, a surgeon at York, and an eminent antiquary, was much esteemed
, a surgeon at York, and an eminent
antiquary, was much esteemed by Dr. Mead, Mr. Folkes,
the two Mr. Gales, and all the principal members of the
Royal and Antiquarian Societies. He published, in 1736,
“Eboracum or the History and Antiquities of the City of
York,
” a splendid folio. A copy of it with large manuscript additions was in the hands of his son, the late rev.
William Drake, vicar of Isleworth, who died in 1801, and
was himself an able antiquary, as appears by his articles in
the Archseologia, and would have republisbed his father’s
work, if the plates could have been recovered. Mr. Drake
was elected F. S. A. in 1735, and F. R. S. in 1736. From
this latter society, for whatever reason, he withdrew in
1769, and died the following year. Mr. Cole, who has
a few memorandums concerning him, informs us that when
the oaths to government were tendered to him in 1745, he
refused to take them. He describes him as a middle-aged
man (in 1749) tall and thin, a surgeon of good skill, but
whose pursuits as an antiquary had made him negligent of
his profession. Mr. Cole also says, that Mr. Drake and
Csesar Ward, the printer at York, were the authors of the
“Parliamentary or Constitutional History of England,
”
printed in twenty-four volumes,