Family and Education

b. by 1536, 1st s. of Robert Brocas of Horton by Dorothy, da. of Richard Ruthall of Moulsoe, Bucks. m. by 1557, Anne, 1st da. and coh. of Sir Richard Pexall of Beaurepaire in Sherborne St. John, Hants, 1s. Pexall^† 3da. suc. fa. 6 Aug. 1557.1

Offices Held

Biography

Bernard Brocas inherited an estate in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire encumbered with debt and two years were to elapse before in 1559 he obtained livery. His marriage with his kinswoman Anne Pexall brought him lands in Hampshire which had belonged to the main branch of the family, and a connexion with the 1st Marquess of Winchester, but it did not resolve his financial problems and in course of time he parted with nearly all his patrimony, including in 1572 the borough of Buckingham. It was as lord of the borough that he had procured his return to the Parliament of 1558. All that is known about his part in the Commons is that on 22 Feb., two weeks before the prorogation of the first session, he was licensed by Speaker Cordell ‘to be absent for his affairs’. He died intestate on 20 Mar. 1589 and letters of administration were granted to his widow six days later. On her renunciation of the task a new grant was made in favour of their son Pexall in July 1590.2

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: M. K. Dale

Notes

• 1. Date of birth estimated from age at fa.’s i.p.m., C142/111/2. Vis. Hants (Harl. Soc. lxiv), 131; Berry, Hants Gen. 90-91.
• 2. M. Burrows, Fam. of Brocas of Beaurepaire, passim; VCH Hants, iv. 166, 177; VCH Beds. iii. 406; VCH Bucks. iii. 331, 354, 381, 481; iv. 301; Cat. Anct. Deeds, v. 311; CPR, 1553-4, pp. 212-13; 1558-60, pp. 99, 378; 1566-9, p. 412; CJ, i. 50; C142/228/90; PCC admons. act bk. 1581-95, ff. 92, 145v.