William Capel (sportsman)

The Honourable & Reverend William Robert Capel (1775–1854), sportsman, Vicar of Watford, Hertfordshire, Rector of Raine, Essex, and a chaplain-in-ordinary to Queen Victoria.

In 1829 it appeared to the new Bishop of London, of his own knowledge, that the ecclesiastical duties of the vicarage and parish church of Watford were inadequately performed, by reason of the vicar's negligence.

Asked, before the event, by a close friend how he had managed to have his invitation accepted Capel's reply was said to have been: "How, why I gave him a good licking and that made him civil.

In 1808 a public meeting of Noblemen Gentlemen and Farmers at Stanmore, chaired by the Earl of Essex, discussed the activities of the Berkeley hounds in the vicinity of the metropolis.

In 1809 the Old Berkeley hunted a fox into the Essex estate and Capel with a follower jumped locked gates smashing the top rail of a fence.

Evidence was given that Holingshead, his Lordship's keeper, had been asked not to destroy foxes and told he would be sent a barrel of ale to drink success to the Berkeley Hunt.

Lord Ellenborough decided the only question on the record was whether the defendants pursued the game with the sole view of extirpating noxious animals or with the desires of sportsmen.