Richard Drury was born 17th. March 1700 and was the first son of Richard and Mary Drury. He was not baptized, being of dissenter descent but despite this, was to become a well respected member of the village of Kenilworth. His father was a baker in Kenilworth and Richard took on the business after his father's death in 1729 and prospered.

Little is known of Richard's first wife, Rose, except that she died 1742 (Ref:19). Richard was to remarry to Elizabeth at a date so far unknown and it is impossible to tell which of the four children were children of which mother except that their only son, Richard, was the son of Elizabeth (Ref:10). This said Richard's Last Will and Testament seems to be designed to protect his childrens' inheritance on his death suggesting that all the children were from the first marriage to Rose.

During his lifetime Richard amassed a substantial estate, comprising of several properties in Kenilworth and several in Warwick. The Chief Rents of Kenilworth Manor between 1716 and 1726 (Ref:52) show his father paying rent to the Manor for a single property, and similarly in the Land Tax of 1724 (Ref:48)he is shown paying the relatively small amount of 6s.9d.. After his father's death, Richard inherited his father's house, as shown by the similar description of the house - formerly Betty's - in the Chief Rents 1716 (Ref:52), referring to his father, and in the Manor Minutes of 1755 (Ref:46), referring to him. During the period between the death of his father and 1755 he had increased his Kenilworth estate from one inherited property to four properties. Most of his property would be let and the income from them would be quite substantial. The income from his various properties and his bakery business allowed him to lend money to various people and because he lent money only on security of property he obtained further property when one borrower went bankrupt and he effectively became the owner of the property against which the loan had been secured.

Richards standing in the community of Kenilworth must have been quite high. He was the owner of several properties and a thriving business and, despite being of 'dissenter' origin, he was trusted by church. He is seen assessing a church rent Augmentation in 1746 (Ref:49) in which Robert Drury and Joseph Drury, cousins of his, were assessed. (See The Warwick Documents)

Towards the end of his life he became infirm and weak and knowing had not long to live he produced his Last Will and Testament on 17th February 1759 (Ref: RDOb), a copy of which is shown in the Warwick Documents

After remarrying he had the age old problem of protecting his children's inheritance from disappearing into the second wife's family after his death and in order to do this he left his whole estate in trust. His Trustees, two old friends Thomas Collett and John Lancaster were instructed in his Will to sell all his property, goods and chattels and to put the money into securities and then use the interest generated to educate and maintain the children with the capital amount to be shared out when all children reached the age of twenty one. Elizabeth, his wife, was to receive the sum of £500 but under the proviso that she was to leave the house and relinquish any claim in his estate. She was also forced to enter into a bond with the trustees such that should she remarry then £250 of £500 should be repaid to the trustees and added to the capital sum held in trust for the children.

Richard died almost exactly one year after making his Will on 13th February 1760 (Ref:19) and his trustees took over his estate and are noted paying the Rent to the Earl of Clarendon for the Kenilworth properties in 1776 (Ref:47). It would appear from this and from the Warwick documents that the trustees did not sell off the estate for some time after Richard's death. More details on how the Will was transacted are given in the Warwick Documents.

What happened to Elizabeth and the children, apart from some sketchy details about their marriages, is unknown. The dusty documents come to an end and this branch of the family disappears into obscurity maybe to reappear sometime in the future at the turn of a page of some forgotten archive that is sitting on a dusty shelf …………

Richard was married to Rose who dies in 1742 (Ref: 19) - nothing else is known about this marriage.

He later married Elizabeth but again no details of the marriage are know at this time.

Elizabeth (c.n/k)   (m.1770)   (d.n/k)
 
Mary (c.n/k)   (m.n/k)   (d.n/k)
 
Hannah (c.n/k)   (m.n/k)   (d.n/k)
 
Richard (c.1751)   (m.n/k)   (d.1819)