Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/205

 9* S. IV. OCT. 7, '99.] 281 NOTES AND QUERIES. LONDON. SATVBDAr, OCTOBER 7, 1899. CONTENTS. —No. 93. NOTES :—Sir Francis Drake, 281—Notes on the 'Musae Anglicans,' 282-Walpole and his Bditors, 284—Penn's Monument—"Parsimony "—Sword worn at Right Side- Remarks on ^Esop—Mr. Kipling's "Lucia," 286—Perseus In ' The Whit* Devil '—"The Black Death "—Carriage of a Sword-belt, 286. QUERIES'—"By the haft"—"Hal-an-Tow"—Dauvergne — Margaret Blount — Pronunciation of "Water" — A "Skimmington "—Author of Verses —"Pins,"-87—Eng- lish Factory at St. Petersburg — Scottish Army — Les Detenus — Rhodesia — Maheu de Redman — Reference Wanted—"Vulgar"—"As fu'a the Baltic "—Place-name Hersi—"Judgment"—A Flaming Beryl — " Teosinte," 288-"Truth is the daughter of Time"—Cardinal York — Dagsburg — London Corporation Records — Sir Matthew Mennes, 289. REPLIES:—Late Rev. B. Marshall-Sunken Lanes, 289 — " Strenua DOS exercet inertia," 291 — Cyclopaedia of British Domestic Archaeology — Bull Races — " Three Pound Twelve," 292—Roos and Cromwell Families — Bottle at Ship Launches — Daniel's ' Sonnets to Delia ' — Artists' Mistakes — Welsh Surnames — ' Westminster Abbey ' — Earls of St. Pol, 29:!— Butterworths'— Stephen's 'World of Wonders'—"Smokables"—"Expensarius ": "Donsel," 294—Madame Ristori—Bihury, 295—Albert Gate—Hell of the Poets — National Nicknames — Anglo-Saxon Speech, 296—Chodowiecky —Jack Birkenhead — Mummy Peas- Schopenhauer, 297—Authors Wanted, 298. NOTES ON BOOKS:—'Dictionary of National Biography,' Vol. LX. — Tyack's ' Lore and Legend of the English Church*—Reviews and Magazines. Notices to Correspondents. SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. SIR WILLIAM R. DRAKE and I had agreed to print a collection of family notes for private use. The ' History of Blackheath' interfered, Sir William died, and I am left, an octo- genarian, with a treacherous memory. How- ever, what occurs to me from time to time of public interest I will offer to ' N. & Q.' Camden relates:— " Hie [Franciscus Drake] ut non alia referam, quam qua; ab ipso audivi, natus eat loco mediocri in cotmtatu Devonian, k sacro layacro a Francisco Russellio, postea Bedfordise Coraite, susceptna, qui prfenomen pro more indidit," &c.—' Annals,' ii. 351. " Mediocri loco," having been translated as of mean, instead of middle-class, parentage, has misled many writers. It is proved by early subsidy rolls that Drake's family was of good local standing, matching with what are now called county families, which subside to a lower level as they multiply. In all proba- bility the Drakes were connected with the Tremaynes. Francis Drake's father was called Edmund, and Edmund Tremayne, who wrote to Walsingham that he looked on Francis Drake as his own son. had two sons named Francis. His father, Thomas Tremayne, had presented to the rectory of Sydenham Wil- fiain Drake, the vicar of Whitechurch, the parish in which Francis Drake " was born near South Tavistock." North, South, East, and West Crowndale, the estates of the Drakes, spread into both Whitechurch and Tavistock. In the neighbouring parish of Sydenham dwelt the Wyses, and Alice Wyse was Francis Russell's grandmother. Her nephew Oliver had married Margaret Tre- mayne, and her niece Jane was the wife of Richard Tremayne, aunt and uncle of Edmund Tremayne, who was thus related to the Rus- sells by marriage, and probably Drake linked on more remotely. To return to Alice Rus- sell, nee Wyse, her niece Constance married Thomas Sawle, of Tavistock. whose son was named Richard, and grandson Oliver, no doubt after the brother and nephew of Alice Russell. Oliver Sawle had two sons named Richard, one of whom I take to be the man who followed the Rev. Edmund Drake, father of Francis, to Upchurch, an All Souls' living, witnessed his will there, and is desired by him to "stand ray good friend." William Drake, vicar and rector, left legacies to Thomas Treraayne above, and appointed him his executor and residuary legatee. Though I have more genealogy in store, enough has been cited to account for Francis Russell being Drake's godfather. If it is correct that Francis Drake was born 1545-6, John, Lord Russell, being then engaged from home, his son Francis, aged eighteen, was very probably on a visit to las relatives, the Wyses and Tremaynes, at Sydenham, whose reli- gious views, agreeing with those of William and Edmund Drake, leave little room for expressing surprise that the son of a peer should answer at the font for a middle-class infant. The fact that Francis Russell, Earl of Bedford, was the overseer of Edmund Tremayne's will proves that the intimacy was close between them. Little is known with certainty about Drake's boyhood. The yenetian Ambassador at Madrid wrote home in 1587 that Francis Drake had been a favourite page with Philip II. of Spain when in England, and that he was sent on a mission to Jndia, was cheated of his due. and returned incensed to his native land. The story is not altogether incredible. Drake, though abstemious, was fond of luxurious surroundings. His table was loaded with plate engraved with his family arms, in use prior to the grant of the augmentation coat, musicians played during his meals, trumpetblasts announced his coming and going, his tastes were refined, and his sentiments noble. How came it all about ? Philip, Archduke of Austria, grandfather of Philip II. and brother-in-law of Catherine