AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 227 



that Sir Francis Drake would have purchased the manor (of 

 Stokenham), as the following letter to Lord Huntingdon from 

 his agent will shew : — 

 ' It maie please yo v honor, 



We have been heere at Stokenham w h p r pose 

 to p'cede yn sale of your lo 113 lands there ; but being crossed 

 by the practice of one Digbye, a busie curate newlie come to 

 that towne, and assisted by a companie of light hedded 

 fellowes, who sent a supplicacon to yo r Lo d P, which we have 

 seen in a l're dated the Vth of this month, but the chiefe 

 cause we take to be the very povertie of the tenants who 

 would not deale anythinge till their messenger should return 

 from London. So beinge stalled there and at Southpole for 

 that tyme, we left them and rode to Yelhampton, and first we 

 enquired for S r if 1 " Drake, who, being still at the courte, we 

 conferred wth Mr. John Heale, to understand S r F's mynde 

 in the p r chase of this manor, but Mr. Heale had no com- 

 mishion to deale therein.' 



The letter goes on to state that the writer found it difficult 

 to deal with the tenants at 'Yelhampton,' suggesting that 

 Lord Huntingdon should confer with Sir. F. Drake in 

 London, ' who happilie maie be drawen to yo r L dpps likinge.' 

 The letter is dated the 14th of April, at Yelhampton, 

 1582. 



On the 6 Sepf, 1632, Sir Edward Cary, of Stantor (an 

 ancient house in the parish of Marldon, between Paignton 

 and Torquay), Knt., and his son Sir George, granted a lease 

 for lives to W m Gournay, of Dartmouth, merchant, of ' all that 

 place and hole, commonly known by the name of Poke Hole, 

 situate under the cliff at Halsand, in the parish and manor of 

 Stockingham, neere adioyning unto the fishhouse or sellar of 

 the s d W M Gournay there.' Another lease of the same year 



