added to his holdings and his wife, Elen, appears to have held some land in her own right, for on June 12, 1337, we find one John Geffray surrendering to the lord "one croft of land which he had acquired of Elen Drake."

A sure sign of the steadily rising status of the family, and a more important one even than his father becoming the Molmen, is revealed by the proceedings in the Court on May 12, 1357: "Robert Drake a bondman of the lord comes and exhibits a certain charter by which he acquired various tenements, (namely 1 acre of rue pasture, a certain lane caled Parkers Lane and 1 acre of land and pastre) in Little Leghs." From this entry we can see the way in which the old distinctious between bond and free tenants were gradually being eroded. The unfree tenant could not plead in the King's Court except when indicated for a major felony and his land could not legally be alienated by charter. Here we find Robert Drake, still technically his lord's bondman, holding some of his lands by charter and not by surrender and seisin given in the Manor Court.

Although we do not know the exact date of death of Elen Drake, the wife of Robert, she is mentoned in Court records for the last time in 1376, so she likely died that year. Robert Drake died before 1392.

(Children: William, John, Joan) Compiled in Sep. 1980 by Stanley Ross Williams

985089. Elen^{(322) (312)} died in 1376. Children were:

492544 i. William DRAKE.