Sir William Drake, 1st Baronet

Sir William Drake, 1st Baronet (28 September 1606 – 28 August 1669) of Shardeloes, near Amersham, Buckinghamshire was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1640 and 1648 and again from 1661 to 1669.

Life Drake was the son of Francis Drake of Esher, and his wife Joan Tothill, daughter of William Tothill of Shardeloes, Buckinghamshire. He studied under Charles Croke. He then went to Christ Church, Oxford in 1624, where he befriended John Gregory, and was tutored by George Morley. In 1626 he went to the Middle Temple, where his cousin John White was also called to the bar; in that year he inherited the Shardeloes estate from his mother's side of the family.

Drake's father died in 1633, leaving his son Esher which was sold. In 1637 he purchased the manor of Amersham, which his father had represented in Parliament during the 1620s. At around the same time he bought office in the Court of Common Pleas. He was later (1652) a chirographer (the officer responsible for noting final concords and filing records of fines) to the court.

In April 1640, Drake was elected member of parliament for Amersham in the Short Parliament. He was knighted on 15 July 1641 and created baronet, of Shardeloes on 17 July 1641.