Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 15.djvu/432

Drake original plans and sketches are also his); 'Modern Jerusalem,' 1875; see also his 'Literary Remains,' by W. Besant, 1877.

[Besides the works named, Memoir and Testimonies of Archbishop Benson, Professor Newton, and others prefixed to Modern Jerusalem; Lieutenant Condor's Obituary Notice (Palestine Fund Reports, 1874, pp. 131-4); Times, 27 June 1874; private information from the Rev. W.T.T. Drake.]  DRAKE, FRANCIS (1540?–1596), circumnavigator and admiral, was born, according to local tradition, at Crowndale, near Tavistock, in a cottage which was still standing within living memory, and of which a picture is preserved in Lewis's 'Scenery of the Tamar and Tavy' (1823). The exact date of his birth has been much discussed, but the evidence is vague and contradictory. A passage in Stow's 'Annals' (p. 807) implies that he was born in 1545, but the legends on two portraits, apparently genuine, 'Anno Dom. 1581, Ætatis suæ 42,' and 'Anno Dom. 1594, Ætatis suæ 53' (, p. 5), seem to fix the date some years earlier. Equal uncertainty exists as to his parentage; but in the absence of more definite testimony we may accept a note added to the grant of arms in 1581, by Cooke, Clarenceux king of arms, that Drake had the right 'by just descent and prerogative of birth' to bear the arms of his name and family—Argent, a wyvern gules—'with the difference of a third brother, as I am informed by Bernard Drake of [Ash] chief of that coat-armour, and sundry others of that family, of worship and good credit' (, Genealogist, 1877, i. 210, quoting from Ashmole MS. 834, f. 37; Archæological Journal, xxx. 384, quoting from a manuscript in the College of Heralds). It appears also that his father's name was Robert (, Genealogist, viii. 478n.), which would seem to identify him with Robert, third son of the last John Drake of Otterton, and of his wife Agnes Kelloway (, History of the Commoners, i. 580); brother, therefore, of John Drake of Exmouth, whose energy and success as a merchant, and as establishing his right to the estates of Ash, raised the family to a position of opulence and influence (, Description of Devonshire, pp. 123, 154). In this success, however, Robert seems to have had but little share. Accounts, otherwise conflicting, agree in stating that Drake's father was in a comparatively humble way of life, though having some connection with, or dependence on, the rising house of Russell, whose heir, Francis, afterwards second earl of Bedford, was godfather to his eldest son. But of his life or circumstances we know nothing beyond what is told by his grandson (Sir Francis Drake, bart., in the preface to Drake Revived, 1626), who says that, having suffered in the state of persecution, he was 'forced to fly from his house near South Tavistock into Kent, and there to inhabit in the hull of a ship, wherein many of his younger sons were born. He had twelve in all; and as it pleased God to give most of them a being upon the water, so the greater part of them died at sea.' Camden, indeed, professing to relate only what he had learnt from Drake himself, says that the father was forced to fly on the passing of the Six Articles Act, in consequence of his having zealously embraced the reformed religion; that he earned his living by reading prayers to the seamen of the fleet in the Medway; and that he was afterwards ordained as vicar of the church at Upnor (Ann. Rer. Angl. ed. Hearne, 1717, ii. 351). But as Camden says elsewhere (Britannia, ed. Gibson, 1772, p. 160) that Drake was born at Plymouth, his claim to personal information is of very doubtful value; and the several points of his story, notwithstanding its general acceptance, are inaccurate or absurd. There never was a church at Upnor; the reading of prayers in the reign of Queen Mary would have been summarily put a stop to; and the whole Drake family not only embraced but, for the most part, largely profited by the change of religion. There is nothing in the younger Drake's statement which implies that the 'persecution' was necessarily religious; and beyond this there is no evidence that we can depend on. Stow, however, has told us (Annals, p. 807) that the father was a sailor, and that his name was Edmond; and Dr. H. H. Drake, combining the two stories, seeks to identify him with the Edmond Drake who in 1560 was presented to the vicarage of Upchurch, and who died there in December 1566. The identification is supported by an entry in a contemporaneous manuscript, where Drake is described as 'son to Sir — Drake, vicar of Upchurch in Kent' (, p. xvi), but is not altogether conclusive.

Many years afterwards it was believed in Spain that Drake began his career as a favourite page of King Philip at the English court; that he was employed by the king in a post of trust in the West Indies; and that, being defrauded of his pay by the minister, he vowed to be revenged (The Venetian ambassador at Madrid to the Signory, 9 May 1587; Report upon the Documents in the Archives and Public Libraries of Venice (Rolls Series), p. 16). It is impossible that this can have been true, for to the end of their lives Philip and Drake had no common language