Brocas surname.
Anne Cropley
>Subject: Re: Surname Brocas
>In article <>, slfo...@cyberhighway.net (slfo...@cyberhighway.net)
>writes: How common is this name in England today? Any
>idea of derivation--Norman maybe? or?
This request appeared some weeks ago. I just ran across this while
looking up something else. This is from a small book entitled
"The Brasses of Westminster Abbey" by JSN Wright, publ. 1969:
"Also worthy of note is the brass fillet inscription on the
tomb of Sir Bernard Brocas, who died in the year 1396. The
inscription reads:
Hic jacet Bernardus Brocas miles TT quondam camerarius
Anna Regine Anglie cujus anime propitietur Deus.
There are delightful engravings of animals and birds between
the words and the style of the inscription is close to that
on the Langham knights and de Bohun memorials. Sir Bernard
was one of the favourite knights of the Black Prince and he
fought with him at Crecy and Poietiers. After the peace
of Bretigny he and other members of his family were employed
in the settlement of Aquitaine, where Sir Bernard became
Constable. He was a friend of William of Wykeham, attending
his enthronement at Winchester and being appointed 'chief
surveyor and sovereign warden of our parks...throughout
our bishopric'. Immediately after the death of Edward III,
Brocas was made Captain of Calais but did not hold the post
for long. He was always busy on military and diplomatic
missions and he represented Hampshire in ten parliaments.
When Richard II married Anne of Bohemia, Brocas became the
queen's Chamberlain, as the inscription on his tomb tells
us. He married three times and there are brasses to other
members of his family at Sherborne St. John in Hampshire
(source Mill Stephenson: op.cit., p. 164). His tomb is in
St. Edmund's chapel, just by the Bourchier monument."
(The earliest monumental brass in England dates from the
year 1277; The Victoria and Albert Museum holds brass rubbings
of all these brass memorials, to my knowledge).
This is from "Westminster Abbey, An Official Guide" about
the Brocas tomb:
Sir Bernard Brocas, died 1396. The man commemorated here
is the father of the Sir Bernard Brocas who was executed
in the year 1400 for conspiring to reinstate Richard II. The
inscription now above the tomb is of the eighteenth century
and erroneous. The head rests on a helmet surmounted by
his crest, a crowned Moor's head. The story of his cutting
off the King of Morocco's head, mentioned by Addison, is a
legend of later days. This Sir Bernard Brocas, like his
son, held office at the Court of Richard II. He became
Hereditary Master of the Royal Buckhounds in right of his
wife, the daughter and heiress of Sir John de Roche. The
monument was painted all over about the middle of the
eighteenth centrury, and the recumbent giture is probably
a restoration. The brass inscription (as documented
above) is original and fine.
-------------
Another reference for Brocas:
"The Brocas family, notable Dublin artists" by P.J. Raftery,
University Review, II, no. 6, (1959), pp 17-25.
I don't know where you would find this, possibly by writing to
the university librarian for a copy, if you are interested.
Best wishes
Anne Cropley, Sydney, Australia.
======================================================
M Metford
The original message was missing. Funny, Brocas is also Lithuanian.
Lithuania had the largest empire in Europe for several centuries until
commonwealth with Poland. I have some information on the time line at my
site. Lithuanians in the middle ages were great travellers. Who knows?
Michel
Mr. Michel Platt-Metford in Montreal, Quebec
MMet...@aol.com (try first or: pl...@canelle.telecom.uqam.ca
Visit my page (I have one, too!):
http://users.aol.com/mmetford/Bienvenue.html