Editing Francis Drake (section)

==Birth and early years==
[[File:sfdrake42.jpg|thumb|[[Portrait miniature]] by [[Nicholas Hilliard]], 1581, inscribed ''Aetatis suae 42, An(n)o D(omi)ni 1581'' ("42 years of his age, 1581 AD")]]
[[File:1583 portrait of Sir Francis Drake.jpg| thumb | 1583 portrait of Sir Francis Drake by Jodocus Hondius I]]
Francis Drake was born at Crowndale Farm in [[Tavistock, Devon]], England.{{sfn|Kelsey|2000|p=3}} His birth date is not formally recorded – such writers as [[E. F. Benson]] have claimed that he was born while the [[Thirty-nine Articles#Six Articles (1539)|Six Articles of 1539]] were in force,<ref name="Benson1927">{{cite book |last1=Benson |first1=Edward Frederic |title=Sir Francis Drake |date=1927 |publisher=Harper & Brothers |page=6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zc4gAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA6}}</ref> but British naval historian [[Julian Corbett]], writing of [[William Camden]]'s account, on which this information is based, writes that "As a slip of memory, too, we must put down his difficult assertion that Edmund Drake was driven from [[Devonshire]] during a persecution under the [[Statute of the Six Articles|Six Articles Act of 1539]]."{{sfn|Corbett|1898|p=393}} His birth date is estimated from the wording of texts in contemporary sources such as: "Drake was two and twenty when he obtained the command of the ''Judith''"<ref name="Campbell1841">{{cite book |title=Lives of the British Admirals and Naval History of Great Britain from the Time of Caesar to the Chinese War of 1841 Chiefly Abridged from the work of Dr. John Campbell |last=Campbell |first=John |author-link=John Campbell (author) |year=1841 |publisher=Richard Griffin & Co |location=Glasgow |isbn=978-0665347566 |oclc=12129656 |page=104 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SD3M-bWc6a8C&pg=PA104 |access-date=30 August 2012 |archive-date=25 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151125061454/https://books.google.com/books?id=SD3M-bWc6a8C&pg=PA104 |url-status=live }} Direct quote is followed by "this carries back his birth to 1544, at which time the six articles were in force, and Francis Russell was seventeen years of age."</ref> (1566). This would date his birth to 1544. A date of {{c.}} 1540 is suggested from two portraits: one a [[Portrait miniature|miniature]], painted by [[Nicholas Hilliard]] in 1581, when he was allegedly 42, which would place his birth {{circa}} 1539, while the other, painted in 1594 when he was said to be 52,<ref name="DNB1921">1921/22 edition of the ''[[Dictionary of National Biography]]'', which quotes [[John Barrow (English statesman)|Barrow]]'s ''Life of Drake'' (1843) p. 5.</ref> would give a birth year of c. 1541.

He was the eldest of the twelve sons<ref name="ODNB04">[[George Malcolm Thomson (1899–1996)|Thomson, George Malcolm]] (1972), 'Sir Francis Drake', William Morrow & Company Inc. {{ISBN|978-0436520495}}</ref> of Edmund Drake (1518–1585), a [[Protestant]] farmer, and his wife, Mary Mylwaye. The first son was said to have been named after his [[Godparent|godfather]], [[Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford]].<ref name="Froude1896">{{cite book|last=Froude|first=James Anthony|author-link=James Anthony Froude|title=English Seamen in the Sixteenth Century|place=New York|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|year=1896|url=https://archive.org/details/englishseamenins00frou/page/n8}} Quote: "He told [[William Camden|Camden]] that he was of mean extraction. He meant merely that he was proud of his parents and made no idle pretensions to noble birth. His father was a tenant of the [[John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford|Earl of Bedford]], and must have stood well with him, for Francis Russell, the heir of the earldom, was the boy's godfather."</ref>

Due to religious persecution during the [[Prayer Book Rebellion]] in 1549, the Drake family fled from [[Devon]] to [[Kent]]. There Drake's father obtained an appointment to minister to the men in the King's Navy. He was ordained [[deacon]] and was made vicar of [[Upchurch]] Church on the [[Medway]].{{sfn|Whitfield|2004|p=12}}