From "Drake in England" p. 88: "William Drake was presented for default of residence on 6 April 1592 and fined on inhabited houses in the manor Court of Abell in Halstead 30 December 1600. Earlier on 1 February 1579, he was named as witness to the apprenticeship of tobias son of Richard Ebbes of Sandy in Befordshire a woollen draper, to Thomas Wilkinson, linen draper.
Although traces of Puritan influence can be seen in the introduction of Old Testament names for children in some of the branches of the family, William Drake and his wife are the first to be identified with the extreme Puritans who rejected the established Church of England. In the records of the Archdeacon of Colchester's Court we find them being fined for not attending the parish Church in 1611 and later, in 1615, he was presented by the Churchwardens of Elmstead 'for not coming orderly to Church on the Sabbath Daye' and was duly fined 12d. on 28 June 1615. He was bured at Elmstead on 3 November 1616."