What was Sir Francis Drake's family life?

Answer 1

Life was very different for children back in 1540 when Francis Drake was born. He grew up in England as the oldest of 12 sons (large families were the norm in those days). His father was Edmund Drake and his mother was Mary Mylwaye Drake. Francis's father was a farmer, who lived on the estate of Lord Francis Russell, the second earl of Bedford (Lord Francis Russell was also Francis Drake's godfather). We do not know much about his relationship with his family, but we have no reason to believe there was anything unusual about it.

In the mid-1500s, the idea of kids getting a formal education was only for the upper-class, and only for boys. Francis was not a noble, so he was apprenticed at what to us today would seem a young age. He was sent to work for a merchant who sailed coastal waters from England to France and back, trading goods between those two countries. In those days, that is how a young man learned a skill or a trade, and that how Francis Drake spent his youth.