Off. Papers, 1770–2, p. 638). Draper became a major-general in 1772. In 1774 Horace Walpole speaks of him as the probable second in command of the reinforcements going to America, and as writing plans of pacification in the newspapers (Letters, vi. 135, 155). Before and after his second marriage Draper resided at Manilla Hall, Clifton Downs, now the convent of La Mère de Dieu, where he erected a cenotaph to the thirty officers and one thousand men of the old 79th who fell in the East Indies in 1758–65. He became a lieutenant-general in 1777. In 1773 he lost his second wife, who left one child, a daughter born in 1773, who survived her parents, and on 17 March 1790 married John Gore. She died a widow at Hot Wells on 26 July 1793 (Gent. Mag. lx. (i.) 273, lxiii. (ii.) 674).
In 1779 Draper was appointed lieutenant-governor of Minorca, under Lieutenant-general Hon. James Murray, at a salary of 730l. a year and allowances. He served through the famous defence of Fort St. Philip against a combined force of French and Spaniards from August 1781 until February 1782, when want and the ravages of the scurvy compelled the plucky little garrison to accept honourable terms (Beatson, v. 618–22, vi. note; also Ann. Reg. 1782, app. 241). There appears to have been no cordiality between Draper and Murray, and shortly before the end of the siege Draper was suspended by Murray. After their return home Draper preferred twenty-nine charges of misconduct of the most miscellaneous character against the governor, who was tried by a general court-martial, presided over by Sir George Howard, K.B., which sat at the Horse Guards in November–December 1782 and January 1783. The court honourably acquitted Murray of all charges save two—some arbitrary interference with auction dues in the island, and the issue of an order on 15 Oct. 1781 tending to discredit and dishonour the lieutenant-governor—for the which he was sentenced to be ‘reprimanded.’ The king approved the finding and sentence, but in recognition of Murray's past services dispensed with any reprimand other than that conveyed by the finding. The king also ‘expressed much concern that an officer of Sir Wm. Draper's rank and distinguished character should have allowed his judgment to be so perverted by any sense of personal grievance as to view the general conduct of his superior officer in an unfavourable light, and in consequence to exhibit charges against him which the court after diligent investigation have considered to be frivolous and ill-founded.’ Lest some intemperate expressions let fall by Draper should lead to further consequences, the court dictated an apology to be signed by Draper and accepted by Murray. The matter then ended. Newspaper accounts of the trial describe Murray as ‘very much broke,’ but Draper looked ‘exceedingly well and in the flower of his age; his star was very conspicuous and his arm always carefully disposed so as never to eclipse it.’ The proceedings of the court were published from the shorthand notes of Mr. Gurney, but as Draper's rejoinder to Murray's defence, though read before the court, was not included therein, Draper published it under the title ‘Observations on the Hon. Lieutenant-general Murray's Defence’ (London, 1784, 4to). In a letter to Lord Carmarthen, dated in 1784 (Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 28060, f. 153), Draper urges his claims, stating that his lieutenant-governorship, his wife's fortune in America, and his just claims to the Manilla ransom have all been sacrificed to save the country further effusion of blood and treasure. During the remainder of his life Draper lived chiefly at Bath, where he died 8 Jan. 1787. He was buried in the abbey church, where was erected a tablet to his memory bearing a Latin epitaph composed by his old fellow-student at Eton and Cambridge, Christopher Anstey of the ‘Bath Guide’ [q. v.] A copy of the epitaph is given in ‘Gent. Mag.’ lx. (ii.) 1127.
[The best biographical notices of Draper are in Georgian Era, vol. ii.; Gent. Mag. lvii. (i.) 91; and the notes to Letters of Junius, ed. by Wade, in Bohn's Standard Library, but all contain inaccuracies, especially in the military details. Among the authorities consulted in the above memoir in addition to those cited are Corry's Hist. of Bristol, ii. (natives) 292 (1818, 4to); Eton Registrum Regale; Cantabrigienses Graduati, vol. i.; War Office Records; Army Lists; Hamilton's Hist. Gren. Guards (1872, 8vo); Orme's Hist. of Mil. Trans. in Indoostan (London, 1763); Beatson's Nav. and Mil. Memoirs (1793, 8vo); Walpole's Letters, ed. Peter Cunningham, vols. ii. iii. iv. vi. viii.; Calendars Home Office Papers; Brit. Mus. Cat. of Printed Books, under ‘Draper;’ Gent. Mag., the more important notices in which occur in xxxiv. 590, xxxix. 68–71, 371, 430 (controversy with Junius), (ib. 537–8 Modestus and Junius), lvii. (i.) 91, and lx. (ii.) 1127.]
DRAXE, THOMAS (d. 1618), divine, was born at Stoneleigh, near Coventry, Warwickshire, 'his father being a younger brother of a worshipfull family, which for many years had lived at Wood-hall in Yorkshire' (Fuller, Worthies, ed. 1662, 'Warwickshire,' p. 125). His name does not occur in the pedigree given by Hunter (South Yorkshire, ii. 108), nor in that by Glover (Yorkshire, Visitation of, 1584-
