Robert Sackville, Edward Fenner, and Neville's command of game, 1606

Sourced facts and source control

Royal Berkshire Archives D/EN/O12/42 is a signed letter from Robert Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, to Sir Henry Neville, dated 1 August 1606. Buckhurst asks Neville to let the bearer have a buck for Edward Fenner. The public catalogue supplies the exact archival identity and recipient; the letter itself supplies the date and signature Ro: Buckhurst.

Public item record: Royal Berkshire Archives, D/EN/O12/42.

The item is short but unusually informative. It does not merely show that Neville knew Buckhurst. It says Neville had “commaund of game” in a park, could cause a buck to be delivered to a bearer, and could expect Buckhurst to return the favour for a friend in Sussex. It therefore documents a reciprocal network of game access operating across distinct territorial jurisdictions.

All three assigned manuscript photographs were inspected directly at original resolution. The body survives twice: once as the lower portion of a mixed capture and once as a clearer full leaf. The outer surface is faint. A separate Mathew Crypps timber document is visible above Buckhurst's leaf and has been excluded from the transcription.

Quoted source passages

Buckhurst identifies the beneficiary and Neville's authority:

M[aste]r Edward ffenner is desirous to have a Bucke

out of that parke where you have commaund of game.

He explains that Fenner will use the letter as the authority carried by the bearer:

My desire therefore unto you is, that as he shall send

this my l[ett]re unto you, you will let the bearer hereof

have a Bucke …

Two compressed lines following this request remain unresolved. They should not be reconstructed from syntax. The legible continuation makes the reciprocal arrangement explicit:

if yt shall please

you to afford me yt, I shall rest beholding unto you

for yt and be ready to be commaunded by you in

the like for anie frend of yo[u]rs in Sussex.

Buckhurst closes:

And

so I cease for this time to trouble you anie further,

And remayne towardes you as I will alwaies

yo[u]r faithfull & assured frend

Ro: Buckhurst

The date at the lower left is 1 of August 1606.

What “command of game” means here

The letter does not say merely that Neville owned deer or had permission to hunt. Buckhurst assumes that Neville can direct a keeper to hand over a buck to a bearer. The sequence is operational:

1. Edward Fenner desires the buck.
2. Buckhurst writes to Neville.
3. Fenner sends Buckhurst's letter to Neville.
4. A bearer presents it and receives the animal.
5. Buckhurst owes Neville a corresponding service for a friend in Sussex.

The letter itself therefore functioned as a portable warrant within a personal network. The animal was a material gift, but the scarce resource being exchanged was official access: Neville's command in one park and Buckhurst's ability to reciprocate in Sussex.

This distinction matters for the Neville biography. Lists of forest offices can seem ceremonial. Here an external correspondent treats Neville's authority as practical, current and transferable through a written request.

Which park?

The manuscript says only that parke. It does not name Sunninghill, Windsor, Easthampstead, Billingbear or another park. Any public statement that the buck came specifically from Sunninghill must therefore be marked as an inference.

Sunninghill is nevertheless the strongest initial retrieval candidate because Neville held Windsor Forest offices and is documented in the Berkshire papers as exercising forest and game authority. The correct research procedure is to search keeper accounts, buck warrants, fee-deer lists and park correspondence for August 1606, not to insert the likely place-name into the transcription.

The surrounding archive group supports the broader administrative setting. D/EN/O12/1-60 contains papers on Windsor Forest, Sonning and related offices, including other requests for bucks. The catalogue hierarchy makes the letter a part of Neville's working office papers rather than an isolated autograph collection.

Who was Edward Fenner?

The leading candidate is Sir Edward Fenner, the King's Bench judge. The public Dictionary of National Biography identifies that Fenner as son of John Fenner of Crawley, Sussex, a Middle Temple reader in 1576, serjeant in 1577 and King's Bench judge from 1590. He died in January 1612. See DNB, “Fenner, Edward”.

There is also a striking independent connection. The British Library Archives and Manuscripts catalogue describes Harley MS 1588 as reports of Elizabethan law cases and identifies folios 192r–194r as a “Case between Lord Buckhurst and Justice Fenner, 40 Elizabeth I.” See the British Library catalogue search record for Harley MS 1588.

That catalogue entry proves that Buckhurst and Justice Fenner were already joined in a recorded legal matter around 1597–98. Fenner's Sussex origin also fits Buckhurst's reciprocal reference to friends in Sussex.

The identification is not yet conclusive. The deer letter calls the man M[aste]r Edward ffenner, not Justice Fenner, and the Sussex family contained more than one Edward. The BL case and biography turn the judge from a casual same-name guess into a strong documentary candidate, but an address, docket or parallel letter is still needed for promotion.

The Sackville–Neville relationship

Robert Sackville was the son and heir of Thomas Sackville. In 1606 he used the courtesy title Lord Buckhurst; after his father's death in 1608 he succeeded as second earl of Dorset. That explains the manuscript signature Ro: Buckhurst and prevents confusion with Thomas Sackville, who also corresponded with Neville about Sonning.

The distinction opens a useful father–son documentary sequence:

• Robert Sackville asks Neville for a buck on behalf of Fenner in August 1606.
• Thomas Sackville, as lord treasurer, writes to Neville in July 1607 about the

blocked Great Seal lease of two Sonning tenements.

• The archive also preserves later Neville–Sackville business in the ordnance

papers.

These documents show more than one type of contact: game, Crown land, legal finance and military supply. They should be indexed under separate transactions while also being recognized as a sustained family channel.

Deer as reciprocal political material

The wording I shall rest beholding unto you makes the obligation explicit. Buckhurst does not offer money. He promises to be commaunded in the same kind of service for Neville's friend in Sussex. A buck could therefore move through a chain of obligations without becoming a commercial purchase.

This provides a concrete model for reading other game letters:

The model suggests a broader research project: create a prosopography of every buck, doe, stag and venison request in the Neville papers, recording sponsor, beneficiary, park, bearer, date, season, keeper, warrant language and reciprocal promise. That dataset could reveal which relationships were activated through Neville's forest office rather than merely coexisting with it.

New research routes

1. Inspect Harley MS 1588

The case between Buckhurst and Justice Fenner should be identified by cause, parties and legal issue. It may explain their relationship and establish whether continued contact in 1606 is plausible. The catalogue entry is a lead; the manuscript or a scholarly calendar is required before describing the case.

2. Search park and keeper warrants for August 1606

A fulfilled request may have generated a keeper's warrant, delivery note or fee-deer account. Search by Fenner, Buckhurst, Neville and bearer, and allow a window extending several weeks after 1 August.

3. Compare other D/EN/O12 buck requests

The same file includes later requests for bucks. Formulae such as “let the bearer have a buck” and “command of game” should be compared for institutional language, not treated as literary rarity. The comparison can distinguish a standard office warrant from unusually personal or reciprocal phrasing.

4. Search Sackville estate papers in Sussex

Buckhurst's offer in Sussex implies that he could draw on local parks or game officers there. Sackville household and estate papers may preserve counterpart requests from Neville or his friends.

5. Resolve the two compressed lines

The earlier local transcription supplied a continuous reading of the middle, but several alternatives were palaeographically unstable. New photography may recover instructions governing how the buck was to be served or delivered. Until then, the gap remains visible.

Limits

• The park is unnamed.
• Delivery is requested, not proved.
• The bearer is unnamed.
• Edward Fenner's identification with the judge is strong but not final.
• Courtesy language such as faithfull & assured frend should not alone be

converted into a claim of intimacy.

• The separate timber strip above the letter belongs to the adjacent Crypps

item and cannot supply context for Buckhurst's request.

Citations and public links

• Royal Berkshire Archives, D/EN/O12/42, Lord Buckhurst to Sir Henry Neville, August 1606.
• British Library Archives and Manuscripts, Harley MS 1588 catalogue context.
• Dictionary of National Biography, “Fenner, Edward”.
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, “Sackville, Robert, second earl of Dorset”.

Notes on access

The Royal Berkshire Archives catalogue identifies the item but does not display the manuscript photographs. Readers should order or consult D/EN/O12/42 for image verification. The British Library link is a public search result rather than a digital facsimile of Harley MS 1588. DNB is freely readable; ODNB may require subscription access.