James I gave Walter Raleigh's Sherborne estate to his favourite over a missing phrase in a trust deed, and Raleigh's widow kept his embalmed head for 29 years

Elizabeth I gave Walter Raleigh the lease of Sherborne in Dorset in 1592 and the freehold in 1599. Raleigh put the estate in trust so it would pass to his eldest son, Wat. In 1603 Raleigh was convicted of treason and the Crown seized his lands. A phrase had been left out of the trust deed. In late 1608 James I granted Sherborne, worth about £1,000 a year in rents, to his favourite Robert Carr. In 1609 the court ruled for the Crown. Bess Raleigh received £8,000 for her life interest, plus a pension of £400 a year for her life and her son Carew's. Raleigh was let out of the Tower to lead an expedition to Guiana. Wat, about 24, was killed fighting the Spanish at San Thomé, as Raleigh reported in a letter of 22 March 1618. Raleigh was beheaded on 29 October 1618 under the 1603 sentence^†. Bess had the head embalmed and kept it in a red bag until she died in 1647. Carew buried it after his sons and granddaughter died in 1660. In 1703 a head with no body was dug up when the Raleigh grave at West Horsley was opened. In 2014 a red velvet bag was found in the West Horsley Place attic. A 1628 Bill of Restitution restored the family "in blood," and Carew inherited. Sherborne never came back to the Raleighs: Carr lost favour, and in 1617 the estate was sold to Sir John Digby. The Digby family still lives there in 2026^†.