Bernard Drake

Sir Bernard Drake (c. 1537 – 10 April 1586) of Ash in the parish of Musbury, Devon, was an English sea captain. He himself refuted any familial relationship with his contemporary the great Admiral Sir Francis Drake (c. 1540 – 1596), as their dispute concerning armorials reveals. In fact, Sir Bernard Drake's grandparents John Drake V 1474-1554 and his wife Margaret were also the grandparents of Sir Francis Drake; Sir Bernard being descended from an older son and Francis descended from a younger son.

For Sir Bernard Drake, 3rd Baronet (died 1687), see Drake baronets. Not to be confused with Bernard Darke.

Origin[edit]

He was the eldest son of John Drake (d. 1558) of Ash,^[2] by his wife Amy Grenville (d. 1578/9),^[3] a daughter of Sir Roger Grenville (1477–1523), lord of the manor of Bideford in Devon and of Stowe in the parish of Kilkhampton, Cornwall, Sheriff of Cornwall in 1510–11, 1517–18, 1522, and present within the Cornish contingent at the Field of the Cloth of Gold.^[4] His brother was Richard Drake (1535–1603) of Esher, an Equerry of the Stable and Groom of the Privy Chamber to Queen Elizabeth I and a Member of Parliament. His uncle was Richard Grenville. Sir Bernard's aunt, Alice Drake, married Walter Raleigh and became the step-mother of Sir Walter Raleigh, the explorer and poet.

Hugh Drake (d. 1589), who died in Portugal in 1589, without progeny;

(died 1628), of Mount Drake and Ashe, who married Dorothy Button (d. 1631), a daughter of William Button of Aston, Wiltshire; their son, Sir John Drake (d. 1636) of Ashe, married Eleanor Boteler, a daughter of John Boteler, 1st Baron Boteler of Brantfield, and was the maternal grandfather of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough;

John Drake

Marie Drake, who married Tynsley of Lincolnshire;

Mary Drake, who married John Sherman, of Knightstone, Ottery St. Mary, Devon; their daughter Alice Drake married and was ancestress of the Earls of Egmont;

Richard Percivale

Eleanor Drake, who married John Button of Wiltshire.

At an unknown date, Drake married Gertrude Fortescue, a daughter of Bartholomew Fortescue (d. 1557) of Filleigh, North Devon, and sister of Richard Fortescue (d. 1570) of Filleigh (ancestor of the Earls Fortescue) in whose memory he erected a monumental brass in Filleigh Church. Gertrude's mother was Ellen Moore, a daughter of Morris Moore (1459–1500)^[6] of Moor Hayes in the parish of Cullompton in Devon, by his wife Cecily Bonville, a daughter of John Bonville, base son of William Bonville, 1st Baron Bonville.^[7] By his wife he had six children:

Death and burial[edit]

On 9 January 1586, Bernard Drake was knighted by Elizabeth I at Greenwich in recognition of his success. A couple of months later, the surviving Portuguese prisoners, whom Drake had had imprisoned in Exeter Castle, were put on trial, the charge perhaps being mutiny. Those who lived came to trial at the notorious Lent Black Assize of Exeter from 14 March 1586 held at Exeter Castle. The prisoners were so weak and ill that Drake was reprimanded by the judge, Edward Flowerdew (died 1586), Baron of the Exchequer, for his neglect. Within little more than three weeks, the judge, eleven of the twelve jurors and eight justices of the peace, who had been exposed to the prisoners, died from an infection caught from the Portuguese. Ill himself, Drake tried to reach home but died in Crediton on 10 April 1586, and was buried two days later. For more than a year an epidemic of what was apparently typhus raged in Devonshire. Drake's son, John, inherited Ashe as well as the profits of the Newfoundland voyage.