Name Index

To

Crowndale [and the Drake family]

Trans. Devon. Assoc., vol. 46, (1914) pp. pp.278-283.

by

J.J. Alexander, MA, JP

Prepared by Michael Steer

Francis Drake's forbears were dimly known and his boyhood is obscure. The Drake family was established in Crowndale a century or more before his birth. The place was originally part of the demesne land of Tavistock Abbey, but from very early days the fields at Crowndale seem to have been rented to families who had formerly served the abbot of Tavistock and the religious community. Some of their lease arrangements had endured for generations, with reasonable fees and nearly automatic renewal. Before Francis Drake spread terror through the ports of Spanish America, none of the Crowndale Drakes ever attracted much attention. Precisely when they arrived in Crowndale is unclear. Google with the Archive Organization has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. The Internet Archive makes available, in its Community Texts Collection (originally known as Open Source Books), books that have been digitised by Google from a number of libraries. These are books on which copyright has expired, and are available free for educational and research use. This rare book was produced from a copy held by the Princeton University Library, and is available from the Internet Archive.