Hunt history query: Her Majesty's Staghounds

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Judgemental

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In the chapel of St Edmund in Westminster Abbey lies buried Sir Bernard Brocas, third son of Sir John Brocas who had command of the archers at the siege of Calais in 1347, and a descendant from Sir Bernard Brocas younger son of the Earl of Foix in France, who came to England with William I and on account of his services had a grant of lands in Hampshire to the then value of £400 per year, near Basingstoke and built a mansion called Beaurepaire. Sir Bernard served in the French wars, and being afterwards sent to fight the Moors and was allowed to bear for his crest a Moor's head crowned with an old Eastern crown. His elder brother Sir John being killed in an engagement with the French near Southampton and his second brother Oliver (who was Grand Seneschal of Guyenne and Aquitaine and Governor of Bourdeaux) dying without issue Sir Bernard succeeded to the inheritance both in England and France and having married Mary, daughter and heiress of Sir John de Roches, had a large estate with her, and the hereditary post of master of the Buck-hounds, which was confirmed to him by Edward III and held by the family till sold in James the First's reign. He was chamberlain to Richard II's queen; and his son, a knight of the same Christian name was carver to the king.
 
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Beagle

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Historically there were two organisations that might be described as the Royal Buckhounds.

There was first of all the Hereditary Mastership of the Buckhounds, which appears to have been a serjeanty associated with the Manor of Little Weldon in Weldon parish near Oundle in Northants. It was held in the Brocas family & their forbears from the time of the earliest records (temp. Henry I) until 1633, when the office was sold by Thomas Brocas to the Watson family, Lords Rockingham, (later Earls of Rockingham). Whether the maintenance of that pack was continuous is not entirely clear.

The Privy Buckhounds were created in about 1536 to provide for a hunting pack overseen by a Royal appointee rather than a hereditary officer.

In 1706 the pack of the Hereditary Master was merged with that of the Privy Master and the office of Hereditary Master ceased. Thereafter the sole Master was an officer in the Master of the Horse's department of the Royal Household who was also His or Her Majesty's Representative at Ascot.

The pack of Royal Buckhounds continued to be maintained until 1897 when a select committee was set up to consider the future provision to be made for the crown, i.e. the Civil List. As a result, on the recommendation of that committee, the Mastership of the Buckhounds and the Hunt itself were both formally abolished by the Civil List Act 1901.

You can read more about the Royal Buckhounds here:-

http://archive.org/stream/historyofroyalbu00hore#page/n7/mode/2up
 
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Judgemental

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Beagle said:
The pack of Royal Buckhounds continued to be maintained until 1897 when a select committee was set up to consider the future provision to be made for the crown, i.e. the Civil List. As a result, on the recommendation of that committee, the Mastership of the Buckhounds and the Hunt itself were both formally abolished by the Civil List Act 1901. Quote]

Who needed the Hunting Act 2004, when a Select Committee, simply said, no more money under the Civil List for The Royal Buckhounds.

What a shame, all hunts should be maintained with at least a grant from the government.

Has a hunt ever applied for National Lottery funding, now that would be interesting?
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