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The patrimony of Gilbert Drew, Great-Great Grandfather of Susie Durand Drew, has eluded genealogical researchers for some years. In a 1952 issue of the New York Biolographical and Genealogical Record (NYBGR) (Volume 83, p.53), a Mr. Ralph Phillips of New York City posted the following query:

"Ancestry wanted of Gilbert Drew who was born in 1732 and died in Putnam County, NY in 1812. He was apprenticed to John Hedger of West Farms, NY. In 1753 he married (1) Sarah Hunt by whom he had 9 children. He married (2) Catherine Muckleworth and had two more children. Was he a son of the John Drew who appeared as a witness to the will of John Sickles in the borough of Westchester in 1729?"

Mr. Phillips apparently never received a useful response to his query because in 1970 in NYBGR, Volume 101, page 82, he published an article entitled "Gilbert Drew, His Wives and Children" in which he quoted some hearsay ancestral evidence and elaborated on what was known about Gilbert and his wives and early descendants. The article begins:

"Gilbert Drew, born 11 April 1732, lived near Carmel, Putnam County, New York. Although Gilbert had many children, the writer has been unable to find any descendant aware of Gilbert's parentage."

There are no other references to Gilbert Drew in NYBGR. It is evident that hard information about this ancestor's pedigree does not exist. Let's examine what is known about him. The DAR Patriot Index lists him with the above birth date and wives and has his death date as March 26, 1812 with Revolutionary service as Sgt, NY. Gilbert served in the 7th Regt., Dutchess County Militia with three of his sons, William, Isaac and Samuel but we have no details on their service. The Lieutenant Colonel of the Regiment was Reuben Ferris and Caleb Hazen was an Ensign. My cousin, Phil Hodge, examined the original DAR membership application, by a Janice Covart (sp?) Tax who listed Gilbert's children by Sarah Hunt and claimed, incorrectly, that Gilbert was born in Barnstable, MA, a son of Cornelius Drew and Sarah Bartlett.

Evidence of the apprenticeship mentioned in Mr. Phillips' 1952 NYBGR query is found in the abstracted will of John Hedger, dated December 5, 1741. Among Hedger's bequests he leaves " . . . to my wife Hannah the services of my two apprentices, Thomas Crowell and Gilbert Drew," and makes his wife and his "kinsman," David Hunt, executors When the will was drawn Gilbert was 9 years old, going on 10. We do not know how long, at that point, he had been Mr. Hedger's apprentice. In his 1970 article Mr. Phillips states that Gilbert was a weaver, presumably the craft for which he apprenticed.

An editor's note appears after the abstracted will to the effect that Gilbert was the Grandfather of Daniel Drew, "the financier and Founder of Drew Theological Seminary." The reference is partly in error. Daniel was Gilbert's son, by his second wife. Mr. Phillip's correct and complete enumeration of Gilbert's children, by both wives, follows:

By Sarah Hunt - William, b.1755, Isaac, b.1757, Mary, b.ca 1759, Samuel, b.1760, Elizabeth, b.ca 1763, Hannah, b.ca 1765, John, b.ca 1767, Gilbert, b.1769, Sarah, b.?, James, b.?
By Catherine Muckleworth - Daniel, b.1797, Thomas, b.1798.

New York census records trace Gilbert from Fredrickstown in 1790 to Carmel in 1800 and we know he died there in 1812. That's about all of the hard information we have on him. His son Isaac, our ancestor, who married Sarah Ferris appears in New York censuses in Fredrickstown and then in Kent from 1790 through 1830. In 1820, Ferris Drew, Isaac's son and another ancestor made his first appearance, also in Kent. By that time he was married, to Fanny Hazen. After 1830 Isaac and Ferris disappeared from the census rolls of Dutchess (now Putnam) County, New York. They and their wives and families had relocated, sometime between 1830 and 1840, to Huntington, CT. For the record, and for future reference, other Drews appeared in Huntington in the 1840 census; the families of John and Wright (probably Ferris' son) Drew and a Gressel Drew. In Fairfield, Connecticut there was a Wheeler Drew. Another Wheeler Drew was reported in Newtown, Connecticut that year.

The surname "Drew" was not common in colonial times. Savage lists a John, of Plymouth, MA, a William, of Dover, NH, a Rosemund, of Roxbury (now part of Boston), MA and a James of Boston, MA as the 17th century Drew immigrants and founders of Drew lines. At the time of the 1790 census, some 140 years after the arrivals of John, William, Rosemund and James the number of Drews had increased somewhat but practically all of them were still either in eastern Massachusetts or in New Hampshire.

New Hampshire 45 Drew h/h
Massachusetts 28 " "
Rhode Island 2 " "
Connecticut 4 " "
New York 9 " "
Pennsylvania no " "

In 1790 New York State, in addition to Gilbert and Isaac, there was a William in Fredrickstown, a John in Rensselaerwick, a Magdaline (female) in New York City, an Oliver in Poughkeepsie, a Peter in New Paltz, an Ephriam in Duanesburgh and another William, this one in Philipstown. It's likely that John, and the Fredrickstown William were, with Isaac, Gilbert's sons. In Connecticut, the four Drews, Isaac, Peter, and two Johns, were all reported as residing in Redding. We can identify these Connecticut Drews further.

The same DAR Patriot Index that gives details on Gilbert has a John Drew, CT, b. May 20, 1724,
d. March 9, 1819; m. (1) Mary Northrup, (2) Ann/Joanna Thorp, (3) Joanna Lacey. His Revolutionary War rank is given as both "Capt" and "PS" (Patriotic Service). Jacobus confirms the DAR information and lists his children by the first two wives:
By Mary Northrup - William, b. 1746, John, b. 1749, Isaac, b. 1752, Peter, b. 1754, Mary, b. 1758 and Hannah, b. 1760.
By Ann/Joanna Thorp - Sarah, b. 1762, Daniel, b. 1764, Ann, b. 1765, Noah, b. 1768, Samuel, b. 1770, Abel, b. 1773, and Asel b. ca 1775.
Since John (1724) died in Redding (Will dated and proven there) it seems certain that the Drews listed there in 1790 were John and three of his sons or grandsons and quite likely that no other Drews were in Connecticut at that time. Jacobus goes on to give some information about the spouses of John's children and mentions that John's youngest son, Asel, married a Grissel Wheeler in 1795.

A comparison of the given names of New York's Gilbert's children with those of Connecticut's John reveals a striking similarity in naming patterns. The names William, John, Isaac, Mary, Hannah, Samuel, Sarah and Daniel appear in both their families; 8 of Gilbert's 12 children and 8 of John's 13 children had the same given names! It would certainly seem that John and Gilbert were related. The likelihood of a relationship is reinforced by the move of Gilbert's son, Isaac, and grandson, Ferris from their homes in New York State to Huntington, Connecticut in the 1830's where they had neighbors, Gressel/Grissel? and John Drew, both reported, in the 1840 census, to have been born in Connecticut.

None of this, of course, addresses Gilbert Drew's (and now, perhaps John Drew's) patrimony, at least not directly. Another Drew naming pattern may lead us to a supportable theory here, however. First, some relevant detail on the Drews of Plymouth, Massachusetts. John Drew1, mentioned above, from the Savage citation, according to several sources was the son of William Drew and grandson of Sir Edward Drewe. Born in 1642, he arrived at Plymouth ca 1670, married Hannah Churchill, ca 1675, and had five sons; John2, 1676, Samuel2, 1678, Thomas2, 1681, Nicholas2, 1684, and Lemuel2, 1687. The spouses (at least their given names) and children of four of these sons are known but no such information exists for Thomas2. For the record, it is reported that John2 married Sarah Delano and relocated to Halifax (now Middleboro), Massachusetts where, among others, they had John3 (b.1704). Also for the record, one of Samuel2's sons was named Perez, a somewhat unusual name, although of Biblical origin, like so many names of early New England settlers.

In his 1970 NYGBR article, Mr. Phillips cited certain posts from the genealogical pages of the now defunct Boston Evening Transcript. The posts were in response to a query on 11/16/1910 asking if anyone knew the ancestors of Thomas Drew of Halifax, MA, who had sisters Sarah and Jemima and one of whose daughters married "Dr. Morton," also of Halifax. Now, it turns out that the Thomas in question was a son of John2 Drew and Sarah Delano. We learn this from the first response to the query, dated 1/4/1911 and we also learn that Thomas's brother, John3, mentioned above, married Susanna Bennett in 1727 and had Lydia, Deborah, Hannah, Pricilla, John, Cornelius and Jedediah, born between 1735 and 1749. The respondent goes on to state:

"John3 is said to have moved with his family to the western part of the state and died there. This is probably correct as no trace of him or his descendants is found in the vicinity of Halifax."

A second response reports additional children for John3 and Susanna; Peter, b. 1728, Mary, b. 1731 and Sylvanus, b. 1732, questions this particular Drew family's move westward, and offers the following:

"There is a family tradition in some branches of the Drew family that one of the sons of John1 Drew of Plymouth went, ca 1700, to Fairfield County, Connecticut, Westchester County, New York, or perhaps New Jersey and there founded the Connecticut and New York branches of the family. If such is the fact it would seem that it must have been Thomas2, born in Plymouth on May 1, 1681 of whom I have never found any record while the other sons all remained in Plymouth County."

"It is further claimed that this party had a son, William, and probably other children where he located and that this son William had sons John, born 1724, who located in Redding, Connecticut (and) Gilbert who was originally in Westchester County and married there and later at what is now Carmel in Putnam County . . . "

The first respondent, in reply to this, offers the information:

"A descendant of Samuel2, some years before his death in Plymouth recorded the following in regard to Thomas2; 'He probably (italics mine) died young, as nothing is known of him.'"

and goes on to quote a "small U.S" history of Halifax, MA, which stated:

"John Drew3, after spending several years in Halifax, moved with his family to the western part of the state and bled to death by an internal rupture."

We should probably accept the fact that John3 and his family relocated from Plymouth County "to the western part of the state." Still, he could not have been the father of Connecticut's John Drew or our Gilbert since all of his children were born in Halifax around the time that John and Gilbert were being born elsewhere. This leaves us with Thomas2, at least if we are convinced that the search for Gilbert's ancestry definitely leads back to Plymouth. A chronology favors the Thomas2/William theory. Thomas, b 1681, could have had a son, born ca 1700, who would have been old enough to have a son of his own (John3?), born in 1724. The fact that both Connecticut's John and our Gilbert named their first sons William argues that their male parent likely had that given name and, considering the dearth of Drews in those parts and in those days, that they were, in fact, brothers.

On the subject of given names, the given name "Gilbert" is not associated with any Drew families until our Gilbert arrives on the scene. How he came to be named may furnish the most revealing clue in our search for his ancestry. In Gilbert's and Connecticut John's families there is an occasional tradition to name sons with the surnames of their mother's or grandmother's families. In Gilbert's family we have Ferris Drew, named with his mother's (Sarah Ferris) surname and his brother, Wright Drew, with his grandmother's (Ruth Wright) surname. In John's family there are two Wheeler Drews and we know from Jacobus that the Connecticut Drew and Wheeler families were united when John's son Asel married Grissel. It would certainly seem reasonable, then, to assume that one of Gilbert's female ancestors had the surname Gilbert.

In the course of exchanging information over the internet with a gentleman by the name of Mike Bailey on the subject of our common ancestor, William Bailey, I came on the name Perez Gilbert on a copy of a Muster Roll, dated 7/18/1784, of St. Mary's Bay, Digby Wilson County, Nova Scotia. In addition to Perez, there were two Thomas Gilberts on the roll. Here was the unusual given name, Perez, found in a Drew family (and, it turns out, in a Bradford family too, but, to my knowledge, restricted to Plymouth County families) coupled with the unusual (for the Drew line) given name Gilbert. Further investigation revealed that Thomas Gilbert, Loyalist, and his two sons, Perez and Thomas had fled to Nova Scotia from Freetown, now Taunton, Massachusetts and that their Gilbert forebears had settled in Freetown in the middle of the 17th century. A glance at a map of the Bay State shows that Freetown/Taunton is less than 10 miles distant from Halifax/Middleboro. It's not too big a stretch, then, to posit that Thomas2 Drew probably married a Gilbert from Taunton before he traveled to Connecticut and New York and that is how Gilbert Drew came by his given name.
Note, my conversion to text wiped out all footnotes. These were citations as follows:
For info re Gilbert's Rev service - New York in the Revolution as Colony and state

for info re John Hedger's will - New York Historical Society Abstracts of New York Wills v.II, pg 350

reference to Savage is to Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England

reference to jacobus refers to Families of Old Fairfield

for background on the 1st John Drew I used Genealogies of Mayflower Families

Gilbert info is from
1 - History of the County of Digby, Nova Scotia
2 - Sabines Loyalists

**********************

Since I wrote this I have done some digging on "unclaimed" Gilbert females; those who have no known spouse. Here goes:

Gilbert Drew's given name may not have come from his grandmother's family. It could have been his mother's surname. There were Gilberts in Fairfield County, CT in the 17th and early 18th centuries. In "Gilberts of New England," the joint effort of George Gordon Gilbert and Goeffry Gilbert, five (all?) 17th century Gilbert immigrants to New England are identified:

John, of Taunton, ancestor of the Gilberts there
Matthew, of Boston and New Haven, CT
Humphrey, of Ipswich
William, of Boston, and
Thomas, of Braintree and Windsor, CT

Note that Thomas had descendents who came to Fairfield County, Connecticut from Windsor. The authors cited above developed descendent lines for John, Matthew, Humphrey and William, but not for Thomas Fortunately, Jacobus' "Families of Old Fairfield" covers this omission.

Thomas3 (Thomas2, John, of Taunton) is recorded as living at "Little Meadow Farm" in Taunton, which a map of the area shows to be quite close to Middleboro, where, recall, there were Drews. Of his female children, Mehitable, b. May 5, 1686, is not shown to have married. She is a possible candidate for Gilbert's grandmother. Thomas3 had a brother, Eleazer3, but all of Eleaser's female children are provided with spouses.

John2 (Humphrey), of Ipswich, had a daughter, Martha, b.ca 1688, who, like Mehitable, above, is unclaimed. The distance from Taunton/Middleboro to Ipswich probably rules against considering her as a grandmother candidate, however.

Neither Matthew, of Boston and New Haven or William of Boston have unclaimed female descendents, so that leaves Thomas, of Braintree and Windsor. Jacobus lists five sons for Thomas; Jonathan, Josiah, John, Thomas, and Obadiah. Of these, Josiah's son Moses, had an unclaimed daughter, Elizabeth, bpt December 16, 1696. Thomas, who had removed to Springfield, by his second wife had Sarah, also unclaimed, in 1694. These young ladies might be candidates for Gilbert's mother, although Sarah's claim to Fairfield residence hinges on her brother John, b 1691, who is reported to have been married in Stratford in 1714.

Finally, Obadiah's son, Obadiah, had Elizabeth, bpt 1700, with no record of a husband, although in a footnote Jacobus says she "probably" married Nathaniel Gray (The LDS FHS near me shows lists this marriage. Summing up, we have Mehitable4 Gilbert (Thomas3, Thomas2, John, of Taunton), candidate for the position of Gilbert's grandmother and Elizabeth4 Gilbert (Moses3, Josiah2, Thomas, of Braintree and Windsor), candidate for the position of Gilbert's mother.

Also in the running, but perhaps less likely for various reasons, are Martha3 (John2, Humphrey, of Ipswich), Elizabeth4 (Obadiah3, Obadiah2, Thomas, of Braintree and Windsor), and Sarah3 (Thomas2, Thomas, of Braintree and Windsor).

In case you have not yet sated on Gilberts, we have another one, Ebenezer5 (John4, Obadiah3, Obadiah2, Thomas, of Braintree and Windsor), b. 1724, marrying a Joanna Northrup who just happened to be the sister of "Connecticut John Drews" bride, Mary Northrup (Both girls were daughters of William Northrup and were baptised at Greenfield, CT.). An interesting coincidence?

And one final mention of Gilberts, this one distantly associated with the Westchester County Hunts. Katherine _______, of Wethersfield (styled "The Witch Katherine Harrison"), relict of John Harrison, called Jonathan and Josiah Gilbert (sons of Thomas of Braintree and Windsor) "kinsmen" at the time of her extended trial for witchcraft (TAG 42, p.215).It's likely they were siblings. Katherine and John Harrison's daughter, Rebecca, b. ca 1660, married Josiah Hunt.

I have about made up my mind that Mehitible Gilbert, daughter of Thomas3, of Taunton, MA, was Gilbert's grandmother. She married and came to Connecticut and New York with Thomas2 Drew and they had, at the least, William, who was the father of the John and Gilbert that we have traced above.

****************************

Now, for some speculation re Sarah Hunt Drew's patrimony:

Earlier, mention was made of the appearance of Gilbert Drew, apprentice, in the
will of John Hedger, dated December 5, 1741. Mr. Hedger appointed "my
kinsman, David Hunt" as one of his will's executors. Another source (Descendants
of Thomas Hunt, Sr, mimeograph compiled by John G. Hunt) has a John Hedges
(sic) as a witness to the will of a Josiah Hunt, dated 1729, and goes on to note that
he (Hedger) was the husband of Hannah Gardiner whose sister had married yet
another Hunt, Thomas by name, thus the kinship.

With all of these Hunts swirling around Gilbert it's quite likely that his wife, Sarah
Hunt, was a member of that same clan. To my knowledge, all the Hunts in
Westchester County, NY in the 17th and early 18th centuries were descended fron
Thomas Hunt, Sr., the immigrant, and we can probably identify the "David" and
"Josiah" cited above as descendants of that worthy. Unfortunately, however, no
sources dealing with his descendents that I have access to make any mention of a
Sarah Hunt, born anywhere near 1730, who is not linked to some spouse other than
our Gilbert.

So, we have the frustrating but not unusual situation of a genealogical chain with a
missing link, or links. We have already clutched desperately at naming patterns to
rationalize that Gilbert Drew may have been maternally descended from Gilberts
and that his father may have been named William (the name Gilbert gave to his first
son). Might Gilbert's second son's name (Isaac) be a clue to his mother's father's
given name? There are sources that indicate such a naming pattern in that era.
There are certainly no Isaacs in the Drew line prior to Gilbert's and Connecticut
John's children being so named. Moreover, no Isaacs showed up in any Gilbert
family up to that time.

There were at least two Isaacs in the Thomas Hunt, Sr. descendant line in the 17th
and 18th centuries. In "Descendants of Thomas Hunt, Sr., who d. at Grove Farms,
Etc." by John G. Hunt, we find an Isaac5 (Caleb4, Josiah3 (who had a brother,
David3), Josiah2, Thomas,Sr.1). He is identified as a mariner, who sailed from
Westchester in July 1765 and "it is not known if he ever returned to this country."
Nor is there any record of his family, if, indeed, he was ever married. Josiah3 was
born in 1674, and Caleb4 in 1699, so its hard to visualize this Isaac having the time
to be born, grow up, marry and have a daughter, Sarah, who was, in turn, married
in 1753. Too bad for us, because it appears that the Hunts, David and Josiah, that
were involved with John Hedger, are in this line. Also, this Isaac's mother's name
was SARAH Hallock.

The other Isaac, Isaac4 (Joshua3, John2, Thomas, Sr.1), appears in a monograph
by Grenville McKenzie (Early Records of the Hunt Family of Westchester County),
who adds a Joshua3, b. 1682, to the children of John Hunt2 and Grace Fowler that
Mr. John G. Hunt did not record and has Joshua marrying Mercy ______ and
having Isaac4 (b. ca 1710), with no further mention of him or or any family. The
chronology is certainly better here.

Followups: Re: Gilbert Drew (b. 1732) Michael Kelley 3/25/05 Re: Gilbert Drew (b. 1732) Megan King 1/17/03 Re: Gilbert Drew (b. 1732) Gigi Gibbs 2/01/99 (0)

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