Drax History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England

The name Drax arrived in England after the Norman Conquest of 1066. The Drax family lived in Yorkshire at Drax, which dates back to at least the Domesday Book of 1086 when it was listed as Drac. Later in the 11th century, the parish was known as Drachs. 1 2

Early Origins of the Drax family

The surname Drax was first found in the West Riding of Yorkshire at Drax, a parish, in the union of Selby, Lower division of the wapentake of Barkstone-Ash. 3

Early History of the Drax family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Drax research. Another 118 words (8 lines of text) covering the years 1618, 1637 and 1669 are included under the topic Early Drax History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Drax Spelling Variations

A multitude of spelling variations characterize Norman surnames. Many variations occurred because Old and Middle English lacked any definite spelling rules. The introduction of Norman French to England also had a pronounced effect, as did the court languages of Latin and French. Therefore, one person was often referred to by several different spellings in a single lifetime. The various spellings include Drax, Dracks and others.

Early Notables of the Drax family

Outstanding amongst the family at this time was

Thomas Draxe (d. 1618), was an English divine, born at Stoneleigh, near Coventry, Warwickshire, 'his father being a younger brother of a worshipfull family, which for many years had lived at Wood-hall...

Drax migration to the United States +

Many English families left England, to avoid the chaos of their homeland and migrated to the many British colonies abroad. Although the conditions on the ships were extremely cramped, and some travelers arrived diseased, starving, and destitute, once in the colonies, many of the families prospered and made valuable contributions to the cultures of what would become the United States and Canada. Research into the origins of individual families in North America has revealed records of the immigration of a number of people bearing the name Drax or a variant listed above:

Drax Settlers in United States in the 17th Century

Samuel Drax, who arrived in Maryland in 1657 4
Priscilla Drax who settled in Virginia in 1663

Drax migration to West Indies +

The British first settled the British West Indies around 1604. They made many attempts but failed in some to establish settlements on the Islands including Saint Lucia and Grenada. By 1627 they had managed to establish settlements on St. Kitts (St. Christopher) and Barbados, but by 1641 the Spanish had moved in and destroyed some of these including those at Providence Island. The British continued to expand the settlements including setting the First Federation in the British West Indies by 1674; some of the islands include Barbados, Bermuda, Cayman Island, Turks and Caicos, Jamaica and Belize then known as British Honduras. By the 1960's many of the islands became independent after the West Indies Federation which existed from 1958 to 1962 failed due to internal political conflicts. After this a number of Eastern Caribbean islands formed a free association. 5

Drax Settlers in West Indies in the 17th Century

Henry Drax who arrived in Barbados in 1679 with his servants and moved in the same year to New England

Citations +

Mills, A.D., Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-19-869156-4)
Lower, Mark Anthony, Patronymica Britannica, A Dictionary of Family Names of the United Kingdom. London: John Russel Smith, 1860. Print.
Lewis, Samuel, A Topographical Dictionary of England. Institute of Historical Research, 1848, Print.
Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_West_Indies