SIR FRANCIS DRAKE AND THE PLYMOUTH CORPORATION. 471 
There remains only one thing that Drake could have done 
towards ‘‘bringing in” the water—the enlarging of the old 
Warleigh Mill Leat. This is probably what he did do; less 
in the interest of the townsfolk than in that of providing for 
the six new mills which he erected. Whatever the capacity of the 
old Warleigh Leat may have been, it could not reasonably be 
expected to supply both Warleigh and Plymouth — the latter 
especially—with a “river” of mill-stream magnitude. 
This allusion to the mills requires elucidation. If we deny that 
Drake was actuated by motives of pure philanthropy in his dealings 
with the water question—and the figures given wholly negative that 
supposition—we must conclude that he had in view some benefit to 
himself, though it would by no means necessarily follow that such an 
object involved any discredit. The erection of the six mills supplies 
the key to his undertaking the contract ; for though he was amply 
paid for all work done on the leat, the simple profit thence derivable 
is not likely of itself to have tempted a man of his position.* 
One of the most valuable portions of the ancient Corporate 
property of Plymouth was the Manor Mills at Millbay, which 
were transferred from the: Priory of Plympton to the town under 
the Act of Parliament incorporation, and were in 1440 valued at 
something over £10 a year. ‘This, indeed, was the rent paid for 
them long subsequently ; but it afterwards advanced by degrees, 
reaching £19 in 1499-1500, then rising to £21, and in 1549-50 
to £24. The value of the mill property was kept up by strict 
regulations providing that three times the just toll should be levied 
on any townsman who sent his corn otherwhere to be ground. 
Moreover the mills were rented at different times by some of the 
most prominent inhabitants. Thus in 1577 they were farmed by 
William and John Hawkins, who arranged to fetch the corn from 
the houses of the townsfolk when required. The rent was then 
£24, but in 1581-2 William Hawkins paid £40. Two years later 
(1583-4) Drake became the tenant at the same rent, and so continued 
until 1591-2, the year after the water was brought in, when his 
payment was reduced to £30. Drake was thus very intimately con- 
cerned in the prosperity of the town mills for seven or eight years 
* He had money to invest; for after his voyage of circumnavigation he bought 
Buckland Abbey, and leased the tithes of Tavistock, paying down £1,000 fine, 
besides renting the Plymouth Mills, and proceeding with other expeditions, 
