DRAKE, Francis Henry (1694-1740), of Buckland and Nutwell Court, Devon.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1715 - 1734
1734 - 26 Jan. 1740

Family and Education

bap. 2 Mar. 1694, 1st surv. s. of Sir Francis Drake, 3rd Bt., M.P., by his 3rd w. Elizabeth, da. of Sir Henry Pollexfen of Nutwell Court, Devon, c.j. of common pleas. educ. privately. m. 29 Sept. 1720 (‘with above £13,000’), Anne, da. of Samuel Heathcote of Clapton House, Hackney, Mdx., merchant, sis. of Sir William Heathcote, 1st Bt., 3s. 2da. suc. fa. as 4th Bt. Jan. 1718, and uncle Henry Pollexfen to Nutwell Court 1732.

Offices Held

Biography

Drake succeeded to an encumbered estate but was able to pay off the debt with his wife’s money.1 Although the family controlled one seat at Bere Alston, before coming of age he was returned for Tavistock jointly on his own and the Bedford interest, voting for the septennial bill in 1716 and the repeal of the Occasional Conformity and Schism Acts in 1719, but against the peerage bill. Under Walpole he is recorded as voting only for the Hessian troops in 1729 and against the repeal of the Septennial Act in 1734. He was a member of the gaols committee of the House of Commons.2 In 1734 he was turned out of Tavistock by the new Duke of Bedford, but was returned for Bere Alston. He died of pleuritic fever, 26 Jan. 1740, at his lodgings at Covent Garden.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Shirley Matthews

Notes

  • 1. Lady F. E. Eliott-Drake, Fam. and Heirs of Sir Francis Drake ii. 212, 217-18.
  • 2. HMC Egmont Diary, i. 55.