(Copypasted from Medieval Duplicates, where it didn't quite belong)
Maven B. Helms PRO
2/22/2018 at 10:14 AM
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This is interesting: Sir, Vice Admiral Francis Drake *did not* have a legal right to the arms of Drake of Ash (red wyvern on white background) - either not related, or too distantly related. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Drake
That didn't stop him from quartering Drake of Ash with the new arms the Heralds drew up for him (reportedly at the Queen's request): Sable, a fess wavy between two pole-stars Arctic and Antarctic argent (that last is just a fancy way of saying two estoiles in pale).
Maven B. Helms PRO
2/22/2018 at 10:33 AM
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This, I believe, is the dude who boxed Sir Francis' ear over the armorial dispute: Sir Barnard Drake, of Ashe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Drake
http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/drake_bernard_1E.html
Notes on relationship of Drakes of Ash to Drake of Tavistock (i.e. Sir Francis): https://web.archive.org/web/20120914015155/http://www.wyverngules.c...
Woodman Mark Lowes Dickinson, OBE PRO
2/22/2018 at 11:30 AM
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Your last link is very interesting - not least because old muniments are still turning up/
Janet Yvonne Correll
yesterday at 4:17 PM
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My understanding is, you are correct in saying Sir Francis Drake was probably not related to the Drakes of Ashe (even though there was at least one Francis among them, 1591-1636). He was the eldest of 12 sons of Edmund Drake, a Protestant farmer, of Tavistock, Devon. Though, like many of the Drakes of Ashe, he was a seafarer of great note. His exploits caught the attention of Queen Elizabeth, I, and no doubt he thought he was deserving of an armorial crest of his own and that of the Drakes of Ashe would fit nicely, with a little modification. Hence the dispute with Admiral Sir Bernard Drake. Of course, Elizabeth ruled in Francis' favor (probably thinking of all that lovely gold bullion he brought back to his Queen.
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Note for anyone who doesn't want to slog through the long article: the short of it is that Sir Bernard and Sir Francis may have been something like 9th cousins once removed.