NJHUNTER-L Archives

From: Donald Drake <>
Subject: [NJHUNTER] Drakes - 1700s
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 17:13:33 -0400

Good morning,

I am searching for the parents of Benjamin Drake who died in
Carter County, Tennessee about
1827, born about 1729. I suspect that he is descended from
John Drake and Rebecca Trotter
of Piscataway (I hope I spelled that right) New Jersey.
John and Rebecca had some grand-
children who moved to Hunterdon County (Hopewell Township),
possibly as early as 1701.

This particular Benjamin was in PA by 1788 and then moved to
Tennessee in the early 1790s.
He had four known sons: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Elijah.
Abraham was head of his own
household in PA in 1790. Jacob eventually moved to Arkansas
and was known as
"Juniata Jake." Apparently a reference to the Juniata
River. We have found a letter from Jacob's son Jacob which
states that Benjamin was from the Jersey Islands and that
his father's
name was Joseph. This letter is suspect because: 1) the
author was 3 years old when Benjamin
died 2) the author was living in Arkansas when Benjamin died
in Tennessee (thus he probably
never met his grandfather and everything he knew would be
second hand 3) the author was
in his nineties when he wrote the letter. We have found no
documentation indicating that
Benjamin and his father, Joseph came directly from the
Jersey Islands in the English Channel.
We suspect the reference has something to do with the
geography of New Jersey instead.

Any help would be greatly appreciated by many of us who are
descended from Benjamin.

Thank you for your help.

Don Drake
Knoxville, Tennessee

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• [NJHUNTER] Drakes - 1700s by Donald Drake <>