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call armcs parlantcs and the English " Canting arms " which 

 means that the object emblazoned refers to the sound of the 

 name. We might call such a charge a rebus. Now a 

 "drake" in Shakesperian English is a dragon, in Latin draco. 

 So the charge on the shield of Sir Francis was a dragon, called 

 in the jargon of British heraldry a wivern. a winged lizard 

 such as Germans would call a Lindwurm. After the Revolu- 

 tion the American branches kept the monster as the charge 

 on the shield, but substituted for the wivern in the crest an 

 eagle, thereby asserting with emphasis their independence of 

 the mother country, that' independance for which so many 

 Drakes in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey had fought 

 and suffered. And especially those nearest to the poet — his 

 father, uncles and cousins — since their homes lay within thai; 

 tormented and bloody ground where the raiders from the 

 patriot and British lines, the "cowboys" and "skinners" 

 plundered everybody with sinister impartiality. 



The Drake coat of arms was singularly appropriate to sea- 

 farers in southern England who may well have descended from 

 the vikingr or baymen of a much earlier age, heathen who 

 harried and in many spots founded towns on the south and 

 east shores of Britain. Drake or dragon was a well-known 

 word for the long rowing and sailing galley of the vikingr, 

 so named because the prow and stern were carved in the form 

 of the head and tail of the monster. By virtue of his name a 

 Drake was ordained as a seagoer and seafighter. 



The Drakes of Eastchester and Westchester were related, 

 naturally, to many other landed families, notably the descend- 

 ants of Thomas Hunt who as early as 1652 owned portions of 

 Throgmorton's Neck on the East River, called Throgg's Neck 

 for short, as well as the Rodmans of Rodman's Neck in East- 

 chester. 



Born in 1795 and losing his father at an early age, Joseph 

 Rodman Drake had a sad childhood, which was darkened still 

 further when his mother married again and with his sisters 

 left for New Orleans, where his stepfather lived. Intensely 



