Evening star., 1924-02-02
Americans Claim to Be Heirs
OF Immense Estate of Drake

Hcathfields mother was Anne Drake.
sister of the fifth baron. She mar
ried S:r George Elliott. who. for
his gallant defense of Gibraltar, was
created the first Lord Heathiiled. This
Lord Heathfield and his wife, Anne
Drake. had, besides their only son.
who died as second and last Loru
Hcathfield, an only daughter named
Anne Elliott. married to John Dray-
ton Fuller Of Ashtown House. Sussex.
Their son. Thomas Fuller. inherited.
on the death of his uncle, the second
Lord Heathfield, not only the Elliott
property Of his fathers two brothers.
but also the Drake estates, and, IN
Of the fifth Drake. assumed the name
and the armoriaI bearings of the
Drake family. He was distin-
guished veteran of the Peninsula war,
and, partly by reason of his military
services and also because Of his own
ership of the Drake estate, he was
created a baronet by George ~. He
also died without issue. and on his
demise his baronetcy and the Drake
and Elliott estates went to his neph-
sw, Sir Francis Fuller, who had al
ready been obliged to secure u royal
license in 1870 to assume the name
and arms of Elliott and Drake, which
converted him from Sir Francis Full
Ter into Sir Francis Elliott Drake.
X X X =
The great Elizabethan admiral, Sir
Francis Drake, had in addition to
his brother Thomas,N another brother
John. who commanded the warship
Swan in the British attack on Vera
Cruz. Possibly he may have remain
ed on this side of the Atlantic. But
even II that were the case and il
the brakes in the United States.
members of the brakes Estates AS
ISOLATION, could show that they wer.
his legitimate descendants they
would have no claim whatsoever upon
the Drake property III Devonshire
and elsewhere that might have be-
longed to the illustrous navigator.
For no mention Is made by the
latter in his will of his brother Joh /.
the property being explicitly be-
dueathed to his nephew Francis, the
son of-his elder brother Thomas, the
executor Of the will. From him the
property in name passed down not
altogether in the direct male line
but sometimes in the female line. yet
always by virtue Of wills, deeds Of
settlement and patents of tho crown,
which arc perfectly valid in law and
that cannot be upset by any legal
process to Lady Seaton as the only
child Of the late Sir Francis Elliott
Drake.
Lord Seaton, whose wife now
enters into the exclusive possession
of the Drake and Elliott estates, Is
the third baron of his line, the peer
age having been created in favor OF
Field Marshal Sir John Colborne, one
of the heroes of the Peninsula war,
and whose decisive movements with
the infantry brigade under his COM
mand is declared by history to have
secured the definite victory Of the
English at Waterloo. Later on he
was governor general of Canada, and
was succeeded by his eldest son, who
was also a general In the army. The
present lord is likewise soldier and
a veteran of the Boer campaign of
a quarter a century ago., and al
though he is now seventy, he volun-
break of the great war, and did his
bit on the peninsula of Ga1ltpoli
and afterward in Soloniki and in
Palestine. Having. no children. his
hos will pa tbs at HON hs d1s1h ranes ts
Colborne, who after a long record
of active service in various wars
belonged for several years to the
household of Princess Beatrice, the
youngest daughter of the late Queen
Victoria, and is also one Of the off,
GERS Of the Yeomen of the Guard.
To those who are interested in
heraldry, may add that the armorial
bearings of Lady Seaton's father, the
late Sir Francis Elliott-Drake, COM
prised the heraldic devices granted
by Queen Elizabeth. to her greatest
admiral, namely, ''a ship under reef.
drawn round a terrestrial globe. with
cable rope by hand out of the
clouds, and on a scroll the words,
"Auxilio divfno'; also two pole stars
and fesse wayy." Tho Elliott arms
granted by George III to the late
Francis Elliott-Drake's ancestor, the
first Lord Heatherfield, consisted of
tho \arms of Gibraltar, which he so
bravely defended, namely, Between
two pillars, q castle. argent. and
from the gate golden key pendent
and tho words plus ultra