Sir Christopher Harris
(1553-1625)

Member of Parliament (1584) and Knight Bachelor (from 1607)

Died aged c. 72

Sir Christopher Harris (c. 1553 – 1625) of Radford in the parish of Plymstock in Devon, was a Member of Parliament for Plymouth in Devon in 1584. He was knighted in 1607. He should not be confused with his great-nephew and heir apparent Christopher Harris (d.1623) of Lanrest in the parish of Liskeard in Cornwall, a Member of Parliament for West Looe in Cornwall (1621). He was a close friend of Admiral Sir Frances Drake, who on one occasion lodged part of his captured treasure at Radford. In partnership with John Hele (died 1608) of Wembury in Devon, serjeant-at-law and MP, Harris acquired the estate of Buckland Abbey in Devon as a seat for Drake. He owned The Armada Service, a set of 31 silver dishes now in the British Museum. His contemporary the Cornwall historian Richard Carew (d.1620) wrote that he: "admitteth no partner in the sweetly tempered mixture of bounty and thrift, gravity and pleasantness, kindness and stoutness, which grace all his actions".

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Commemorated on 1 plaque

Near this site stood Radford, for many generations the home of the Radfords and then of the Harris family, to whom it passed in Edward IV’s reign (1461-83) Sir Christopher Harris, at one time MP for Plymouth, was a personal friend, among others, of Drake, Raleigh, Howard and Hawkins. At Radford he is said to have stored some of the gold and silver in blocks brought back by Sir Francis Drake from the South Seas. As Vice-Admiral of Devon, Harris held Sir Walter Raleigh a prisoner here on his return to Plymouth, in 1618, from his disastrous search for gold in Guiana. The House, which dated mainly from the late XVI century, with XVIII century alterations, was demolished in 1937.

, Plymouth, United Kingdom where they lived