DRURY, SIR WILLIAM 2 7-15 79 ), English statesman and soldier, was a son of Sir Robert Drury of Hedgerley, Bucks., and grandson of another Sir Robert Drury (d. 1536), who was speaker of the House of Commons in 1495. He was born at Hawstead, Suffolk, on Oct. 2, 1527, and was educated at Gon ville hall, Cambridge. In he was sent to Edinburgh to re port on the condition of Scottish politics, and five years later he became marshal and deputy-governor of Berwick. He was frequently sent on errands to Scotland, and conducted raids over the border; and he commanded the force which compelled Edin burgh castle to surrender in May 1573. In 1576 he was sent to Ireland as president of Munster, and in 1578 he became lord justice to the Irish council, taking the chief control of affairs of ter the departure of Sir Henry Sidney. Drury's letters to Lord Burghley and others are invaluable for the story of the relations between England and Scotland at this time.