From this we learn that in 1548 Edmund was indicted for two offences of robbery – stealing a horse and beating Roger Langisforde and rifling his purse on the highway, petty and sordid sixteenth-century crimes. He was described as being ‘late of Tavistock’ before the end of the year, which suggests that although he was pardoned he had already bolted.

John Sugden, Sir Francis Drake, loc. 40