Sir William Drake, 1st Baronet (28 September 1606 - 28 August 1669) was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons

House of Commons of England

The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of Great Britain...

 between 1640 and 1648 and again from 1661 to 1669.

Drake was the son of Francis Drake of Esher, and his wife Joan Tothill, daughter of William Tothill of Shardeloes, Buckinghamshire. He was a chirographer to the court of common pleas.

In April 1640, Drake was elected Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Amersham

Amersham (UK Parliament constituency)

Amersham, often spelt as Agmondesham, was a constituency of the House of Commons of England until 1707, then in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and finally in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832...

 in the Short Parliament

Short Parliament

The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that sat from 13 April to 5 May 1640 during the reign of King Charles I of England, so called because it lasted only three weeks....

. In 1641 he was created baronet of Shardeloes

Drake Baronets

There have been four Baronetcies created for people with the surname Drake, three in the Baronetage of England and one in the Baronetage of Great Britain....

. He was re-elected to Amersham in 1641 in the Long Parliament

Long Parliament

The Long Parliament was made on 3 November 1640, following the Bishops' Wars. It received its name from the fact that through an Act of Parliament, it could only be dissolved with the agreement of the members, and those members did not agree to its dissolution until after the English Civil War and...

 and was excluded in Pride's Purge

Pride's Purge

Pride’s Purge is an event in December 1648, during the Second English Civil War, when troops under the command of Colonel Thomas Pride forcibly removed from the Long Parliament all those who were not supporters of the Grandees in the New Model Army and the Independents...

in 1648. He was re-elected for Amersham in 1661 and held the seat until his death.

Drake died unmarried at the age of 63 and his estates passed to his nephew Sir William Drake.