Inherited the Landed Estates from his Uncle [Richard 1]251 Marr ‘Richard DUK’253 In 1584. Sir Walter Raleigh writes to Richard Duke, of Otterton, in Devonshire on the purchase of Hayes Barton in East Budleigh:
Mr. Duke,
I wrote to Mr. Prideaux to move yow touchinge the purchase of a farme sometime in my Fathers possession. I will most willingly give whatsoever in your conscience you shall deeme it worth; and if at any time you shall have occasion to use me, yow shall fynd me a thankefull frind to yow and yours.
I am resolved, if I cannot entreat yow, to build at Colliton. But for the naturall disposition I have to that place, being borne in that house, I had rather seate my sealf there then any where els. So I take my leve, readie to countervaile all your courtesies to the uttermost of my power. From the Court, the xxvi of July, 1584.
Your very willing frind in all I shalbe able,
W. Ralegh
From: The Life of Sir Walter Ralegh. Based on contemporary documents preserved in the Rolls House, The Privy Council Office, Hatfield House, The British Museum, and other manuscript repositories, British and foreign. Together with his letters; now first collected, by Edward Edwards. Vol. II. - Letter, (London: Macmillan and Co., 1868), 26. As transcribed from the Original by John Aubrey. MS. Aubrey iv. f.47 (Bodleian Library, Oxford). The original letter was, for a time, kept at Hayes, and was shown to visitors.254
“Richard Duke refused to sell Hayes Barton to Sir Walter, which was very mean of him, apparently he resented the attention that Sir Walter was getting at Court and the fact that the Raleigh family was "old money" who owned lands all over the area: Colaton Raleigh, Withycombe Raleigh, Exeter and some over in East Devon which I cannot remember at the moment. Apparently Sir Walter was miffed and took himself off to Sherborn in Dorset and established a household there, Walter, his father, was by this time living back in Exeter and the house was occupied by tenant farmers as it still is today.”255
Will dated 5 June 160610,252