Drake Family Seats

Drakenage
Drakenage was a fortified manor house in the parish of Kingsbury, Warwickshire. Evidence is scant, for the tenure of the Drake forebears there antedates the account documented in the Victoria County History of Warwickshire. I believe they were there in the mid to late 12th Century. They appear to have derived their surname from this manor.
- Site Plan of Medieval Manor
- Modern
Drakerath
After members of the Drake family came to Ireland in the 13th Century, they established Drakestown and a fortified site in the Barony of Kells, County Meath, known as Drakerath Castle. The castle appears in records in the 13th and 14th centuries. The senior male line failed in the early 15th century when Matilda Drake, an heiress, married Sir Christopher Barnewall of Crickstown.
- Drakerath ruins
Drakes' Broughton
Drake’s Broughton is a small hamlet south-east of Worcester city in the parish of Pershore Holy Cross, Worcester. It got its name from the Drake family who held it in the 13^th Century, being called just "Brocton" prior to this time. At least a portion of it was a Beauchamp property, which was probably how the Drakes obtained it, for they were allied to the Beauchamps of Elmley. (See Stem Pedigree 2. ) There is evidence the Drakes held several small parcels in the same location, a pattern they followed for several generations.
The composer Edward Elgar wrote his hymn "Drakes Broughton" (hymn number 151 in the Westminster Hymnal) in 1878. It was originally entitled "Hymn Tune in F major." Elgar was particularly fond of a narrow wooded lane leading to Drake’s Broughton.
- An image of a document indicating the Drake connection to Brocton
- an image (linked off-site) of the modern church of St. Barnabas at Drake’s Broughton. As far as known, there is no surviving medieval structure.
Ashe
Ashe House was acquired by John Drake of Exmouth, Devon through marriage to Christian Billett, daughter and heiress of John Billett. It was unlawfully alienated when it passed to descendants of Christian’s second husband named Frankcheney. It was subsequently recovered through a lawsuit three generations later. Ashe Manor descended lineally from Baldwin the Sheriff to his successors the Courtneys and was held by them until the attainder of the Marquis of Exeter for treason, when the manor was given by Henry VIII to Lord North who sold it to John Drake of Exmouth.
John Prince, in his "Worthies of Devon" (1701), gives the following in regard to the ancient history of Ashe:-- "Ashe was sometimes the dwelling of Quandus de Ash, the most ancient inhabitant that I find there, who gave to, or took name from the place, after whom it was given by John Lord Courtenay, Lord of the manor of Musbury, unto Henry de Esse, or Ash, who gave it to Julian (likely his daughter), wife of John de Orway, of Orway, in the parish of Kentisberr, nigh Cullompton, in this shire; whose son Thomas had issue: John, o.s.p., and two daughters, Joan, wife of John Stretche; and Phillippa, wife of Warren Hampton. Stretch left issue, that died without issue, upon which Ash fell to Hampton, who had issue: first, Joan, thrice married, to Bonvile, Sachvile and Farringdon; and, secondly, Alice, wife of John Billett, unto whom Ash was allotted; John Billett and Alice, his wife, had issue: Christian, their sole daughter and heiress, who married John Drake of Exmouth."
- Before the Fire of 1787
- After the Fire (1854)
Crowndale
- Engraving 1796
- Sketch 1883
Buckland Abbey
Buckland Abbey, in the parish of Buckland Monocharum, was built as a Cistercian abbey in 1278. At the dissolution of the monasteries, Buckland was bought by Sir Richard Grenville. His grandson and namesake sold the property to agents of Sir Francis Drake in 1581. The abbey continued in the Drake family, passing to descendants in the female line in the 18^th century. It passed out of the family in 1937 when the Lady Seaton, daughter of Lady Eliot-Drake, died. It was given to the British National Trust in 1946.
Nutwell Court
Nutwell Court in Lympstone was acquired by the descendants of Sir Francis Drake’s brother by inheritance and became the family's main residence after 1732. The direct line came to an end on the death of Sir Francis Henry Drake in 1794 and the properties passed to the Eliot family, through the family of General George Augustus Eliott, Baron Heathfield, Francis' brother-in-law, and from them to Thomas Trayton Fuller who, on becoming a baronet in 1821, took the additional names of Eliott-Drake. The family remained at Nutwell until the 20th century.
- Nutwell Court
Shardeloes
Shardeloes, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, formerly the seat of the Tyrwhitt-Drakes. This branch, if not the most senior, are presently the chief representatives of the family. The mansion was built for William Drake between 1758 and 1766. The interiors were improved by Robert Adam and the gardens were laid out by Humphrey Repton in 1793. The estate passed out of family hands to developers in the mid 20th century.

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