About Francis Drake Francis Drake, the immigrant ancestor, was
born Abt. 1618 in Prob. Essex, Eng., and died September 24, 1687
in Piscataway, Middlesex Co., NJ. He married Mary Walker on Abt.
1647 in Portsmouth, Rockingham Co., NH, daughter of Joseph
Walker and Hannah Philbrick. - son of Robert Drake & Jane.
"Francis Drake was one of the first settlers of Portsmouth,
Rockingham County, New Hampshire. He was a royalist, and favored
by Champerowne, one of the holders of the New Hampshire grant.
In April 1646, he was one of twenty-one persons who signed an
agreement to have a committee lay out land in the area. He lived
in an area called Old Strawberry Bank -- a neck between two
creeks that grew to become Portsmouth -- and owned land adjacent
to a Nathaniel Drake." Moved his family from Portsmouth NH to NJ
probably due to religious persecution. Best estimates are that
this was in 1668 or 1669. "He was a Captain in the New Jersey
Militia, which he is credited with having founded. This
organization, which existed