Francis Drake (22 April 1764 – January 1821) was a British diplomat who held positions at Genoa and Munich during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Drake was the son of Rev. Francis Drake, Vicar of Seaton and Beer. In 1790 Drake was appointed Secretary of Legation to the Court of Copenhagen,London Gazette, 30 November 1790 moving on to be Minister Resident at VeniceLondon Gazette, 15 January 1793 before becoming envoy to Genoa in 1793.
Drake took leave to return from Genoa to England to marry in 1795. In 1799 he was appointed Envoy Extraordinary to the Elector Palatine, and Minister to the Diet of Ratisbon.London Gazette, 8 June 1799; Drake of Colyton Papers. Francis Drake, diplomat: 1795-1804 He kept up correspondence with French informants, and in 1804 was politically embarrassed when some his letters were intercepted by the French government and circulated to foreign ministers in Paris, thereby revealing the plans of Charles Pichegru and Georges Cadoudal to mount an uprising on the left bank of the Rhine.Procédure contre Georges, Pichegru, etc. : Correspondance de M. Drake, Paris, 1804. Geheime Instruction und Briefe des englischen Gesandten in München (F. Drake) an die englischen Agenten in Paris, 1804
References
External links
Papers of Francis Drake of Yardbury and Wells at Somerset Record Office