Elizabeth Ruth

- 1768

• Name	Elizabeth Ruth  [1]
  Gender	Female
  Death	15 Apr 1768	Piscataway, Middlesex, New Jersey   [2]
  Burial	Stelton Baptist Church Cemetery, Piscataway, Middlesex, New Jersey   [2]
  Person ID	I39260	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of LMW
  Last Modified	18 Dec 2023

  
  

  Family	George Drake,   b. 21 Jul 1709, Piscataway, Middlesex, New Jersey d. 13 Nov 1776, Piscataway, Middlesex, New Jersey (Age 67 years)
  Marriage	21 Jul 1731  [2]
  Children	+ 1. Rev. George Drake,   b. 1749, Piscataway, Middlesex, New Jersey d. 17 Nov 1832, Piscataway, Middlesex, New Jersey (Age 83 years)
  Family ID	F23036	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	6 Nov 2023

  
  

• Notes

  Her Find a Grave page calls her "Elizabeth Stelle Drake" and gives her a birthdate of 3 Jan 1712. The gravestone shown on that Find a Grave page says that she died 15 April 1768, aged 56 years, which would give her a birth year of 1712. An Elizabeth was in fact born on 30 Jan (not 3 Jan) 1712 to the Rev. Benjamin Stelle and his wife Mercy (who was probably Mercy Hull, formerly the wife of Thomas Piatt). But this Elizabeth is not mentioned in the Rev. Benjamin Stelle's will of 20 Apr 1758, suggesting that she actually died young. (See "Who was Mercy, the First Wife of Rev. Benjamin Stelle?" by Howard Stelle Fitz Randolph, Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey 2:93, July 1926.) The Rev. Benjamin Stelle's youngest daughter Rachel did marry a man who, like George Drake, was a descendant of the immigrant Edward FitzRandolph, namely Ephraim FitzRandolph, a son of Joseph FitzRandolph and Rebekah Drake. Meanwhile, The Descendants of Edward Fitz Randolph and Elizabeth Blossom, 1630-1950 by Louise Aymar Christian and Howard Stelle Fitz Randolph (citation details below) states that the George Drake who was born 21 July 1709 married Elizabeth Ruth. So we're tentatively assuming that the Find a Grave page for this Elizabeth is in error in indentifying her as a Stelle and in giving her a birthdate almost identical to the Elizabeth Stelle who probably died young, and that The Descendants of Edward Fitz Randolph and Elizabeth Blossom, 1630-1950 is correct in naming the wife of George Drake as Elizabeth Ruth. To note something which may further confuse matters: The gravestone shown on the Find a Grave page for "Elizabeth Stelle Drake" clearly identifies her as the wife (not widow) of George Drake. And the will of George Drake, made six years after the death of his wife Elizabeth, names his present wife as "Ruth", to whom he grants "£160 and all she brought when I married her." So it's also possible that the identification of his first wife, the mother of his children, as "Elizabeth Ruth" is simply an accidental conflation of the given names of George Drake's two wives.

  
  

• Sources

  [S6980] The Descendants of Edward Fitz Randolph and Elizabeth Blossom, 1630-1950 by Louise Aymar Christian and Howard Stelle Fitz Randolph. 1950. [S6987] Find a Grave page for Elizabeth Stelle Drake.