Draycott in south-eastern Derbyshire, close to the River Erewash and the Nottinghamshire county border, is not a world-famous location. It was one of the smallest of Sawley parish’s nine settlements, with only a handful of households in the early 17th century when Edward Starbuck was born. So why does Draycott deserve the attention of every Starbuck researcher?
In 1937, Charles Edward Banks stated that Edward Starbuck migrated from Draycott in Derbyshire to Dover, New England – a singularly specific assertion. [1] Charles Edward Banks stated that Edward Starbuck migrated from Draycott in Derbyshire to Dover, New England – a singularly specific assertion. All other Great Migration historians say simply ‘Derbyshire’. Exhaustive research in the US has not unearthed a source or reason for Banks’ statement, but it clearly matters a lot to the Edward Starbuck story.
The nature of Draycott
Differing meanings have been suggested for place name, but one seems most likely considering its place in watery surroundings: it could mean ‘dry cottage’ matching its position on slightly higher and drier ground.[2] But it was still very close to the rivers and many streams where Edward Starbuck could have learned his skills of fishing and saw-milling.
It is an ancient place and a Liberty, mentioned as far back as the Domesday book of 1086 as a settlement in the manor of Sawley.[3] From then until the industrial revolution, it stayed small and rural without even a chapel of its own. Its residents attended the nearest church of Wilne St Chad, an easy walk of almost a mile to the south, past the curves of the River Derwent.
Parish records
Many Starbucks were recorded in Wilne St Chad’s parish register from the very start in 1540 through to 1592, though none were named Edward.[4] After that date (apart from two burials and a marriage in the 1620s) they disappear from those registers. Most of the Starbuck entries didn’t mention their abodes so even though only a few were said to be ‘of Draycott’, more of them probably were.
It is entirely possible that Edward Starbuck was born in Draycott but baptised (as we think he was) in Derby All Saints on 27 Feb 1603/4, son of Edward senior. However, if that was the case, then judging by Wilne St Chad’s register, the family didn’t stay in Draycott. Instead, as you can see from the story of Edward’s probable parents and sibs, it’s likely the family moved about or spent time in Nottinghamshire. They could also have lived invisibly in another part of Sawley and attended All Saints church, for which the extant parish registers only start in 1654, well past Edward’s emigration.
Manorial and estate records
As part of the prebend and manor of Sawley, Draycott belonged to the Bishops and Prebendaries of the Diocese of Coventry and Lichfield, who held these and many other lands from the Crown. However, from early Medieval times, they were leased out to local gentry and aristocratic families, so from 1550, Draycott was held by the Bothe family, then Edmundsons and, briefly, Richard Whalley.[5]
But Whalley was badly in debt so the Stanhope family, notorious “land-grabbers” of the time, paid off the Whalley debt in the 1570s-80s to acquire Sawley (and other manors and estates). From then on, for 400 years until the 20th century, Stanhopes, later Earls of Harrington, held Draycott as part of Sawley.
Unfortunately, despite its long centuries of existence, Draycott rarely appears among the few extant manor and estate records for Sawley before 1638 (much blame can be laid on the Stanhopes).
Draycott Starbuck references
| 1577, 23 Nov | Amy Starbuck married Thomas Gryffin at Wilne St Chad. She was baptised here on 26 Jun 1546 (sadly no parents are stated) and buried at Wilne on 30 August 1578: Amy Gryffine wife of Thomas of Dracot[6] |
| 1583/4, 6 Jan | Jone Starbucke infant of William of Draycott was baptised[7] |
| 1583/4, 3 Feb | Thomas Starbuck of Draycot was buried[8] |
| 1612, 4 Apr | Francis Starbuck alias Johnson of Toton yeoman married Elizabeth Rozell of Nottingham St Peter, daughter of Jeffrey Rossell of Draycot decd, at Nottingham St Peter[9] |
From all the UK sources researched so far in the quest for Edward Starbuck, this table shows the sum total of Starbucks found who were recorded as living in or associated with Draycott before 1638.
It was a tiny place, a pinprick in the map of England, with an accordingly tiny population, so for that place-name to have made it through American families and histories down the centuries into Banks’ Topographical Dictionary, it must have been significant to Edward himself and to his descendants.[10] Sadly, through lack of other evidence, we can only guess at why – but it does seem quite likely that little Draycott was Edward’s birthplace or somewhere he lived before emigration.
Author: Celia Renshaw
Morganhold blog: www.morgansite.wordpress.com
© February 2024
[1] Charles Edward Banks, Topographical Dictionary of 2885 English Emigrants to New England 1620-1650 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Elijah Elsworth Brownell B.E.E., 1937), p17, digital images, Internet Archive (www.archive.org: 6 Jul 2022). On p132, Banks also stated Attenborough in Nottinghamshire was Edward’s parish of origin – just 10 miles to the east of Draycott with a significant Starbuck presence from earliest dates – see (future Attenborough description post)
[2] http://www.draycottderbyshire.co.uk/history.htm
[3] Domesday Book : A Complete Translation, Alecto Historical Editions. Eds: Dr Alan Williams & Professor G H Martin (Penguin, 1992; in hardback 2003), p743
[4] Derbyshire Record Office ref. D2512/A/PI/1/1 Wilne St Chad Register of baptisms, marriages & burials 1540-1624. Viewed & photographed at DRO in 2016; images also available at Ancestry.co.uk – Derbyshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials.
[5] Father of Edward Whalley, one of the regicides who signed the death warrant for King Charles I and died in 1675 when on the run in Hadley, MA.
[6] Derbyshire Record Office ref. D2512/A/PI/1/1 Wilne St Chad Register of baptisms, marriages & burials 1540-1624. Viewed & photographed at DRO in 2016; images also available at Ancestry.co.uk – Derbyshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials.
[7] Derbyshire Record Office ref. D2512/A/PI/1/1 Wilne St Chad Register of baptisms, marriages & burials 1540-1624. Viewed & photographed at DRO in 2016; images also available at Ancestry.co.uk – Derbyshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages & Burials.
[8] Ditto
[9] Nottinghamshire – Abstracts of Marriage Licenses to 1700, Archdeaconry Court 1577-1700 & Peculiar of Southwell 1588-1754, Vol I, ed Thomas M Blagg & F Arthur Wadsworth (British Record Society, 1930). Available at Ancestry.co.uk. Phillilmores Marriages, Nottingham St Peter: 4 Apr 1612 – Francis STARBOCKE & Elizabeth ROZELL (author’s pdf copy on file).
[10] Unless Banks was influenced by the fact that, at the time of his research visits to England in the 1830s, there were Starbucks living again in Draycott: this was William Starbuck born in Barleston, Leicestershire who ran an inn in Draycott. Banks also listed Attenborough in the Nottinghamshire section of his Topography as the origin of Edward Starbuck (ie. as well as Draycott in the Derbyshire section) and that may have been because of Attenborough PRs being extant, with many Starbucks included, from 1560. It has proved impossible to precisely pin down the sources that Banks used for his assertions.
