LOCAL HERALDRY. 
351 
the arms of Drake of Ashe, second and third the coat granted by 
Queen Elizabeth to Sir Francis Drake. We may here correct the 
error into which the learned historian of Plymouth fell in calling 
the wavy fesse between the two pole stars an augmentation. (He 
had not at that time seen any of the evidence, since doing which 
he has gone over to the other side. ) This was the coat of arms 
granted to Sir Francis Drake by Queen Elizabeth, and to that coat 
and that alone had Sir Francis any right. That he strongly desired 
to get an acknowledgment of his right to the " Wyvern Gules " of 
Drake of Ashe is beyond any doubt ; but no instance is known of 
his using the wyvern until after the death of Sir Bernard Drake. 
The strongest point of the supporters of the right of Sir Francis to 
the coat of Drake of Ashe is, that attached to a rough draft of the 
grant to Sir Francis in the College of Arms is a clause stating that, 
the grant notwithstanding, Sir Francis Drake is entitled to the 
coat of the red wyvern by inheritance, as appeareth by the signa- 
tures of Sir Bernard Drake and others of good repute appended. 
The signatures Sir Francis failed to obtain, and producing no proof, 
the clause was omitted. The supporters of the claim of Sir 
Francis say that the clause was omitted because there was not room 
on the parchment to insert it. To most persons of average dis- 
cernment it will appear rather a weak argument, that a clause of 
such importance in an important legal document, and one that Sir 
Francis so evidently desired to have included, should have been 
omitted from want of room. 
The arms of Sir John Gayer, which appear on the cup given by 
him to the Corporation in 1648, are erm. a fleur-de-lis sa., on a 
chief of the second a mullet arg. 
The deeds connected with charities and now in the possession of 
the Guardians of the Poor are much richer in this class of evidence. 
Among the numerous seals attached to them, although many have 
only devices or initials — as, for instance, E. B. for Eobert Beckett 
(temp. K. Edw. VI.), and the merchant's mark of Nicholas 
Sherwill (1633), showing that he did not lay claim to any arms — 
still there are several examples of heraldic seals. Thus on several 
very old seals we have the chevron between three acorns, slipped 
and leaved, of Amadas, one being on a deed dated 1571, and 
another 1607, the seal itself from which the impression was made 
being probably older by many years. This is particularly interesting 
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