Thomas Draper I and his English Descendents

Thomas Draper I and his English Descendants

-Delbert M. Draper, The Mormon Drapers pp.9-11

Thomas Draper I was born at Heptonstall, England, about 1554. His will was presented there for probate October 6, 1603, so he must have wed shortly before that. He married Grace Newhall (date of birth and marriage not known). She was buried at Heptonstall on June 21, 1600.

Heptonstall and its environs were visited and explored by Thomas Wain-Morgan Draper, author of The Drapers in America, about 1890. He described what he saw--and stated what he learned, as follows:

The native place of the Drapers and Stansfields is a village and Parochial Chapelry in Halifax Parish, West Riding, Yorkshire, England. The village stands on a bleak eminence, adjacent to River Hebden ... and eight miles west by north of Halifax, and has a post-office under Manchester ... The Chapelry includes also the hamlets of Erringden, Langfield, Stansfield, and Wadsworth. ... A decrease in population has been caused by depression in hand-loom weaving. ... Much of the land is moor and common. There are silk, cotton, and cotton-spinning manufactories. The living is a perpetual Curacy in the Diocese of Ripon. ... Patron, the Vicar of Halifax .... There are Chapels for Baptists and Wesleyans, a grammar school and several small charities.


Such is the description of the old village (Heptonstall) as it now exists. In the days when James and Miriam left there for the New World, it was a market town of some importance. Now it is a sleepy village. There are many descendants of the two families, Draper and Stansfield, liVing in and near there, and it is curious to note that the old Christian names are still retained for their children, and that many of them are still dissenters, as were the old Puritans. To this day, in the village of Heptonstall, there is a "Draper Lane", and formerly all the land on either side of it was property of our ancestors. (Introduction to The Drapers in America, p. 13.)

The most comprehensive record of Thomas I and his Yorkshire descendants was found by Clarence Almon Torrey, Ph.B. Of Dorchester, Massachusetts. It had been supposed by Thomas Wain-Morgan Draper that Thomas I was born about 1590 and that James Draper, the Puritan, was his son (The Drapers in America, p. 2), but Mr. Torrey discovered that James was his grandson, and by deductions from the Yorkshire records he arrived at about 1554 as the year in which Thomas I was born. Mr. Torrey's summary of the records and his comments follow:

Thomas Draper (I) made his will at Heptonstall, Yorkshire, June 21, 1603, which was proved (probated) October 6, 1603. He married Grace Newhall, daughter of James Newhall. She was buried June 21, 1600. He was buried July 9, 1603. They had the following children, exact order not

known: •

William (birth date unknown), married Grace Mychell (Mitchell) Aug. 29, 1603

Grace (birth date unknown), married John Crabtree (?) Sept. 26, 1603

Abraham (birth date unknown), buried March 31, 1613

Thomas (birth date unknown), probably died unmarried

William Draper (first- named above), son of Thomas and Grace Newhall Draper, married Grace Mitchell on August 29, 1603, at Heptonstall, Yorkshire, England. She is mentioned in his will, dated March 4, 1634, and probably survived. He was buried on October 10, 1635. Their children were baptized at Heptonstall:

Grace, born Sept. 1, 1604; married Michael Helliwell, April 12. 1630 Thomas, born June 22, 1606; married Susan Horsfall, Dec. 10, 1627

William, born June 30,1608; married Hellen Wood, Sept. 24,1633; buried Dec. 26,1636 John, born Aug. 5, 1610

Mary, born Sept. 18, 1614; married Richard Denby, Nov. 13, 1645 Susan, born Oct. 17, 1619; married Luke Denby, June 14,1641

James, born July 28,1622; married Miriam Stansfield, April 21, 1646, who died abt. 1700-1 (The American Genealogist, vol. 15, pp. 236-242).

The time of birth of both Thomas I and William I, his son, is missing, but this data is supplied with reasonable certainty by Mr. Torrey as follows: William was married August 29, 1603, and the average age of marriage being about 24, he was born about 1578. If Thomas was 24 when William was born, then Thomas was born about 1554. (!The American Genealogist, vol. 15, pp. 236¬242).
Thus, the first links in this ancestral line appear to be: Thomas I, ancestor, William I, his son, and James 1, his grandson. The year 1603, in which Thomas I died and William I married, becomes significant as explained later. The record discloses nothing about the occupation, social status, or religion of these men, but it may be assumed that they were land owners, interested in making and dealing in cloth, and that they belonged to the Church of England. King Henry VIII established this church during his reign and made it the administrator of a state religion, the tenets of which were also dictated by him.

During the reign of his daughter, Queen Elizabeth, England reached the status of a great world power. Riches in great abundance were reaped from the New World, and by 1603, America began to be viewed as a place where everybody could throw off a yoke of one kind or another. The Church of England had grown arrogant and worldly to the extent that its lowly communicants and even its pastors began to doubt, and to express doubt, as to its piety and purity. Doubt grew into conviction, and conviction found expression in action. Dissidents began to organize and call themselves Puritans. This aroused the ire of the Church and brought about restrictive action against and persecution of the heretics. To gain more freedom, some of them fled to Holland, but even here they did not find the freedom they hoped for. The beckoning New World lured them to face the wilderness of America, in preference to the indignities they suffered at home.

Those who remained in England continued to rebel in the face of persecution. The Reverend John Lathrop was a notable example of courageous rebellion. He not only excoriated the Church, but also headed the First Independent Church of England in 1623, as its first pastor. For this, he was jailed and later banished from England. He, too, found asylum in America, with thirty-two members of his congregation. It was at this time that James Draper I was born. He became a dissenter and soon after marriage to Miriam Stansfield, in 1646, they joined the Puritans, who, by this time, were fairly well established in Massachusetts. No record has come to my attention of any other Draper settling in America as a Puritan. It is assumed, therefore, that any Draper, in America, claiming Puritan ancestry, is a descendant of James and Miriam Stansfield Draper.