The Puritan Drapers in America by Delbert M. Draper

The Puritan Drapers in America

In his book, The Drapers in America, Thomas Man-Morgan Draper states that the Mormon Drapers interviewed by him in Utah about 1891 claimed to be of Puritan descent (page 239).

It may be added here that they claim that an English yeoman, named Thomas Draper, was their first known ancestor in England. The only evidence brought to Utah with them to support this claim was an ancient dress suit brought with them from Canada. In the sleeve lining of the coat, marked in indelible ink, appeared the following inscription: "T D Y 1603." With this marking goes a well established legend that the TDY stands for "Thomas Draper, yeoman," and "1603" is the year in which said outfit was made for him. Further legend says the suit was handed down--from father to son-and brought to America by a Puritan descendant about one hundred years before Thomas and Lydia Rogers Draper were born. Delbert M. Draper, author of The Mormon Drapers, saw and handled this suit many times between 1907 and 1955, when it was accidentally destroyed.


It seems significant that James and Miriam Stansfield Draper are the only known Puritan Drapers who ever settled in America, and that an English landowner, or yeoman, named Thomas Draper was the first known ancestor in England of James Draper. He was born about 1554 and he had a son named William who was married in 1603, which would seem reason enough for Thomas, or his son William to get a new dress suit. The fact that the suit reached America is likewise significant, for no other Puritan that James Draper could have brought it.

If, in addition to the foregoing facts and-circumstances, the parents of Thomas Draper (who married Lydia Rogers) can be found among the descendants of James and Miriam Stansfield Draper, then it must conclusively appear that the two yeomen described above are one and the same person and that the Puritan Drapers of Massachusetts and the Mormon Drapers have a common ancestry.

A brief examination of records of the descendants of James and Miriam discloses a great¬grandson named Thomas, who could very well be the Thomas Draper who married Lydia Rogers.

James and Miriam Draper

James Draper was born at Heptonstall on July 28, 1622. He married Miraim Stansfield on April 21, 1646. After their first child was born and subsequently died, they migrated to America and settled at Roxbury in Massachusetts, where James became a large landowner and a manufacturer of cloth, in the manner of his ancestors in Yorkshire. He died in July of 1697; Miriam died in 1701.

Their record of their children follows:

Name /Born /Place/ Died /Place

Miriam II /Feb. 7, 1647/ Heptonstall, Eng./ About Feb. 7, 1647/ Heptonstall

Susanna II/ About 1650 /Roxbury, Mass./

Sarah I /About 1652 /Roxbury, Mass/.

James II/ About 1654 /Roxbury, Mass. April 10, 1697/ Roxbury, Mass.

John II /April 24, 1656 /Dedham, Mass. /April 5, 1749/ Dedham, Mass.

Moses I /Sept. 5, 1663/ Dedham, Mass. /Aug. 14, 1693/ Boston, Mass.

Daniel I/ May 30,1665 /Dedham, Mass. //Dedham, Mass.

Patience I /Aug. 16, 1668 /Roxbury, Mass. /

Jonathan I /Mar. 10, 1670/ Roxbury, Mass /Feb. 28, 1747 /Newton, Mass.

This chart is compiled from data in Drapers in America, p. 20, and Vital Records of Newton, published by the New England Historical and Genealogical Society, pp. 56,273,441. See also American Geneologist, vol. 15, pp. 236-242. The Roman numerals after the names indicate first usage and repetition of usage of names in the Draper line.

Except for Miriam, all the above-named children constitute the first generation of Puritan Drapers in America. If Thomas Draper, ancestor of the Utah Drapers, was of Puritan descent, he has to be, of necessity, a descendant of one of James' sons. All available evidence leads to the conclusion that he could have descended through no other than the last son, Jonathan.

Jonathan and Sarah Jackson Draper

Jonathan married Sarah Jackson about 1702 when he was thirty-two years of age. She was born in 1680 and was ten years younger than Jonathan. He died on February 28, 1747 at Newton, Massachusetts, while living with one of his sons, Thomas II, named below. Sarah preceded Jonathan in death. There follows a record of their children:



Children of Jonathan and Sarah Jackson Draper

Name /Born/ Place /Died /Place

Johnathan II /Oct. 29, 1703 /Roxbury, Mass.

David I /Sept. 27,1706 /Roxbury, Mass.

Thomas II/ Mar. 14, 1709/ Roxbury, Mass. /1769/ Newton, Mass.

Samuel I /June 14, 1713/ Roxbury, Mass /June 14, 1744 /Newton, Mass,

Sarah I /Mar. 14,1717 /Roxbury, Mass. /

Moses III /Aug. 11, 1721/ Roxbury, Mass. /Jan. 21,1775/ Newton, Mass.



Thomas II, shown above, with whom his father, Jonathan, lived at the time of the latter's death, inherited a hundred acres of land at Newton from his father, who, in turn, had inherited it before from his father, James. Thomas married Relief Hyde in about 1731, and by her had an unusually large family of children, all born in Newton, Massachusetts. Relief died at Newton in 1758, and Thomas died there in 1769. A list of the children of Thomas II and Relief follows:

Children of Thomas II and Relief Hyde Draper

Name/ Born/ Died /Place /Married

Thomas III /Oct 30, 1732 /Nov. 29, 1738 /Newton, Mass. /Ann Worlly1eek, Apr. 8,1757

John III /Dec. 17, 1733

Aaron I /Mar. 15, 1735 ///Mary Fisher, Feb. 21,1760

Sarah III /Dec. 7,1736

Moses IV/ May 26,1738/ Dec. 4,1738/ Newton, Mass.

Thomas IV /Dec. 19, 1739 /

Abigail IV/ June 2, 1741 //Newton, Mass. /Ens. John Baker, Feb. 23, 1762

Phoebe I/ Oct. 27,1742 /1751 /Newton, Mass.

Elizabeth V/ Mar. 26, 1744

Catherine I/ Nov. 29, 1745// Sept. 29,1748 /

William IV /June 1, 1747// Sept. 29,1748 /Newton, Mass.

Anna l /July 28, 1749

Rebecca I /Sept. 6, 1750/ Mar. 11, 1751 /Newton, Mass.

William V /May 7, 1752/ 1755 /Newton, Mass.

Rebecca II /May 7, 1752 /Newton, Mass.

The above information is found in Drapers in America, 1892, p. 180; Vital Records of Newton, pp. 236-242, published by New England Historical and Genealogical Society, 1905. Phoebe I and Rebecca I died of "Throat distemper."

The foregoing charts reveal some interesting facts which offer evidence that Lydia Rogers married Thomas IV named in the last chart above. It may be noted that Massachusetts kept more nearly perfect vital records than any of the original colonies, and these records have been carefully copied, compiled, and published by the New England Historical Society from earliest colonial times up until 1850. Such records are generally so complete and accurate that when a family is shown to be established in a particular town evidenced by entries of marriages, birth, and death of its members, the disappearance of a given member from the records of that town is almost evidence that such member moved elsewhere.

From the last chart preceding, it may seen that both Thomas and Relief Hyde Draper died at Newton; that their sons, John and Aaron, moved to Roxbury, and all of their other sons, with the exception of Thomas IV, died at Newton. No entry concerning the latter, except that of his birth, was made after 1739. It may be assumed, therefore, that he left Newton, unmarried, and settled elsewhere. The best deduction that can be made from all available facts and circumstances is that Thomas IV went to western Massachusetts and then into New York before 1769, where many of his kinfolk had been migrating since 1743 (see Drapers in America, pp. 34-62, and any general history of the United States).

One of the first significant facts is that there were only six Thomas Drapers of Puritan descent born in America between 1647, when James and Miriam settled at Roxbury, and in 1855, when Thomas Waln-Morgan Draper, author of The Drapers in America, was born. This number, in any case, was all that could be counted by him, who were descendants of James and Miriam Stansfield Draper. He found that the Mormon Drapers in Utah claimed to be of Puritan origin and descendants of a Thomas Draper and Lydia Rogers Draper, but apparently seeing no connection in his brief interview with one or two of their living descendants in Utah, he listed them briefly in his book under the heading of "Utah Drapers." (See The Drapers in America, p. 259.) No doubt it never occurred to him to determine the number of Puritan Drapers who were named "Thomas" in honor of their first-known ancestor named "Thomas" at Heptonstall, England. Had the author made such a study he would have seen that James and Miriam did not name any of their sons "Thomas," and that only James and Jonathan of their sons' ever used the name. The following is the list of all "Thomases" found by Thomas Man-Morgan Draper (these Thomases appear, in the order named, in The Drapers in America, 1892, pp. 180, 146, 181, and 72):



Father/ Son/ Born/ Place/ Married

Johathan/ Thomas /Mar. 14, 1709/ Roxbury/ Relief Hyde

John (son of James II)/Thomas W/. June 26, 1732/ Roxbury /Lydia Cheney

Thomas II (son of Jonathan)/ Thomas /Oct 30,1732 /Newton, Mass.

Thomas II (son of Jonathan)/Thomas/ Dec. 19, 1739 /Newton, Mass.

(Descendant of James II)/Thomas Mal-Morgan/ Mar. 12, 1855 /New York City/ Jeanne Gould

Only one Thomas in the above list is not disposed of by death or marriage to someone other than Lydia Rogers. The record is silent as to what became of Thomas Draper, born December 19, 1739. Because of completeness and accuracy of the records kept at Newton, it must assumed that this Thomas left Newton, as there is no record of him in any other Massachusetts town after his birth, and it may be further assumed that he left the state. He attained the age of twenty-one years on December 19, 1760, and westward migration was in full swing at the time. It would be perfectly in accord with the times if he should be found in New York state in the 1760's.

There was a Thomas Draper claiming Puritan descent in New York at that time, and as far as records at this time show, no one knew where he came from. But if he was of Puritan descent his roots had to be in Massachusetts. He was the husband of Lydia Rogers and the father of a child born January 22, 1769. The Thomas of Newton was a good age (twenty-nine years) to be the father of that child, and in view of facts and circumstances already related and those to follow, he was its father and the husband of Lydia Rogers. The following facts and circumstances lend more weight to the conclusions just reached:

1. All of the children of Thomas II and Relief Hyde Draper had ample incentive to leave Newton between 1758 and 1769. Many deaths had occurred in this family between 1738, when their first son died, and 1758, when Relief herself died. No doubt a great physical and financial burden was placed upon Thomas II by the great amount of sickness and the loss of all of his sons by death or marriage. There was no farm upon which to work, for his father had sold it and married again.

2. He had relatives going west continually after 1743, giving him plenty of incentive to strike out for himself and follow them.

3. The names of Lydia's children and those of her descendants were to a large extent the names of the Newton Drapers: Thomas, Willian1, and Rebecca were repeated twice in the same family. Lydia named her first sons Thomas and William respectively. Moses, Phoebe, and Rebecca, names from the family of Thomas II and Rebecca, found favor among Lydia's descendants. Also from other kinfolk of her husband came the following names which were favored by her descendants: James, Ira, Olive, Roxanna, Albert, Asa, Chloe, Julie Ann, Emmeline, Joel, Riley, and Marvin.

It is now more than three centuries since the Puritan Drapers came to America, and about a century and a half since Thomas and Lydia died in Canada. During the first century, the immigrants clung close to the Atlantic seaboard, after which many of them plunged into the great western wilderness and became lost to their eastern kin. As pioneers they lived in the present and the future. They had no time to look back or to make genealogical records. Thomas Waln-Morgan Draper had cause to bemoan this fact when he was putting so much time, effort and money into the compiling of a record of the Drapers in America. In a footnote to his book he wrote: "In reference to the descendants of Gideon Draper (Gideon was the first Draper to reach New York), the author desires to say, that they have become so widely scattered, and the majority are so indifferent to genealogical matters, that it has been with utmost difficulty that any connection lines could be established" (The Drapers in America, p.l19.) The same remark could be made regarding the descendants of Thomas and Lydia Rogers Draper, but now that their genealogical lines have been established, their stories can be told.