On the north wall of the sanctuary in St Lawrence’s Church, Southleigh, is the memorial to Robert Drake of Wiscombe Park. He belonged to the wider Drake family of East Devon, being brother of Sir Bernard Drake of Colcombe Castle and Ashe, and cousin of Sir Francis Drake. The monument and its inscription are one of the clearest surviving links between Wiscombe Park and the parish church.
The memorial is carved in Beerstone as a rectangular niche flanked by Ionic columns. These support a moulded entablature over a strapwork frieze, with carved armorial bearings on the sides. The Latin inscription, translated on a later church plaque, records that “Here lies that loyal man, a warrior of high renown, by name Robert Drake, and known for his goodness to the Poor. His wife, Elizabeth, bore him seven sons of upright character, and five fair daughters. He died 30th March, 1600.” The design and wording place him firmly in the late Elizabethan gentry world of East Devon.
Robert Drake’s association with Wiscombe Park reflects the pattern of estate ownership in the Colyton and Southleigh area at the end of the sixteenth century. While the Bonvilles and later the Greys and Petres had held the manor in earlier centuries, by Drake’s time the estate was in the hands of local gentry families whose interests linked landholding, service to the Crown and maritime enterprise. His brother Sir Bernard Drake was a notable figure in Devon’s seafaring community, and the family connection to Ashe and Colcombe Castle underlines their status.
Within the church interior the Drake monument stands out among the later memorials. Nearby are nineteenth‑century tablets to the How family of Wiscombe and earlier plaques to John Rose and the Vickers family in the tower. Together they chart the succession of local landowners, but Robert Drake’s monument is the earliest substantial gentry memorial in the building and anchors the Wiscombe connection in 1600.
For the modern visitor, the memorial is easy to locate: it is set on the north side of the sanctuary, above the level of the altar rail and close to the chancel’s north wall. The Beerstone carving, strapwork and heraldry repay close inspection, and the translated inscription on the church information board provides a straightforward guide to the Latin text. As with many small parish churches in East Devon, a single monument here opens a window onto a much wider network of estates, families and service that extended from Wiscombe and Southleigh out to Ashe, Colcombe and the wider Drake kin.
