Drake Family Chronicles: Part 2

Week 14: #52 Ancestors – Brick Wall

Drake Family Chronicles: Part 1

By Eilene Lyon

The Drakes in Ireland

Samuel Drake, Sr. and Eliza J. were born in Northern Ireland around 1790. Though I have not found a record giving Eliza’s maiden name, Sorby turns up as a middle name repeatedly with her children and grandchildren, making this the prime candidate.

A variant of Sorby that I’ve seen is Sowerby. Both are English or Scottish and refer to “sour ground,” a place where nothing will grow.¹

The Drakes were all proud of the their “Irish” heritage; many of their gravestones sport their home in County Down. However, they were undoubtedly of English or Scottish ancestry.

Samuel and Eliza lived in Killyleagh, a port town nineteen miles south of Belfast. They were probably married around 1816. Samuel stated he was a fisherman and Eliza a servant, when they landed in America.²

They spoke English, but were probably not literate, though their children were. The little town boasted six public and four private schools to educate the local children. Killyleagh was also home to a substantial fabric mill and members of the family may have worked there.³

The oldest son, Samuel, Jr., was born in 1817. Thomas came along in 1818, Mary Ann in 1819, William in 1821, Eliza J. in 1822, then a long gap. Martha was born about 1831 and Richard in 1832. (All dates are approximate.)

Though a couple records say that Thomas was born in England, it’s likely all the children were born in Killyleagh. Thomas’s headstone indicates he was from there.⁴

Perhaps it’s true that William Drake worked in the merchant navy, as explained in Part 1. That may be how he met English mariner Robert Halse. Robert settled in Killyleagh and married Eliza Jane Sorby Drake about 1844.

The worst year for famine in Ireland was 1847, but the exodus from the plagued island continued through the early 1850s. The people of Killyleagh were probably not as impacted as those in southern Ireland, but America spelled opportunity, and the Drake clan made their escape plans in 1850.

The Smithfield Years

When the Drakes and Halses settled in Smithfield, Rhode Island, William Drake and Robert Halse continued working as mariners.⁵ There is even a tantalizing clue that puts Robert in San Francisco in 1851, during the early gold rush years.⁶ It wouldn’t be out of the question that he tried his hand in the mines. He was still in his 20s at the time.

As well, a San Francisco passenger manifest in 1852 has a William Drake listed, but it wasn’t an uncommon name.⁷

Smithfield’s primary industry was fabric mills, processing the cotton shipped out of the southern states. Samuel, Sr., Samuel, Jr., Richard, and Thomas Drake all went to work as weavers in a nearby mill.⁸

As for their religious life, the family attended the Episcopalian Christ Church of Lonsdale, then part of Smithfield. John Halse, just a toddler, was buried in the church cemetery in 1851.⁹ Thomas Drake married Catharine Peoples about 1852 (no record). Martha Drake wed James Connery in the church in 1853.¹⁰

Thomas and Catharine Drake remained in Smithfield for life. They had three daughters who all went to work with their father in the cotton mills, beginning as young as 13 or even earlier.¹¹ It had to be a tough life. Working hours were long, six days a week, and conditions in the mills were unhealthy: hot, humid, with air full of cotton dust and noise.

The daughters never married. After Thomas died in 1870, Catharine and her girls continued living together.¹² Catharine died in 1889 and Eliza, Mary, and Martha L. continued on together, at home and in the mills.

Martha L. spent her later years in a mental asylum and Mary also ended up there.¹³ It seems like such a grim existence – so much for the American dream, streets paved with gold, yada yada. I hope they found time for some joyful pursuits in life in what little free time they had.

The entire Thomas Drake family is buried in the Christ Church cemetery. A headstone placed sometime in the 20^th century lists the three “spinsters” with their grandmother, Eliza J. Drake. The birth/death dates on this headstone aren’t reliable (see Findagrave).

Fortunately, a Rhode Island cemetery inscription project recorded a stand-alone headstone for Eliza J. wife of Samuel. It gives her birth year as 1789 and death date as July 25, 1855. It also states that she is a native of Killyleagh.¹⁴ At last I know the fate of my 4^th great-grandmother.

Martha Drake Connery

Martha Drake’s husband, James Connery, was an immigrant from Glasgow, Scotland.¹⁵ He was a master boiler maker and even received patents on steam boiler improvements and specialized calking tools. He gave the profession permission to freely use his tools without royalties.¹⁶

The Connerys settled in Manhattan and had two sons, William D. and James R., and a daughter who may have been stillborn.¹⁷ It appears that Martha possibly died in childbirth with James R. in January 1859. I haven’t been able to locate the family in the 1860 census. James W. remarried in Delaware in 1865 to Catharine Scully and had seven more children.¹⁸ Martha’s fate and burial place are unknown at this time.

The rest of the Drake-Halse-Murphy clan headed west to learn about farming life.

To be continued…

Drake Family Chronicles: Part 3

Feature image: Killyleagh parish church (Wikimedia Commons)

Samuel Drake and family on Ancestry.com