Purse Bearer

{{Short description|Official in the UK Royal Household}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

File:Toilet Service at Weston Park, Staffs DSCF1061 10.jpg, used by Sir Orlando Bridgeman, Bt, who was Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, 1667–72]]

The Purse bearer is an official in the Royal Households of the United Kingdom, and based in the Ministry of Justice.

The use of a special purse or burse to hold the Great Seal of the Realm, the Lord Chancellor's symbol of Office, can be traced as far back as the end of the 13th Century. The purse is solemnly carried before the Lord Chancellor in procession on State occasions.{{cite book

| title = Chambers's Journal

| publisher = W. & R. Chambers

| year = 1907

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=RKU_AQAAMAAJ

| access-date = 1 May 2019

| page = 472

| quote = A most beautiful purse, which is at once the receptacle and the outward sign of the Great Seal, is solemnly carried by an official in Court dress, called the Purse-bearer, before the Lord Chancellor as, with slow steps and dignified mien, ...

}}

It no longer contains the Great Seal which now reposes at the Palace of Westminster;{{cite book

| title = ABA Journal

| date = January 1952

| publisher = American Bar Association

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=eDVMmDBNuxQC&pg=PA23

| access-date = 1 May 2019

| page = 23

}} it is however used by the Lord Chancellor to convey the signed copy of the King's Speech printed on vellum, from the King's Robing Room to the steps of the Throne in the Chamber of the House of Lords, at every State Opening of Parliament.{{cite book

| title = LIFE

| date = 19 November 1951

| publisher = Time Inc

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=hVQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA65

| access-date = 1 May 2019

| page = 65

}}

The Purse presently in use is made from crimson velvet and lavishly embellished with the Royal Arms and Emblems.