Who was George Drewie?

    "I promise that if you will keep your journals and records, they will indeed be a source of great inspiration to your families, to your children, your grandchildren, and others, on through the generations. Each of us is important to those who are near and dear to us and as our posterity reads of our life's experiences, they, too, will come to know and love us..."   Spencer W. Kimball 

   

George Franklin                      William Miles Franklin                               Richard Hector Francis

Who was George Drewie?  Let's find out 

George Drewie is better known to his descendants, as Hugh Drury. Richard Hector Francis Drury is a direct descendant of Hugh Drury.

When I first starting working on our trees I had very little to go on  Richard’s roots thus our sons and grandchildren as well - it seemed such an impossible task to create a tree.  At that time we had no idea his paternal line began in 1600’s in the United States. Yes there was some information about a Drury ancestor coming to Canada at some point but I had no dates and not sure there were names either, so much has happened since then it is difficult to remember the timeline of how Richard’s line came together.

However, found that as soon as I started to enter names into his parental line of the DRURY-PAIEMENT ARBRE on Ancestry, hints started popping up. On-line research found a great deal of information to help me fill in history and blanks or confirm facts – the stuff that makes genealogy fun and brings ancestors to life.

One of the helpful people I came across was Michael Drury of Boston Mass.,( he and Richard would be second cousins several times removed).  And it is he I have depended on for the correct facts or the ‘version’ I am willing to back until new information and resources come along. As you have likely figured out doing family genealogy is never ending and some information or facts may change so one needs to approach it with an open mind and be able to make changes when needed.

Let’s get started on Hugh Drury, Richard’s 9^th great grandfather.   To quote from Michael Drury who has been researching the Drury line for at least 15 years.

 "I am a descendant of George Drewrie, who was in fact Hugh Drury of Sudbury, MA and later Boston. I am interested in John Freeman (not related to Edmond) as he traveled with George and is found in Sudbury records with Hugh. Court records show that Hugh's birth date and George's overlap. It was the genealogist C.E. Banks (a Hugh Drury descendant) that stated George Drewrie is from East Grinstead, but now that birth records are available for the parish, it is clear he is not.”

This just gives you a small glimpse into the type of genealogy brick walls one comes up against and when researching thousands of names the brick walls and conflicting facts are numerous, promise me I have them in both the trees I am working on.

And again Michael Drury tries to clear up some misconceptions. Yet they go on and on…

From a post on genealogy.com

September 2009

Seeking parents of OBED DRURY born about 1585 London, Middlesex, England and died there about 1663.His wife is unknown but born to the marriage were at least two children: Lydia born abt 1618 and HUGH, carpenter born about 1616 or 1617. If you know anything about this DRURY family, I would very much like to hear from you. Ruth

Michael responded a week later.

Ruth

I have been researching the family of Hugh Drury of Boston for ten years. There is no solid proof that his father was named Obed. This is a family tradition found in the work of Edwin Drury who did extensive research on the family in the late 1800s.I have searched exhaustively for Hugh's roots but never found any hard evidence. My best guess at this time is that he was living in London near the Tower working as an apprentice carpenter for John Freeman, whose family came from Bocking.  Freeman was on the Abigail with George Drury in 1635 and with Hugh in Sudbury in 1640. Hugh and George are almost certainly the same person.

Hugh did not have a sister Lydia. Rather the Lydia mentioned in his will was a half-sister of his wife Lydia. After Lydia Rice Drury's mother Thomasine Frost Rice died, Edmund Rice remarried to the widow Mary Hurd Brigham and had two children, Lydia and Ruth. It was not uncommon for names to be used twice in the large families of New England in colonial times. By the time the second Lydia Rice was born, the older had married and was known as Lydia Drury. When Edmund died, his widow remarried to William Hunt of Concord. Her new family was immense containing some of her Brigham children, her two Rice girls, and several Hunts from William’s first wife. As Hugh and Lydia had only one son, John, and he was now of apprentice age working for his father, they "adopted" the younger Lydia Rice and raised her. After Hugh's wife died, he raised the younger Lydia until she married John Hawkins, grandson of the midwife/witch Jane Hawkins, Hugh's neighbor in Boston. In his will he refers to Lydia Rice Hawkins as his sister, as indeed she was his half-sister in law.

There is similar confusion about Hugh having only one child, John. This son died before Hugh, and his three children -- Thomas, Mary and John -- were raised by Hugh as his own children. Mary married William Alden the grandson of the Pilgrims, John Alden and Priscilla Mullins. John died at 23 of smallpox. All New England Drurys’ descend from Thomas and his wife Rachel Rice the daughter of Henry Rice and therefore niece of Lydia Rice Drury. Yes, Thomas married his grandmother’s niece who was only four years older than him.

One final area of common confusion in early Hugh genealogy is that his son John married Mary Weare, daughter of Peter Weare of Maine, not Mary Shrimpton. Hugh's second wife Mary Fletcher, the widow of Edward Fletcher, is mentioned as sister in the will of Henry Shrimpton and as aunt in documents from his son. This has led some to speculate that her maiden name was Shrimpton (unlikely) and led to confusion with John's wife also named Mary.

I have extensive records on Hugh's descendants. Please let me know which branch you are in."

I have contacted Michael a couple of times and shared Richard’s line with him after he confirmed that one of brick walls I had was indeed the way it had worked it out. However, Michael had lost track of Richard’s line once they crossed the border. He now has that line and it likely is time I once again will touch base with Michael.

Huge/George came to America on the pilgrim ship the Abigail in 1635. He was 19 at the time.

He boarded the ship as George Drewey or Drury depending on what resource is found. His given name was soon changed to Hugh in America and the surname can be found in many forms.

Hugh is the 'father' to most Eastern NA Drury descendants.

For now I will share a bit more information as well as the direct line from Hugh to Richard followed by some of the surnames found in Richard’s paternal roots from the early years.

 Hugh died July 21 1689 in Boston, Suffolk Massachusetts -  he, his first wife Lydia Rice and their son John are buried in the King’s Chapel Burying Ground in Boston.
 In the fall of 2013 we went to Boston and walked a good part of the Freedom Trail  and found the burial ground then the grave, which has been moved since the orginal burial.   We stopped to visit with Richard’s 9^th Great-grandparents, took some photos and left a small American flag on the badly damaged headstone. Through research I had come across a very old sketch of the grounds and where to look for the grave easily found because of the condition it is in now.   It was a very emotional experience for me to truly see with my own eyes what had only been on-line or paper till then

At this time my genealogy is more or least on hold as I am comfortable with what I have found out about our roots -  there is a lot to share however and that is the goal of blogging.

The Direct line from Hugh to Richard

Hugh Drury and Lydia Rice

John Drury and Mary Weare

Thomas Drury and Rachell Rice (niece to Lydia)

Caleb Drury and Elisabeth Eames

Caleb Drury and Mehitable Maynard

William Drury and Elizabeth Drury (this was where I got hung up)

John Drury and  Ann Elizabeth Mitchell

JOHN Mitchell Drury and Mary Fairlinda Huff

 * Myles Huff Drury and Catherine Callen

George Franklin Drury and Sarah E. Law (Collins)

**William Milles Frankly Drury and Marie Aline Alexandra Paiement

Richard Hector Francis   Drury and Cathern Agnes Harrison    

* The Drury that came to Canada and married the daughter of Irish immigrants – who came to Canada at the towards the end of the Potato Famine)

**How his baptism was registered

There is so much more to share and will over time bringing in other ancestors that come to Richard though marriages

Same of the other surnames found in the early years after Hugh are

Frost, Gooch, Gleason, Learned, Atwood, Perkins, McDaniels, Mitchell, Huff,  ***Kennedy

*** The other half of Richard’s Irish roots.

 One list found for the passengers on the Abigail and a great example of how confusing it can be doing research.                       http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/abigail1635.shtml

17 Junij, 1635

. Theis under written names are to be transported to New England, imbarqued in the Abigall, Robert Hackwell Mr. P'r Cert. From the minister and Justices of Peace of their Conformitie, being no Subsedy men. The have taken the oaths of Alleg: and Supremacy being all Husbandmen:

    Ralph Wallis 40     Ralph Roote 50      Jno. ffreeman 35   Walter Gutsall 34

   Richard Graves 23    Robert Mere 43    Samvell Mere 3   Edmund Maning 40

    Tho: Jones 40         Geo: Drewie 19      Wm Marshall 40   Thomas Knore 33

    John Holliock 28      George Wallis 15   Rebecca Price 14    Marie ffreeman 50

    Elizabeth Mere 30    Jo: ffreeman 9    Sycillie ffreeman 4     Jo: West 11

    Mary Moninges 30    Mary Monninges 9     Anna Monnings 6   Michelaliell Moninges 3

    Elizabeth Ellis 16    Ellis Jones 36      Isacke Jones 8   Hester Jones 6

    Tho: Jones 3     Sara Jones 3mo.    Cesara Covell 15    Joan Wall 19

    Wm Payne 15   Noel Knore 29   Sara Knore 7  Roberts Driver 8    John Mere 3mo.

………………………………………………

Richard roots through his mother go back to Nouveau France and the early to mid-1600’s, they too are extremely interesting and thanks to one of Richard’s second cousins for sharing what he had put together about that side his tree filled in quite quickly, that side too will be shared eventually.