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| Berkeley of Berkeley Castle |
The story of the Berkeleys' lineage over nearly a thousand years can be told because of the remarkable legacy of record-keeping that is enshrined in the Berkeley Castle Archives, and because in the early 17th century their steward, John Smyth, used these records to compile an exceptional - arguably a unique - biographical record, published in the 19th century as The Lives of the Berkeleys. Given the survival of these sources, I have departed from my usual practice and recorded their genealogy from the 11th century onwards.
Berkeley of Berkeley Castle, Barons Berkeley, Earls of Berkeley and Barons Fitzhardinge of Bristol
de Berkeley, Roger (fl. 1091). Parentage unknown. A knight in the service of William the Conqueror, who came to England with William's invading army in 1066 and was rewarded by the grant of an extensive lordship based on Berkeley Castle. At the time of Domesday Book he held the honour of Berkeley in fee farm. At the end of his life he entered St Peter's Abbey, Gloucester, as a monk. He married Rissa, and had issue:
(1) Roger de Berkeley (d. 1131) (q.v.);(2) Eustace de Berkeley (fl. 1093); married and had issue a son (William de Berkeley), who was custos of the honour of Berkeley in 1131, founded Kingswood Abbey (Glos) in 1139, and was living in 1148;(3) A daughter, who became a nun at Shaftesbury Abbey (Dorset) by 1091.
He was granted an extensive lordship based on Berkeley Castle after the conquest, which included lands at Filton, Horfield and Almondsbury north of Bristol, as well as Ashleworth, Dursley, Beverstone and Codrington (Glos) and property in Glamorganshire and Monmouthshire.
He was living in 1091, but his date of death is unknown. His wife's date of death is unknown.
de Berkeley, Roger (d. 1131). Elder son of Roger de Berkeley (fl. 1091) and his wife Rissa. He founded Leonard Stanley Priory in about 1130. He married [name unknown] and had issue:
(1) Roger de Berkeley (d. c.1170).
He inherited the honour of Berkeley from his father after 1091. He took Nympsfield from Gloucester Abbey in 1094.
He died in 1131. His wife's date of death is unknown.
de Berkeley, Roger (d. c.1170). Only known son of Roger de Berkeley (d. 1131) and his wife. He may have been a minor when his father died, but was in control of the family estates when he confirmed a grant to Leonard Stanley Priory c.1144 and took over his cousin's rights as the founder of Kingswood Abbey in 1148. He was 'subjected to outrage' by Walter of Hereford, 1146. During the Anarchy, he refused to pay the fee-farm for his lands held from the Crown to either of the contending claimants to the throne, and the lands were seized by the future King Henry II, c.1152, although a smaller honour, based on Dursley (Glos) was subsequently regranted to him in 1154. He made a return of knight's fees to the Exchequer in 1166. He married and had issue:
(1) Roger de Berkeley (d. by 1191); married, c.1154, Elena, daughter of Robert Fitz Harding (c.1095-1171) and had issue five sons and one daughter; died before the end of 1191;(2) Philip de Berkeley (fl. 1190);(3) Oliver de Berkeley (fl. 1199);(4) Alice de Berkeley; married, c.1154, Maurice Fitz Harding Fitz Robert (alias de Berkeley) [for whom see below](5) Letitia de Berkeley; married Richard de Clifford of Frampton-on-Severn (Glos).
He inherited the honour of Berkeley from his father in 1131, but his lands were seized by the Crown c.1152. A portion of the estate (the honour of Dursley) was subsequently restored to him in 1154.
He died about 1170. His wife's date of death is unknown.
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Fitz Harding, Robert (c.1095-1171). Son of Harding (c.1048-c.1125), sheriff of Bristol and his wife Livida (d. 1101), and grandson of Eadnoth the Staller (d. 1068), an Anglo-Saxon thegn who was steward to King Edward the Confessor and King Harold II, born about 1095. A wealthy Bristol merchant, who founded St Augustine's Abbey, Bristol, in 1141, and helped to finance the future King Henry II (1133-89) during the Anarchy, when King Stephen and the Empress Maud (Henry's mother) were rival claimants to the English throne. Later, he is said to have acted as an intermediary between King Henry II, and Dermot MacMurrough, the exiled King of Leinster, who sought Norman aid to recapture his Irish kingdom. At the end of his life he entered St Augustine's Abbey as a canon. His wife founded a priory of nuns on St Michael's Hill, Bristol, which she eventually entered, and where she became prioress. He married, c.1119, Eve (d. 1170), whose parentage is unknown, and had issue:
(1) Maurice Fitz Robert Fitz Harding, alias de Berkeley (c.1120-90) (q.v.);(2) Elena Fitz Robert Fitz Harding; married, 1153/4, as a consequence of a double marriage contract brokered by her father and the future King Henry II, Roger de Berkeley (d. c.1191) of Dursley (Glos), son and heir of Roger de Berkeley (d. c.1170), feudal lord of Berkeley, which he forfeited c.1152 for temporising between King Stephen and the Empress Maud, and had issue five sons, from whom descended the Berkeleys of Dursley, and one daughter;(3) Henry Fitz Harding (d. 1188); died August 1188;(4) Robert Fitz Harding alias de Weare (d. c.1195); married 1st, Hawise (d. after 1188), daughter of Robert de Gournay of Barrow (Som.), and 2nd, Avice de Gaunt (d. 1191?), and had issue two sons and one daughter; died c.1195;(5) Thomas Fitz Harding;(6) Nicholas Fitz Harding (d. 1189);(7) Alice Fitz Harding (d. 1190); married Ralph Bluett, and had issue one son; died 1190;(8) Margaret Fitz Harding; married Otto Fitz William.
He lived in Bristol, where he built a large house in Broad St., on the River Frome. He bought extensive lands south and west of the city from Robert Fitzroy (c.1090-1147), 1st Earl of Gloucester, including Redcliffe, Bedminster, Leigh, Portbury and Billeswick, and he also acquired property over a wider area with which he endowed St Augustine's Abbey. After the accession of King Henry II in 1154, he was rewarded for his earlier support with the grant of a feudal barony based on Berkeley Castle, and including lands at Filton, Horfield and Almondsbury north of Bristol, as well as Ashleworth (Glos) and property in Glamorganshire and Monmouthshire. Some of these lands he added to the endowment of St. Augustine's Abbey. He built the shell keep at Berkeley Castle in 1153-56 and at least began the construction of the curtain walls there c.1160.
He died early in 1171 and was buried with his wife. His wife died 12 March 1170, and was buried in St. Augustine's Abbey.
Fitz Robert Fitz Harding alias de Berkeley, Maurice (c.1120-90). Eldest son of Robert Fitz Harding (c.1095-1171) and his wife Eve, born about 1120. An itinerant justice in Gloucestershire, 1190. He married, 1153/4, at Bristol, as a consequence of a double marriage contract brokered by his father and the future King Henry II, Alice, eldest daughter of Roger de Berkeley, the former feudal lord of Berkeley, and had issue:
(1) Sir Robert de Berkeley (c.1165-1220) (q.v.);(2) Thomas de Berkeley (c.1170-1243) (q.v.);(3) Maurice de Berkeley; married and had issue one son;(4) Sir William de Berkeley, of Gossington in Slimbridge (Glos);(5) Henry de Berkeley; accompanied King William the Lion to Scotland after he was ransomed from King Henry II and was given lands there;(6) Richard de Berkeley; accompanied King William the Lion to Scotland after he was ransomed from King Henry II and was given lands there;(7) Maud Berkeley; married Elias Gifford, and had issue.
He had confirmations of the grant of the lordship of Berkeley from King Henry II in 1155 and from Queen Eleanor (as regent of Richard II) in 1189, and enlarged Berkeley Castle.
He died 16 June 1190 and was buried at Brentford (Middx). His widow died 'in extreme old age' but her date of death is unknown.
de Berkeley, Sir Robert (c.1165-1220). Eldest son of Maurice Fitz Robert Fitz Harding alias de Berkeley (c.1120-90) and his wife Alice, eldest daughter of Roger de Berkeley, born c.1165. Educated at the court of King Henry II and knighted there. He became an itinerant justice in 1208. He sided with the rebellious barons against King John and was pardoned in 1214, but again rebelled and was excommunicated, though restored in 1216-17 to all his lands except Berkeley Castle, later restored to his brother. He married 1st, by 11 June 1200, Julian (d. 1217), daughter of Robert de Pont de l'Arche and niece of William Marshal, 4th Earl of Pembroke, and 2nd, 1218, Lucy, possibly the daughter of Sir Thomas Malesmains, but had no issue.
He inherited the honour of Berkeley from his father in 1190.
He died 13 May 1220 and was buried in a monk's robe at St Augustine's Abbey, Bristol. His first wife died 15 November 1217 and was buried at St Augustine's Abbey, Bristol. His widow married 2nd, Hugh de Gurnay, died 18 January 1234, and was buried at St Augustine's Abbey.
de Berkeley, Thomas (c.1170-1243). Second son of Maurice Fitz Robert Fitz Harding alias de Berkeley (c.1120-90) and his wife Alice, eldest daughter of Roger de Berkeley, born c.1170. He married, c.1217, Joan (d. 1277), daughter of Sir Ralph de Somery of Dudley (Worcs) and Campden (Glos), who was a niece of William Marshal, 4th Earl of Pembroke, and had issue at least:
(1) Sir Maurice de Berkeley (1218-81) (q.v.);(2) Sir Thomas de Berkeley (d. c.1248); gave extensive lands in his lifetime and at his death to Kingswood Abbey (Glos); died unmarried about 1248, and was buried at Kingswood Abbey;(3) Robert de Berkeley (fl. 1248); contested his brother's gifts to Kingswood Abbey unsuccessfully after his death;(4) Sir Henry de Berkeley, of Beoley (Worcs); probably died unmarried and without issue;(5) Sir William de Berkeley (fl. 1265), of Bradley Court, Wotton-under-Edge and Uley; 'a famous knight' who is said to have landed at Minehead (Som.) in 1265 with a company of Welshmen intent on pillaging Somerset, but was routed by the keeper of Dunster Castle and afterwards appeared before the king at the Tower of London and undertook to join the Knights Templar or Knights Hospitaller and to abjure the realm, presumably in recompense for his offence; he married Maude, daughter of Nigel de Kingscote and had issue at least one son;(6) Sir Richard de Berkeley (fl. 1269); possessed lands in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire; perhaps unmarried; living in 1269;(7) Margaret de Berkeley (fl. 1287); married 1st, Sir John FitzMatthew (d. 1261) and had issue two sons; married 2nd, c.1265, Sir Anselm Basset (c.1226-80), and had further issue one son and three daughters; living in 1287;(8) Isabel de Berkeley; lived with her brother and nephew, successive lords of Berkeley, and died unmarried.
He inherited the Berkeley estates from his elder brother in 1220, but did not gain possession of Berkeley Castle until 1223. He built a new manor house at Wotton-under-Edge, which became the principal residence of his widow after her death.
He died 29 November 1243 and was buried at St Augustine's Abbey, Bristol. His widow died 22 May 1277 and was buried at St Augustine's Abbey, Bristol.
de Berkeley, Sir Maurice (1218-81), kt. Eldest son of Thomas de Berkeley (c.1170-1243) and his wife Joan, daughter of Sir Ralph de Somery of Dudley (Worcs), born 1218. Knighted in his father's lifetime, before 1242, and participated in the royal wars against France and Wales. In 1261 he was retained to be of the king's household, with a fee of 40 marks a year and the usual robes. After the Battle of Lewes in 1264 he suffered for his loyalty to the king by the loss of his lands, but the king, although controlled by the Montfortian party, continued to look after his niece and restored her jointure manor of Wenden (Essex) to her and also granted her two additional manors in Kent for her maintenance. In 1265, after the Battle of Evesham , he was restored to his estates. Royal favour continued under King Edward I. He married, by 12 July 1247 and perhaps by 1240, Isabel (d. c.1277), daughter of Richard FitzRoy, the illegitimate son of King John, and had issue including:
(1) Maurice de Berkeley (d. 1279); killed in a tournament at Kenilworth in his father's lifetime, 1279;(2) Thomas de Berkeley (1245-1321), 1st Baron Berkeley (q.v.);(3) Robert de Berkeley, of Arlingham (Glos); married 1st, Jone [surname unknown] and had issue three sons and one daughter; married 2nd, [name unknown];(4) Simon de Berkeley; died unmarried;(5) Maud de Berkeley; purchased lands and North Nibley (Glos); died unmarried.
He inherited the Berkeley estates from his father in 1243. The king granted his wife two manors in Kent in 1264 'out of compassion for her poverty'.
He died 4 April 1281 and was buried at St Augustine's Abbey, Bristol. His wife died 7 July 1276 or 1277 and was buried at St Augustine's Abbey, Bristol.
de Berkeley, Thomas (1245-1321), 1st Baron Berkeley. Second, but eldest surviving, son of Sir Maurice de Berkeley (1218-81), kt., and his wife Isabel, daughter of Richard FitzRoy, born 1245. As a child he was brought up at Bedminster (Som.) and educated by the Abbot of St Augustine's and the Master of St Katherine's Hospital, Bristol. Before coming of age he fought at the Battle of Evesham, 1265, and, probably in 1268 he took a crusading vow (although he did not actually participate in the crusade of 1270). For the next fifty years he was employed almost every year as a knight in the king's service, fighting against the Scots, the Welsh, or the French. He was appointed one of the commissioners to examine the claims to the throne of Scotland in 1292 (between whom Edward I was invited to arbitrate), and was created a peer by writ of summons to Parliament, 24 June 1295. Vice-Constable of England, 1297. He continued to be actively involved in fighting until well into his sixties, and was present at the Battle of Falkirk, 1298, the Siege of Caerlaverock, July 1300, and the Battle of Bannockburn, 1314, where he was taken prisoner, and had to pay a large ransom for his release. He was also employed as an ambassador to France, 1296, and to Pope Clement V, 1307. After the death of King Edward I in 1307, however, his eldest son increasingly took over a leading role. He married, 1267, Joan (d. 1310), daughter of William de Ferrers, 7th Earl of Derby, and had issue:
(1) Maurice de Berkeley (1271-1326), 2nd Baron Berkeley (q.v.);(2) Sir Thomas de Berkeley (c. 1273-c.1335), born about 1273; in the service of King Edward I with his father; knighted after the siege of Berwick, 1296; married, c.1317, [forename unknown], daughter and heiress of Sir John Hamelin of Wymondham (Leics), and had issue (from whom descended the Berkeleys of Wymondham (Leics); living in 1330 but perhaps died not long afterwards;(3) John de Berkeley (d. 1317); a knight in the service of King Edward I; married, c.1303, Hawise [surname unknown]; died without issue, 1317, and was buried at Wotton-under-Edge (Glos);(4) Rt. Rev. James de Berkeley (d. 1327); educated by the abbot of Kingswood Abbey (Glos) and at Oxford University (DD); rector of Chew Magna (Som.) and Slimbridge (Glos); later a canon of Hereford Cathedral; Archdeacon of Huntingdon, canon of Exeter and Chichester, 1320; Bishop of Exeter, 9 January 1327; died 24 June 1327, and was buried in Exeter Cathedral, where he is commemorated by a monument;(5) Isabel de Berkeley (d. c.1327); died unmarried about 1327;(6) Margaret de Berkeley (d. 1320?); married 1st, Thomas Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald (d. 1298) and had issue three sons and one daughter; married 2nd, Reynald Russell; said to have died in 1320.
He inherited the honour of Berkeley from his father in 1281, and pursued a policy of acquiring additional lands through marriages and purchases. He made over about half his estate to his eldest son in 1301.
He died at Berkeley, 23 July 1321. His wife died 19 March 1309/10 and was buried at St Augustine's Abbey, Bristol.
de Berkeley, Maurice (1271-1326), 2nd Baron Berkeley. Eldest son of Thomas de Berkeley (1245-1321), 1st Baron Berkeley, and his wife Joan de Ferrers, daughter of 7th Earl of Derby, probably born April 1271. He fought in Edward I's war against the Scots, 1295-1318, and was present at the Siege of Caerlaverock, 1300. He was summoned to Parliament in his father's lifetime by a series of writs addressed to him as 'Maurice de Berkeley', which by later usage would have created a second barony of Berkeley, but there is no evidence that it was so regarded at the time, and there is no evidence that he actually took his seat in Parliament. He was Warden of Gloucester in 1312, Captain of Berwick(-on-Tweed) in 1315, a Commissioner to Scotland in 1316, and was appointed Chief Justiciar of South Wales, 1316 and Seneschal of Aquitaine, 1320. He joined the Earl of Lancaster's rebellion against Edward II and his favourites, the Despencers, in 1321, but was captured and imprisoned in Wallingford Castle (Berks) for the rest of his life. He married 1st, 1289, Eva (d. 1314), daughter of Eudo La Zouche and sister of William La Zouche (d. 1336), 1st Baron Zouche, and 2nd, c.1316, Isabel (1263-1333), daughter of Gilbert de Clare, 6th Earl of Gloucester and 6th Earl of Hertford, and had issue:
(1.1) Thomas de Berkeley (c.1296-1361), 3rd Baron Berkeley (q.v.):(1.2) Sir Maurice de Berkeley (d. c.1348), a knight in the service of his father and later of King Edward III; Constable of the Tower of London, 1329-30 and of Gloucester, 1330; married Margaret, daughter of Sir Maurice Berkeley of Uley (Glos) and had issue, from whom descended the Berkeleys of Pylle, the Berkeleys of Stoke Gifford (who will form the subject of a future post), and the Barons Botetourt; died at Calais (France), c.1348;(1.3) John de Berkeley; Constable of Bristol Castle; married and had issue (from whom descended the Berkeleys of Shropshire);(1.4) Rev. Eudo de Berkeley (c.1306-29); educated at Oxford University; a prebendary of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin; died at Bradley manor, Wotton-under-Edge (Glos), 1329, and was buried at Kingswood Abbey (Glos);(1.5) Rev. Peter de Berkeley (b. c.1307); educated at Oxford University; incumbent of Iwerne Minster (Dorset) and later a prebendary of Salisbury and Chichester Cathedrals; died 1341 and was buried at Horton (Dorset);(1.6) Isabel de Berkeley (d. 1362); married 1st, June 1328, Robert de Clifford (1305-44), 3rd Baron Clifford, and had issue three sons; married 2nd, about 9 June 1345, Thomas Musgrave (fl. 1345-82), 1st Baron Musgrave; died at Hartley Castle (Westmld), 25 July 1362;(1.7) Millicent de Berkeley, probably of this generation; married, no doubt as a child, 1313, Sir John Maltravers (c.1290-1364), 1st Baron Maltravers (who m2, Agnes (fl. 1374), daughter of Sir William Bereford and widow of Sir John de Argentine (d. 1318) and Sir John de Nerford (d. 1329)), who is said to have been one of the gaolers of King Edward II who was responsible for his murder at Berkeley Castle in 1327, and had issue at least one son.
He was given part of the Berkeley estate by his father in 1301 and inherited the rest in 1321.
He died a prisoner in Wallingford Castle (Berks), 31 May 1326, and was buried first there and later reinterred at St Augustine's Abbey, Bristol. His first wife died 5 December 1314 and was buried at Portbury (Som.). His widow died without issue in 1333.
de Berkeley, Thomas (c.1296-1361), 3rd Baron Berkeley. Eldest son of Maurice de Berkeley (1271-1326), 2nd Baron Berkeley, and his first wife, Eva, daughter of Eudo La Zouche and sister of William La Zouche (d. 1336), 1st Baron Zouche, born about 1296. He was knighted before 1322 and joined with his father in the Earl of Lancaster's rebellion against Edward II and his favourites, being imprisoned until 16 October 1326. His wife was arrested and in 1324, she was sent to Shouldham Priory (Sussex). Her marriage to Berkeley was confirmed, and her offspring declared legitimate, by Pope John XXII in 1329. Queen Isabella made him one of the joint custodians of King Edward II, 4 April 1327, and he stood trial in 1330/1 before a jury of 12 knights as one of those accused of the king's murder at Berkeley Castle, but was acquitted, claiming that he had been required to relinquish control of Berkeley Castle to his brother-in-law, Sir John Maltravers and Sir Thomas Gournay, and had been staying at his manor of Bradley in Wotton-under-Edge when the king was killed. Despite his acquittal, he spent the following decade in political eclipse, before being restored to royal favour in the 1340s. He was subsequently Chief Warden of Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire; Marshal of the English army in France, 1342; Captain of the Scottish marches and Chief Justice in Eyre south of the Trent, 1345-48. He married 1st, in May 1319 or about 25 July 1320, Margaret (1304-37), daughter of Roger Mortimer (1287-1330), 1st Earl of March; and 2nd, 30 May 1347, Katherine (d. 1385), daughter and heir of Sir John Clevedon of Charfield (Glos) and widow of Sir Peter Veel of Tortworth (Glos), and had issue*:
(1.1) Maurice de Berkeley (1330-68), 4th Baron Berkeley (q.v.);(1.2) Roger de Berkeley (d. 1336); died without issue;(1.3) Thomas de Berkeley (d. 1349); died without issue;(1.4) Joan de Berkeley (d. 1369); married 1st, 17 January 1337 at Acton Burnell (Shrops.), Thomas de Haudlo, and 2nd, Sir Reginald de Cobham KG (c.1295-1361), 1st Baron Cobham of Starborough Castle (Surrey), and had issue; died 2 October 1369;(2.1) Thomas de Berkeley (1348-49); born 7 June 1348; died in infancy, 1349;(2.2) Maurice de Berkeley (b. 1349); born 27 May 1349 and baptised the same day; living in 1351 but died young;(2.3) Edmund de Berkeley (b. 1350); born 10 May and baptised 12 May 1350; living in 1352 but died young;(2.4) Sir John de Berkeley (1352-1428), born 21 January and baptised 23 January 1351/2; ancestor of the Berkeleys of Beverstone (Glos); knighted by 1383; MP for Gloucestershire, 1388, 1397, Somerset, 1390, 1394, Wiltshire, 1402 and Hampshire, 1406; nine times sheriff of Glos, Som, Dorset, Hants, Wilts; married 1st, by 1368, Elizabeth (d. 1377), daughter of Sir Robert Ashton of Pitney (Som); 2nd, c.1377, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Betteshorne, kt. of Bisterne (Hants), and had issue fourteen sons and two daughters; married 3rd, by 1427, Margaret (d. 1444), widow of Sir Thomas Brewes and Sir William Burcester; died 1428.
He inherited the honour of Berkeley from his father in 1327.
He died 27 October 1361, and was buried at Berkeley. His first wife died 5 May 1337, and was buried at St Augustine's Abbey, Bristol. His widow went on a year's pilgrimage in 1363 and later founded the school which bears her name at Wotton-under-Edge; she died 12 March 1385, being buried with her husband at Berkeley.
* Some sources give him an additional son by his first marriage, called Alphonse, who survived Thomas de Berkeley but died without issue; he was probably a nephew.
de Berkeley, Maurice (1330-68), 4th Baron Berkeley. Eldest son of Thomas de Berkeley (c.1296-1361), 3rd Baron Berkeley, and his first wife Margaret, daughter of Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, born 1330. He distinguished himself in the French wars as a commander in Gascony and was severely wounded and captured at the battle of Poitiers, 1356; his ransom cost £1,080. He succeeded his father as 4th Baron Berkeley, 27 October 1361, and sat in the Parliaments of 1362-68. He was married as a child, August 1338, to Elizabeth (d. 1389), daughter of Hugh Despenser (1308-49), 1st Baron Despenser, and had issue:
(1) Thomas de Berkeley (1353-1417), 5th Baron Berkeley (q.v.);(2) Sir James de Berkeley (d. 1405) (q.v.);(3) John de Berkeley; went with his brother to fight in France, c.1382, and is thought to have died there, unmarried and without issue;(4) Maurice de Berkeley; married Joan, daughter of William Hereward, and had issue one son;(5) Katherine Berkeley; a nun at Wherwell Abbey (Hants); died without issue;(6) Agnes Berkeley; died unmarried and without issue;(7) Elizabeth Berkeley; died unmarried and without issue.
He inherited the honour of Berkeley from his father in 1361.
He died, reputedly of the wounds he received at the battle of Poitiers twelve years earlier, 8 June 1368, and was buried with his mother in St. Augustine's Abbey, Bristol. His widow died 13 July 1389, and was buried at St Botolph, London.
de Berkeley, Thomas (1353-1417), 5th Baron Berkeley. Eldest son of Maurice de Berkeley (1330-68), 4th Baron Berkeley, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of the 1st Baron Despenser, born 5 January 1352/3. After his father's death, his wardship was purchased by his father-in-law. From about 1374 he was much employed as an army commander at sea and on land in wars against France, Spain and Scotland. He was an enthusiastic supporter of Bolingbroke's invasion in 1399 and was actively involved in the deposition of King Richard II, 1399. From then until c.1406 he was a privy councillor and served as Admiral of the South and West, 1403-06 and Joint Warden of the Welsh Marches, 1404. From 1406, for reasons which are unknown, but perhaps merely from age and failing health, he retired into relative obscurity, although he remained in favour as he was chosen as one of the Regents of the Kingdom of England, April 1416. He was especially devoted to field sports, enlarged several of his parks, and spent great sums on maintaining packs of hounds for hunting, not only at Berkeley but also at several of his other houses and estates. From his father-in-law's death in 1382 he styled himself Lord Lisle in right of his wife. He married, aged 14, November 1367, Margaret (d. 1392), Baroness de Lisle, daughter and heiress of Warin de Lisle (1333-82), 2nd Baron Lisle, and had issue:
(1) Elizabeth de Berkeley (1385-1422), Baroness de Lisle (q.v.).
He inherited the honour of Berkeley from his father in 1368 and came of age in 1374.
He died 13 July 1417, when his barony was regarded as having become extinct, although by later usage, as a barony by writ, it would have descended to his daughter. His wife died at Wotton-under-Edge (Glos), 20 March 1391/2.
de Berkeley, Elizabeth (1385-1422), Baroness Lisle. Only child of Thomas de Berkeley (1353-1417), 5th Baron Berkeley, and his wife Margaret, Baroness Lisle, daughter and heiress of 2nd Baron Lisle, born about 1385. She inherited her mother's barony of Lisle in 1392, and by later usage she should have inherited her father's barony of Berkeley on his death in 1417 (and it would have fallen into abeyance on her death without male issue, along with the barony of Lisle), but a combination of the fact that the Berkeley title was regarded at the time as at least partly a barony by tenure and the greater political influence of her cousin, James de Berkeley, meant this did not happen and the Berkeley title was re-created in his favour. She married, as a child, by 5 October 1397, Richard de Beauchamp KG (d. 1439), 13th Earl of Warwick, and had issue:
(1) Margaret de Beauchamp (1404-67), born 1404; married, 6 September 1425, as his second wife, John Talbot KG (1390-1453), 7th Baron Talbot and 1st Earl of Shrewsbury & Waterford, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1414-19, 1425-26, 1445-47, and had issue three sons and two daughters; died 14 June 1467 and was buried in the Jesus Chapel, St Paul's Cathedral, London;(2) Eleanor de Beauchamp (1408-67); married 1st, 17 December 1423, Thomas de Ros (1407-31), 9th Baron de Ros of Helmsley (Yorks), and had issue two sons and one daughter; married 2nd, by 1436, Edmund Beaufort (c.1406-55), 4th Earl and 1st Duke of Somerset, Marquess of Dorset and Count of Mortain, and had issue four sons and six daughters; married 3rd, Walter Rokesley; died at Baynard's Castle, London, 1467;(3) Elizabeth de Beauchamp (c.1417-80), born about 1417; married, before 13 February 1436/7, as his first wife, Rt. Hon. George Neville (1407-69), 1st Baron Latymer of the 1432 creation, and had issue one son and three daughters; married 2nd, 1470x1472, as his second wife, Thomas Wake (c.1433-76) of Blisworth (Northants), son of Thomas Wake of Clevedon (Som.); died before 2 October 1480.
She inherited from her father the lands of the Lisle family which he had held in right of her mother, but she and her husband also pursued a claim to the Berkeley estates for several years, 1417-20, which was renewed after his death by her daughters.
She died 28 December 1422. Her husband died 30 April 1439; an inquisition post mortem was held 6 September 1439.
de Berkeley, Sir James (d. 1405), kt. Second son of Maurice de Berkeley (1330-68), 4th Baron Berkeley, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of the 1st Baron Despenser. Governor of Tretower Castle (Brecons.). Knighted for his service in the French wars. He married, c.1388, Elizabeth (c.1358-1425), daughter and heiress of Sir John Bluet (d. 1372) of Raglan (Mon.), and had issue:
(1) James de Berkeley (c.1394-1463), 1st Baron Berkeley;(2) Maurice de Berkeley (b. c.1396); possibly married, c.1410 (contract 19 April), [forename unknown], younger daughter of Sir John St. John (d. 1424) of Paulerspury (Northants) and Fonmon (Glam.).
He inherited the manor of Raglan from his father-in-law, in right of his wife.
He died fighting against the Welsh, 13 June 1405, and was buried with his father in St Augustine's Abbey, Bristol. His wife married 2nd, c.1407, Thomas ap Harry, and 3rd, William ap Thomas, and died c.1425.
de Berkeley, James (c.1394-1463), 1st Baron Berkeley. Elder son of Sir James de Berkeley (d. 1405), kt., of Raglan (Mon.) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Sir John Bluet of Raglan, born at Raglan, about 1394. After his mother remarried, he and his younger brother moved c.1410 to live with their uncle Thomas de Berkeley (1353-1417), 5th Baron Berkeley, and were acknowledged his heirs. From 1417-20 he was almost continuously engaged in legal suits against his cousin, the Countess of Warwick, who contested his accession to the Berkeley estates, a fight he had won by 1421. On the death of the Earl of Warwick in 1439 trouble broke out again, when the Warwicks' three daughters, led by Margaret, Countess of Shrewsbury, sought to claim ownership of particular manors. Legal compromises were made but were unacceptable to James, and matters became increasingly violent in the later 1440s, culminating in 1451 when the Countess' son, Lord Lisle, having suborned some Berkeley servants, was let into Berkeley Castle, captured James and his sons, and forced them to enter into bonds to accept the legal judgements. The Countess of Shrewsbury, meanwhile, had captured James's wife, Isabel, and imprisoned her in Gloucester Castle, where she died in 1452. James's two younger sons accompanied the Earl of Shrewsbury and Lord Lisle to France in 1453, where Thomas was captured and had to be ransomed, and James was killed, along with Shrewsbury and Lord Lisle. In 1463, about a month before Lord Berkeley died, he and the Countess of Shrewsbury were finally reconciled, and agreed to settle their differences and live in harmony. JP for Gloucestershire, 1421. He was raised to the peerage* by writ of summons to Parliament, 20 October 1421, as 1st Baron Berkeley of the second creation, and knighted in 1426. He married 1st**, 1410 (contract 19 April), [forename unknown], daughter of Sir John St. John MP (d. 1424) of Paulerspury (Northants) and Fonmon (Glam.); 2nd, 1414, [forename unknown], daughter of Sir Humphrey Stafford (c.1341-1413) of Hooke (Dorset); 3rd, 1423/4, Lady Isabel Mowbray (d. 1452), eldest daughter of Thomas de Mowbray (1366-99), 1st Duke of Norfolk, and widow of Hon. Henry Ferrers (d. by 1423); and 4th, 1457 (settlement 25 July), Lady Joan Talbot (b. c.1422), daughter of John Talbot (d. 1453), 1st Earl of Shrewsbury & Waterford, and had issue:
(3.1) William de Berkeley (1426-92), 2nd Baron Berkeley and 1st Marquess of Berkeley (q.v.);(3.2) Maurice Berkeley (c.1435-1506), de jure 3rd Baron Berkeley (q.v.);(3.3) James Berkeley; imprisoned in France with his father and brothers, and died unmarried when he was killed at Chatillon, but was apparently buried next to his father at Berkeley;(3.4) Thomas Berkeley (d. 1484), of Dursley (Glos); present with his brothers at the Battle of Nibley Green, 1470; married Margaret, daughter of Richard Guy of Minsterworth (Glos), and had issue four sons (from one of whom descend the Berkeleys of Spetchley, who will be the subject of a future post) and three daughters; died 2 July 1484 and was buried at Berkeley;(3.5) Elizabeth Berkeley; married, about 1446, Thomas Burdett (d. 1477) of Arrow (Warks), but died without issue;(3.6) Isobel Berkeley (fl. 1489); married William Trye (d. c.1498) of Hardwicke Court (Glos), and had issue at least two sons;(3.7) Alice Berkeley (b. c.1432), born about 1432; married, c.1452, Richard Arthur (fl. 1441-80) of Clapton Court, Clapton-in-Gordano (Som.), and had issue one son and one daughter.
He inherited Berkeley Castle and its estates on the death of Thomas de Berkeley, 5th Baron Berkeley, in 1417, but was hindered in obtaining possession by his cousin, Elizabeth de Beauchamp, Countess of Warwick, who was their heir general of the 5th Baron Berkeley. He also inherited Talgarth (Brecons.) and Daglingworth (Glos) from his mother.
He died in November 1463, and was buried at Berkeley where an alabaster tomb was made for him. His first wife died 1410x1415. His second wife died very young and without issue before 1423. His third wife was taken prisoner by the Countess of Shrewsbury and removed to Gloucester Castle, where she died 27 September 1452. His widow married 2nd, before 26 May 1474, Edmund Hungerford; her date of death is unknown, but she was buried in the church of the Friars Minor at Gloucester.
* By the usage of the time, he might have inherited the earlier barony, although by later usage this would have passed to the his cousin, the Countess of Warwick, but this seems never to have been considered, and a new creation by writ was made when James was summoned to Parliament in 1421.
** Although the contract of marriage was made, there is no other evidence that this marriage actually took place.
de Berkeley, Rt. Hon. William (1426-92), 2nd Baron Berkeley and 1st Marquess of Berkeley. Eldest son of James de Berkeley (c.1394-1463), 1st Baron Berkeley, and his third wife, Isabel Mowbray, eldest daughter of the 1st Duke of Norfolk, born 1426. He was evidently educated in the household of Cardinal Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, and as such was in Calais in 1438, and was knighted on his return to England. He was involved in a long dispute with his second cousin, the Countess of Shrewsbury (d. 1467) and the other co-heirs-general to the 5th Baron Berkeley, over title to the Berkeley estates, which culminated in the Countess' grandson, Viscount Lisle, challenging him to settle the dispute by combat. This was done at Nibley Green (Glos), 20 March 1469/70, when he and his brothers slew Lord Lisle. He was made a Knight of the Bath at the investiture of Edward, Prince of Wales, in 1475. On the marriage of the heiress of the Mowbray family to the King's younger son, the Duke of York, he released his reversionary interest in part of the Mowbray estates to the Crown in exchange for a release from a debt of £34,000 and his creation as Viscount Berkeley, 21 April 1481. He was sworn of the privy council, 5 March 1482/3. The vast estates of the Mowbray family being divided between him and Lord Howard, he was promoted in the peerage to the former Mowbray title of Earl of Nottingham, 28 June 1483. At the coronation of King Henry VII in 1485 he was bearer of the third sword, having been made joint Lord High Steward and Earl Marshal for the occasion, and his appointment as Earl Marshal and Great Marshal of England was made permanent, 1485/6. In 1487 he was joint Lord High Steward at the coronation of Elizabeth of York, the Queen Consort. In a desire to exclude his younger brother from the family estates (feeling that Maurice had dishonoured the family by marrying beneath him), in 1487 he settled Berkeley Castle and his estates on himself in tail male, with remainder to King Henry VII in tail male, with a final remainder to his right heirs, in return for his further promotion in the peerage to be Marquess of Berkeley, 1488/9. As a consequence of this settlement, Berkeley Castle and most of the the family estates were held by the Crown from his death in 1492 until the death of King Edward VI. Between 1481 and 1485 he also used the title Viscount of Catherlough in the Irish peerage. He married 1st, 1466 (div. 1467*), Elizabeth West, daughter of 3rd Baron West and 6th Baron La Warre; 2nd, 2 November 1468, Joan (d. 1485), daughter of Sir Thomas Strangeways and widow of Sir William Willoughby; and 3rd, c.1486, Anne, daughter of Sir John Fiennes, Lord Dacre of the South, and had issue:
(2.1) Sir Thomas Berkeley (c.1470-75), born March 1469/70; appointed a Knight of the Bath, aged 5, 18 April 1475; betrothed in 1475 to Mary Herbert. daughter of the 1st Earl of Pembroke, but died soon afterwards;(2.2) Katherine Berkeley; died young.
He inherited Berkeley Castle and its estates from his father in 1463, but only gained undisputed possession after the death of Lord Lisle in 1471.
He died 14 February 1491/2, when all his peerages except the barony of Berkeley became extinct. His first wife's date of death is unknown. His second wife died 24 February 1484/5. His widow married 2nd, in or before May 1496, Sir Thomas Brandon KG (d. 1510), uncle of the 1st Duke of Suffolk, and died 10 September 1497.
* The bishop of Worcester granted the divorce. Elizabeth appealed to the Pope (Paul II), who ordered all the relevant documentation to be sent to Rome, but Lord Berkeley and the bishop refused to comply and no further action was taken.
Berkeley, Maurice (1435-1506), de jure 3rd Baron Berkeley. Second son of James de Berkeley (c.1394-1463), 1st Baron Berkeley, and his third wife, Isabel Mowbray, eldest daughter of the 1st Duke of Norfolk, born at Berkeley between September and December 1435. Educated at home until the castle was seized by Lord Lisle in 1452 and he was made prisoner with his father and brothers. In 1470 he took part, with his brothers, in the battle of Nibley Green (believed to be the last private battle on English soil), in which Lord Lisle was killed. For this felony he was outlawed and obliged to live abroad until a pardon was procured. A knight of the body to King Edward IV. Legally, he inherited the barony of Berkeley on his brother's death in 1492 but never claimed or used the title, nor took his seat in Parliament, perhaps because it was still felt that the barony was as much a barony by tenure as by writ. He married, 1465, Isabel (c.1446-1516), daughter of Philip Mead of Mead's Place, Failand (Som.), alderman of Bristol (and three times mayor of that city), and widow of [name unknown]; they had issue:
(1) Maurice Berkeley (1467-1523), de jure 4th Baron Berkeley (q.v.);(2) Thomas Berkeley (1472-1533), de jure 5th Baron Berkeley (q.v.);(3) Anne Berkeley (b. c.1474), born about 1474; married, c.1494, Sir William Dennis (c.1470-1533), kt., of Dyrham (Glos) (who m2, Edith Twinihoe and had further issue one daughter), and had issue three sons and six daughters, apart from eight further children who died in infancy; living in 1523 but died before her husband;(4) James Berkeley (d. 1514); constable and porter of Berkeley Castle from c.1512; one of the gentleman porters of the king's chamber; married Susan (d. c.1520), daughter of [forename unknown] Veel and widow of William Weddall, and had issue one son and one daughter; died 1514.
He lived at Thornbury until 1470 and returned there after he received his pardon. He was excluded from the family estates by the operation of his elder brother's settlement of the estates, but after fourteen years of intensive effort, and by the use of 'legal chicanery and influence in high places' he had recovered some forty-one manors.
He died in September 1506 and was buried at the Austin Friars church in London. His widow died in Coventry in 1516/17 and was buried with her husband.
Berkeley, Sir Maurice (c.1467-1523), de jure 4th Baron Berkeley. Elder son of Maurice Berkeley (c.1435-1506), de jure 3rd Baron Berkeley, and his wife Isabel, daughter of Philip Mead of Mead's Place, Wraxall (Som.), born at Thornbury, about 1467. Appointed a Knight of the Bath at the coronation of King Henry VIII, 1509. Keeper of Kingswood Forest (Glos), 1508. High Sheriff of Gloucestershire, 1509-10, 1515-16, and of Leicestershire and Warwickshire, 1516-17; JP for Gloucestershire. During his father's lifetime, he was much employed in legal efforts to recover portions of the Berkeley estates, but later he became a prominent commander in King Henry VIII's wars in France. He was made a knight of the body to the king, 1512; was Marshal of the Army for Spain in the same year; a Captain in the army in France, and eventually Lt. Governor of Calais, 1516-23. In 1515 he bought the wardship of John Berkeley, son and heir of Richard Berkeley of Stoke Gifford (Glos) and by his will directed that John should marry his niece, Isabel Dennis; in 1522 he also bought the wardship of Thomas Perrot, son of Sir Owen Perrot, who he directed should marry his brother James' daughter. He was involved in a long-running and bitter dispute with the Duke of Buckingham, whose seat was at Thornbury Castle, the original cause of which is not known, but which persisted until shortly before his death. Like his father, he did not generally use the title Lord Berkeley until the King summoned him to Parliament by writ in 1523, arguably creating a new barony of Berkeley, and his seat was taken for him by Lord Mountjoy as his proxy, though he died before he could take his seat in person. He married, 1484/5 (contract 28 January), his distant cousin, Katherine (c.1468-1526), daughter of Sir William Berkeley of Stoke Gifford (Glos), but had no surviving legitimate issue. He did, however, have an illegitimate son, by an unknown mother:
(X1) Humphrey Berkeley (b. c.1521); born at Calais, c.1521; died young without issue.
He lived at Yate (Glos), where he built a new manor house to the designs of George Sheppard in about 1518 and created a new park c.1516. He inherited most of the recovered portion of the Berkeley estates from his father in 1506/7, but his ownership of the manor of Mangotsfield was disputed by his younger brother.
He died at Calais, 12 September 1523, and was buried in the Holy Trinity chapel of St Nicholas Church there; his will was proved 28 November 1523, and provided for the completion of building work he was funding at St Augustine's Abbey, Bristol and the Greyfriars in Gloucester. His widow died in 1526 and was buried at Yate.
Berkeley, Sir Thomas (c.1472-1533), de jure 5th Baron Berkeley. Second son of Maurice Berkeley (c.1435-1506), de jure 3rd Baron Berkeley, and his wife Isabel, daughter of Philip Mead of Mead's Place, Wraxall (Som.), born at Thornbury (Glos), about 1472. He was captain of a company of soldiers who fought at the Battle of Flodden in 1513, and was knighted after the battle and granted the Constableship of Berkeley Castle in 1514. High Sheriff of Gloucestershire, 1522-23. He was summoned to Parliament as 'Thomas Berkley of Berkley' in 1529, but like his father and elder brother, never claimed or used the title of Baron Berkeley. A dispute over the ownership of the manor of Mangotsfield led to bitter enmity with his elder brother from 1507 until the latter's death in 1523. He married 1st, 1504/5, Eleanor (d. 1525), daughter of Sir Marmaduke Constable, kt. of Flamborough (Yorks ER) and widow of John Ingleby, son of Sir William Ingleby of Ripley (Yorks WR); and 2nd, 1526/7, Cicely (d. 1558), daughter and co-heir of [forename unknown] Arnold* and widow of Richard Rowdon of Gloucester, and had issue:
(1.1) Thomas Berkeley (1505-34), 6th Baron Berkeley (q.v.);(1.2) Muriel Berkeley (d. c.1542); married, 1526/7 at Yate (Glos), Robert Throckmorton (c.1513-81) of Coughton Court (Warks), courtier and recusant (who m2, c.1542, Elizabeth (c.1510-54), daughter of John Hussey (d. 1537), 1st Baron Hussey of Sleaford and widow of Walter Hungerford (d. 1540), 1st Baron Hungerford of Heytesbury (Wilts), and had further issue two sons and five daughters), son of Sir George Throckmorton (c.1489-1552), kt., and had issue three sons and four daughters; died about 1542;(1.3) Maurice Berkeley (b. c.1510); married, before 1532, Frances (who m2, Richard Danvers (fl. 1555), and had further issue), daughter of Richard Rowdon of Gloucester, and had issue two sons and four daughters; said to have been buried in the Temple church, Bristol;(1.4) Joan Berkeley (d. 1564); married 1st, 24 June 1527 at Yate, Sir Nicholas Poyntz (c.1510-56), kt., courtier and MP for Gloucestershire, 1547 and Cricklade, 1555, son and heir of Sir Anthony Poyntz (d. 1533) of Iron Acton Court, and had issue six sons and three daughters; married 2nd, c.1557, Sir Thomas Dyer (d. 1565), kt., of Weston-super-Mare (Som.), who treated her cruelly; died before 23 March 1564.
On his marriage he was given the manor of Hovingham (Yorks NR) and some lands in Gloucestershire, and he and his family settled at Hovingham. After he was made constable of Berkeley Castle in 1514 he returned to Gloucestershire, but seems to have lived at Mangotsfield rather than in the castle. He inherited the Berkeley estates from his elder brother in 1523. His widow lived latterly in Bristol.
He died at Mangotsfield (Glos), 22 January 1532/3, and was first buried there, but later moved to St Augustine's Abbey, Bristol, when his tomb had been erected; his will was proved in the PCC, 6 June 1533. His first wife died in 1525, and was buried in St Augustine's Abbey, Bristol. His widow died in Bristol between July and November 1558.
* Perhaps John Arnold (d. 1546) of Highnam (Glos).
Berkeley, Thomas (c.1505-34), 6th Baron Berkeley. Elder son of Sir Thomas Berkeley (c.1472-1533), de jure 5th Baron Berkeley, and his first wife Eleanor, daughter of Sir Marmaduke Constable, kt., of Flamborough (Yorks) and widow of William Ingleby, born at Hovingham (Yorks), c.1505. Educated at St. Omer (France). He was appointed Constable and Porter of Berkeley Castle and Keeper of the Park in succession to his father, 8 March 1532/3, and was made a Knight of the Garter at the coronation of Queen Anne Boleyn, 1533 and summoned to Parliament as Baron Berkeley, 5 January 1533/4. He married 1st, 1526, Lady Mary Hastings (d. 1533), daughter of 1st Earl of Huntingdon; and 2nd, April 1533, Anne (c.1506-64), daughter of Sir John Savage of Frodsham (Ches.), and had issue:
(2.1) Hon. Elizabeth Berkeley (1534-82), born about January 1534; married, c.1559 (sep. c.1569), as his first wife, Thomas Butler (1532-1614), 10th Earl of Ormonde and 2nd Earl of Ossory; died at Bristol, 1582;(2.2) Henry Berkeley (1534-1613), 7th Baron Berkeley (q.v.).
He occupied Berkeley Castle as constable for the Crown, and inherited the recovered portion of the Berkeley estates from his father in 1533. After his death his widow lived in Bristol, then at Kentish Town and Holborn (Middx), then at Yate (Glos) and finally at Caludon Castle (Warks).
He died 19 September and was buried at Stone near Aylesbury (Bucks), 22 September 1534. His first wife died without issue in March 1532/3. His widow died at Caludon Castle (Warks), October 1564, and was buried at St. Michael, Coventry (Warks); administration of her goods was granted to her son, 31 January 1565.
Berkeley, Henry (1534-1613), 7th Baron Berkeley. Posthumous son of Thomas Berkeley (1505-34), 6th Baron Berkeley, and his second wife Anne, daughter of Sir John Savage of Frodsham (Ches.), born 26 November 1534. He succeeded his father as 7th Baron Berkeley at birth, came of age in November 1535, and was summoned to Parliament, 7 November 1558. In order to recover the Berkeley lands which had been entailed on the Tudor male line when it failed with the death of Edward VI in 1553, his mother arranged his marriage, on generous terms, into the family of the Dukes of Norfolk. Although clearly advantageous at the time, in the longer term the consequences were disastrous both because it hitched the family's fortunes to those of the Howards, and because of the character of his bride. Henry was a lazy, weak-willed, unintelligent man; generally affable and gentle, but lacking ambition or much strength of character; he was unwilling to give time to estate management but when in London he 'spent all his time at tenys, bowles, cards, [and] dice', and spent more than his initially prodigious income. His wife was haughty, forceful, stubborn, and at least as prodigal as he was. For nearly twenty years they progressed around their estates, hawking and hunting, accompanied by never less than 150 retainers, and keeping open house for all comers at ruinous cost, a feudal way of living which was increasingly unsustainable in Elizabethan England. After the Duke of Norfolk was arrested for treason in 1572, the family's influence at Court was lost, and Lady Berkeley foolishly rejected the offer by the Earls of Leicester and Warwick of a double marriage alliance between her two daughters and Philip and Robert Sidney. Her scornful rejection encouraged the Dudleys to launch a legal assault on a substantial part of the Berkeley inheritance; the courts awarded the lands in question to the Crown, and the Queen then granted them to the two Earls. In 1573 the Queen visited Berkeley Castle in Lord Berkeley's absence and engaged 'in an unsporting battue of trapped deer' in the park, which caused Henry to fly into a rage and order the disparking of the ground. His words being reported to the Queen her distrust hardened into enmity, and in 1580 she and the Dudleys combined again for a further legal challenge to the Berkeley estates, involving a rigged jury and evidence stolen from the muniment room at Berkeley Castle. The lands lost in 1573 and 1580 (which provided about 15% of the total estate rental) were not recovered until 1609, when a change of monarch, the renewed influence at Court of the Howards, and the patient antiquarian researches of John Smyth, forced Viscount Lisle, who had inherited the lands in question, to come to terms. The loss of income occasioned by the disputes with the Dudleys at least persuaded Henry to reduce the scale of his retinue to some seventy servants. Always in debt, he was time and again forced into selling manors and taking short-term measures in estate management which generated immediate cash at the expense of future income, such as felling woods or letting lands at low rents with large entry fines. By his death, he and his son had sold 39 of the 60 manors he received when he came of age. After the accession of King James I, there was a modest recovery of favour at Court, and Henry was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire, 1603-13. He married, 1 September 1554, Lady Catherine (d. 1596), third daughter of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, and granddaughter of the Duke of Norfolk; and 2nd, 9 March 1597/8 at St Giles without Cripplegate, London, Jane (c.1533-1618), daughter of Sir Michael Stanhope, kt., of Shelford (Notts) and widow of Sir Roger Townshend of Raynham Hall (Norfolk), and had issue:
(1.1) Hon. Mary Berkeley (b. 1557), born in London, 2 October 1557, and baptised 19 November 1557 (Queen Mary I being godmother); married, 14 February 1584 at Whitefriars, Coventry (sep. c.1590), Sir John Zouche (b. c.1566), son and heir of Sir John Zouche of Codnor Castle (Derbys), and had issue one son and one daughter;(1.2) Hon. Ferdinando Berkeley (c.1560-62), born at Yate (Glos), c.1560; died in infancy and was buried there 'about two years later';(1.3) Hon. Frances Berkeley (1561-95), born at Yate (Glos), 1561; married, 22 February 1586/7 at Astwell (Northants), Sir George Shirley (1559-1622), 1st bt. of Astley Castle (Warks) (who m2, Dorothy, daughter of Sir Thomas Wroughton, kt., and widow of Sir Henry Unton (d. 1596), kt., of Faringdon (Berks)), and had issue four sons and one daughter; died in childbirth, 29 December 1595 and was buried at Breedon-on-the-Hill (Leics), where she and her husband are commemorated by a large standing alabaster monument attributed to the Hollemans' Burton-on-Trent workshop and dated 1598;(1.4) Hon. Katherine Berkeley (b. c.1562), born about 1562; died young;(1.5) Hon. Jane Berkeley (c.1566-1575), born about 1566; died from eating an apple laced with arsenic, intended for killing rats, an accident which was successfully concealed from her parents; buried at Walsgrave-on-Sowe (Warks), 24 December 1575;(1.6) Hon. Sir Thomas Berkeley (1575-1611), kt. (q.v.).
He inherited the recovered portion of the Berkeley estates from his father at birth, but did not come of age until 1555. On the death of King Edward VI without male heirs in 1553 the entail established by the Marquess of Berkeley in 1487 saw the honour of Berkeley revert to him, and he had livery of these estates by royal warrant, 13 May 1555, although then still a minor. He did not, however, recover the Marquess' estates in Ireland, which were confiscated by the Crown under the Statute of Absentees of 1536. The dissolution of the monasteries occurred while he was a small child, and was esteemed by John Smyth, later steward of the Berkeley estates, a grievous loss to the Berkeleys, as they had valuable interests in so many monastic institutions, which were lost to the Crown.
He died at Caludon Castle, 26 November 1613, and was buried at Berkeley. His first wife died of dropsy, 7 April, and was buried in St Michael, Coventry, 20 May 1596. His widow died 3 January 1617/8.
Berkeley, Sir Thomas (1575-1611), kt. Only surviving son of Henry Berkeley (1534-1613), 7th Baron Berkeley, and his first wife, Lady Catherine, third daughter of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, born 11 July 1575; HM Queen Elizabeth was his godmother. A childhood accident left his head and neck permanently awry. Educated privately by Edward Cowper from 1584, and then at Magdalen College, Oxford (matriculated 1590) and Grays Inn (admitted 1598), before travelling abroad, visiting France, Italy, and the Low Countries in 1600, 1608 and 1610-11. His father provided an allowance of £600 a year (later reduced to £500) but he spent four times as much, financing this by borrowing from Coventry tailors and later from London scriveners; he also sold his reversionary interest in parts of the Berkeley estate. Either as an official messenger or off his own bat, he took the news of James I's accession to Scotland in 1603, and he was appointed a Knight of the Bath at the coronation that followed. He was elected MP for Gloucestershire, 1604-10, but was not an active member. He was a commissioner of sewers for Gloucestershire, 1607-11, and became an alderman of Coventry, 1611. In 1609 his wife, who had already had to sell her reversionary interest in lands in Kent because of his reckless expenditure, attempted to curb his spending, but he could not brook her interference in his affairs and fled to the continent, missing two sessions of Parliament. He returned in 1610, having been converted to Roman Catholicism and having become an incurable invalid, and he spent the last few months of his life at Caludon. He married, 19 February 1595/6*, Elizabeth (d. 1635), daughter and sole heir of George Carey (c.1556-1603), 2nd Lord Hunsdon, the Lord Chamberlain, and had issue, with three further children who died in infancy:
(1) Theophila Berkeley (1596-1643), born at her maternal grandparents' house in Blackfriars, London, 11 December and baptised 30 December 1596 (Queen Elizabeth I being her godmother); was one of the bridesmaids at the wedding of Princess Elizabeth to the Elector Palatine, 14 February 1613; inherited the Durdans estate at Epsom (Surrey) from her mother; married, 12 August 1613 at Berkeley, Sir Robert Coke (1586-1653), kt., eldest surviving son of Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634), kt., Lord Chief Justice of King's Bench and Common Pleas, but had no issue; died 22 April 1643 and was buried at Epsom;(2) George Berkeley (1601-58), 8th Baron Berkeley (q.v.);(3) Henry Berkeley (c.1611-12), born about 1611; died 4 March 1612 and was buried with his father at St Michael, Coventry.
They lived at Caludon Castle (Warks), a Berkeley property, where they built a summer house in 1598, and also maintained a household at the lodge in the new park at Berkeley. His wife brought him a portion of £1,000 and the reversionary interest in lands in Kent worth £1,000 a year, which she was obliged to sell in 1606. She bought Durdans in 1617, which she bequeathed to her daughter, and purchased the manor of Cranford (Middx) for £7,000 in 1618, which she bequeathed to her younger grandson, later the 1st Earl of Berkeley.
He died intestate in the lifetime of his father, 22 November 1611, and was buried at St Michael, Coventry (Warks). His widow married 2nd, 1622, Sir Thomas Chamberlain, kt., a judge of King's Bench, and died 23 April 1635; she was buried at Cranford, where she is commemorated by a monument by Nicholas Stone.
* The wedding celebrations may have seen the first performance of the final version of Shakespeare's A midsummer night's dream.
Berkeley, George (1601-58), 8th Baron Berkeley. Only surviving son of Sir Thomas Berkeley (1575-1611), kt., and his wife Elizabeth, daughter and sole heir of George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon, born 7 October and baptised at Low Leyton (Essex), 26 October 1601. After his father's death in 1611 he became a ward of Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton. He succeeded his grandfather as 8th Baron Berkeley, 26 November 1613, and during his minority his financially astute mother managed to restore the financial stability of the estates, which had been impoverished by his grandfather's reckless spending and neglect. As part of his mother's programme to repair the family finances, he was married while still a young teenager to a girl four years' younger, who brought the family a reversionary interest in property worth up to £3,000 a year. The brief and hard-won stability was, however, threatened by George's tendency to indulgence and fondness for foreign travel. He was educated at home (by Dr Philemon Holland, who inculcated a love of classical languages in him) and later at Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1618; MA 1623) and Grays Inn (admitted 1622/3), and he was made a Knight of the Bath at the investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales in 1616. It is not known when he and his wife first began to live together, but it was probably around 1620, and it was soon apparent that they did not get on, and he began to take refuge in travels abroad. He was living in France in 1621 and from 1626-29 he made another European tour which took him down into Italy. By 1630 the couple were 'bitterly estranged', and he was abroad again by 1631. He had aspirations to become a patron of literature and the theatre, but his financial circumstances did not allow him to offer sustained patronage, and most of the works dedicated to him were speculative rather than thankful. The most significant work dedicated to him was Richard Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Burton being his tenant in Leicestershire as well as his tutor at Oxford. In the 1630s his finances went from bad to worse, and at the end of 1634 he had debts of £18,767 despite having sold three large Gloucestershire manors; the debts continued to grow over the next decade, even though he lived quietly in England. During the Civil War he stayed in London and attended parliament. Berkeley Castle was garrisoned for the Royalists, but surrendered in 1643 and was subsequently plundered (contrary to the articles of surrender). Lord Berkeley himself seems to have been as nearly neutral as was possible, escaped the sequestration of his estates, and avoided the slighting of Berkeley Castle. He came unstuck in 1647, when a group of Londoners took control of Parliament and ejected most of the members of both houses, retaining only a biddable group of MPs and peers. Berkeley was one of those who willingly remained and passed measures dictated by the city of London. For this he was charged with high treason and imprisoned in the Tower of London, 1647-48, but never brought to trial, and the charges were finally dropped in June 1648. By now financially desperate, he married his surviving son to a wealthy commercial heiress, the daughter of one of his larger creditors, John Massingberd. As a condition of a generous marriage settlement, Massingberd took control of the estate revenues and instituted radical measures to reduce costs, eliminate waste, and maximise income, giving Lord Berkeley a fixed allowance of £800 a year and using the profits to pay down his great debts. After his release from the Tower, he went abroad to live as cheaply as possible, before returning to England at the end of his life, probably living in Clerkenwell. He was married, 13 April 1614 at St Bartholomew the Great, London (sep. by 1633*), Elizabeth (1604-69), second daughter and co-heir of Sir Michael Stanhope, kt., of Sudbury (Suffk), and had issue:
(1) Charles Berkeley (1623-41), born 26 August 1623; drowned in the English Channel while returning to England from France, 27 January 1640/1;(2) Elizabeth Berkeley (1624-61), baptised at St James, Clerkenwell (Middx), 6 October 1624; married Edward Coke (b. 1613?), son of John Coke (c.1590-1661) and grandson of Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634), Lord Chief Justice; died 9 November, and was buried at Heigham (Norfk), 18 November 1661;(3) George Berkeley (1627-98), 9th Baron Berkeley & 1st Earl of Berkeley (q.v.).
He inherited the Berkeley estate from his grandfather in 1613. His wife was heir to property in Middlesex, including an estate at East Bedfont, his interest in which was sold in 1656 to the Earl of Northumberland.
He died in Clerkenwell, 10 August 1658 and was buried at Cranford, where he is commemorated by a monument. His wife died in 1669.
* On Christmas Eve 1633 she arrived at the house of Sir Henry Berkeley of Wymondham (Leics) to be kept, apparently under some restraint, on the orders of the king, and the couple seem subsequently to have lived apart, though they were never divorced.
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| George, 1st Earl of Berkeley |
(1) Lady Elizabeth Berkeley (1647-81), born 14 June 1647; married, 15 August 1673 at Holy Trinity, Knightsbridge (Middx), William Smith alias Smythe (1640?-1720), barrister-at-law, of Staple Inn and the Inner Temple, son of Thomas Smith of Holborn (Middx), and had issue one daughter; died at Kensington and was buried at Cranford, 4 April 1681;(2) Charles Berkeley (1649-1710), 10th Baron Berkeley and 2nd Earl of Berkeley (q.v.);(3) Lady Theophila Berkeley (c.1650-1707), born about 1650; married 1st, 14 May 1668 at St James, Clerkenwell (Middx), Sir Kingsmill Lucy DCL FRS (c.1648-78), 2nd bt., of Faccombe (Hants), MP for Andover, 1672-78, son of Sir Richard Lucy (c.1592-1667), 1st bt., of Broxbourne (Herts), and had issue one son and two daughters; after his death she went to Rome (Italy), where she was reputedly secretly converted to Roman Catholicism and met her second husband; she married 2nd, 25? March 1683 at St Mary, Islington (Middx), Robert Nelson (1656-1715), the Protestant ecclesiastical author, non-juror, and Jacobite, son of John Nelson (1622-57), Turkey merchant, but had no further issue; they travelled on the continent, 1688-91 and lived subsequently at Blackheath (Kent) and in Westminster; she was buried at Cranford, 31 January 1706/7;(4) Hon. and Rev. George Berkeley (c.1652-94), born about 1652; educated at Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1668; created MA 1669; DD); ordained deacon, 1677, and priest; rector of Cranford (Middx), 1686-94; canon of Westminster, 1687-94; probably died unmarried; buried at Cranford;(5) Lady Mary Berkeley (1654-1719), baptised at St James, Clerkenwell, 9 November 1654; eloped with and married 1st, by 1677 (sep. 1683), Ford Grey (1655-1701), 3rd Baron Grey of Wark and 1st Earl of Tankerville, of Chillingham Castle (Northbld.) and Uppark (Sussex), and had issue at least two daughters; in 1682 he seduced her sister Henrietta, leading to a separation; she married 2nd, 22 May 1712, as his second wife, Richard Rooth (c.1657-1726), son of Capt. Sir Richard Rooth of Butler's Grove (Co. Kilkenny), who built a Palladian villa (later called The Elms) at Epsom to the designs of Colen Campbell in 1717; she died 19 May 1719;(6) Lady Arabella Berkeley (c.1658-1729); married, 21 December 1693 at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster, Sir William Pulteney, son and heir of William Pulteney (d. 1715) of Westminster and Misterton (Leics), and had issue two daughters; died 10 February 1728/9; will proved in the PCC, 8 May 1729;(7) Hon. James Berkeley (1663-64), baptised at St James, Clerkenwell, 1 June 1663; died in infancy and was buried in the chancel of St James, Clerkenwell, 27 December 1664;(8) Lady Henrietta Berkeley (1664-1706), baptised at St James, Clerkenwell, 24 January 1664/5; achieved notoriety in 1682 for a scandalous affair with her brother-in-law, Lord Grey, who was tried for unlawful seduction though the affair was settled out of court in 1683; she gave evidence at the trial that she was married to Grey's servant, William Turner, but this may not have been true and she subsequently went into exile with Lord Grey when he was accused of complicity in the Rye House plot; she may have remained his mistress as provision was made for her in his will in 1701; she died at Tonbridge (Kent) and was buried at St Andrew, Holborn (Middx), 10 August 1706;(9) Lady Arethusa Berkeley (c.1666-1743), born about 1666; married, about 1688 (settlement 25 February 1687/8), as his second wife, Charles Boyle (1639-94), Viscount Dungarvan and later 3rd Baron Clifford, eldest son of Richard Boyle, 2nd Earl of Cork and 1st Earl of Burlington and his wife Elizabeth, Baroness Clifford, and had issue one daughter; died 11 February and was buried at Cranford, 17 February 1742/3; will proved in the PCC, 12 February 1742/3.
He inherited the Cranford estate from his grandmother in 1635. He bought the Bosham estate from his father in 1637 and inherited the Durdans estate at Epsom from his uncle, Sir Robert Coke (1587-1653) and the Berkeley Castle estates from his father in 1658. He also had lodgings at Nonsuch Palace, which were repaired for him in 1669-70, and he may have lived there in the 1680s while Durdans was being rebuilt.
He died 14 October 1698, and was buried at Cranford, where he is commemorated by a monument; his will was proved 19 December 1698. His widow was buried at Cranford, 10 December 1708; her will was proved 20 December 1708.
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| Charles, 2nd Earl of Berkeley |
(1) Lady Mary Berkeley (c.1678-1750?), probably born in 1678; a Maid of Honour to Queen Mary II; married, 1698 (licence), Thomas Chambers (1677-1750) of Hanworth (Middx), son of Sir Thomas Chambers (d. 1692), kt., and had issue two daughters; said to have died in 1750;(2) Charles Berkeley (1679-99), Viscount Dursley, born 17 June and baptised at Cranford, 30 June 1679; educated at Westminster School (admitted 1694); died unmarried, of smallpox, in the lifetime of his father and was buried at Cranford, 1 June 1699;(3) James Berkeley (c.1680-1736), 3rd Earl of Berkeley (q.v.);(4) Lady Elizabeth (k/a Betty) Berkeley (c.1685-1769), born about 1685; Maid of Honour to HM Queen Anne; married, 15 September 1706 at Berkeley, as his second wife, Sir John Germaine (c.1650-1718), 1st bt. of Drayton (Northants), and had issue two sons and one daughter, who all died young; on her husband's death she inherited her husband's fortune and estate at Drayton absolutely; she evaded the clutches of the fortune-hunting Lord Sydney Beauclerk (1703-44) and never remarried, and at her death she bequeathed her property as Sir John had requested to Lord George Sackville, second son of the 1st Duke of Dorset; she died 16 September 1769;(5) Maj-Gen. the Hon. Henry Berkeley (1690-1736), born 4 March 1689/90 and baptised at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster (Middx), 27 March 1690; army officer (Ensign, 1702; Lt., 1708; Capt. & Lt-Col., 1715; Col., 1717; Brig-Gen. 1735); Page of Honour to HRH the Duke of Gloucester, 1698-1700 and to HM Queen Anne, c.1704-14; an equerry to King George I, c.1716-27; one of the commissioners for the office of Master of the Horse, 1717, 1734-35; MP for Gloucestershire, 1720-34; married, 1712, Mary (d. 1741), daughter of Col. Henry Cornewall MP of Bredwardine Castle and Moccas Court (Herefs), and had issue three sons and five daughters; died at Bath (Som.), 23 May, and was buried at Berkeley, 30 May 1736; will proved in the PCC, 29 July 1736;(6) Hon. George Berkeley (c.1692-1746), born about 1692; educated at Westminster, the Inner Temple (admitted 1707) and Trinity College, Cambridge (matriculated 1711; created MA 1713); Clerk of the Privy Council, 1716-26; MP for Dover, 1720-34 and Hedon, 1734-41, 1742-46; he supported the Walpole government until his brother, the third Earl, was dismissed as First Sea Lord, and then supported William Pulteney (whose wife was his mistress for a time) in opposition; Master of St Katherine's Hospital, 1723-40; married, 26 June 1735 at Cranford, Henrietta (1689-1767), of Marble Hill House, Twickenham (Middx), daughter of Sir John Hobart of Blickling (Norfk), sister of 1st Earl of Buckinghamshire, widow of Charles Howard (d. 1733), 9th Earl of Suffolk and the celebrated mistress of King George II, 1714-34; died without surviving issue, 29 October 1746;(7) Lady Penelope Berkeley (d. 1699), youngest daughter; died young of smallpox, 3 September 1699, and was buried at St Andrew, Dublin.
He inherited the Berkeley Castle, Cranford and Durdans estates from his father in 1698.
He died of dropsy at Berkeley Castle, 24 September 1710, and was buried at Berkeley, where he is commemorated by a monument; his will was proved 25 November 1710. His widow funded the rebuilding of Cranford church in 1716, and died 30 July 1719 but was buried at Berkeley; her will was proved 26 August 1719.
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| James, 3rd Earl of Berkeley |
(1) Augustus Berkeley (1716-55), 4th Earl of Berkeley (q.v.);(2) Lady Elizabeth Berkeley (b. 1717), born 15 January 1716/7; eloped* and married at a tender age, 11 February 1727/8 in the Fleet prison, London, Anthony Henley (c.1704-48), of The Grange, Northington (Hants), MP for Southampton, 1727-34, eldest son of Anthony Henley (d. 1711) and brother of the 1st Earl of Northington, but had no surviving issue; according to Mary Delany her husband was 'a man noted for his impudence and immorality but [having] a good estate'; she was living in 1744 but her date of death has not been traced.
He inherited the Berkeley Castle estates from his father in 1710.
He died at the Chateau d'Aubigny (France), 17 August or 24 September and was buried at Berkeley, 31 October 1736; his will was proved 4 October 1736. His wife died of smallpox, 15 January and was buried at Berkeley, 24 January 1716/7; administration of her goods was granted 19 December 1719.
* Any elopement and clandestine marriage was mildly scandalous, and in this case his reputation and her age made it more so; but in other respects the match was not unsuitable, and was evidently accepted by her father, who executed a marriage settlement with a portion of £10,000 the following August.
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| Augustus, 4th Earl of Berkeley |
(1) Frederick Augustus Berkeley (1745-1810), 5th Earl of Berkeley (q.v.);(2) Hon. James Berkeley (1747-48), born 25 July 1747 and died in infancy, 1748;(3) twin, Lady Elizabeth Berkeley* (b. & d. 1748), born 28 July 1748; died in infancy, 1 August 1748;(4) twin, Lady Frances Berkeley* (b. & d. 1748), born 28 July 1748; died in infancy, 1 August 1748;(5) Lady Georgiana Augusta Berkeley (1749-1820), born 18 September and baptised at Cranford, 14 October 1749; married 1st, 22 April 1766 at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster (Middx), the Rt. Hon. George Forbes (1740-80), 5th Earl of Granard, and had issue two sons and four daughters; married 2nd, 15/17 January 1781 at St Anne, Dublin, Rev. Dr. Samuel Little DD (d. 1823), rector of Louth, 1789-1823, and had further issue; died at Hotwells, Bristol, 24 January, and was buried at Berkeley, 6 February 1820;(6) Lady Elizabeth Berkeley (1750-1828), born 17 December 1750; author, poet and playwright, best known for her travel writing and autobiography; a friend of Horace Walpole (who published some of her works), Samuel Johnson, and William Beckford; in about 1780 she built a romantic Gothick cottage orné at Fulham (Middx) called Craven Cottage, where she reputedly carried on her notoriously complicated love life, including a passionate affair with the French ambassador, the Duc de Guines, in 1773; she married 1st, 10/30 May 1767 (sep. 1783), William Craven (d. 1791), 6th Baron Craven, of Ashdown Park and Benham Park (Berks) and Coombe Abbey (Warks), and had issue three sons and four daughters; after her separation she lived chiefly in France but travelled extensively on the Continent, including a long journey (over a year) with her friend Henry Vernon, which took her to Warsaw, St Petersburg, Moscow, the Crimea, Constantinople, Romania, Greece, Vienna, and Italy; in 1786 she formed a romantic relationship with His Serene Highness Christian Frederick Charles Alexander (1736-1806), Margrave of Brandenburg-Anspach-Bayreuth, and settled on his estate at Triesdorf (Germany); after their respective spouses both died in 1791, they were married on 13 October 1791 in Lisbon (Portugal), and settled in England, living at Brandenburgh House, Hammersmith (Middx) and Benham Park (Berks); she was acknowledged a Princess of the Holy Roman Empire, 1801; after the Margrave's death she moved to Naples (Italy), where she died at Craven Villa, Posillipo, 13 January 1828 and was buried in the English Cemetery, Naples;(7) The Hon. Sir George Cranfield Berkeley (1753-1818) (q.v.).
He inherited the Berkeley Castle estates from his father in 1736.
He died 9 January and was buried at Berkeley, 17 January 1755; his will was proved February 1755. His widow married 2nd, 2 January 1757 (later sep.) at her house in Spring Gardens in the parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster, as his third wife, Robert Nugent (later Craggs-Nugent) (1702-88), 1st Earl Nugent, and had further issue two daughters, the younger of whom was disowned by her father; she died 29 June and was buried at Berkeley, 30 June 1792; her will was proved in July 1792.
* Several 18th century peerages state that they were triplets with a third sister, Lady Louisa Berkeley, who survived and married in 1784 Capt. Lord Hervey, the eldest son of the 4th Earl of Bristol, but he was already married and I can find no contemporary record of her existence.
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| 5th Earl of Berkeley |
(X1) William Fitzhardinge Berkeley (1786-1857), 1st Baron Segrave of Berkeley Castle and 1st Earl Fitzhardinge (q.v.);(X2) Maurice Frederick Fitzhardinge Berkeley (1788-1867), 1st Baron Fitzhardinge of Bristol (q.v.);(X3) Augustus Fitzhardinge Berkeley (1789-1872), born 26 March 1789; an officer in the 10th Hussars (Lt., 1813; retired on half-pay 1816 and later claimed the rank of Capt. apparently without foundation); married, 8 September 1815 at West Wycombe (Bucks), Mary (1789-1873), elder daughter of Sir John Dashwood-King, 3rd bt., of West Wycombe Park, and had issue one son and two daughters; died 27 December 1872 and was buried at Funtington (Sussex);(X4) Maria Fitzhardinge Berkeley (1790-93), born 2 April 1790; died young and was buried at Cranford, 2 June 1793;(X5) Henrietta Fitzhardinge Berkeley (b. 1793), born 13 June and baptised at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster, 15 July 1793; probably died young;(X6) (Francis) Henry Fitzhardinge Berkeley (1794-1870), born 7 December 1794 and baptised at St Martin-in-the-Fields, 18 March 1795; educated at Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1813); an eager amateur boxer, who spent his twenties travelling around Europe; Radical Whig (later Liberal) MP for Bristol, 1837-70 who was noted for his consistent advocacy of the secret ballot; chairman of the Ballot Society from 1853; he was apparently unmarried but had issue two sons; died 10 March and was buried at Cranford, 17 March 1870;(1) Thomas Moreton FitzHardinge Berkeley (1796-1882), de jure 6th Earl of Berkeley (q.v.);(2) Hon. George Charles Grantley Fitzhardinge Berkeley (1800-81), born 10 February 1800; educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford and Royal Military College, Sandhurst; an officer in the army (Ensign & Lt., 1816; retired on half-pay, 1823); MP for West Gloucestershire, 1832-52; author of Berkeley Castle (1836), Sandron Hall, or the Days of Queen Anne (1840), and My Life and Recollections, 4 volumes, (1865–66); in 1836 he was convicted of horsewhipping a bookseller and publisher who had published a critical review of Berkeley Castle and he subsequently fought a duel with the author of the review, in which neither man was seriously injured; a keen sportsman, he was a Master of Foxhounds and Staghounds; married, 16 August 1824 at Cranford, Caroline Martha (1804-73), youngest daughter of Paul Benfield (1741-1810), and had issue two sons who predeceased him; lived at Harrold Hall (Beds) and later at Alderney Manor, Poole (Dorset); he fell out with his eldest brother (the Earl Fitzhardinge), whose will was carefully drafted to exclude him from any benefit; died 20 February and was buried at Poole, 28 February 1881; will proved 11 April 1881 (effects under £5,000);(3) Lady Mary Henrietta Fitzhardinge Berkeley (1801-73), born 4 October 1801; lived at Martin's Herne, Winkfield (Berks); died unmarried, 19 November 1873;(4) Lady Caroline Fitzhardinge Berkeley (1803-86), born 12 April 1803; married, 24 December 1829 at Cranford, James Maxse (1792-1864), and had issue two sons and two daughters; as a widow lived at Effingham Hill House (Surrey); died 20 January 1886 and was buried at Brookwood Cemetery (Surrey); will proved 24 February 1886 (effects £169,669);(5) Hon. Craven Fitzhardinge Berkeley (1805-55) (q.v.);(6) Lady Emily Elizabeth Fitzhardinge Berkeley (1807-95), born 30 April 1807; married, 10 August 1839 at Woolbeding (Sussex), Col. Sydney Augustus Capel (1797-1872), son of Thomas Capel, and had issue one son; died 30 March 1895; will proved 22 November 1895 (effects £12,398).
He inherited the Berkeley Castle estates from his father in 1755 and came of age in 1767. In 1773 he inherited valuable London property and the Portisham (Dorset) estate from Lord Berkeley of Stratton. At his death he bequeathed the majority of his estates to his illegitimate first born son.
He died 8 August 1810; his will was proved in the PCC, 31 August 1810. His widow died 30 October 1844, and was buried at Cranford; her will was proved in May 1845.
* Between 1785 and 1796 she was usually referred to as 'Miss Tudor'.
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| 1st Earl Fitzhardinge |
He inherited the Berkeley Castle estates from his father in 1810.
He died 10 October 1857 and was buried at Berkeley; his will - a carefully crafted document designed to prevent his brothers Grantley or Henry from inheriting any part of the estates - was proved in the PCC, 8 December 1857.
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| Adm. Lord Fitzhardinge |
(1.1) Hon. Frederica Charlotte Fitzhardinge Berkeley (1825-1920), born 15 April and baptised at Bosham (Sussex), 8 May 1825; married, 2 April 1845 at Wotton-under-Edge (Glos), Robert Gifford (1817-72), 2nd Baron Gifford, of Ampney Park (Glos), and had issue five sons and six daughters; died aged 95 on 25 November 1920; will proved 1 March 1921 (estate £45,948);(1.2) Francis William Fitzhardinge Berkeley (1826-96), 2nd Baron Fitzhardinge of Bristol (q.v.);(1.3) Charles Paget Fitzhardinge Berkeley (1830-1916), 3rd Baron Fitzhardinge of Bristol (q.v.);(1.4) Hon. Fenella Fitzhardinge Berkeley (1832-1903), baptised at Bosham (Sussex), 10 July 1832; married, 12 April 1851 at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster, Lt-Col. Henry Armytage (1828-1901) of London, son of Lt-Col. Henry Armytage (1796-1861), and had issue at least three sons and three daughters; died 20 November 1903; will proved 9 January 1904 (estate £7,408).
He inherited the manor of Bosham from his father in 1810 and the Berkeley Castle estates from his elder brother in 1857.
He died 17 October and was buried at Berkeley, 24 October 1867; will proved 23 November 1867 (effects under £60,000). His first wife died 20 August and was buried at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster, 21 August 1833; she and her husband are both commemorated on a monument at Bosham; administration of her goods was granted to her husband's widow, 14 March 1876 (effects under £600). His widow died 2 July, and was buried at Berkeley, 6 July 1881; her will was proved 29 July 1881 (effects £2,702).
Berkeley, Francis William Fitzhardinge (1826-96), 2nd Baron Fitzhardinge of Bristol. Elder son of the Rt. Hon. Maurice Frederick Fitzhardinge Berkeley (1788-1867), 1st Baron Fitzhardinge of Bristol, and his first wife Lady Charlotte Lennox (d. 1833), sixth daughter of the 4th Duke of Richmond, born 16 November and baptised at Bosham, 14 December 1826. Educated at Rugby. An officer in the Royal Horse Guards (Cornet, 1844; Lt., 1846; Capt., 1853; retired 1857), Hon. Col. of Royal South Gloucestershire militia, 1858-96 (and Lt-Col. from 1860) and an officer in the Gloucestershire Yeomanry (Lt Col., 1859); Liberal MP for Cheltenham, 1856-65; JP and DL for Gloucestershire; County Councillor for the Berkeley division, 1889-96. He succeded his father as 2nd Baron Fitzhardinge of Bristol, 17 October 1867, and mounted a claim to the Earldom of Berkeley in 1891 before the Committee of Privileges of the House of Lords, which was unsuccessful. President of the Gloucestershire Agricultural Society and Berkeley Hunt Agricultural Society. He was passionately devoted to foxhunting and was MFH of the Berkeley Hunt. He was a freemason from 1857 and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, 1886-96. He married, 24 November 1857 at East Clandon (Surrey), Georgina (d. 1897), daughter of William Holme-Summer of Hatchlands (Surrey), but had no issue.
He inherited the Berkeley Castle and Cranford estates from his father in 1867.
He died in London, 29 June, and was buried at Berkeley, 3 July 1896; his will was proved 18 July 1896 (effects £102,392). His widow died at Thornbury Castle (Glos), 30 July 1897; her will was proved 5 October 1897 (effects £22,888).
Berkeley, Charles Paget Fitzhardinge (1830-1916), 3rd Baron Fitzhardinge of Bristol. Second son of the Rt. Hon. Maurice Frederick Fitzhardinge Berkeley (1788-1867), 1st Baron Fitzhardinge of Bristol, and his first wife Lady Charlotte Lennox (d. 1833), sixth daughter of the 4th Duke of Richmond, born 19 April 1830. Educated at Rugby. Liberal MP for Gloucester, 1862-65 and stood unsuccessfully for West Gloucestershire in 1867 and 1874; JP and DL (from 1862) for Gloucestershire. He succeeded his elder brother as 3rd Baron Fitzhardinge of Bristol, 29 June 1896. He married, 6 December 1856 at St John, Paddington (Middx), Louisa Elizabeth (1831-1902), daughter of Henry Lindow Robinson (later Lindow) of Gawcombe (Glos), but had no issue.
He inherited the Bosham (Sussex) estate from his father in 1867, and lived at Old Park, Fishbourne (Sussex) until he inherited the Berkeley Castle and Cranford estates from his elder brother in 1896. At his death Bosham passed to his cousin, Edric Frederick Gifford VC (1849-1911), 3rd Baron Gifford, while Berkeley passed to his second cousin once removed, the 8th Earl of Berkeley, reuniting the title and estates. Cranford he bequeathed to his great-niece, Eva Mary (1875-1964), 16th Baroness Berkeley, wife of Frank Wigram Foley (1865-1949), who sold it in 1932.
He died 5 December, when his peerage became extinct, and was buried at Berkeley, 9 December 1916; his will was proved 23 February 1917 (estate £457,786). His wife died 15 November and was buried at Cranford, 19 November 1902, where she is commemorated by a monument.
Berkeley, Hon. Thomas Moreton Fitzhardinge (1796-1882), de jure 6th Earl of Berkeley. Eldest legitimate son of Frederick Augustus Berkeley (1745-1810), 5th Earl of Berkeley, and his wife Mary, daughter of William Cole of Wotton nr Gloucester, publican and butcher, born at Cranford, 19 October and baptised at St Martin-in-the-Fields, 19 November 1796. He was educated privately and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford (matriculated 1814), but did not take a degree. His baptism record describes him as 'Lord Dursley' - the courtesy title of the eldest legitimate sons of the Earls of Berkeley, but his father's desire that his first-born son should be recognised as heir to the earldom and estates meant that this description was never repeated. He should have succeeded his father as 6th Earl of Berkeley, 8 August 1810, but he never claimed or used the title, even after his elder brother's claim to the title was disallowed by the House of Lords in 1811, apparently having been brought up to believe in his eldest brother's legitimacy. Under an explicit clause in his father's will he would have lost his small inheritance if he had disputed his elder brother's claim to the title. When he was summoned to Parliament in 1817 he sent a curt refusal, stating that to take his seat would be an insult to his mother, although the letter may have been prepared by others for his signature. Despite his unflinching support for the story of his elder brothers' legitimacy, his eldest brother seems to have disliked him and regarded him as a potential threat, and he was not welcome at Berkeley Castle, having to put up at the local inn on his infrequent visits to the estate. He seems to have been interested in little except the hunting of game and probably cared little for the possession of the estates. He remained unmarried and had no issue.
He inherited the family's London estate under entail in 1810, but after coming of age he made it over to his eldest brother, who in turn bequeathed him a life interest in the Cranford estate at his death in 1857. He lived at Cranford House (Middx), with his mother until her death in 1844.
He died 27 August 1882 and was buried at Cranford, where he is commemorated by a monument erected by his sister, Lady Caroline Maxse, on which he was described as 6th Earl of Berkeley. On his death the earldom of Berkeley passed to his first cousin once removed, the 7th Earl, who also never claimed the title, but the barony of Berkeley passed to his niece, Louisa Mary (1840-99), the only child of his younger brother, Craven Fitzhardinge Berkeley (1805-55), who eventually proved her right to the title in 1893. His will was proved 25 October 1882 (estate £12,968).
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| The Hon C.F. Berkeley (1805-55) |
(1.1) Louisa Mary Berkeley (1840-99), Baroness Berkeley, born 28 May 1840 and baptised at Cranford (Middx), 30 May 1841; declared by letters patent of 12 June 1893 to have succeeded her uncle, the 6th Earl of Berkeley (1796-1882), in his barony of Berkeley (which being an ancient barony created by writ could descend in the female line), thus separating the barony from the earldom, which passed to her second cousin, the 7th Earl; she married, 3 April 1872, Maj-Gen. Gustavus Hamilton Lockwood Milman (1824-1915), son of Lt-Gen. Francis Miles Milman, and had issue one daughter, who succeeded to the barony and from whom the present Lord Berkeley is descended; died at Martins Herne, Winkfield (Berks), 10 December 1899, and was buried at Larges Lane Cemetery, Bracknell; her will was proved 19 May 1900 (estate £6,751).
He seems to have lived chiefly in London.
He died at Frankfurt (Germany), 29 June 1855, and was probably buried at Cranford, where he is commemorated by a monument. His first wife died 25 May and was buried at St Pancras (Middx), 28 May 1841. His widow died in Winchester (Hants), 25 January 1897; administration of her goods was granted 16 March 1897 (effects £28,362).
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| Adm. the Hon. Sir G.C. Berkeley |
(1) General Sir Henry George Frederick Berkeley (1785-1857) (q.v.);(2) Anne Louise Emily Berkeley (1788-1877), born 19 March and baptised at Funtington (Sussex), 7 April 1788; married 1st, 17 November 1807 at Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada), Vice-Adm. Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy (1769-1839)*, 1st bt. GCB, second son of Joseph Hardy, and had issue three daughters; had 'a kind of love affair on paper' with Lord Byron, c.1822; married 2nd, 1 October 1840 at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster (Middx), as his second wife, Charles Rose Ellis (1771-1845), 1st Baron Seaford, second son of John Ellis of Jamaica; died at Hampton Court, 2 November and was buried with her second husband, 8 November 1877, at Esher (Surrey), where they are commemorated by a monument; will proved 10 December 1877 (effects under £4,000);(3) Georgiana Mary Berkeley (1793-1878), born 4 July and was baptised at West Stoke (Sussex), 7 August 1793; married, 26 February 1811, Admiral of the Fleet Sir George Francis Seymour GCB GCH RN (1787-1870), eldest son and heir of Adm. Lord Hugh Seymour RN, and had issue three sons (one of whom succeeded to the Marquessate of Hertford) and four daughters; died 20 August 1878 and was buried at Arrow (Warks);(4) Mary Caroline Berkeley (1795-1873), born 18 June and baptised at West Stoke, 28 August 1795; married, 20 June 1812 at Lisbon (Portugal), Henry Fitzroy (1790-1863), 5th Duke of Grafton, and had issue three sons and two daughters; died 10 September and was buried at Euston (Suffk), 16 September 1873; will proved 17 November 1873 (effects under £17,000);(5) Grenville Charles Lennox Berkeley (1806-96), born 30 March and baptised at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster (Middx), 16 May 1806; an officer in the army (Ensign, 1822; Lt., 1825; Capt., 1826; retired 1827; briefly resumed career as Capt., 1831); Liberal MP for Cheltenham, 1848-52, 1855-56 and for Evesham, 1852-55; Parliamentary Secretary to the Poor Law Board, 1853-56; a Customs Commissioner, 1856-86; lived in London; married, 15 May 1827 at St Mary, Bryanston Sq., Marylebone (Middx), Augusta Elizabeth (1804-77), youngest daughter of James Henry Leigh (1765-1823) of Adlestrop Park (Glos) and Stoneleigh Abbey (Warks) and sister of Chandos Leigh (1791-1850), 1st Baron Leigh, and had issue two daughters; died aged 90 at Cadenabbia, Lake Como (Italy), 25 September, and was buried at Brompton Cemetery, 20 October 1896; will proved 2 November 1896 (effects £20,050).
He lived in London when not serving abroad.
He died in London, 25 February 1818, and was buried at West Moseley, where he is commemorated by a monument. His widow died 19 October 1832 and was buried at West Molesey.
* Nelson's flag-captain at the Battle of Trafalgar, who held the dying Admiral after he was shot, and to whom the words 'Kiss me Hardy' were addressed. He is commemorated by the Hardy Monument on the Blackdown Hills in Dorset.
Berkeley, General Sir Henry George Frederick (1785-1857), kt. Son of Sir George Cranfield Berkeley (1785-1857), kt., and his wife Emily Charlotte, daughter of Lord George Lennox, said to have been baptised at West Stoke (Sussex), 16 June 1785. An officer in the army (Cornet, 1802; Lt., 1803; Capt., 1805; Maj., 1808; Lt-Col., 1811; Col., 1825; Maj-Gen., 1837; Lt-Gen., 1846; Gen., 1854) who served throughout the Peninsula War and was present at the Battle of Waterloo; Colonel of 81st Foot, 1844-45 and 35th Foot, 1845-57. Appointed KCB, 1815. Conservative MP for Devonport, 1852-57. He married, 29 March 1815 at Brussels (Belgium), Lucy (1792-1870), elder daughter and co-heir of Sir Thomas Sutton (c.1755-1813), 1st bt., of Molesey (Surrey), and had issue:
(1) Caroline Mary Berkeley (1815-82), born 27 December 1815 and baptised at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster (Middx), 31 March 1816; married, 30 September 1838 at the British chaplaincy, Baden-Baden (Germany), Gen. Randal Rumley (1804-84), but had no issue; died 29 December 1882 and was buried at Brompton Cemetery, 3 January 1883;(2) Charles Assheton Fitzhardinge Berkeley (1818-58), born 10 October 1818; an officer in the army (Ensign, 1836; Lt., 1837; Lt. & Capt. 1843; Maj., 1848; Capt. & Lt-Col., 1850; Col. 1856), who served in the Crimean War and was severely wounded at the Battle of Alma; a freemason from 1841; died unmarried on HMS Simla off Socotra, 25 September 1858; will proved 23 February 1859 (effects under £9,000);(3) Alice Georgiana Louisa Berkeley (1822-23), born 14 December 1822 and was baptised at West Molesey (Surrey), 9 March 1823; died in infancy and was buried at West Molesey, 16 June 1823;(4) Alexander Henry Hastings Berkeley (1824-54), born 19 August and baptised at St Marylebone (Middx), 8 September 1824; entered diplomatic service and was an attaché in Lisbon and then St Petersburg, before being appointed First Attaché to the British legation in Mexico, where he died unmarried, 8 June 1854;(5) George Lennox Rawdon Berkeley (1827-88), de jure 7th Earl of Berkeley (q.v.).
He lived in London but also had property at West Molesey (Surrey) and in Berkshire.
He died 25 September and was buried at West Molesey, 1 October 1857; his will was proved in the PCC, 29 October 1857. His widow married 2nd, Jul-Sept 1863, Henry Fowler of Abingdon House, Kew (Surrey) and died 13 February 1870; administration of her goods was granted 31 May 1870 (effects under £450).
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| 7th Earl of Berkeley |
(X1) Capt. Hastings George Fitzhardinge Berkeley (1855-1934), born 12 November and baptised in Paris (France), 1 December 1855; an officer in the Royal Navy (Cadet, 1869; Midshipman, 1871; Sub-Lt., 1875; Lt., 1879; Cdr., 1886; retired 1886); married, 28 January 1891 in Nice (France), Aline Carla (1864-1934), daughter of Sir James Charles Harris KCVO (1831-1904), the British consul in Nice and Monaco, and had issue one son (the composer, Sir Lennox Berkeley (1903-89)) and one daughter; died 17 February 1934 and was buried at Nice;(X2) Sir Ernest James Lennox Berkeley (1857-1932), born at Fontainebleau (France), 31 May 1857; educated at Royal Academy School, Gosport, and Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst; briefly an officer in the army (Sub-Lt., 1876; retired 1877) before becoming a colonial administrator in British East Africa; Commissioner and Consul-General in Uganda, 1895-99; Consul-General for Tunis, 1899-1920; appointed CB, 1897 and KCMG, 1921; married, 22 May 1897 at La Sainte Trinité, Nice (France), Leonore Magdalen (1868-1929), daughter of Sir James Charles Harris KCVO (1831-1904), the British consul in Nice and Monaco, and had issue one son and one daughter; died 24 October 1932 and was buried at Nice (France); will proved 15 March 1933 (effects in England, £636);(1) Randal Thomas Mowbray Berkeley (1865-1942), 8th Earl of Berkeley (q.v.).
From the 1850s onwards, he lived abroad, chiefly in France and in Brussels (Belgium).
He died suddenly in London, 27 August 1888. His widow died suddenly at St. Didier, nr. Avignon (France), 1 November 1914.
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| 8th Earl of Berkeley |
He built himself a house and laboratory at Foxcombe, Boar's Hill, Cumnor (Berks), where he lived until he inherited the Berkeley Castle and Cranford House estates from his second cousin once removed, the 3rd Baron Fitzhardinge of Bristol, in 1916. He undertook a major restoration and remodelling of the castle in the 1920s, but after his second marriage divided his time between Berkeley, California and Rome. At his death his estates devolved on his distant kinsman (a thirteenth cousin!), Robert George Wilmot Berkeley (1898-1969) of Spetchley Park (Worcs), for whom see my forthcoming post on that family.
He died 15 January 1942, when all his titles became extinct or dormant; his will was proved 4 May 1942 (estate £361,877). His first wife died 29 March 1898. His widow died aged 91 on 11 August 1975.
Principal sources
Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 2003, pp. 347-53; Sir H. Barkley, 'The earlier house of Berkeley', Transactions of the Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological Society (TBGAS), vol. 8 (1884), pp. 193-223; J. Maclean (ed.), John Smyth's The lives of the Berkeleys, 1883 (3 vols); G.E. Cokayne, The complete peerage, vol. ii, 1912, pp. 118-49; H. Costley-White, Mary Cole, Countess of Berkeley, 1961; VCH Middlesex, vol. 3, 1962, pp. 179-81; L. Stone, Family and Fortune: studies in aristocratic finance in the 16th and 17th centuries, 1973, pp. 243-67; A.R. Warmington, Civil War, Interregnum and Restoration in Gloucestershire, 1640-72, 1997; N.W. Kingsley, The country houses of Gloucestershire, 1500-1660, 2nd edn., 2001, pp. 51-54; B. Wells-Furby, A catalogue of the medieval muniments at Berkeley Castle, 2004 (2 vols), especially the introduction; B. Wells-Furby, The Berkeley estate, 1281-1417: its economy and development, 2012; J. Gasper, Elizabeth Craven, 2018; C. Williams, The Cravens, 2022, pp. 82-180; Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entries on 5th Earl of Berkeley and Hon. Grantley Berkeley;
Location of archives
Berkeley family, Barons Berkeley and Earls of Berkeley: deeds, manorial records, legal, estate and household papers, 12th-20th cents relating to properties in Gloucestershire, Middlesex and Sussex; Severn fishery papers; Berkeley family and genealogical papers; papers of the 2nd Baron Hunsdon (1547-1603) and John Smyth of Nibley (1567-1641); papers for other counties mainly 12th-17th cent, incl Berkshire, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Huntingdonshire, Kent, Leicestershire, Norfolk, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Warwickshire and Yorkshire; records of the abbeys of St Augustine's Bristol and Croxley (Leics) and the chantry of St Andrew's Berkeley 13th-14th cents. [Berkeley Castle Muniments]; estate maps, 1739-1970 [Gloucestershire Archives, D650, D9061]; Gloucestershire, London, Middlesex and Berkshire deeds and papers, family settlements and probates [Gloucestershire Archives, D4462]; deeds, legal, estate and enclosure papers, c.1840-70 [Gloucestershire Archives, D177]; estate and household papers of John Smyth, steward [Gloucestershire Archives, D8887]; legal and estate papers, c.1580-1732, including inventory of Berkeley Castle, 1653, and early deeds, 12th cent. [Gloucestershire Archives, D225]; papers relating to garden works at Cranford, 1720-23 [British Library Add MS 69965]; Sussex estate deeds, manorial and estate records, 1342-1931 [West Sussex RO, Iveagh MSS]; London and Middlesex estate papers and plans and pedigree of the Earls of Berkeley, 1805-1960 [London Metropolitan Archives Acc/0867]; miscellaneous deeds and manorial records collected by John Smyth [Birmingham Archives, MS3549]; letter book of 8th Earl of Berkeley, 1900-17 [History of Science Museum, Oxford, MS Museum 53]
Coat of arms
Berkeley of Berkeley Castle: Gules, a chevron argent between ten crosses pattée six in chief and four in base of the second.
Can you help?
- Can anyone provide photographs or portraits of the people whose names appear in bold above, for whom no image is currently shown?
- If anyone can offer further information or corrections to any part of this article I should be most grateful. I am always particularly pleased to hear from current owners or the descendants of families associated with a property who can supply information from their own research or personal knowledge for inclusion.
Revision and acknowledgements
This post was first published 21 July 2024 and was updated 15 September 2024. I am grateful to David Smith, formerly archivist to Berkeley Castle, and to Dart Montgomery for introducing me to relevant manuscript and printed sources.