Drax Priory Drax Priory Drax Priory was an Augustinian priory at Drax in North Yorkshire, England, founded between 1130 and 1139 by William Paynel. The Priory has sometimes been called an abbey, though this is judged to be incorrect. Permission was given to crenellate the priory in 1362. The Priory was run down in 1535 with the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the land was leased to Sir Marmaduke Constable to be used as a farm. In 1997, a geophysical survey and aerial imaging was undertaken which revealed wall lines of buried buildings and former ponds. The monks at Drax owned lands
James Drax a royalist faction seized control of Barbados in 1650, James and William Drax were exiled from the island, along with other prominent parliamentarians. They returned to London, where they lobbied the House of Commons to send an expedition to retake the island. In 1651, Drax sailed in the fleet designed to re-conquer Barbados, and he was part of the team that went ashore to negotiate the surrender of the island. Restored to his estates and power, Drax once again took up a leading role in the governance of the colony. It is thought that Drax Hall, the impressive seventeenth-century manor