The Drury Family

of

Swaffham Prior

The Drurys were a manorial family that lived in Swaffham Prior from the late fifteenth century until the nineteenth century. The Drurys were an important family in East Anglia and there presence in the region is well-documented back as far as Norman times. For general information on the family, see http://www.genealogysource.com/drury.htm.

As far as I can ascertain there were two branches of the Drurys in the Swaffham Prior region both of whom are descended from Thomas Drury of Hessett (died 1444).

Richard Drury of Burwell was the first to arrive. He is recorded in documents from around 1500 by which time he had married Alice Dullingham, a local girl from a wealthy family which has a continuous record in the parish back to at least 1340. Richard's son William was a considerable landowner in east Reach (Burwell parish) and appears in a number of documents. William appears to have sired only daughters two of whom married into the Chambers family (see Family Tree 3). William's daughters marked the end of that branch of the Drury's presence in the parish.

Richard Drury of Swaffham Prior, a descendent of Thomas Drury of Fincham (died 1545) arrived in Swaffham Prior parish in the mid-sixteenth century and quickly became an established member of the local landed gentry. He fathered several children the descendents of whom remained in the parish until the nineteenth century. A copy of Richard's family tree can be seen here http://www.genealogysource.com/muskett364.htm although it should be noted that there are several errors on it.

The following links show William Drury's family tree back to the Norman Conquest (the earlier parts of the tree come from Campling, 1937; see below):

Drury Family Tree One (1066 to the 1250s)

Drury Family Tree Two (1250s to the 1440s)

Drury Family Tree Three (1440 to the 1600s)

Reference: Arthur Campling, The History of the Drury Family, 1937 (copy available at the Society of Genealogists)

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