Drake is said to have been 'high in the Queen's favour', and received valuable grants from her, including gold and silver from the Spanish Armada and a monopoly for manufacturing aqua vitae. In about 1602 the Queen granted him the residue of the moneys still owing to her from Sir Francis Drake's voyage of 1585–86.[2]
Drake served as factor and prize agent to Sir Francis Drake (to whom he may have been distantly related), taking charge of the Spanish Armada prisoners taken off Plymouth in 1588, which included the Spanish vice-admiral, Don Pedro de Valdez,[3] whom he kept at his manor of Esher in Surrey,[4] pending arrangements for the ransom, a subject over which his heirs and those of Sir Francis quarrelled.[5]
Drake died 11 July 1603. In his will, made 31 May 1603 and proved 31 January 1604, he asked to be buried in Esher church, and appointed his only child, Francis Drake, as his executor. He left his widow, Ursula, his lease of the manor of Walton-on-Thames and the parsonage there, as well as a house in Fetter Lane, and his coach and horses. His other lands and goods, including the manor of Esher, were left to his son, Francis, who sold Esher after 1631. The ancient manor house had been a seat of Cardinal Wolsey, purchased from him by Henry VIII, temporarily returned to the see under Mary and eventually conveyed by ElizabethtoCharles, Lord Howard of Effingham, from whom Drake must have purchased it.[6]
Richardson, Douglas (2011). Everingham, Kimball G. (ed.). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. Vol. IV (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City. pp. 64–5. ISBN978-1460992708.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
