Captain Thomas Purefoy came to America in "The George" in 1621.
and settled in Elizabeth City County in 1626. He served as a Burgess
from 1629-1630,and member of the King's Council from 1631-1651. He
patented 500 acres upon a point called "Cross Quarter", on May 4,
1631. He named one of his estates, a 1000 acre tract, "Drayton",
doubtless, after the place of that name which is mentioned by Burke as a seat of the Purefoys (Extinct Baronets).
Captain Thomas Purefoy was "Drayton", Elizabeth City County, Virginia, circa 1655-56. A contemporary says of him: "He is a soldier and a man of open heart, hating for ought. I can perceive all kinds of dissimulatic and baseness."
Sources: (See Hotten). S. P. O. Colo. Vol. 8, No. 65-85: The
Virginia Magazine, Vol. VII, Pages 92-100. 101. Burke's Extinct and
Dorment Baroncies: Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents as perpared by
W. G. Stannard.
FROM A LETTER FROM JOHN PURIFOY - DEPARTMENT OF STATE - ALABAMA Montgomery Nov. 27, 1918
To Mrs. B.H. Sandlin, Natchez, La.
...
It is a well established fact that our original ancestor, Captain Thomas Purifoy, reached America in 1613, about seven years after the settlement of Jamestown, Virginia. He settled in the tide-water section of Virginia, in Elizabeth county, and owned large landed estates. He had a place which he improved highly, having built a mansion of brick on it. This he called "Drayton", after the name of the English residence of the family which bore that name, and was owned by one of the name who held a baronetsy. It was supposed that the English branch of the family came from Normandy with William, the Conquorer. Captain Thomas Purifoy held the position of member of the house of Burgesses repeatedly. This was the colonial legislature of Virginia before it became a state. His son Thomas inherited his estate and died and left a widow and some children. She remarried, and her second husband cabbaged all the property and cast the children out. One of these wandered into North Carolina, and selected a location in Craven county, near the town of Newborne. From that point our ancestor, John Purifoy, came over a hundred years ago.
...
From http://jezebel.dev.uga.edu/~drainey/booker.htm
Captain Thomas Purefoy was principal commander of Elizabeth City County in 1628. He was in service against the Indians in 1627; was Commissioner for Elizabeth City County in 1628; Justice of the County Court 1628-29; member of the House of Burgesses for the lower part of the county in 1629-30; and member of the State Council in 1631. He named one of his estates "Drayton", which Burke states was one of the seats of the family of Purefoy, Baronets, a title now extinct in England. In the Maryland Archives a deposition, dated 1640, made by his wife, who was then about 42 years old, states that she was born "infra Ranson" , Leicestershire, England and had been in Virginia as early as 1629. In 1656 a grant was made to W. Moore for land at Old Poquoson, which had been assigned to him by Lucy, relict of Captain Purefoy and confirmed by Thomas Purefoy his son and heir. Thos. Purefoy the son was a justice of the Court of Elizabeth City County in 1652. In 1675, June 19, Mr. Matson Wakelin, guardian, petitioned the Council in behalf of the orphans of Thos. Purefoy, dec'd, for a survey of their land. So the son was dead prior to that date. Wakelin married the widow of Thomas Purefoy, Jr.
Issues of Thomas Purefoy I., and his wife Lucy Ranson: Thos. Purefoy II., who married ______, and had a daughter Frances, who married (1) Richard Hand of Elizabeth City County (died circa 1669), and by him had two daughters, Hannah and Martha (who married John Tabb). Frances (Purefoy) Hand married (2) William Lowry of Elizabeth City County and had issue, named in his will, proved May 13, 1724. His daughter Margaret Lowry married Richard Booker, son of Captain Richard and his wife Rebecca Leake. Hannah married Capt. Rich'd Booker, as stated above.
