Background
Thomas Drake was born on 14 January 1749 the second but oldest surviving son of William Drake, Member of Parliament for Amersham from 1746 to 1796, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of John Raworth of London. He adopted the surname Tyrwhitt in 1776 in order to inherit the estates of his cousin Sir John de la Fountain Tyrwhitt, sixth Baronet, and then the additional surname of Drake in 1796 when his father died. He married, on 8 August 1780, Anne Wickham, a daughter of the Review
William Wickham of Garsington, Oxfordshire.
Career
Reverend John Tyrwhitt-Drake, Rector of Amersham, married Mary Annesley, third daughter of Arthur Annesley of Bletchingdon, Oxfordshire. Reverend George Tyrwhitt-Drake, Rector of Malpas, Cheshire. Frederick William Tyrwhitt-Drake.
Mary Frances Tyrwhitt-Drake.
Anne Tyrwhitt-Drake. Louisa Isabella Tyrwhitt-Drake. He held the post of Sheriff of Glamorganshire for the year 1786-1787 and was commissioned into the Amersham Volunteer Infantry as a Captain in 1798.
A year later, the elder William resigned his seat and died shortly afterwards. He was largely a supporter of the administration of William Pitt the Younger, and did not oppose that of Henry Addington.
He was considered less reliable in 1804 and voted to have Lord Melville prosecuted the following year.
He went on to vote with ministers in 1810. He is not known to have spoken in the House. Bibliography
Burke, John (1837), A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry 1, London: Henry Colburn
Fisher, Doctorate. R. (1986a), "Tyrwhitt (afterwards Tyrwhitt Drake), Thomas Drake (1749-1810), of Shardeloes, near
Amersham, Buckinghamshire.", The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1790-1820 (London: Secker & Warburg for the History of Parliament Trust)
Fisher, Doctorate. R. (1986b), "Amersham", The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1790-1820 (London: Secker & Warburg for the History of Parliament Trust)
Lobel, Mary Doctorate. (1957), A History of the County of Oxford 5, London: Victoria County History.
Membership
1st United Kingdom Parliament. 2nd United Kingdom Parliament. 3rd United Kingdom Parliament.
4th United Kingdom Parliament.
18th Parliament of Great Britain]
Captain Thomas Tyrwhitt-Drake (1783 - 1852) was a for Amersham from 1805 to 1832. William Tyrwhitt-Drake (1785 - 1848) was a for Amersham from 1810 to 1832.
The borough of Amersham was a "Rotten Borough" in which a leading family, here the Drakes, controlled the seat and could effectively choose who the borough"s two Members of Parliament were.
