DRAKE, Montague Garrard (1692-1728), of Shardeloes, nr. Amersham, Bucks.

The Drakes acquired Shardeloes by marriage in 1626 and the manor of Amersham by purchase in 1637.2VCH Bucks. iii. 147, 149; Lipscomb, Bucks. iii. 154-5. Four generations of the family had sat for the borough since the restoration of its representation in 1624 after a gap of 300 years. Succeeding as a child to the principal interest at Amersham, Drake was returned there unopposed as a Tory in 1713 as soon as he came of age. He was re-elected in 1715, voting against the Administration in all recorded divisions. His name was sent to the Pretender in 1721 as a probable supporter in the event of a rising;3Stuart mss 65/16. and he was well known to Bishop Atterbury, to whom he gave an annuity when in exile.4Atterbury Mems. and Corresp. ed. F. Williams, 271-2, 274. The following year he was again successful at Amersham but chose to sit for the county, where he had been returned on a compromise. In 1727 ‘the populace ... were so mutinous and exasperated against the great Mr. Drake, [whom] they apprehended the chief promoter of the compromise and against the rights of the freeholders’,5Verney Letters of 18th Cent. ii. 101. that he went back to Amersham. He died 26 Apr. 1728.