SIR FRANCIS DRAKE AND THE PLYMOUTH CORPORATION. 449 
be none with regard to the references to pumps, as for instance 
when we read in the mayoralty of William Weekes (1549-50) : 
Itm paid for plats of Ire to amend the boxe of the 
plumpe of the well of the south syde and for 
Arnold Rawlyns labour abowte the same swaps 
There are many subsequent entries of repairs to this said 
“plumpe,” which was undoubtedly used for the supply of ship- 
ping. 
I will not undertake positively to say whether the following 
entry refers to water supply or not; but it is not improbable, and 
is deserving of record :— 
Itm payed for the Gotters of Clome that m™ howe 
bought ‘ ; Bex YE 
This was the Howe who founded the charity which bore his 
name, but which has long since disappeared. 
The first entry which records that the local supply of water was 
insufficient, and that steps were taken to provide for the deficiency, 
is dated 1559-60, in the mayoralty of Lucas Cock :— 
Itm to M* forsland of bovy & his company for 
vewinge of the ground wherebie freshe water 
myght have byn brought unto the towne ey ieee 
This is a very important statement. It shows that twenty-five 
years before the date of thé-Water—Act the Corporation had this 
matter of an exterior water supply in hand; and though, from 
circumstances which we cannot fully trace, several years passed 
before anything more was done in this direction, it is clear that 
the initiative was taken by the Mayor and Commonalty. It would 
be idle to suggest that Drake was then concerned—an unknown 
sailor in his twenty-first year. 
We have fortunately evidence who this “ Mr. Forsland” was, for 
whom the Corporation sent all the way to Bovey. He was a man 
of note in his way, and one of the best men for the purpose that 
could have been selected. He was a “tin streamer,” a member of 
the Stannary Parliament that assembled at Crockern Tor in 1576, 
and was in its records described as “‘ gentleman.” Tin streamers 
were accustomed, in the course of their occupation, to make leats 
for the conveyance of streams of water, and hence Forsland was 
