Birth

Sir Francis Drake was born in 1541 in Tavistock, England. This was located twenty miles north of the seaport in Plymouth. He lived in a cottage made of rough tree branches on a nobleman's estate and he was the oldest of eleven brothers. Sir Francis Drake's father was a sailor as well, before he and his brothers were born. At the time of his birth however, he was a Protestant farmer. Drake came from an extremely ordinary family that was neither rich nor powerful, yet very religious. At the time of his birth, there were many religious issues that were going on in England which caused his family to move to Chatham in Kent where they lived on an old ship for a while.