(1723 - 96) of Shardeloes, Bucks, 1st surv. s. of Montague Garrard Drake; educ. Westminster and BNC Oxf. 1739; DCL 1749; m. 1747 Elizabeth Raworth; MP 1746 - 96.
1743 - 5 [dep. England 22 Sep. 1742] Florence (1743), Rome (Easter 1744 - Oct. 1744), Naples, Rome (by Jan. 1745), Venice (4 Jun.) [Harwich, 26 Aug. 1745]
On 22 September 1742 Drake and Edward Holdsworth set out for France with the Rev. Thomas Townson and James Dawkins of Laverstoke (Holdsworth being some forty years older than his companions). After 'about eight months' they went by Marseilles and Toulon to Italy.1 At Easter 1744 Townson, Drake and Holdsworth were staying in Rome in the Strada della Croce.2 James Russel, who painted a conversation piece (Shardeloes) in Rome that year showing Drake, Townson, Holdsworth and another, possibly Dawkins (but not Maxwell, as was once suggested),3 thought Drake 'one of the most sprightly, agreeable and amiable persons living' and dedicated to him a plate in his Letters. In October 1744 Drake, Holdsworth and Townson left Rome for Naples, running the gauntlet between the Austrian and Spanish armies then fighting in southern Italy.4 Back in Rome, Drake and Dawkins each commissioned four pictures from Vernet in January 1745,5 and Drake, Dawkins and Holdsworth ('notoriously attached to the Pretender ... and known to debauch the sentiments of the young English that he is acquainted with'6) caused offence in February by absenting themselves from a celebration given by Cardinal Albani to mark the birth of a new Habsburg Prince.7 In June 1745 Drake, Holdsworth and Townson were in Venice, where they again met Dawkins and Russel; when Russel left them they were intending to return home via Vienna, apparently with Dawkins.8 They returned to Harwich on 26 August 1745.1
In October 1750 Russel was ready to send Drake his copy of 'a large and famous picture of Domenichino's' (from the Borghese Palace), as well as 'a collection of drawings of the best basso relievos, busts and statues ... particularly of those which have not been engraved or to which justice has not been done in engravings ... they will be done with more accuracy than those done for Mr [Richard] Phelps'.9 There are draft letters from William Drake to unnamed Roman correspondents, one referring to a commissioned work of art: 'En Cas que vous en auriez besoin de plus d'argent pour faire avancer l'ouvrage [unstated] j'ai d?j? pri? Mons. Jackson de vous en fournir de tems en tems'.(10)
1. Thos.Townson, Works, 1:xi - xii. 2. AVR SA, S.Lorenzo in Lucina. 3. R. Edwards, Burl.Mag., 93[1951]:126 - 7. 4. Russel, Letters, 1:239. 5. Lagrange, 324. 6. Wal.Corr., 19:112.
7. Lewis 1961, 131. 8. Russel, Letters, 1:248 - 9. 9. Add.41169, f.48v (J. Russel, 13 Oct. 1750). 10. Bucks RO, d/dr/8/1.