William Drewe ¹

  General Notes:

DREW LINEAGE NOTES

From Burke's Landed Gentry 1848 Ed :-
This is a Junior branch of the Norman family of DREW, of Drewscliffe, Hayne and Sharpham, in Devon, descending from Richard, Duke of Normandy, the Conqueror's grandfather, and now represented in England by Edward Drew, Esq.of the Grange Devon. The following is the preamble of the Drew pedigree, as arranged by Ulster, King of Arms, in Dublin, viz, "The pedigree of the ancient and knightly family of Drew of Devonshire, the lineal descendants of Drogo, or Dru, a noble Norman, son of Walter de Ponz, and brother of Richard, ancestor of the Cliffords, who accompanied William the Conqueror into England, and of the several branches &c. &c. This Walter, or William de Ponz, or Ponce, or Pouze was Earl of Arques and Thoulouse, and Third son of Richard, Duke of Normandy, grandfather of William the Conqueror, and came to England with his victorious and Royal nephew, (see Burke's Peerage, Barony of De Clifford.) "He had issue three sons, Walter, Drew and Richard, the youngest, was father of Walter, surnamed De Clifford, from the castle of Clifford which he got with Margaret, his wife, daughter of Ralf de Toney, a descendant from William Fitz-Osborn, Earl of Hereford, who built it. From this Walter sprang the great and illustrious family of Clifford; his eldest daughter was " The Fayre Rosamond", of whom King Henry II was so deeply enamoured, and by whom he had a gallant and chivalrous son, William Longspree, Earl of Salisbury. The beautiful but unhappy Rosamond was interred in the chapter-house of the nunnery at Godstow, where near the high alter she had a hearse covered with silk and surrounded with numerous burning lights, and the following epitaph inscribed on her tomb, viz.,

"Hic jacet in Tumba, Rosa mundi, non Rosa munda,

Non redolet, sed olet quae redolere solet."
Of the eldest son this great Baron, Walter de Ponz, nothing more is known than that he possessed divers lordships." But Drew, the second son, was, as Prince expresses himself, the "stirp" of the family of Drew, in Devon, where he had no less than seventy three manors at the time of the Domesday survey, (see Lysons Britannia, and Domesday Book.) Among the various christian names, which after the Conquest continued as surnames, this Drew is one, ( See Camden's Remains, page 130.) Camden derives it thus: "Dru in Latine, Drugo, or Drogo, subtile, as callidus in Latine. If it come from the Saxon of German; but if it come from the French, lively and lusty, (Nicotina)" - see Remains page 66. Also Prince, in his Worthies of Devon, remarks: 'Tis possible to carry this family higher yet, even up to Drogo de Teign, from who is denominated a famous parish in this county, called at this day Drew's Teignton, the town of Drew standing nigh the river Teign. Here lived Drogo de Teign, in King Henry II's days, (within a hundred years of the Conquest.) which name we now call Drew, as Sir William Dugdale tells us.". In Sir William Pole's Collections for a description of Devon, page 244, he says: "Tignton Drew both gave name and took name of the possessor there of in King Henry II's time. He was called Drew, or Drogo de Teigne. Risdon, also in his Survey of Devon, page167 speaking of the change of the name Drogo to Drew, says: "the first parish that taketh name from Teign River, Drew's Teignton, honouring the name of its ancient landlord, DrogodeTeign, by time's continuance mollified into Drew."Prince also gives a copy of an ancient Latin deed connected with this family, and dated 4 King Edward IV.,1464. The object of it was to provide a chaplain of honest and good report to prayfor the souls of Henry Drew, Esq., Alice and Joan, his wives, and for the souls of Sir Richard Campernon, Sir Thomas Carew, Walter Regnell, Robert Hill, son of Robert Hill,the judge, and several others. The ancient seats of this family were Drewscliffe and Hayne, in the parish of Newton St Cyres, near Credition, in Devon, in which county they have flourished in great honour, from the Norman Conquest to the present day. Through the heiress of Prideaux of Adeston, the Drew family in general descends in a direct line from John, King of England; Dermot McMurrogh, King of Leinster; the King of Connaught; Lewelyne, Prince of all Wales; the King of Man; the Earl Strongbow; Hugh de Laci, Justice of Ireland; the Bigods, Earls of Norfolk; the Genevilles, Lords of Trim, in Ireland; the Mortimors, Earls of March; and the Montacutes, Earls of Salisbury.(see Burke's Royal Families of England.&c.&c.and their descendants.) The Irish branch resident for so many generations at Mocollop Castle, co. Waterford, descends through the heiress of Pomeroy, from King Henry I., and the distinguished Norman and noble families of De Mules, De Camvile, De Vitrei, De Vere, DeVernonand, De Valletort. The same branch also descends through the co-heirs of Godfrey, in direct line from King Edward I; the great houses of Ormond and Thomond, from McCarthy More and Sir Valentine Browne, of Ross, ancestor of the Earls of Kenmare, in Ireland.

William married Joan (Jane) Prideaux in 1448 in Sharpham, Devonshire, England. (Joan (Jane) Prideaux was born about 1418 in Adeston, Devonshire, England.)