Edited by Charity Scott-Stokes and Alan Lumb, Sir Francis Drake (1723–1794): Letters from the Country, Letters from the City is a collaborative project of members of the Devonshire Association, with support from the Devon Heritage Centre, the Devon and Cornwall Record Society, and Boydell Press. It is a fine example of how a local community can work together to publish documents about their history. After conceiving the book's content, the collaborators transcribed and edited 320 letters to Sir Francis Henry Drake (1723–1794), 5th Baronet and MP for the pocket borough of Bere Alston, who owned Buckland Abbey and Nutwell House near Exeter.
Because Sir Francis spent seven months a year in London, he needed a steady stream of Devonshire news. Letters from a friend and overseer, Nicholas Rowe (“your faithful Rowe”), kept him informed about local landowners, farmers, borough voters, workmen, and servants. When Sir Francis returned to Devon in the summer, William Hudson (“your obliged and humble servant”) kept him up to date from the capital. Hudson, a London apothecary, sent him news about the royal family, parliament, international affairs, medical treatments, and scientific publications. He also forwarded delicious gossip regarding bankruptcies and scandals,
This collection thus integrates information from town and country. The letters are presented chronologically from 1740 to 1778 (DHC 346M), with only one letter from Drake in 1740. He penciled notes, however, about contents on the backs of letters, so we feel his presence as the archive's owner. To compensate for the absence of Drake's replies, the editors provide introductory articles by local authors on politics, estate building, landscaping, botanical projects, and health. They also include timelines, maps, illustrations, a bibliography, and an index.
Scott-Stokes and Lumb refer to The Family and Heirs of Sir Francis Drake, vol. 2, by Lady Fuller-Elliot-Drake (1911), which draws on the same archive. Like many histories by later descendants, its epistolary transcripts are often undated, filled with ellipses, and lack original punctuation and layouts. In contrast, the newer book adopts standardized editorial policies, respects eighteenth-century formats, adds dates, restores omitted texts, and offers explanatory notes. Lady Fuller-Elliot-Drake's volume, however, inserts a huge amount of information from external sources next to the letter transcripts. Scholars specializing in Devon history may wish to consult both sources.
Sir Francis was educated at Winchester, spent a year at Eton, then Cambridge and Lincoln's Inn. He succeeded his father as a staunch Whig MP serving from 1747 to 1771 and 1774 to 1780. He became ranger of Dartmouth Forest (1752), comptroller of the Green Cloth (1753), and master of the kings household (1771). In 1761, he was a member of the delegation who escorted Queen Charlotte to London.
Scott-Stokes and Lumb portray Drake as a man of science and enlightenment, for he turned his Nutwell chapel into a library, collected books, botanical specimens, medals, seals, and minerals. But others thought he wrecked a fine medieval house with his so-called improvements. While in London, he met with members of the Royal Society, including Joseph Banks and the poet Mark Akenside, who wrote an ode in Drake's honor.
Yet, despite his status, Sir Francis never married, and his social circles were small. When in Devon, he was reclusive and obsessed with the need for privacy, causing hostility with neighbors. He was known as a “silent eccentric man, who votes always with the ministry” (37–38). Shockingly, there is no record of a speech by him during thirty years in the House of Commons. Drake's lack of political activity is confirmed in the History of Parliament Trust, 1754–90, and he is absent from the Dictionary of National Biography. His son offered excuses on Drake's Buckland Memorial, noting that “frailty of constitution prevented him from aspiring to great office” (9). Eventually, he sold his share of the borough to a non-Whig and let his baronetcy become extinct. He may have cancelled marriage plans at the last moment, and there are untested hints of homosexuality regarding his male London friendships.
Despite the letters’ silences, the talents and affection of Hudson and Rowe give us insights into Drake's relationships with family members, the Devon community, and themselves. The letters show the debts of his brothers, who constantly make requests for naval office, and the animosity between his sister and mother. Indeed, the latter's death was unknown to Drake until Rowe sent him news that she had been dead for some time.
Rowe was a freeholder from Bere Alston with some legal training. He enjoyed an empathetic relationship with Drake, which he constantly reinforced with oaths of devotion. In return, Sir Francis sent to Rowe spectacles and offered a pair of shoes, when the latter was lame. Because Rowe's role as overseer was all-encompassing, his letters reveal the social life and structure of provincial society. He describes people's status as “the vulgar,” “the rabble,” “independents of the middle sort,” “the better sort,” “substantial neighbors,” and “Gentle-Folks.”
Rowe kept Drake's documents in an escritoire where he could consult them to solve property problems. He intervened in courts and elections, and kept a vigilant eye on spending. Rowe's letters show both sides of Drake's relationships with local people. In some cases, they were paternalistic; in others, definitely not. When a dying man demanded Drake's funds to carry him home, Rowe quickly assented. He did not want the neighborhood to reflect upon him or Drake for letting the man die alone. Yet when Sir Francis barred locals from using an ancient pathway, Rowe made threats and blocked the entrance.
In the summer, it was Hudson's turn to keep Drake informed. An apothecary's apprentice from Kendal, he inherited his master's business and joined the London Apothecaries’ Company. After he published Flora Angelica, he became a member of the Linnaean and Royal Societies, and built a medical practice.
Hudson's social networks included the head of Kew Gardens and Joseph Banks, with whom he did botanical research in Wales. As Hudson sends Drake annotated horticultural books and seeds from Jamaica and Holland, he reveals how science spread to the provinces. He also unveils how apothecaries developed into medical practitioners, who simultaneous maintained shops and treated patients. He clearly helped Drake, who left him a £100 annuity for life.
The collection's strength lies in the useful knowledge it offers regarding daily life, politics, and personal health care in rural and urban locales. Rowe and Hudson were aware of the ties between mental and physical illness, and they urged Drake to fight melancholy. Together they made Sir Francis an informed, if inactive, MP. We often read of busy people. The book of letters sheds light on a hidden, private person, who badly needed letters to keep his country and city lives on track.
