SIR FRANCIS DRAKE AND THE PLYMOUTH CORPORATION. 455 
Payments indeed for the exercise of influence are common in 
the Corporate Accounts, as a few instances will show. In 1503-4 
Elford, the town attorney, had 13s. 4d. for his services in London 
as burgess, and 13s. 4d. more for looking after town affairs there. 
In 1541—2 a tonne of wine costing £5 6s. 8d. was given to the 
Lord Admiral to move the King for the discharge of the pension 
theretofore paid to the Priory of Plympton, which was given up in 
the same year; and so in 1590-1 :— 
Itm given to the old Celye in rewarde for dius Courtesies 
and travaile in the townes busynes_ . : ary" 
There were several local items of expenditure on the Water Act. 
I give the entries, as before, in the order in which they occur :— 
Itm paide for a supper for the Justices when they came 
to veiwe the course for bringinge the water into 
the towne : BXXNT 
Itm paide for victualls wine ene ar other pvision 
carried from hence vppon the Downe ; ale 
Itm paide for the hire of three horses att that tyme . ij§ vj4 
Itm paide to a poore man to shewe them the waye . xij 
Itm paide to Sprie the painter for riding to mevie 
aboute the water : : ; avs 
Itm paide for his horse hire then hax? 
Itm paide for Mr. Carewes diett when he rode teats 
the water : oil" viij* 
Itm paid to Sprie the painter for nes of a plot of 
the Toune and parrishe wth a Bourder Carried to 
the Counsell * s ‘ ; aX 
Here then we see not only that the local as well as the metro- 
politan expenses were defrayed by the Corporation, but that Drake 
had nothing to do with the “‘ viewing” by the justices, who would 
not in that case have required ‘‘a poor man to show them the way.” 
The full detail of these entries shows that the Act was really, as it 
professes to be, promoted by the Corporation, and procured by them 
at their own expense. It cost them in all £39 17s. 2d., which is 
equivalent to nearly £250 in the present day, a heavy charge, 
especially when we find that the Corporate receipts in this very year 
were but £242 ls. 5d., against an expenditure of £324 2s. 6d. 
* Sprie may fairly be called the Corporation artist ; his name is of frequent 
occurrence in the records, 
