135:. While these reports were recorded much later, and while the contribution of the Dutch is disputed, it is likely that at least some of the capital and techniques of production deployed in the early Barbados sugar trade came from the Dutch, who in turn had acquired their know-how and experience in the trade from Portuguese Brazil (which had been
644:
Memoirs
Illustrative of the History and Antiquities of the County and City of York: Communicated to the Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Held at York, July, 1846, with a General Report of the Proceedings of the Meeting, and Catalogue of the Museum Formed on
211:
By this point, Drax had returned to
England, where he acquired a series of estates, pursuing his original ambition of setting himself up as a landed magnate at home, while continuing to profit from his plantations and estates in Barbados. He survived the Restoration, but died in shortly thereafter in
127:
By the late 1630s, Drax had accumulated a substantial portion of land on
Barbados, together with his brother William Drax. A slump in tobacco prices created considerable economic difficulties in England's fledgling colonies in the Caribbean in the late 1630s, and white colonists began to turn to
139:
in 1630). Sources indicate that the early experiments of Drax and others
Barbados settlers began c. 1640, and there was certainly sugar arriving in London from the island by 1643. Barbados quickly became a major supplier for Europe, and by the mid-1650s, sugar production had largely supplanted
156:
in
Barbados before that time, it was only after 1640, and frequently in tandem with the cultivation of sugar, that slaves began to supplant indentured servitude as the main workforce. By 1641, Drax owned over 400 acres, making him nearly the greatest landowner on the island.
188:, where they lobbied the House of Commons to send an expedition to retake the island. In 1651, Drax sailed in the fleet designed to re-conquer Barbados, and he was part of the delegation that went ashore to negotiate the surrender of the island.
168:, was worked by some 200 enslaved Africans. Drax was known by his contemporaries to provide his slaves and servants well, unlike James Holdip who was known to be so cruel and oppressive that his servants burnt his entire plantation to the ground.
576:
Barber, Sarah, "Power in the
English Caribbean: the Proprietorship of Lord Willoughby of Parham" in Roper, LH and Van Ruymbeke, B. “Constructing Early Modern Empires: Proprietary Ventures in the Atlantic World, 1500-1750, Leiden: Brill 2007 p.
128:
other crops. Drax was not the first to cultivate sugar as a business in
Barbados, that honor would belong to Colonel James Holdip. However, Drax was the first planter to successfully cultivate sugar cane on a large scale.
184:, and became a colonel in the island's militia. When a royalist faction seized control of Barbados in 1650, James and William Drax were exiled from the island, along with other prominent parliamentarians. They returned to
118:
Drax later claimed he had arrived with a stock of no more than ÂŁ300, and that he intended to stay on the island until he had parlayed that initial investment into a landed fortune worth ÂŁ10,000 a year back home.
67:, but he returned in 1651 when the island was returned to Parliamentarian control. Drax returned to England, where he died in 1662. He would go on to establish a dynasty of wealthy slave owning sugar planters.
160:
Just as Drax was getting involved in sugar, he acquired 22 enslaved
Africans in early 1642, at a time when nobody else had even a handful of slaves. In 1644, he purchased another 34 enslaved Africans.
670:
Wentworth peerage ... Case on behalf of ... Ralph Gordon Noel
Milbanke ... on his claim to the honour and dignity of lord Wentworth. [With] Supplemental case [and] Minutes of evidence
176:
Drax profited spectacularly from his sugar enterprise, allowing him to live “like a prince.” With wealth and power came political controversy. He emerged during the 1640s as a supporter of the
300:
Through his daughter
Elizabeth, he was a grandfather to Thomas Shetterden (1660–1702), who changed his surname to Drax to inherit the Drax estates from his uncle. He had a son named
606:(London, 1839), vol. 3, 57; Will of Sir James Drax of the Parish of St John Zachary in London Knight, dated 15 Apr 1659, proved 14 Mar 1661, Prerogative Court of Canterbury 35 Laud.
619:
The Records of Two City Parishes: A Collection of Documents Illustrative of the History of SS. Anne and Agnes, Aldersgate, and St. John Zachary, London, from the Twelfth Century
195:, a seventeenth-century manor house in St George parish Barbados, to be constructed during the 1650s. He also was a patron of explorers of the North American coast, including
131:
Drax allegedly relied heavily on Dutch expertise, learning the craft of sugar production and refinement from a Dutch settler, and then importing equipment from
191:
Restored to his estates and power, Drax once again took up a leading role in the governance of the colony. It is thought that he and his brother ordered
692:
111:. He and his companions lived in a cave for a time, searching for provisions, hunting turtles and hogs and also clearing land for the planting of
393:
La Neve’s Pedigrees of the Knights Made by King Charles II., King James II, King William III. and Queen Mary, King William Alone, and Queen Anne
731:
870:
840:
56:
220:
In the mid to late 1630s, Drax married Meliora Horton from Somerset. She died in 1653. They were the parents of the following children
148:
Concurrent with the rise of sugar came large-scale and intensive exploitation of slave labor. Drax was one of the pioneers of
433:
240:
52:
641:
Britain), Royal Archaeological Institute (Great; Ireland, Royal Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and (1848).
850:
244:
152:. Prior to 1640, the primary source of labor in Barbados had been European indentured servants. Although there were
835:
314:
The Drax descendants were particularly active in the development of Jamaica, where there is a Drax Hall Estate in
236:
709:
Abstracts of Somersetshire Wills, Etc: Copied from the Manuscript Collections of the Late Rev. Frederick Brown
860:
311:–1755). His family was connected to other major slave plantation owners like the Codringtons by marriage:1
44:
865:
845:
364:
196:
880:
795:
315:
875:
781:"Henry Drax's Instructions on the Management of a Seventeenth-Century Barbadian Sugar Plantation,"
395:. Publications of the Harleian Society, 8 (1873), 76-77; John Mathews and George F. Mathews, eds.,
149:
96:
40:
642:
285:. They had four sons, James, Bamfield, Alexander, and Jacob; all of whom died young or unmarried.
108:
77:
758:
707:
617:
423:
260:
668:
855:
830:
825:
153:
8:
264:
760:
A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland
686:
429:
181:
339:
192:
165:
319:
289:
200:
239:. After her death, he married Hon. Dorothy Lovelace (1650–1684), a daughter of
132:
292:, London. His son Henry continued to manage the family estate in Barbados.
819:
616:
Zachary (Parish), London (England) St Anne and St Agnes with St John (1925).
225:
140:
tobacco and all other crops as the dominant economic activity of the island.
103:. In 1627, when James was 18 years old, he arrived by ship in what is today
136:
99:. James Drax became one of the earliest English migrants to the island of
229:
500:
Englishmen Transplanted: The English Colonization of Barbados, 1627-1660
425:
The Sugar Barons: Family, Corruption, Empire, and War in the West Indies
796:"Matthew Parker - The official website: The Sugar Barons, Panama Fever"
487:
An Historical Account of the Rise and Growth of the West-India Colonies
301:
278:
455:
Jerome S. Handler, “Father Antoine Biet’s Visit to Barbados in 1654,”
224:
Sir James Drax (1639–1663), who married Essex Lake, a daughter of Sir
235:
Henry Drax (1641–1682), who married Lady Frances Tufton, daughter of
177:
64:
397:
Abstract of the Probate Acts in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury,
282:
104:
100:
60:
48:
604:
A New History of London, Westminster and the Borough of Southwark,
526:
No Peace Beyond the Line: The English in the Caribbean, 1624-1690
112:
19:
185:
399:
Year Books of Probates, Vol. 1, Part 2 (London, 1902), p. 145.
340:"Summary of Individual | Legacies of British Slave-ownership"
277:
Drax married Margaret Bamfield, daughter of John Bamfield of
270:
Elizabeth Drax (1649–1714), who married Thomas Shetterden.
288:
Drax died in early 1662 and was buried in the parish of
39:) was an English planter and military officer. Born in
457:
Journal of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society
273:
Phalatias Drax, who married Thomas Gomeldon of Kent.
115:, which soon became the staple crop of the island.
565:
The Cavaliers and Roundheads of Barbados, 1650-1652
732:"John Van Der Vaart (1653-1727), Meliora Gomeldon"
567:(Georgetown: Argosy, 1887), pp. 145-149, 178, 190.
470:A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbados
203:, awarded Drax with a knighthood for his loyalty.
590:2 vols. (3d ed., London: Robinson, 1787), 1: 445.
528:(New York: Oxford University Press, 1972), p. 78.
817:
615:
502:(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 99-112.
640:
428:. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. pp. 30, 78.
588:Memoirs of the Protectoral-House of Cromwell,
485:(St. Michael, 1993), 239, 248; Thomas Dalby,
259:Meliora Drax, who married Robert Pye, son of
691:: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
598:
596:
417:
415:
413:
411:
409:
407:
405:
318:. His grand-nephew Charles Drax founded the
712:. Priv. print. for F. A. Crisp. p. 100
634:
609:
524:Karl Bridenbaugh and Roberta Bridenbaugh,
250:John Drax, who died unmarried in Barbados.
750:
699:
593:
402:
171:
59:. Drax was expelled from Barbados by the
660:
818:
421:
756:
705:
667:Vict, Parliament lords, proc (1862).
648:. J. Murray; (etc., etc.). p. 15
622:. Hunter & Longhurst. p. 316
241:Anne Lovelace, 7th Baroness Wentworth
76:
666:
422:Parker, Matthew (13 November 2012).
206:
164:By the early 1650s, his plantation,
95:–1632), of Finham, in the parish of
16:English planter and military officer
871:17th-century English businesspeople
841:Barbadian people of English descent
13:
763:. Harrison & Sons. p. 422
256:Jeremiah Drax, who died unmarried.
51:and acquired ownership of several
14:
892:
245:John Lovelace, 2nd Baron Lovelace
785:Third Series, 66 (2009), 565-604
706:Crisp, Frederick Arthur (1889).
253:Samuel Drax, who died unmarried.
215:
137:partially colonized by the Dutch
75:James Drax was the son of Mary (
788:
775:
724:
580:
570:
557:
544:
531:
518:
237:John Tufton, 2nd Earl of Thanet
199:. In 1658, the Lord Protector,
505:
492:
475:
462:
449:
385:
357:
332:
295:
1:
325:
305:
89:
82:
70:
33:
26:
513:Some Early Barbadian History
483:Some Early Barbadian History
7:
783:William and Mary Quarterly,
10:
897:
143:
391:George W. Marshall, ed.,
316:Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica
122:
851:Barbadian businesspeople
736:www.isherwoodfineart.com
150:slavery in the Caribbean
97:Stoneleigh, Warwickshire
41:Stoneleigh, Warwickshire
836:Sugar plantation owners
800:www.matthewparker.co.uk
757:Burke, Bernard (1898).
43:, Drax migrated to the
172:Fortune and knighthood
861:English slave owners
738:. Isherwood Fine Art
88:) and William Drax (
372:matthewparker.co.uk
81:Lapworth) Drax (b.
866:Burials in England
846:Barbadian planters
563:N. Darnell Davis,
498:Larry Dale Gragg,
459:, 32 (1967), p. 69
365:"Drax family tree"
63:because he was a
435:978-0-8027-7798-0
207:Return to England
182:English Civil War
154:enslaved Africans
53:sugar plantations
888:
881:Knights Bachelor
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263:and grandson of
178:Parliamentarians
166:Drax Hall Estate
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38:
35:
31:
28:
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895:
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320:Jamaica College
308:
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290:St John Zachary
218:
209:
201:Oliver Cromwell
197:Robert Sandford
174:
146:
125:
92:
85:
73:
65:Parliamentarian
36:
29:
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602:Thomas Allen,
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472:(1657), p. 96.
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45:English colony
23:Sir James Drax
15:
9:
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645:that Occasion
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539:Biet's Visit,
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489:(1690), 13-14
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226:Lancelot Lake
223:
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216:Personal life
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107:, along with
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54:
50:
46:
42:
24:
21:
803:. Retrieved
799:
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765:. Retrieved
759:
752:
740:. Retrieved
735:
726:
714:. Retrieved
708:
701:
675:. Retrieved
669:
662:
650:. Retrieved
643:
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624:. Retrieved
618:
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603:
587:
586:Mark Noble,
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494:
486:
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439:. Retrieved
424:
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387:
375:. Retrieved
371:
359:
347:. Retrieved
343:
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287:
276:
219:
212:early 1662.
210:
190:
175:
163:
159:
147:
130:
126:
117:
109:Henry Powell
74:
22:
18:
856:Drax family
831:1662 deaths
826:1609 births
767:15 December
742:15 December
716:15 December
677:15 December
673:. p. 9
652:15 December
626:15 December
441:15 December
309: 1693
296:Descendants
180:during the
93: 1580
86: 1580
37: 1662
30: 1609
820:Categories
805:2022-04-24
511:Campbell,
326:References
302:Henry Drax
279:Hardington
265:Walter Pye
261:Walter Pye
71:Early life
687:cite book
552:Barbados,
537:Handler,
344:ucl.ac.uk
193:Drax Hall
61:Royalists
515:, p. 99.
283:Somerset
105:Holetown
101:Barbados
49:Barbados
550:Ligon,
144:Slavery
133:Holland
113:tobacco
20:Colonel
432:
377:6 July
349:5 June
230:Canons
186:London
123:Career
57:slaves
368:(PDF)
267:, MP.
769:2022
744:2022
718:2022
693:link
679:2022
654:2022
628:2022
443:2022
430:ISBN
379:2020
351:2020
243:and
55:and
577:193
554:34.
228:of
78:née
47:of
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685:{{
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