THE FAMILY AND HEIRS OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE BY LADY ELIOTT-DRAKE WITH PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIONS IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. II. LONDON SMITH, ELDER & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE, S. W. 1911 [All rights reserved} THE FAMILY AND HEIRS OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE VOL. II. cJ:-, · ,<Ji-a II c/.) (sf) ra l<e 9/1 ,·,v !J3CLl'O/l-et CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME PART V SIR FRANCIS DRAKE, THIRD BARONET, 1662-1717 OBAl'TER PAGE CBAl'TER PAGE I. 3 V. 117 II. 28 VI. 142 III. 55 VII. 169 IV. 87 VIII. 195 PART VI SIR FRANCIS HENRY DRAKE, FOURTH BARONET, 1718-1740 OBAPTER PAGE I. 211 PART VII SIR FRANCIS HENRY DRAKE, FIFTH BARONET, 1740-1794 CIIAl'TER PAGE CHAPTER PAGE I. 237 IV. 290 II. 253 V. 310 III. 276 VI. 332 PAGE APPENDIX l. 343 APPENDIX II. 360 INDEX • 403 ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE SECOND VOLUME Sm FRANCIS DRAKE, TmRD BARONET Frontispiece (From a Miniature b11 Sir Peter Lel11) DOROTHY, LADY DRAKE (DAUGHTER Ol!' SIR JOHN BAM• FIELD), WIFE OF TmRD BARONET To face p. 8 SIR HENRY POLLEXFEN, CmEF JUSTICE OF THE COMMON PLEAS • " 76 SAMFORD SPINEY CHURCH 138 ANNE, LADY DRAKE (DAUGHTER OF SAMUEL HEATHCOTE), WIFE OF FOURTH BARONET 218 SIR FRANCIS HENRY DRAKE, FOURTH BARONET 234 Sm FRANCIS HENRY DRAKE, FIFTH BARONET • 234 BEERALSTON 253 BUCKLAND ABBEY 274 Mrss KNIGHT 294 (F'rom a Painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds) ADMIRAL FRANCIS WII,LIAM DRAKE 310 DRAKE'S DRUM 338 PART V SIR FRANCIS DRAKE, 3RD BARONET 1662-1717 PARTY CHAPTER I As we pass from the life story of Sir Francis Drake, the ' Par­ liamentarian ' baronet, to that of his nephew and heir, Francis, only surviving son of Major Thomas Drake, we feel at first as though we were quitting old friends for the society of new and less interesting companions. The scene is the same, but we hardly notice it, so disconcerting is the almost complete change of persons who now occupy the foreground. Many who have lately engaged our attention henceforth disappear ; we may hear of them indirectly sometimes, but their doings have no further bearing on our story. Others, who have been waiting for notice, press forwards for a little while, then they also pass away and make place for an advancing younger generation, different in many ways from the preceding ones, born in more peaceful times-but not, for that reason, less worthy of commemoration in our family history. By degrees, too, as we proceed, and the ' old order ' of individuals changes, laws and customs likewise alter, slowly but surely bettering the condition of people in almost every rank of life. Thus in 1662, minors who inherited real property were in a happier position than their ancestors in similar circumstances had been, because tenure in chivalry and all that it implied had been done away with by the Long Parliament, and the Convention had not revived it. Instead of the large but VOL. II. B 2 4 THE FAMILY AND HEIRS OF [1662 uncertain profits which would have accrued by the re-establish­ ment of the unpopular Court of Wards and Liveries, Parliament granted to the King a fixed revenue arising out of a tax on beer. Perhaps, as economists point out, the change was not an ideally just one, seeing that the incidence of taxation fell on a different class of persons from those who had pre­ viously borne it, but it is certain that landowners had been subjected to most intolerable grievances and that some measure of relief was due to them. Inquisitions and premier seizins-with which we, alas I are only too familiar in the guise of estate duty-were abolished ; pardons for ' aliena­ tion ' of land without permission had no more to be sued for ; widows might bestow themselves and their estates on whom they would, without Royal interference or the infliction of a fine ; and, above all, heirs and heiresses were no longer of necessity wards to the Crown, subject to the cruel fate of being sold to the highest bidder. Young Sir Francis, therefore, suffered no loss through the accident of succeeding to his estates before he was of full age. On the contrary, his minority was advantageous, as it threw the management of his affairs into the hands of John Drake of Ivy Bridge, an upright, practical uncle who brought his ward's finances out of embarrassment into satisfactory order. Sir Francis had also, as guardians, his father's first cousins, Sir William Strode and William· Davie, but they, recognising the sound judgment and authoritative position of John Drake, left all initiative to him, willingly agreeing that whatever he advised for his nephew's benefit should be done. The executors of the late baronet were, it must be remembered, in ignorance of the settlement made by him shortly before his death, so they were not restrained by its injunctions. Having proved .their relative's will, their first care was for the payment of his debts and legacies, which together amounted to over two thousand pounds, and, as they presently discovered 1662] SIR FRANCIS DRAKE 5 that there was not sufficient money available to meet these charges, they lost no time in leasing what farms they could at moderate annual rentals combined with heavy immediately payable premiums. Part of the barton of Buckland-about three hundred acres-was let without premium at a rent of £250 per annum, but only for five years, less with a view to income than to ensure its good management during Sir Francis's minority. The Buckland lease was carefully drawn up, and it is pro­ bably a typical one. Some of its provisions are just such as would be made now, others strike us as peculiar. The tenant, Michael Parnell, was to be permitted to occupy six rooms in the mansion house ; he was to enjoy the use of the kitchen garden, the hop and the pear gardens. The number and nature of the crops to be taken off the land during the term are specified, and it is stipulated that upon every acre in tillage he will within two years deposit a hundred and fifty sacks of salt-water sea sand, each sack to contain sixteen gallons of such sand. The fishing in the Tavy is included in the lease, with the reservation, however, of Sir Francis's personal right to fish whenever he visited Buckland. The upper and lower stables, the flower-garden and the pigeon - house are expressly reserved. These conditions lead us to suppose that Mrs. Thomas Drake and her daughters, Mary and Joan, had come to reside at the Abbey, but that Sir Francis's presence there was to be expected only during his vacations. John Drake and the trustees were evidently more inclined to rely upon an ' orthodox schoolmaster ' than upon a 'pious tutor,' for bringing up the young baronet 'in good nurture and learning.' The boy's studies, however, were well directed, and he must have had good abilities, seeing that in the following year (June 1663) he matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford, and six months later took his M.A. degree, at the early age of sixteen. How long he remained at 6 THE FAMILY AND HEIRS OF [1663 the University does not appear, probably his career there lasted about two years. Macaulay tells us that country gentlemen in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were so extremely illiterate that many could scarcely write their own language correctly, far less read or converse in any foreign one, but although the handwriting of some of the Drake ladies is not above reproach, the historian's remarks are inapplicable to the men of the family in any of the generations we have been considering. The letters of the first Sir Francis Drake, for instance, are clear and well expressed, even picturesquely worded some­ times. Thomas Drake, his brother, wrote fluently and almost over abundantly, involved as he was in perpetual litigation. His son Francis, the first baronet, published 'The World En­ compassed,' and his son again, the second baronet, whose life we have just read, esteemed learning and prized his French and Italian books so highly as to ordain that they were to come back to the family on the death of his wife, if she sur­ vived him, whereas the plate and jewels bequeathed to her were to be absolutely her own. Sir Francis's library included the works of Dante, Adriani, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Guic­ ciardini's History, Orlando Furioso, two large, finely illus­ trated volumes descriptive of the Roman catacombs, ' Les sentimens d'un honneste Homme ' (much read and curiously initialled in several places by its owner), as well as a good many Italian novelli and the interminable French romances of Mlle. de Scuderi. If Dorothea and her husband studied and en­ joyed these books, they were cultured persons, and such, no doubt, the latter designed that his nephew and heir should become. He evidently intended that, upon leaving the University, the young man should travel for a year or two in France and Italy, where the polishing touches were to be put to his education under the guidance of a wise tutor, whose ' abomination ' of errors and heresies might be relied upon 1665] SIR FRANCIS DRAKE 7 to counteract and unmask the wiles and fascinations of Rome. This carefully planned scheme was unexpectedly frustrated. Homme propose et femme dispose. The Jesuits never even had a chance, nor did the tutors and governors get their due. One winter morning during the Short Vacation (February 6, 1664-5) Sir Francis, taking an episcopal licence in his pocket, slipped over to Beerferrers, and then and there married his cousin, Dorothy, sixth daughter of Sir John Bamfield of Poltimore.' 1 The young lady was nineteen, the bridegroom wanted three or four months of that age.