Walter Raleigh impossible for Raleigh to have discovered the potato in the places he visited. Due to Raleigh's role in the popularisation of smoking, John Lennon humorously referred to him as "such a stupid get" in the song "I'm So Tired" on the "White Album" "The Beatles" (1968). Various colourful stories are told about him, such as laying his cloak over a puddle for the Queen, but they are probably apocryphal. Walter Raleigh Sir Walter Raleigh (; (or 1554)29 October 1618), also spelled Ralegh, was an English landed gentleman, writer, poet, soldier, politician, courtier, spy and explorer. He was cousin to Sir
Walter Raleigh (priest) trace remains. Between 1620 and 1623 Raleigh married Maria, daughter of Sir Ralph Gibbs. During the civil war she took refuge at Downton, where she was joined by her husband. Walter Raleigh (priest) Walter Raleigh or Ralegh (1586 – 10 October 1646) was an English divine, Dean of Wells from 1641. He died after a violent attack, a prisoner in his own deanery. Raleigh was the second son of Sir Walter Raleigh's elder brother, Sir Carew Raleigh, of Downton, Wiltshire. His mother was Dorothy, widow of Sir John Thynne, of Longleat, Wiltshire, and daughter of Sir William Wroughton, of Broadheighton,