(625) Bigham of Bignor Park, Viscounts Mersey

Bigham, Viscounts Mersey 

The Bigham family are said to have originated in Ulster, but Samuel Bigham (c.1777-1830), with whom the genealogy below begins, was the son of a Kirkcudbrightshire grazier, who moved south to Lancashire and settled at Wigan around 1800. He was at first a draper, but later moved from retailing cloth to making it, as a cotton and calico manufacturer. By his first wife, who died after only a few years of marriage, he left one surviving son, who succeeded to his business. By his second wife he had two sons and three daughters, the eldest of whom, John Bigham (1814-80) set himself up in business as a soap manufacturer in Liverpool and later moved into a general mercantile business and shipping. A Liberal in politics, he was a member of the City Council from 1849-55, but he appears to have pulled back from civic affairs and business in later life. By the time of his death, his personal estate was valued at £140,000 and he was described as a gentleman rather than a retired merchant. He married the daughter of another Liverpool merchant and had two sons and two daughters. His eldest son, Henry Bigham (1835-73) emigrated to America in the 1850s, and may have been something of a disappointment to his father, as census returns show him as a store clerk. However, his younger son, Sir John Charles Bigham (1840-1929), who was sent to France and Germany to acquire language skills before reading for the bar, became a successful lawyer. He took silk in 1883 and after several unsuccessful efforts to be elected to Parliament, finally took his seat for the Liverpool Exchange constituency in 1895. In 1897 he became a High Court judge, and further legal and quasi-legal appointments followed. He retired from the bench in 1910 and was raised to the peerage as Baron Mersey. In the following years, he acted as a Wreck Commissioner, and in that capacity presided over the inquiries into the sinking of the Titanic and the Lusitania, among other vessels. In 1916 he was promoted in the peerage to 1st Viscount Mersey, and he remained uncommonly vigorous and active into the 1920s. Indeed, in 1920, at the age of eighty, he returned to judicial office for a few months to reduce a backlog of cases in the High Court.

Like his father, Lord Mersey married the daughter of another Liverpool merchant, and the couple had three sons, of whom one died in infancy. The eldest son, Lt-Col. Charles Clive Bigham, who eventually succeeded his father as 2nd Viscount, joined the army as a young man and then moved into the diplomatic service. In the 1900s he was secretary to a number of Royal Commissions and Inquiries which his father was chairing, but during the First World War returned to the army and commanded the military mission to the French War Office. In 1919, he attended the Versailles peace conference, but after that he seems to have turned to a career in business and to writing popular historical works. He purchased Bignor Park (Sussex) in 1926, inherited the peerage in 1929, and in the 1940s was Liberal chief whip in the House of Lords. The 1st Viscount's younger son, Sir Frank Bigham (1876-1954) joined the Metropolitan Police, and from 1909-35 held a succession of senior posts, ending up as Deputy Commissioner; he was knighted in 1929, was twice married, and had two daughters.

The 2nd Viscount had three sons and one daughter. His eldest son, Edward Clive Bigham (1906-79), 3rd Viscount Mersey, served in the Second World War with the Irish Guards, and later on was active in local politics both in London and Sussex. In 1933 he married Lady Katherine Petty-Fitzmaurice, the elder daughter of the 6th Marquess of Lansdowne, who later inherited a Scottish peerage and became Lady Nairne in her own right; she also inherited the Derreen estate in County Kerry (an account of which will be given in a future post on the Petty-Fitzmaurice family). They had three sons, the eldest of whom was Richard Maurice Clive Bigham (1934-2006), 4th Viscount Mersey, who succeeded his father in 1979 and also inherited his mother's peerage in 1995. He married in 1961, and his only surviving son is Edward John Hallam Bigham (b. 1966), the 5th and present Viscount Mersey and 14th Lord Nairne. Since inheriting the Bignor and Derreen estates on his father's death in 2006 he has undertaken a major campaign of restoration and improvements to the house and estate at Bignor, while the gardens at Derreen are open to the public. He also continues a successful career as a composer and producer in the music industry. He has married twice and has two daughters, the elder of whom is heir presumptive to the lordship of Nairne. The heir presumptive to the viscountcy is his cousin, Charles Richard Petty Bigham (b. 1967).

Bignor Park, Sussex

The estate was created in the 13th century by the enclosure of part of the great forest of Arundel to form a park for the fattening of deer for the Earl of Arundel's table. In 1574 a lease of the park mentions that it contained a lodge, and 'a messuage' was also mentioned when the property was sold in 1584. Soon afterwards, it passed into the hands of the Pellatt family, and in 1632 William Pellatt built a new gabled house on the crown of a ridge parallel to the south downs, which offered excellent views to both north and south. Dalloway says this building was 'on a very small scale'; that it 'had nothing to recommend it but its situation'; and that the present house was built 'upon a much larger scale'. This is not, however, the impression given by the earliest views of the building, made by Samuel Hieronymous Grimm in about 1791, which seem to show a larger house than the present building. By the time of Grimm's views, the house had been significantly and recently remodelled, but the two-bay gabled wings visible in his views of both fronts probably represent the cross-wings of the original mansion, and give an impression of its original dimensions. At the time of the 1670 Hearth Tax, the house was evidently leased, but the return for Bignor is damaged and we cannot tell on how many hearths the property was taxed.

Bignor Park: detail of drawing of entrance front by S.H. Grimm, c.1791 [British Library, Add. MS. 5674, f.47]

Bignor Park: drawing of garden front by S.H. Grimm, c.1791 [British Library, Add. MS. 5674, f.48]

Grimm's drawings of c.1791 show that the centre of the Jacobean house had recently been remodelled in the Gothick style, and it is known that this work was done for Michael Dorset (d. 1805), who married Catherine Anne Turner in 1779, the year she acquired possession of Bignor Park from her brother, so the work must have been done in 1780s. The entrance front was given a tall Gothick central gate tower, complete with a fictive portcullis, and also octagonal or possibly hexagonal towers on the outer corners of the 17th century wings. The garden front retained a more domestic aspect, with a projecting central block with a canted front and a roof behind the parapet which rose to a Gothic finial. Some decorative Coade stone pinnacles in the grounds of the present house are said to have been preserved as garden ornaments when the old house was demolished in 1826. The architect of the alterations is not recorded, but the rather charming 'toy fort' effect of the additions has a slightly amateurish feel, so perhaps Dorset was his own architect. Another possibility must be that he used Francis Hiorne (1744-89), a Gothick specialist who is known chiefly for rather more sober Gothic church work, but who built Hiorne's tower in the park at Arundel c.1787 and made proposals for remodelling Arundel Castle which were not carried out because of his death; he is known as an enthusiastic adopter of Coade stone for architectural details. 

Bignor Park: entrance front c.1905, from an old postcard.

After Michael Dorset's death, his widow sold the Bignor Park estate to John Hawkins (1761-1841), the younger son of a Cornish tin-mining family, whose chief seat was Trewithen (Cornw.). He had travelled extensively in Italy and Greece, had antiquarian interests, and was a friend of the archaeologist Samuel Lysons and the architect, Sir Robert Smirke. In 1811, one of his tenant farmers, George Tupper, discovered Roman remains while ploughing, and with the help of Lysons and Tupper he went on to excavate what proved to be one of the largest and most luxurious Roman villas in Britain, with a series of fine mosaic floors; the villa was opened to the public in 1814 and has remained accessible ever since. In the 1820s, Hawkins' attention turned to his own house, which he decided to demolish and replace with a neo-classical villa. He at first tried to get his friend Smirke to provide designs, but Smirke was too busy with bigger and more lucrative public commissions and fobbed him off with the offer of advice, and probably also with the recommendation of Henry Harrison (c.1785-c.1865), who had worked for Smirke as a building contractor at Grange Park (Hants), and who turned to architecture around 1820. When he came to Bignor he had little if any country house design experience, but his understated and Greek-influenced neo-classical designs seem to have been just what Hawkins was looking for. Articles of agreement were drawn up for the new house in 1826 and construction was evidently largely complete by 1828, when two servants were employed as caretakers in the unoccupied building. Harrison allowed the house to dry out thoroughly, and only began moving in during 1830. Payments continued until 1832, finally totalling just over £10,000.

Bignor Park: garden front in 1956. Image: Derek Sherborn/Historic England.

The rendered brick house that resulted is of five by three bays and two storeys, with wider end bays on both fronts that project slightly forward, and a lower two-storey service wing to the west. The north-facing entrance front has a shallow loggia between the wings that cleverly incorporates a porch, while on the garden side the house is raised on a low stone terrace, and all the ground floor windows are floor-length. The windows on the south front also all have external shutters except for the larger ground-floor windows in the wings, where the neo-classical elegance is tempered by a few neo-Jacobean elements, presaging the direction which Harrison's designs would take later in his career. The external shutters seem to be a later addition, as they are not indicated on a view of the house in 1834 by John Constable. Inside, the house preserves its late Regency layout, which seems little altered, with the library, drawing room and dining room across the south front, while on the north side, the entrance hall and top-lit, cantilevered staircase occupy the middle three bays, and are flanked by a business room and the former school room. 

Bignor Park: a late 19th century watercolour view of the library (Image: Trewithen Collection)

The heart of the house has always been the library, for both John Hawkins and the 2nd Lord Mersey were notable book collectors, and further bookcases are found throughout the house. All the rooms have sparing but elegant neo-classical decoration, enhanced by mahogany doors from Robert Adam's Lansdowne House, London, which were installed here in about 1957 by Lady Mersey, and by Regency Revival furniture and fittings acquired by the 2nd Lord Mersey in 1945 when the contents of Edward Knoblock's Beach House in Worthing (Sussex) were dispersed. One particularly important acquisition from the Worthing house was a set of mural paintings on glass of 1912 by Sir William Nicholson, which were made originally for Knoblock's apartment in the Palais Royale, Paris; these were arranged at first floor level around the staircase hall, but are said now to be in the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Bignor Park: watercolour of the house from the south-east by John Constable, 1834. (Image: V&A Museum 217-1888)

Work began on landscaping the grounds in the 1820s, when John Hawkins laid out a new drive while he was looking for an architect. After the house was built he took advice from William Sawrey Gilpin in the 1830s, resulting in the landscape which Constable painted in 1834. More recent additions have included a domed Doric temple designed by Christopher Hobson in 1992.

Descent: John Lumley (c.1533-1609), 1st Baron Lumley sold 1584 to William Tyrwhitt, who sold soon afterwards to Richard Pellatt (d. 1587); to son, Thomas Pellatt (d. 1618); to son, William Pellatt, who built the house c.1632; to son, Thomas Pellatt (b. 1656); to son, William Pellatt, who sold 1712 to Nicholas Turner (d. 1723); to son, Nicholas Turner (d. 1774); to son, Nicholas Turner (b. 1753), who became bankrupt in 1779 and sold it to his sister, Catherine Anne (1752-1834), from 1779 wife of Michael Dorset (1753?-1805), who remodelled the house and sold it 1806 to John Hawkins (1761-1841), who rebuilt the house; to son, Christopher Hawkins (1820-1903); to nephew, John Heywood Johnstone MP (1850-1904); to son, G.H. Johnstone of Trewithen (Cornw.), who sold 1926 to Charles Clive Bigham (1872-1956), 2nd Viscount Mersey; to son, Edward Clive Bigham (1906-79), 3rd Viscount Mersey; to son, Richard Maurice Clive Bigham (1934-2006); to son, Edward John Hallam Bigham (b. 1966), 5th Viscount Mersey.

Bigham family of Bignor Park, Viscounts Mersey

Bigham, Samuel (c.1777-1830). Son of Andrew Bigham (b. 1742) of Kells (Kirkcudbrights), grazier and his wife Elizabeth Chesnie, born about 1777. Draper, and cotton and calico manufacturer at Wigan (Lancs). He was also in partnership with Thomas Peck as an iron dealer (dissolved 1821). He married 1st, 3 June 1808 at All Saints, Wigan, Elizabeth Holland, and 2nd, 15 June 1813 at All Saints, Wigan (Lancs), Catherine (c.1795-1854?), daughter of John Hughes of Chester, and had issue:

(1.1) Andrew Bigham (b. & d. 1808), born about July 1808; died in infancy and was buried at All Saints, Wigan, 30 September 1808;

(1.2) Thomas Bigham (1809-88), born 12 November and baptised at St Paul's Independent Chapel, Standishgate, Wigan (Lancs), 17 December 1809; cloth manufacturer at Wigan; married 26 February 1835 at Manchester Collegiate Church (now Cathedral), Elizabeth (1810-83), daughter of George Maxwell, and had issue two sons and one daughter; died 15 September 1888;

(2.1) John Bigham (1814-80) (q.v.);

(2.2) Agnes Bigham (b. 1817), born 6 February and baptised at St Paul's Independent Chapel, Standishgate, Wigan (Lancs), 4 March 1817; married, 20 September 1838 at St George, Liverpool, John Holmes of Liverpool, painter;

(2.3) Mary Helen/Ellen Bigham (1818-70), born 9 December and baptised at St Paul's Independent Chapel, Standishgate, Wigan (Lancs), 25 December 1818; married, 10 April 1847 at St Philip, Liverpool, Capt. Thomas J. Cannell of Castletown (IoM); died 10 December 1870;

(2.4) Ann Jane Bigham (b. 1821), born 28 February and baptised at St Paul's Independent Chapel, Standishgate, Wigan (Lancs), 21 March 1821; married, 10 February 1841 at St David, Liverpool, John Parker Hall junior;

(2.5) Samuel Bigham (b. 1825), born 4 September and baptised at St Paul's Independent Chapel, Standishgate, Wigan (Lancs), 24 November 1825; living in 1841.

He died suddenly, 22 August, and was buried at St Paul's Independent Chapel, Standishgate, Wigan (Lancs), 25 August 1830. His first wife died between 1809 and 1813. His widow is said to have died in 1854; her will was proved 25 March 1857.

Bigham, John (1814-80). Elder son of Samuel Bigham (c.1777-1830) and his second wife, Catherine, daughter of John Hughes of Chester, born 5 April and baptised at St Paul's Independent Chapel, Standishgate, Wigan (Lancs), 26 April 1814. Soap manufacturer and later merchant and shipowner in Liverpool. A Liberal in politics, he was a member of Liverpool City Council, 1849-55, and of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board. He married, 16 October 1834 at St David, Liverpool, Helen (1814-1904), daughter of John East of Liverpool, and had issue:

(1) Henry Bigham (1835-73), born 29 July and baptised at St Peter, Liverpool, 17 September 1835; emigrated to America and became a store clerk in New York; said to have married, 4 February 1871, Helen (d. 1914), daughter of John Numan, and had issue; died in the lifetime of his father, 4 July 1873;

(2) Catherine Bigham (1837-38), baptised at St Peter, Liverpool, 5 December 1837; died in infancy and was buried at St Michael, Liverpool, 2 October 1838;

(3) Rt. Hon. Sir John Charles Bigham (1840-1929), 1st Baron and 1st Viscount Mersey (q.v.);

(4) Agnes Maria Bigham (1842-1919), born 3 July 1842; married, 10 September 1868 at St Bride, Liverpool, Thomas Brough (d. 1892) of Liverpool, merchant and gunpowder agent, and had issue one son and three daughters; as a widow, lived in London; died at Seaford (Sussex), 7 August 1919; will proved 11 November 1919 (estate £12,187).

He lived in Liverpool.

He died 5 October and was buried at Toxteth Park Cemetery, Liverpool, 8 October 1880; his will was proved 17 December 1880 (effects under £140,000). His widow died 11/12 August 1904; her will was proved 31 August 1904 (estate £16,483).

1st Viscount Bigham

Bigham, Rt. Hon. Sir John Charles (1840-1929), kt., 1st Baron and 1st Viscount Mersey. Second, but only surviving, son of John Bigham (1814-80) and his wife Helen, daughter of John East of Liverpool, born 3 August 1840 and baptised at St Francis Xavier RC church, Liverpool, 25 January 1867. Educated at Liverpool Institute, in Berlin (Germany) and at the Sorbonne University, Paris (France), and the Middle Temple (admitted 1867; called 1870; Bencher 1886). Barrister-at-law (QC, 1883), practising on the Northern Circuit, of which he eventually became leader. After several unsuccessful attempts, he entered Parliament as MP for Liverpool Exchange, 1895-97, but resigned on becoming a Justice of the High Court, 1897-1909; President of the Railway and Canal Commission, 1904-09; Chief Judge in Bankruptcy, 1904-10; sworn of the Privy Council, 1909; Chairman of Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division of High Court, 1909-10; a Wreck Commissioner, 1912-16, in which capacity he presided over the inquiries into the sinkings of the Titanic, Empress of Ireland, Falaba and Lusitania; President of the International Conference on the Safety of Life at Sea, 1913-14. He was knighted in 1897 and raised to the peerage on his retirement from judicial office, as Baron Mersey, 16 March 1910, before being promoted to a viscountcy, 22 January 1916. He married, 17 August 1871 at St Paul, Princes Park, Liverpool, Georgina Sarah (1848-1925), daughter of John Rogers of Grove Park, Liverpool, silk mercer, and had issue:

(1) Charles Clive Bigham (1872-1956), 2nd Viscount Mersey (q.v.);

(2) John Trevor Buckley Bigham (1873-75), born 27 November 1873; died in infancy, 23 January and was buried at Brompton Cemetery (Middx), 26 January 1875;

(3) Hon. Sir Frank Trevor Roger Bigham (1876-1954), born 22 May 1876; educated at Eton, Magdalen College, Oxford (matriculated 1895; BA 1899; MA), and the Middle Temple (called 1901); barrister-at-law; an officer in the Territorial Battn, Middlesex Regiment (2nd Lt., 1900); served with Metropolitan Police, 1909-35 (Chief Constable of the Criminal Investigation Dept., 1909-14; Assistant Commissioner, 1914-31 and Deputy Commissioner, 1931-35); appointed CB, 1919 and knighted (KBE), 1929; married 1st, 17 December 1901 at Temple church, London, Frances Leonara (1873-1927), second daughter of John Leonard Tomlin of Richmond (Yorks NR), and had issue two daughters; married 2nd, 2 September 1931, Edith Ellen OBE (1898-1985), a civilian official at Scotland Yard, daughter of Lt-Col. David Drysdale; died 23 November 1954.

He lived at 22 Grosvenor Place, London.

He died at the Beach Hotel, Littlehampton (Sussex), 3 September, and was buried at Brompton Cemetery (Middx), 6 September 1929; his will was proved 19 October 1929 (estate £80,603). His wife died 9 January, and was buried at Brompton Cemetery, 12 January 1925; administration of her goods was granted to her eldest son, 3 May 1928 (estate £600).

2nd Viscount Mersey

Bigham, Lt-Col. Charles Clive (1872-1956), 2nd Viscount Mersey. Eldest son of Rt. Hon. Sir John Charles Bigham (1840-1929), kt., 1st Viscount Mersey, and his wife Georgina Sarah, daughter of John Rogers of Liverpool, born 18 August and baptised at St Paul, Princes Park, Liverpool, 25 December 1872. Educated at Eton and Royal Military College, Sandhurst. An officer in the Grenadier Guards (2nd Lt., 1892; Lt., 1901; Capt., 1902; retired 1902 but returned to service as Maj., 1914; Lt-Col., 1919). In diplomatic service, 1896-1900 and military intelligence dept. of War Office, 1901-04; with Board of Trade, 1905-09 and acted as secretary to Royal Commissions, 1905-12. He commanded the military mission to French War Office, 1916-19 (mentioned in dispatches) and attended Versailles peace conference, 1919. In 1916 he was one of the passengers aboard the SS Persia when it was torpedoed and sunk off Crete by a German submarine, but was lucky enough to be rescued. He succeeded his father as 2nd Viscount Mersey, 3 September 1929. Deputy Speaker and Deputy Chairman of Committees, House of Lords; Liberal Chief Whip, 1944-49. He was a director of several companies and of the National Provident Institution, and Chairman of Royal Westminster Opthalmic Hospital, 1935-46 (and later Vice-President). JP and DL for London (Chairman of St George's Petty Sessions, 1935-47) and JP for Sussex. A trustee of the National Portrait Gallery, 1941-49; President of Sussex Archæological Society, 1947–50, and of Society of Genealogists, 1942–56. A freemason from 1901 and a Knight of St John. He was appointed CMG, 1901, was an Officer of the Légion d'honneur and of the Order of the Crown of Italy, and held several foreign war medals. He was the author of a number of historical and autobiographical works including A Ride through Western Asia (1897); A Year in China (1901); The Prime Ministers of Britain (1922); The Chief Ministers of England (1923); The Kings of England (1929); A Picture of Life, 1872–1940 (1941); Alexander of Macedon (1946); Helen of Troy and Cleopatra (1947); The Viceroys and Governors-General of India, 1747–1947 (1949); Journal and Memories (1952). He married, 1 June 1904 at St Peter, Eaton Sq., Westminster (Middx), Mary Gertrude JP (1881-1973), second daughter of Sir Horace Alfred Damer Seymour KCB, private secretary to William Gladstone, and had issue (with two further children who died in infancy):

(1) Hon. Elizabeth Mary Bigham (1905-85), born 17 April and baptised at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster, 27 May 1905; married, 5 December 1929 at St Peter, Eaton Sq., Westminster, Matthew Henry Hubert Ponsonby (1904-76), 2nd Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede, and had issue two sons and three daughters; died 21 March 1985; will proved 18 October 1985 (estate £169,287);

(2) Edward Clive Bigham (1906-79), 3rd Viscount Mersey (q.v.);

(3) Lt-Col. the Hon. Roger Claude Bigham (1908-58), born 16 September and baptised at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster, 11 November 1908; educated at Eton and Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst; an officer in the Royal Artillery (2nd Lt., 1928; Lt., 1931; Capt., 1938; Maj., 1945; Lt-Col., 1951; retired 1957), who served in British military mission to Greece, 1949-51; died unmarried, 5 December and was buried at Brompton Cemetery (Middx), 9 December 1958; will proved 23 February 1959 (estate £52,617);

(4) Hon. Ralph John Bigham (1913-91), born 3 August and baptised at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster, 15 October 1913; educated at Eton; an Officer of the Order of St. John; married, 3 August 1954, Cicely Ruth (1916-96), youngest daughter of Percy Johnson of Douglas (IoM), but had no issue; died 17 September 1991; administration of goods with will annexed granted 2 April 1992 (estate £195,456).

He purchased Bignor Park in 1926 and acquired furniture and fittings from Beach House, Worthing to enhance it in 1945. He had a town house at 22 Eaton Place, London.

He died 20 November and was buried at Bignor, 24 November 1956; his will was proved 30 April 1957 (estate £95,191). His widow died aged 92 on 1 May 1973 and was buried at Bignor; her will was proved  in August 1973 (estate £21,481).

Bigham, Edward Clive (1906-79), 3rd Viscount Mersey. Eldest son of Charles Clive Bigham (1872-1956), 2nd Viscount Mersey, and his wife Mary Gertrude, second daughter of Sir Horace Alfred Damer Seymour, kt., born 5 June and baptised at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster (Middx), 14 July 1906. Educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford (BA 1927). An officer in the Surrey & Sussex Yeomanry (2nd Lt., 1926; Lt., 1929), who served in the Second World War with the Irish Guards (2nd Lt., 1940; retired 1945). He succeeded his father as 3rd Viscount Mersey, 20 November 1956. A member of London County Council for the Paddington division, 1955-65, and a County Councillor for West Sussex, 1966. DL for West Sussex, 1977-79. He married, 24 July 1933, Lady Katherine Evelyn Constance Petty-Fitzmaurice (1912-95), 12th Lady Nairne in her own right, elder daughter of 6th Marquess of Lansdowne, and had issue:

(1) Richard Maurice Clive Bigham (1934-2006), 4th Viscount Mersey and 13th Lord Nairne (q.v.);

(2) Hon. David Edward Hugh Bigham  (1938-2024), of Hurston Place (Sussex), born 14 April 1938; educated at Eton; undertook compulsory military service, 1957-59, as an officer in the Royal Horse Guards (2nd Lt., 1957); art dealer and director of Tryon Gallery, London, 1959-2010; married, 2 January 1965 at Little Hadham (Herts), Anthea Rosemary (b. 1941), eldest daughter of Capt. Leo Richard Seymour, and had issue three sons (the eldest of whom is heir presumptive to the viscountcy), and one daughter; died 24 August 2024;

(3) Hon. Andrew Charles Bigham (b. 1941), of Coverham (Yorks NR), born 26 June 1941; educated at Eton, Worcester College, Oxford, and London University (CertEd, 1967); an officer in the Irish Guards (2nd Lt., 1964; retired 1966); schoolmaster at Aysgarth School, Bedale (Yorks NR), 1968-89 and Sunningdale School (Berks), 1989-94.

He inherited Bignor Park from his father in 1956. His wife inherited the Derreen estate in Co. Kerry on the death of her brother in action in 1944.

He died 2 August 1979 and was buried at Sutton (Sussex); his will was proved 14 November 1979 (estate £168,427). His widow died 20 October 1995; her will was proved 14 May 1996.

Bigham, Richard Maurice Clive (1934-2006), 4th Viscount Mersey and 13th Lord Nairne. Eldest son of Edward Clive Bigham (1906-79), 3rd Viscount Mersey and his wife Lady Katherine Evelyn Constance, 12th Lady Nairne, daughter of 6th Marquess of Lansdowne, born 8 July 1934. Educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford. Undertook compulsory military service as an officer in the Irish Guards (Lt.), 1952-54. He succeeded his father as 4th Viscount Mersey, 2 August 1979, and his mother as 13th Lord Nairne, 20 October 1995. He sat in the House of Lords as a Conservative peer, 1980-99, when he was one of the hereditary peers ejected from the House. He achieved some acclaim as a documentary film maker, and some notoriety after he was involved in an unsavoury sex trial in 1977, where he received a two-year suspended prison sentence. President of the Society of Industrial Emergency Services Officers, 1987-91 and of Combined Heat and Power Association, 1989-92. Fellow of Royal Geographical Society and Hon. Fellow of Royal Academy of Music, 1996. He was author of The Hills of Cork and Kerry (1987) and Pole Power (2001). He married, 6 May 1961 at Christ Church, Hampstead (Middx), Joanna Dorothy Corsica Grey (b. 1940), elder daughter of John Arnaud Robin Grey Murray CBE of Hampstead and Mayfair, and had issue:

(1) A son (b. & d. 1964), born 30 June 1964, but died the same day;

(2) Edward John Hallam Bigham (b. 1966), 5th Viscount Mersey and 14th Lord Nairne (q.v.).

He inherited Bignor Park from his father in 1979 and Derreen from his mother in 1995.

He died 5 August 2006, and was buried at Bignor; his will was proved 22 February 2007 (estate £25,241,615). His widow is now living.

Bigham, Edward John Hallam (k/a Ned) (b. 1966), 5th Viscount Mersey and 14th Lord Nairne. Only surviving son of Richard Maurice Clive Bigham (1934-2006), 4th Viscount Mersey and 13th Lord Nairne, and his wife Joanna Dorothy Corsica Grey, elder daughter of John Arnaud Robin Grey Murray CBE of Hampstead and Mayfair, born 23 May 1966. Educated at Eton, Balliol College, Oxford, Trinity College of Music, London and Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich (Germany). Music producer, composer and drummer. Director of Bignor Park Ltd, 2009-date; Edward James Foundation Ltd, 2013-15, and Millpepper Ltd, 2016-date. He succeeded his father as 5th Viscount Mersey and 14th Lord Nairne, 5 August 2006. He married 1st, 26 May 1994 (div. 1997), Clare Louise, daughter of David Haigh of Woking (Surrey), and 2nd, 8 December 2001 at St Cuthbert, Dalmeny (West Lothian), Caroline Clare (b. 1965), daughter of Robert Grant Schaw Miller (1925-97) of Dalmeny, and had issue:

(2.1) Hon. Flora Diana Joan Bigham (b. 2003), Mistress of Nairne, born 17 May 2003; educated at Oxford University (matriculated 2021; BA 2024) and City St. George's, University of London; journalist; heir presumptive to the Lordship of Nairne;

(2.2) Hon. Polly Joanna Jean Bigham (b. 2006), born 3 July 2006; educated at Westbourne House School and Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge.

He inherited Bignor Park and Derreen from his father in 2006.

Now living. His first wife is now living. His second wife is now living.

Principal sources

Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 2003, pp. 2668-69; J. Dalloway & E. Cartwright, The parochial topography of the rape of Arundel, 1832, vol 2, pt. 1, pp. 249; W.H. Godfrey & L.F. Salzman, Sussex views, 1951, pl. 19; G. Nares, 'Bignor Park, Sussex', Country Life, 26 April-3 May 1956; J. Farrant, Sussex depicted, 2001, p. 161; Sir H.M. Colvin, A biographical dictionary of British architects, 4th edn., 2008, pp. 485-87, 519-20; E. Williamson, T. Hudson, J. Musson and I. Nairn, The buildings of England: Sussex - West, 2019, pp. 132-33, 735; P. Holden, 'Antiquaries, archaeologists and architects: the building of Bignor Park in Sussex', Georgian Group Journal, 2020, pp. 177-88.

Location of archives

No significant accumulation has been deposited in a public archive, so it is likely that the family retain their papers.

Coat of arms

Bigham family, Viscounts Mersey: Per bend dancettée azure and or, a bend invected between three crosses patée in chief and as many horseshoes in base, all counterchanged.

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• 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 30 January 2026 and updated 2 February 2026.

(580) Berkeley of Bruton Abbey, Viscounts Fitzhardinge of Berehaven and Barons Berkeley of Stratton

Berkeley of Bruton Abbey

The Berkeleys of Bruton Abbey were a cadet branch of the Berkeleys of Stoke Gifford (Glos), who will be the subject of a future post and who were, in turn, descended from the stem Berkeley family of Berkeley Castle. This branch begins with Sir Maurice Berkeley (d. 1581), kt., a younger son of Sir Richard Berkeley (d. 1514) of Stoke Gifford, who is a classic instance of the so-called 'new men' of the Tudor period. His status as the younger son of a cadet branch of an established family, coupled with the early death of his father and the remarriage of his mother gave him exactly the sort of background from which the Tudors drew the burgeoning cadre of officials who operated the increasingly bureaucratic state. Like many of them, he probably gained a legal training at the inns of court (he was attached to Strand Inn by 1538), but he was found a junior post with the court of common pleas by his stepfather, Sir John Fitzjames, a senior judge. He was evidently a bright young man who applied himself and used the opportunities for learning that came his way, for a couple of years later Fitzjames wanted to make Maurice his clerk. Thomas Cromwell - then at the height of his power and influence - wanted that job for one of his own protégés, however, and a deal was done by which Fitzjames accepted Cromwell's nominee and Cromwell took Maurice into his own household. From there he progressed - as so many did - into the royal household, becoming a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber and and MP, and also gaining military experience, which led to his appointment as Chief Banner Bearer of England and Constable of Berkeley Castle (then in royal hands). His position at court left him well-placed to profit from the dissolution of the monasteries, and he acquired the site of Bruton Abbey in 1541 and built himself a new mansion there, reusing part of the monastic buildings and demolishing the rest. He kept a low profile during the reign of Catholic Queen Mary, and was not obliged to go into exile.

St John's Gate, Clerkenwell (Middx), with the gabled facade of
Berkeley House visible to the right, engraved by Wenceslaus Hollar, 1661

When Queen Elizabeth came to the throne in 1558 his return to favour was no doubt assisted by the fact that his first wife had been one of the Queen's governesses, and he returned to Parliament and to the magistracy. After his first wife died in 1559, he married one of Queen's gentlewomen, further cementing his connections with the monarch, and in his later years he built himself a grand house at Clerkenwell, just outside London, apparently on land that had been part of the site of Clerkenwell Priory, the home of the Grand Prior of the order of Knights Hospitallers until the dissolution of the monasteries.

Sir Maurice ensured his five sons had lands or careers, and that his four daughters had sufficient marriage portions to attract suitable husbands. His eldest son and heir was Sir Henry Berkeley (c.1547-1601), who was educated at the Middle Temple and continued with the roles in parliament and local administration which his father had established, but who was not a courtier. He appears to have been rather less circumspect than his father and pursued expensive feuds in the law courts against powerful opponents, but he was still able to provide estates for his younger sons at Yarlington and Pylle (Som.), and the Berkeleys (later Portmans) of Pylle will be the subject of a future post. When he died, relatively young, in 1601, he left his widow a life interest in Bruton Abbey, although before her death she had evidently moved to the city of Wells.

Sir Henry's heir was his eldest son, Sir Maurice Berkeley (c.1576-1617), who was educated at Queen's College, Oxford and the Middle Temple. His father's legal issues with the Earl of Essex do not seem to have prevented him serving under the earl in the expedition to Cadiz in 1596, when he was knighted, and he was on the continent again two years' later with his distant relative, Sir Robert Cecil, who may quietly have assisted his career. From 1597 onwards he was an assiduous parliamentarian, and he was an early investor in both the Virginia Company and the East India Company. He never gained possession of Bruton Abbey, as his mother lived until a few months before his own death, and he may have lived chiefly at the Clerkenwell house, although he also seems to have lived in a house on the Bruton estate at North Brewham (Som.). Sir Maurice had five sons and two daughters, and the three sons (Charles, William and John) who lived to adulthood all had illustrious careers and were knighted. Sir Charles, as the eldest, inherited Bruton Abbey, and was an MP whenever parliament was sitting up to 1640 and after the restoration; Sir William made his career in the New World, as Governor of Virginia, 1642-52 and 1660-77; while Sir John was a prominent Royalist who went into exile with the royal family and was raised to the peerage as Baron Berkeley of Stratton in 1658.

Sir Charles had a large family of fifteen children, many of whom died young. His second son was Charles Berkeley (1629-65), who grew up during the Civil War, when he was sent to travel on the Continent for his education and safety. He then joined an English regiment serving with the French army, before taking command of the Duke of York's Life Guards in 1657. He was a close friend of both King Charles II and the Duke of York, and after the Restoration he was immediately knighted and became MP for New Romney. In 1662 he was made Keeper of the Privy Purse, and the following year raised to the Irish peerage as Viscount Fitzhardinge of Berehaven. High in the favour of the royal brothers, he was advanced to an English peerage, as Earl of Falmouth, in 1665, and although there were mutterings at court to the effect that he did not possess 'a single acre' of land to support these dignities, it was rumoured that the king intended to further advance him to a dukedom. This was prevented, however, by his death, unmarried, in the battle of Southwold Bay in June 1665. His English peerage died with him, but his Irish honours had been granted with a special remainder to his father and his father's male heirs, so the elder Sir Charles inherited the viscountcy, and when he died in 1668 it passed to his eldest son, Sir Maurice Berkeley (1628-90), 1st bt.

Sir Maurice was a little too young to take an active part in the Civil War, and at the beginning of 1649 he married Anne Lee, whose stepfather was Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick, Lord High Admiral under the Commonwealth, whose presence in his life may have restrained him from any overt support for the Royalist cause. But when the Council of State decided in 1660 to invite Charles II to return to the throne, he was first across the channel with the joyous news, and he was rewarded by the king with a baronetcy. For some years after the Restoration, he divided his time between England and Ireland, and was an active MP in both countries. After his father's death he inherited the Bruton Abbey estate and concentrated on English affairs, becoming a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber and an officer in the Life Guards for the remainder of the reign. He fell from favour under James II, but after William III's assumption of power he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Somerset and held the post until his death the following year. He had no surviving legitimate sons to inherit the peerage, although his will made provision for two illegitimate sons, so on his death the viscountcy passed to his youngest brother, Brig-Gen. John Berkeley (1650-1712), 4th Viscount Fitzhardinge, a career soldier who became Master of Horse to HRH Princess Anne in 1685 and held the post until 1702 when she ascended the throne as Queen Anne. He then became her Treasurer of the Chamber, serving in that capacity until his death. He married and had two daughters but no sons, so on his death the viscountcy created in 1663 became extinct. Perhaps because he had no son to succeed him, he had sold the Bruton Abbey estate in 1698 to Sir John Brownlow, but that was not the end of the family's association with the property.

I have already mentioned Sir John Berkeley (1607-78), kt., who was created 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton in 1658. An important military commander during the Civil War, he was much trusted by the Duke of York (later James II) but less so by King Charles II, who recognised that he was motivated chiefly by self-interest. This was in contrast to his nephew Charles, who was equally beloved by both royal brothers and who rose further and faster in the peerage as a result. Nonetheless, he did well at the Restoration, being granted several important posts, and he sought to reflect his importance by building a splendid house on the north side of Piccadilly, on the site later occupied by Devonshire House.

Berkeley House, Piccadilly. Image: British Museum. Some rights reserved.

Berkeley House was a nine-bay, two storey house, linked by quadrant wings to service blocks along the street frontage to Piccadilly, and was designed by the court architect, Hugh May. Behind was a large garden, designed in part by John Evelyn. The house and grounds are said to have cost the astonishing sum of £30,000, but even if this sum is overstated, it was clearly an expensive project, and it seems to have been financed largely by debt. Nor was it Sir John's only expense, for in 1668 he also bought an Elizabethan riverside mansion at Twickenham called Twickenham Park. After Lord Berkeley's death in 1678 his widow sold off strips of land on either side of Berkeley House, on which Stratton Street and Berkeley Street were laid out, and for several years in the 1690s the house was let to Princess Anne. After she moved out, the house was sold in 1696 to the Duke of Devonshire and renamed Devonshire House. It was subsequently rebuilt after a fire in the 1730s. Twickenham Park descended to Lord Berkeley's eldest son, who died in 1682 before coming of age, and then to his second son, John Berkeley (c.1663-97), 3rd Baron Berkeley of Stratton, who had a meteoric career in the Royal Navy, becoming Admiral of the Fleet in his early 30s. He cannot have had much use for a country house, and he sold Twickenham Park on coming of age.

The Admiral died without a surviving son, so on his death the barony passed to his youngest brother, the Rt. Hon. William Berkeley (c.1670-1741), 4th Baron Berkeley of Stratton. A Tory in politics, he was Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in the Tory administration of 1710-14, but was in political eclipse thereafter. His brother having sold Twickenham Park and his mother having sold Berkeley House, he was in need of a seat, and in 1717 he bought back Bruton Abbey, which had been sold by his cousin, the 4th Viscount Fitzhardinge, in 1698. William had three sons and four daughters, and was succeeeded in the peerage and at Bruton Abbey by his eldest son, the Rt. Hon. John Berkeley (1697-1773), 5th Baron Berkeley of Stratton, a courtier who completed his career as Constable of the Tower of London. In 1763, while he was in this post, a serious fire damaged Bruton Abbey, and contemporary illustrations and other evidence show that it was remodelled at considerable expense in a rare neo-Jacobean style by an unidentified architect. John was married, but he and his wife had no children, so at his death the estate was bequeathed to his very distant kinsman, the 5th Earl of Berkeley, with a view to keeping it in the family name. But the Earl had no interest in honouring such a romantic wish, and having no particular use for the estate, promptly sold it to Henry Hoare. When he died in 1785 it passed to his daughter Anne, the wife of Sir Richard Hoare (d. 1787), who commenced the demolition of the house; a process that was completed by their son, Sir Richard Colt Hoare, bt., in 1789.

Bruton Abbey, Somerset

The house of the Berkeleys at Bruton, which was pulled down in 1786-89, is known chiefly from four watercolours of the principal elevations (now at Stourhead) made by Samuel Hieronymus Grimm in 1786, and from a plan of the ground floor (now in the Wiltshire & Swindon Record Office) made at much the same time, although it survives only as a later copy. Other documentary evidence for the development of the house is remarkably slight, so there are limitations to how far its architectural development can be unravelled.

Bruton Abbey: watercolour by S.H. Grimm of the south front, 1786. Image: © National Trust / David Cousins.

Grimm's drawings clearly show that the house was fundamentally Tudor, with later additions, but there are grounds for thinking that some of the medieval buildings of the Augustinian priory (later abbey) at Bruton were incorporated in the structure. The Abbey was dissolved in 1539 and the site was quickly leased to John Drew of Bristol and from 1541 to Sir Maurice Berkeley, the king's banner bearer, who bought the freehold in 1546. It was almost certainly Sir Maurice who created the Tudor house, and the plan of the 1780s shows that it consisted of four irregular ranges set around a subdivided courtyard.

Bruton Abbey: redrawn ground floor plan, taken from a Victorian plan in the Wiltshire Record Office, which itself must be a redrawing of an earlier document.  To assist interpretation, I have reorientated the plan with north at the top.

A quadrangular arrangement like this was, of course, a frequent layout for early Tudor great houses, and the many post-dissolution monastic conversions often repurposed monastic cloister garths as their central courtyards and remodelled some or all of the surrounding ranges for domestic purposes. At Bruton, however, while the north, west and south ranges are aligned on the same axis and the west and south fronts are essentially symmetrical, the east range is on a completely different alignment and is much more irregular internally than the other ranges. Geophysical surveys and some trial excavation work on the site since 2012 have confirmed that this east range inherited its alignment from, and probably incorporated parts of, the western range of the claustral buildings of the abbey, but the rest of the Tudor house was a new construction on land to the west of the abbey site, while the rest of the abbey buildings were probably pulled down in the 1540s. The fragment of the abbey buildings which were remodelled as part of the new house are likely to have included the abbot's lodging and/or the abbey guest house, which were normally housed in the west cloister range of a standard monastic plan. They may have been kept as being relatively new in Tudor times, since it is known that major improvements were made to the abbey in the early 16th century by Abbot William Gilbert (1494-1533), who secured its advancement to abbatial status in 1511.

Bruton Abbey: watercolour by S.H. Grimm of the east front, 1786. Image: © National Trust / David Cousins.

Bruton Abbey House was evidently maintained in good order and regularly occupied by the Berkeley family throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, for Charles I visited in 1621 and 1644 and James II came to dinner in 1686. Unfortunately, in 1763 the house suffered a serious fire, although it was said at the time that had there been a fire engine near at hand 'the damage would have been trifling'. Sadly, the nearest appliance was at Castle Cary, and by the time it reached the house the great hall and staircase had been gutted and the damage was estimated at £10,000. The house was evidently quickly restored, for Princess Amelia is recorded as visiting in 1767. A visitor in 1789, on the eve of demolition, saw 'rooms fitted up with cornices of stucco and numerous mottoes', one of which commemorated Princess Amelia's visit. Grimm's view of the east front shows that the centre of this side was then a Georgian block with three large round-headed first floor windows above a plain doorway. Stylistically, this is unlikely to be a repair after the fire, and the ground plan suggests that it was merely a screen wall to an internal yard, but it is evidence of alterations to the house continuing in the early Georgian period. 

Bruton Abbey: watercolour by S.H. Grimm of the north front, 1786. Image: © National Trust / David Cousins.

The ground floor plan gives the names of most of the rooms marked, but they are largely service rooms, so it would seem that the family rooms were mostly on the first floor. Only in the west range of the ground floor were there any polite apartments: a parlour in the south-west corner, and a library and bedchamber in the north-west corner. The grandest entrance to the house was that on the south side, where the doorcase is flanked by a pair of half-octagonal turrets that project above the crenellated three-storey south range. But according to the plan, this entrance led into a passage which in turn led into an internal courtyard. One possible place for a staircase leading up to the grander rooms above is the unnamed space at the south end of the passage behind the west front, but one wonders why it was not marked. The large windows on the south and west fronts suggest that the principal rooms were on the upper floors of these ranges, but in the absence of a plan we have no information about how they were arranged.

Bruton Abbey: drawing of the north and west fronts c.1748, which shows that the house had been radically altered before the Grimm views were drawn.

Further evidence is provided by a drawing of the house from the north-west, apparently 'taken in 1748', which shows a two-storey gabled west front with low towers at either end and lower outbuildings to either side, all set behind a high precinct wall. Grimm's view of the west front, made just forty years later, shows it as having a three-storey crenellated centre recessed between lower projecting wings that are stepped back in a complex pattern. We know from recent work on the site that the footprint of the house shown on the plan above and reflected in the Grimm drawings is what actually existed prior to demolition, so it is clear that between 1748 and the 1780s the west range had been substantially remodelled, adding an extra storey to the centre and the flanking towers. With the eye of faith, the complex recession shown by Grimm can also be traced in the earlier drawing, but the remodelling gave the elevation a much more powerfully Jacobean feel than it possessed before. It seems likely that the cue for the campaign was the 1763 fire, but it would be interesting to know who the architect was, for work in this style at this time is extremely uncommon.

Bruton Abbey: watercolour by S.H. Grimm of the west front, 1786. Image: © National Trust / David Cousins.

In 1776, the heirs of the last Lord Berkeley of Stratton sold the Bruton Abbey estate to the Hoares of Stourhead (Wilts). Understandably, they preferred their new house at Stourhead and its spectacular park, and in 1786 it was decided to reduce Bruton Abbey in size and dispose of the surplus materials. By 1789 the intention had changed to complete demolition, and the house was levelled to the ground and the building materials were sold by the cartload. However, the foundations were not robbed out and at least one cellar was simply covered over, only to be discovered in 1857 when part of its vault collapsed. By then, the site of the mansion and of the former abbey buildings had become part of the playing fields of the adjacent King's School.

A park of some 30 acres had apparently been created by the canons of Bruton around the abbey site, and was recorded in 1545-6. Within it lay pillow mounds for rabbits, and fishponds, both of which will have supplemented the monastic diet. Probably in the late 16th century, judging by dendrochronological evidence, a three-storey prospect tower (now in the care of the National Trust) was erected within the park, perhaps initially for use as a standing from which to watch deer coursing, although it was later used as a dwelling and a dovecote. By the early 18th century the park contained 60 acres and had been surrounded by a stone wall, and short avenues of trees had been laid out radiating from the tower. In the early 1760s the grounds immediately around the house had been landscaped with lawns, ponds, trees, and walks, but the gardens and deer park were abandoned when the house was pulled down in the 1780s. An obelisk, said to commemorate a favourite horse, was still standing in the park in the 1940s, but has since disappeared.

Descent: Crown leased 1541 and sold 1546 to Sir Maurice Berkeley (d. 1581), kt.; to son, Sir Henry Berkeley (c.1547-1601), kt.; to son, Sir Maurice Berkeley (c.1576-1617), kt.; to son, Sir Charles Berkeley (1599-1668), kt., 2nd Baron Fitzhardinge; to son, Sir Maurice Berkeley (1628-90), 1st bt. and 3rd Baron Fitzhardinge; to brother, John Berkeley (1650-1712), 4th Baron Fitzhardinge, who sold 1698 to Sir William Brownlow; sold 1717 to William Berkeley (c.1670-1741), 4th Baron Berkeley of Stratton; to son, Hon. Charles Berkeley (1701-65); to brother, John Berkeley (1697-1773), 5th Baron Berkeley of Stratton; to Frederick Augustus Berkeley (1745-1808), 5th Earl of Berkeley, who sold 1776 to Henry Hoare (d. 1785); to daughter Anne, wife of Sir Richard Hoare (d. 1787), bt.; to son, Sir Richard Colt Hoare (d. 1838), bt., who demolished the house.

Berkeley family of Bruton Abbey, Barons Berkeley of Stratton and Viscounts Fitzhardinge

Berkeley, Sir Maurice (d. 1581), kt. Second son of Sir Richard Berkeley (d. 1514) of Stoke Gifford (Glos) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Humphrey Coningsby, kt, born before 1514. Probably educated at Strand Inn, London, to which he was attached by 1538, and later a member of the Middle Temple (admitted before 1551). He gained a position in the office of the protonotary of common pleas in 1535  thanks to the influence of his mother's second husband, Sir John FitzJames, who was Lord Chief Justice of King's Bench, 1526-39. In 1537 he moved into the employment of Thomas Cromwell, and then in 1539 into the royal court as a officer of the Privy Chamber (Gentleman Usher, 1539; Gentleman, 1550). This gave him an opportunity to launch a military career and he commanded a troop of horse in France in 1544, and was knighted on his return, 30 September 1544. He was appointed Constable of Berkeley Castle in 1544 and succeeded his elder brother as Chief Banner Bearer for England in 1545, a position to which he was reappointed by King Edward VI. Although in 1553 he signed the instrument settling the Crown on Lady Jane Grey, he seems to have played no further part in the succession crisis and was eventually pardoned. After the collapse of Sir Thomas Wyatt's rebellion, early in 1554, he was said to have met Wyatt accidentally and persuaded him to turn himself into the authorities, which may have helped his case. As a Protestant, he wisely kept a low profile during the reign of Queen Mary I, but he returned to favour under Queen Elizabeth I. He was MP for Somerset, 1547, Bletchingley, 1553, Somerset, 1563-66, 1572-81; JP for Somerset (from 1559); and High Sheriff of Dorset and Somerset, 1567-68. Portraits of Sir Maurice and his second wife, painted by Federico Zuccari between 1574 and 1580, are in the collection at Berkeley Castle. He married 1st, Catherine (d. 1559), daughter of William Blount (1478-1534), 4th Baron Mountjoy and widow of John Champernowne (d. c.1541) of Modbury (Devon), 'an accomplished lady', who was governess to the Princess Elizabeth; and 2nd, 1562, Elizabeth (d. 1585), one of Queen Elizabeth I's gentlewomen and the daughter of Anthony Sondes (d. 1575) of Throwley (Kent), and had issue:

(1.1) Sir Henry Berkeley (c.1547-1601), kt. (q.v.);

(1.2) Sir Edward Berkeley (c.1550-96), born about 1550; a professional soldier, who spent most of his life in Ireland and was a captain of foot by 1574; MP for Antrim in the Irish parliament, 1585, and for Old Sarum in the English parliament, 1586; Constable of Askeaton Castle (Co. Limerick) by 1586; in 1588 he served in the Netherlands under the Earl of Leicester, and was knighted; he lived latterly at Sollers Hope (Herefs); married Elizabeth Berkeley (fl. 1596), but at his death also left a mistress, Lucy Whitton, who was living at Askeaton Castle with their child; will proved in the PCC, 29 November 1596;

(1.3) Gertrude Berkeley (d. 1620); married, 8 April 1577 at Cloford (Som.), Edward Horner (d. 1606) of Leigh-on-Mendip (Som.), but had no issue; buried at Leigh-on-Mendip, 1620;

(1.4) Anne Berkeley (d. 1590); married, 16 June 1583 at Bruton, Nicholas Poyntz (fl. 1603) of Alderley (Glos), son of Matthew Poyntz, and had issue two sons and two daughters; buried at Alderley, 28 April 1590;

(1.5) Francis Berkeley (c.1555-1615?), born about 1555; an officer in the army (Capt.), who was serving in Ireland when mentioned in the will of his brother Edward, 1589; married, before 1597, Jane Loftus; said to have died at Askeaton, 20 December 1615; 

(1.6) Elizabeth Berkeley (1558-93), baptised at Bruton, 30 April 1558; married, 16 December 1579 at Bruton, as his fifth wife, James Percival (c.1528-94) of Weston-in-Gordano (Som.); buried at Weston-in-Gordano, 20 November 1593;

(2.1) Robert Berkeley (1563-1614), baptised at Bruton, 21 August 1563; educated at Magdalen College, Oxford (matriculated 1579) and Lincoln's Inn (admitted 1584); inherited the manor of Pattenden (Kent) from his father in 1581; MP for Chippenham, 1601; married, about 1590, Elizabeth Lougher, and had issue five sons and three daughters; died after 27 May 1614 and was buried in the nave of Canterbury Cathedral; will proved 13 June 1616;

(2.2) Margaret Berkeley (b. 1565), baptised at Bruton, 1 November 1565; death not traced;

(2.3) John Berkeley (b. 1567), baptised at Bruton, 9 February 1566/7; death not traced.

He leased the site of Bruton Abbey from 1541 and purchased the freehold in 1546, and built a new mansion house there, partly out of the abbey ruins. He built up an estate around Bruton and Brewham through further purchases in the 1540s and 1550s. He also built Berkeley House in Clerkenwell (Middx), shortly before his death.

He died 11 August 1581 and was buried at Bruton, where he and his two wives are commemorated by an elaborate monument attributed to William Arnold. An inquisition post mortem was held in 1581/2. His first wife was buried at Bruton, 25 February 1559/60. His widow died 16 June, and was buried at St James, Clerkenwell, 22 June 1585, where she was commemorated by another monument.

Berkeley, Sir Henry (c.1547-1601), kt. Eldest son of Sir Maurice Berkeley (d. 1581), kt., and his first wife Catherine, daughter of William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy, born about 1547. Educated at the Middle Temple (admitted 1565). Keeper of Selwood Forest and Norwood Park (Som.) from 1581; MP for Somerset, 1584, 1586; JP (from 1582) and DL (1585-90, 1591-1601) for Somerset; High Sheriff of Somerset, 1587-88; DL for Worcestershire, 1595-1601; Colonel of the Somerset militia from c.1583. Knighted c.1585. He was evidently of a fairly litigious disposition, and pursued long-running feuds with the Earl of Pembroke and the Earl of Essex, the former concerning the rights he claimed in Selwood Forest. He married, 15 January 1575/6 at Great Witley (Worcs), Margaret (d. 1617), daughter of William Lygon (d. 1567) of Madresfield Court (Worcs) and widow of Sir Thomas Russell (d. 1574), kt., of Strensham (Worcs), and had issue*:

(1) Sir Maurice Berkeley (c.1576-1617), kt. (q.v.);

(2) Sir Henry Berkeley (c.1579-1667), of Yarlington House (Som.), born about 1579; educated at Queen's College, Oxford (matriculated 1590); an officer of foot in the army in Ireland (Capt.) until 1603; knighted in 1609; MP for Newtown (IoW), 1614, Somerset, 1626, Ilchester, 1628, 1640-41; an active Royalist in the Civil War, he was briefly imprisoned in 1646 and compounded for his estate for a fine of £1,187; in 1655 he was described as 'a desperate enemy to government, a wicked cavalier'; DL for Somerset from 1660; married, 1 February 1608** at St Margaret, Lothbury, London, Elizabeth (d. 1657), daughter of Henry Neville of Billingbear House (Berks), and had issue two sons and four daughters; buried at Yarlington, 31 August 1667; will proved 27 September 1667;

(3) Margaret Berkeley (c.1580-1657), born about 1580; married, 22 April 1600 at Bruton, Sir Lewis Pollard (1578-1645), 1st bt., of Kingsnympton (Devon), and had issue five sons and two daughters; buried at Bishop's Nympton (Devon), 7 August 1657; administration of goods granted to her son, 1657;

(4) Sir Edward Berkeley (c.1582-1654); third son, of Pylle (Som.), where he built a new manor house; knighted at Bruton, 13 September 1625; married, 29 January 1615/6 at St Cuthbert, Wells (Som.), Mary, daughter of Thomas Holland of Sussex and widow of [forename unknown] Kitson, and had issue at least three sons (from the eldest of whom descended the Berkeley (later Portman) family of Pylle, who will be the subject of a future post) and one daughter; buried at Pylle, 24 December 1654; will proved 2 March 1655.

He lived at Norwood Park, Glastonbury (Som.) until 1585. He inherited Bruton Abbey from his father in 1581, but only gained possession after his mother's death in 1585. In 1591 he bought the manor of Yarlington (Som.) and built a new manor house called Yarlington House.

He died about 27 September, and was buried at Bruton, 1 October 1601; his will was proved 21 October 1601. His widow died after 9 February 1616/7; her will was proved 28 June 1617.

* Some accounts of the family include another son, Sir Charles Berkeley, but I have found no evidence of his existence in contemporary records, and he is not mentioned in the wills of either parent.

** This is very probably the correct marriage, although the groom's name is given as Bartlet. The bride's name is given as Neville, though by some accounts she was the widow of William Glover.

Sir Maurice Berkeley (c.1576-1617) 

Berkeley, Sir Maurice (c.1576-1617), kt. Eldest son of Sir Henry Berkeley (c.1547-1601) and his wife Margaret, daughter of William Lygon of Madresfield Court (Worcs) and widow of Sir Thomas Russell of Strensham (Worcs), born about 1576. Educated at Queen's College, Oxford (matriculated 1590; BA 1593) and the Middle Temple (admitted 1594). He volunteered to serve in the expedition to Cadiz, 1596, and was knighted by the Earl of Essex while serving under him there, 27 June 1596. In 1598 he accompanied Sir Robert Cecil (to whom he was distantly related through his mother) on an embassy to France. MP for Truro, 1597-98, Somerset, 1601, 1614 and Minehead, 1604-10; after 1603 he opposed the union of England and Scotland, and particularly objected to the name of Great Britain being applied to the kingdom. JP, 1602-17 and DL, 1608-17 for Somerset; Colonel of Foot in Somerset militia, c.1605-09. He became a member of Queen Anne of Denmark's Council in 1603 , with oversight of her interests in Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire; and of the Council for Virginia, 1607. He was also a member of the Virginia Company from 1609 and of the East India Company from 1611, and became an undertaker in the plantation of Ulster, but failed to develop his estate in Co. Donegal and relinquished his lands there in 1613. He was a Puritan in religion. He married, by 1597, Elizabeth (1579-1626),  daughter of Sir William Killigrew MP (d. 1622), kt., Chamberlain of the Exchequer, and widow of Sir Henry Trelawny, and had issue:

(1) Sir Charles Berkeley (1599-1668), kt., 2nd Viscount Fitzhardinge (q.v.);

(2) Henry Berkeley (c.1601-31?), born about 1601; second son, living in 1617 but said to have died at Abra (Phillippines), in about 1631;

(3) Maurice Berkeley (c.1603-33?); third son; educated at Queen's College, Oxford (matriculated 1615; BA 1618; MA 1621); perhaps the man of this name buried at St Margaret, Westminster (Middx), 11 May 1633;

(4) Sir William Berkeley (1605-77); educated at Queen's College and St Edmund Hall, Oxford (matriculated 1623; BA 1624) and the Middle Temple (admitted 1624); Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, 1625-46 (MA 1629); one of the Commissioners of Canada, 1632; a gentleman of the Privy Chamber to King Charles I; author of The Lost Lady, a tragedy, 1638; Governor of Virginia, 1642-52, 1660-77; died 9 July and was buried at Twickenham (Middx), 13 July 1677;

(5) Sir John Berkeley (1607-78), kt., 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton (q.v.);

(6) Margaret Berkeley (1608-54), baptised at Brewham (Som.), 10 April 1608; married, 9 May 1629 at Bruton, Sir Popham Southcott (1603-43) of Bovey Tracy (Devon), and had issue at least two sons and one daughter; buried at Bovey Tracy, 27 April 1654;

(7) Jane Berkeley (b. 1610), baptised at Bruton, 27 December 1610.

He inherited Bruton Abbey from his father in 1601, but never gained possession of the house as his mother, who had a life interest, lived until 1617.

He died, 'heavily indebted' on 1 May and was buried at Bruton, 8 May 1617; his will was proved in the PCC, 28 July 1617 and an inquisition post mortem was held, 19 August 1617. His widow died between 18 April and 23 May 1626.

Charles Berkeley (1599-1668), 
2nd Viscount Fitzhardinge*

Berkeley, Sir Charles (1599-1668), kt., 2nd Viscount Fitzhardinge of Berehaven. Eldest son of Sir Maurice Berkeley (c.1576-1617) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Killigrew, kt., born 14 December 1599 and baptised at St Margaret, Lothbury, London, 3 January 1599/1600. Educated at Eton and Queen's College, Oxford (matriculated 1615). At his father's death he was still a minor, and his mother and maternal grandfather purchased his wardship. He was knighted at Beaulieu, 26 August 1623. MP for Somerset, 1621-22, Bodmin, 1624-25, Heytesbury, 1625-26, 1628-29, 1661-68 and Bath, April 1640. DL for Somerset, 1625-37; JP for Somerset, 1643-45; JP for Somerset, Middlesex and Westminster, 1660-68; Col. of Somerset militia horse, 1625-37. He was involved the disafforestation of Selwood Forest, 1629-36, and perhaps on the basis of his experience there was made Ranger of Cranborne Chase by the Earl of Salisbury, 1637-45. An active royalist in the civil war, he was taken prisoner at Gloucester in 1642, suffered heavy losses to his estate, and eventually compounded on the Exeter Articles, 13 April 1646. He was made Comptroller of the Household to Prince Charles, 1648, and at the restoration he was re-appointed Comptroller to Charles as King, 1660-62; Treasurer of the Household, 1662-68. He succeeded his second son (by special remainder) in his Irish honours at the latter's death in 1665 as Baron Berkeley of Rathdown and Viscount Fitzhardinge of Berehaven, and took his seat in the Irish House of Lords by proxy (as Viscount Berehaven), 23 May 1666. He married, 6 September 1627 at St Breage (Cornw.), Penelope (d. 1669), daughter of Sir William Godolphin of Godolphin House (Cornw.), and had issue:

(1) Sir Maurice Berkeley (1628-90), 1st bt., 3rd Viscount Fitzhardinge (q.v.);

(2) Charles Berkeley (1629-65), 1st Viscount Fitzhardinge of Berehaven and 1st Earl of Falmouth (q.v.);

(3) Henry Berkeley (b. 1631), baptised at Bruton, 3 May 1631; died in infancy;

(4) Hon. Sir William Berkeley (1634-66), baptised at Bruton, 2 July 1634; naval officer (Lt., 1661; Capt., 1662, Rear Adm., 1665; Vice-Adm., 1666); knighted, 1664; governor of Portsmouth, 1665-66; killed at sea, 1 June 1666 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, August 1666;

(5) Elizabeth Berkeley (1635-36), baptised at Bruton, 17 October 1635; died in infancy and was buried at Bruton, 3 March 1635/6;

(6) Elizabeth Berkeley (1636-64), baptised at Bruton, 28 September 1636; married John Bridgeman of Prinknash (Glos), eldest son of George Bridgeman of Nympsfield (Glos), and had issue two sons; buried in Westminster Abbey, March 1664;

(7) Francis Berkeley (b. 1637), baptised at Bruton, 10 October 1637; died in infancy;

(8) Penelope Berkeley (b. & d. 1639), baptised at Bruton, 4 March 1638/9; died in infancy and was buried at Bruton, 25 May 1639;

(9) Penelope Berkeley (b. 1640), baptised at Bruton, 7 May 1640; died in infancy in or before 1643;

(10) Jane Berkeley (1641-1718), baptised at Bruton, 11 July 1641; died unmarried and was buried in Westminster Abbey, June 1718; will proved in the PCC, 12 July 1718;

(11) Penelope Berkeley (1643-45), baptised at Bruton, 30 September 1643; died in infancy and was buried at Bruton, 1645;

(12) Isabella Berkeley (b. 1646), baptised at Bruton, 4 January 1646/7; 

(13) Mary Berkeley (1648-52), baptised at Bruton, 17 February 1647/8; died young, 28 April 1652;

(14) John Berkeley (1650-1712), 4th Viscount Fitzhardinge (q.v.);

(15) Dorothy Berkeley (b. 1652), baptised at Bruton, July 1652; died in infancy.

He inherited Bruton Abbey from his father in 1617.

He died of a stroke at Whitehall, 12 June, and was buried at Bruton, 26 June 1668; his will was proved in the PCC, 27 June 1668. His widow was buried at Bruton, 29 April 1669; her will was proved in the PCC, 18 May 1669.

* This image is often reproduced as a picture of Charles Berkeley (1629-65), 1st Viscount Fitzhardinge, who was only 20 when it was painted by Sir Peter Lely in 1650. Since it clearly shows a man in middle age it must be of the 1st Viscount's father, who succeeded as 2nd Viscount on his son's death.

Berkeley, Charles (1629-65), 1st Viscount Fitzhardinge of Berehaven and 1st Earl of Falmouth. Second son of Sir Charles Berkeley (1599-1668), kt. and his wife Penelope, daughter of Sir William Godolphin of Godolphin House (Cornw.), baptised at Bruton, 11 January 1629/30. He travelled abroad, 1644-48, when the Royalist sympathies of his father made it unsafe for him to be in England, and then served in Lord Digby's regiment in the French army (Cornet, 1652-56) before taking command of the Duke of York's Life Guards (Capt., 1657-58 (wounded, 1658) and 1661-65). He was a close friend of both King Charles II and the Duke of York and was Groom of the Bedchamber to the Duke of York, 1656-62 and Keeper of the Privy Purse, 1662-65. For his loyalty to King Charles II during his exile on the Continent during the Commonwealth, he was knighted at Whitehall, 30 May 1660, and he was later raised to the peerage of Ireland as Viscount Fitzhardinge of Berehaven and Baron Berkeley of Rathdown, 14 July 1663, with special remainder to his father and the latter's issue. He was further advanced to be Earl of Falmouth and Baron Botetourt of Langport, without special remainders, in the English peerage, 17 March 1664/5. It was rumoured that the king intended to elevate him further to a dukedom, but was prevented by his friend's death. He was MP for New Romney, 1661-65; Lt-Governor of Portsmouth, 1662-65; a Commissioner in Ireland, 1663; envoy to the court of Louis XIV, 1661 and 1664. He was one of the peers given honorary degrees (MA) by the University of Oxford, 28 September 1663. He was loyal, hard-working, remarkably unacquisitive, and generous to others, and according to Burnet, "he would have proved one of the best favourites that ever was; that he would have promoted men of merit and have set the King on to great and worthy things, and that he would not have been insolent nor assumed much to himself, but that he knew his own defects, and would have depended on wiser men’s counsels". He married, 18 December 1664, Mary (1645-79), daughter of Col. Hervey Bagot of Pipe Hall (Warks) and granddaughter of Sir Henry Bagot, bt., of Blithfield (Staffs), and had issue:

(1) Lady Mary Berkeley (c.1665-93), born in 1665 or 1666; married, 2 May 1681 at Westminster Abbey (div. 1684) Sir Gilbert Gerrard (later Cosin-Gerard) (c.1662-c.1730), 2nd bt., of Fiskerton (Lincs) and Brafferton (Yorkshire NR), son of Sir Gilbert Gerard, 1st bt., but had no issue; died 18 April and was buried at Bexley (Kent), 23 April 1693. 

He lived abroad until 1660, and then probably in Whitehall.

He was killed at the Battle of Southwold Bay, 3 June 1665, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, 22 June 1665; on his death his English peerages became extinct but his Irish peerages devolved on his father. His will was proved 29 June 1665. His widow married 2nd, June 1674, as his first wife, Charles Sackville (1643-1706), Lord Buckhurst and later 1st Earl of Middlesex and 6th Earl of Dorset, and died 12 September 1679, being buried at Withyham (Sussex) the same day.

Berkeley, Rt. Hon. Sir Maurice (1628-90), 1st bt., 3rd Viscount Fitzhardinge of Berehaven. Eldest son of Sir Charles Berkeley (1599-1668), kt. and his wife Penelope, daughter of Sir William Godolphin of Godolphin House (Cornw.), baptised at Bruton, 15 December 1628. He was just too young to participate in the Civil War and took no part in the Royalist conspiracies of the Commonwealth period, perhaps because his wife's stepfather, the Earl of Warwick, was Lord High Admiral and a prominent member of the government; but he took to the exiled court the news that General Monck and the Council of State had declared in favour of the restoration of the monarchy, 1660. He was rewarded with a baronetcy, created 2 July 1660, and a position in the household of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, although this did not last long as the Prince died of smallpox shortly afterwards. A Tory in politics, he was MP for Lanesborough in the Irish parliament, 1665-66, Vice-President of Connaught, 1662-66, and was a member of the Irish Privy Council from 1663. At the same time he was MP for Wells in the English parliament, 1661-79 and for Bath, 1681, 1685-87, 1689-90, and he managed to be active in both England and Ireland. A Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, 1660, 1668-85. Lord Lieutenant of Somerset, 1689-90 (DL, 1662-87); High Steward of Bath, 1685-88, 1688-90. An officer in the Somerset militia horse, 1660, and infantry, 1667 and later an officer in the Life Guards (Capt.), 1676-85. A Fellow of the Royal Society from 1667. He succeeded his father as 3rd Viscount Fitzhardinge, 12 June 1668. He married, 1 January 1648/9 at Bruton, Anne (1623-1704), eldest  daughter and co-heir of Sir Henry Lee (d. 1631), 1st bt., of Quarrendon (Bucks), and had issue:

(1) Hon. Elinor Berkeley (b. 1650), born 14 February 1649/50 and was baptised at Bruton; married, after 1674 and before 1690, as his second wife, Hugh Montgomery (1651-1717), 2nd Earl of Mount Alexander, but had no surviving issue;

(2) Ann Berkeley (1653-62), baptised at Bruton, 4 March 1652/3; died young and was buried at Bruton, 13 August 1662;

(3) Elizabeth Berkeley (1655-57), born 26 September and baptised at Bruton, 4 October 1655; died in infancy and was buried at Bruton, 7 March 1656/7;

(4) Hon. Jane Berkeley (b. 1659), baptised at Bruton, 29 November 1659; married, 24 May 1683 at St Dunstan-in-the-East, London, George Berkeley (d. 1685) of Stoke Gifford (Glos), eldest son of Richard Berkeley (d. 1671) of Stoke Gifford, but had no issue;

(5) Charles Berkeley (b. 1661), born 4 July and baptised at St James, Clerkenwell, 15 July 1661; died young.

He also had illegitimate issue by Mary Rutley (fl. 1690):

(X1) Francis Berkeley alias Rutley; mentioned in his father's will in 1690, when he was a minor;

(X2) Maurice Berkeley alias Rutley; mentioned in his father's will in 1690, when he was a minor.

He inherited Bruton Abbey from his father in 1668.

He was buried at Bruton, 10 June 1690, when his baronetcy became extinct and his peerage passed to his youngest brother; his will was proved 27 June 1690. His widow married 2nd, 4 September 1695 at Bruton, George Fenn, and was buried at Bruton, 23 November 1704.

Berkeley, John (1650-1712), 4th Viscount Fitzhardinge of Berehaven. Sixth and youngest son of Sir Charles Berkeley (1599-1668), kt. and his wife Penelope, daughter of Sir William Godolphin of Godolphin House (Cornw.), baptised at Bruton, 18 April 1650. Page of Honour to King Charles II, 1668-72. An officer in the army (Ensign, 1673; Capt., 1675; Lt-Col., 1678; Col. of the 4th Dragoons, 1685-88, 1688-1712; Brig-Gen., 1690), who fought at the Battle of Sedgemoor, 1685. He was joint Searcher of Customs at Gravesend, 1681-94 (a post he discharged by deputy) and Master of Horse to HRH Princess Anne, 1685-1702. Tory MP for Hindon, 1691-95 and for New Windsor, 1695-1710. A teller of the Exchequer, 1693-1712; Treasurer of the Chamber to HM Queen Anne, 1702-12. He succeeded his elder brother as 4th Viscount Fitzhardinge in 1690 and took his seat in the Irish House of Lords, 5 October 1692. Custos Rotulorum for Somerset, 1690-1712. He married, probably about 1675, Barbara (c.1656-1708), Governess to the young Duke of Gloucester (d. 1700), eldest daughter of Sir Edward Villiers, Knight Marshal, and sister of 1st Earl of Jersey, and had issue:

(1) Hon. Mary Berkeley (d. 1738); married, 27 May 1703 at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster (Middx), Walter Chetwynd of Ingestre Hall (Staffs), who in 1717 was raised to the Irish peerage as Viscount Chetwynd, with remainder to the heirs male of his father; died 28 February 1737/8 and was buried at Ingestre;

(2) Hon. Katherine (or Frances) Berkeley (d. by 1720); married, about May 1706, as his first wife, Sir Thomas Clarges (1688-1755), 2nd bt., of Aston near Stevenage (Herts), MP for Lostwithiel, 1713-15, and had issue two children; died before 1720.

He inherited Bruton Abbey from his elder brother in 1690 but sold it in 1698 to Sir William Brownlow.

He died of palsy, 19 December 1712, when his peerages became extinct, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, where he is commemorated by a floor slab; his will was proved 3 January 1712/3. His wife died 19 September, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, 22 September 1708, where she is also commemorated by a monument.

Berkeley, Sir John (1607-78), kt., 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton. Fifth and youngest son of Sir Maurice Berkeley (c.1576-1617) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Killigrew, kt., baptised at Hanworth (Middx), 1 February 1606/7. Educated at Queen's College, Oxford (matriculated 1623; BA 1625). He was employed as an ambassador to Queen Christina of Sweden, 1637-38. He became an officer in the army the following year, and took part in the campaign against the Scots in 1639, being knighted by the king at Berwick, 27 July 1639. He was MP for Heytesbury in the Short Parliament, April 1640, but was not elected to the Long Parliament which began later that year, and he was implicated in the Army Plot discovered by Parliament in the spring of 1641 and briefly imprisoned in the Tower of London before being released on bail. At the outbreak of the Civil War he conducted a supply of arms and ammunition to Holland for the Queen, whose confidence he retained throughout the Civil War. He then became an important military commander in the West of England, establishing Royalist control of Devon and Cornwall with a decisive victory over the Earl of Stamford at the Battle of Stratton (Cornw.), and capturing Exeter, although he was obliged to surrender the city on honourable terms, 13 April 1646. In the later stages of the war he was involved in trying negotiate terms for peace, and attended the king on his ill-fated flight from Hampton Court to Carisbrooke Castle (Isle of Wight). He then went into exile with the royal family, and became acting governor of the Duke of York and later Comptroller of the Duke's household, 1652. The duke seems to have trusted him, but Charles II was less certain of him, sensing that his loyalty was motivated as much by self-interest as anything. He was raised to the peerage at the Duke's request, as Baron Berkeley of Stratton*, 19 May 1658. At the Restoration, he was made a Commissioner of the Navy, 1660-64 and sworn of the Privy Council, 1663, and was also appointed Lord President of Connaught, Governor of Galway and Constable of Athlone Castle (offices which he discharged by deputy). He exchanged his navy position for the post of chief Commissioner for executing the office of Master General of the Ordnance, 1665-70, before being sent to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant, 1670-72. In 1675-76 he was ambassador to the court of Louis XIV at Versailles (France). He married, about 1660, Christian (1639-98), daughter and heiress of Andrew Riccard (c.1604-72) of London, president of the East India Co., the young widow of John Gayer (d. 1657) of Stoke Poges (Bucks), son of Sir John Gayer, kt., Lord Mayor of London in 1647, and of Henry Rich (1642-59), Lord Kensington, son of Robert Rich, 5th Earl of Warwick, and had issue:

(1) Charles Berkeley (1662-82), 2nd Baron Berkeley of Stratton (q.v.);

(2) John Berkeley (c.1663-97), 3rd Baron Berkeley of Stratton (q.v.);

(3) Hon. Anne Berkeley (1665-1709), baptised at Christ Church, Oxford, 26 February 1665; married, 3 September 1681 at Berkeley House, Piccadilly, Sir Dudley Cullum (1657-1720), 3rd bt., of Hawstead (Suffk), MP for Suffolk 1702-05 (who m2, 12 June 1710, Anne, daughter of James Wicks of Bury St. Edmunds), but had no issue; died 2 June 1709 and was buried at Hawstead;

(4) Maurice Berkeley (c.1667-c.1679), born about 1667; third son named in the will of his grandfather, Andrew Riccard, in 1672, but was presumably dead by 1679 when his siblings were parties to a lawsuit over the will but he was not;

(5) William Berkeley (c.1670-1741), 4th Baron Berkeley of Stratton (q.v.).

He built Berkeley House, Piccadilly, London to the designs of Hugh May in 1665-73, and bought Twickenham Park House in 1668. He also acquired important interests in the American colonies of Carolina and New Jersey, of which he was co-proprietor from 1663-78 and 1664-74, respectively. He sold his interest in New Jersey in 1674. After his death, his widow seems to have had a life interest in Berkeley House, which she sold to the Duke of Devonshire in 1696, but the family retained the rest of the large plot on which the house stood, and which was later developed as Berkeley Square, Berkeley St. and Stratton St.

He was buried at Twickenham (Middx), 5 September 1678, having died at the end of August; his will was proved in the PCC, 2 October 1678. His widow died 29 August and was buried at Twickenham, 1 September 1698.

* He took the topographical element of his title from the place where he won a military victory in 1643.

Berkeley, Charles (1662-82), 2nd Baron Berkeley of Stratton. Eldest son of Sir John Berkeley (1607-78), kt., 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton, and his wife Christian, daughter and heiress of Andrew Riccard (c.1604-72) of London, and the widow of John Gayer (d. 1657) of Stoke Poges (Bucks), and of Henry Rich (1642-59), Lord Kensington, born 18 June 1662. He was at first an officer in the army (Guidon, 1677; Cornet, 1679; Lt., 1681), before switching across to join in the Royal Navy in 1681 (Capt., 1682). He succeeded his father as 2nd Baron Berkeley of Stratton, 29 August 1678. His parents attempted to arrange marriages for him while he was a child with Mary Davies (heiress to an estate including the sites of Buckingham Palace, Green Park and Millbank in London) and later with Lady Essex Rich (co-heir to the 3rd Earl of Warwick), but neither marriage was realised and he died unmarried and without issue.

He inherited Twickenham Park from his father in 1678, but died before coming of age.

He died of smallpox at sea, 6 March 1681/2, and was buried at Twickenham, 21 September 1682; administration of his goods was granted to his mother, 11 April 1684.

Berkeley, Admiral of the Fleet John (c.1663-97), 3rd Baron Berkeley of Stratton. Second son of Sir John Berkeley (1607-78), kt., 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton, and his wife Christian, daughter and heiress of Andrew Riccard (c.1604-72) of London, and the widow of John Gayer (d. 1657) of Stoke Poges (Bucks), and of Henry Rich (1642-59), Lord Kensington, born about 1663. Educated at Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1677). He joined the Royal Navy as a volunteer in about 1680, and in the early 1680s was convicted of killing one Ralph Tonycliff, but was pardoned in May 1684. He was first commissioned in 1685 (Lt., 1685; Capt. 1686; Rear-Adm., 1688; Vice-Adm., 1693; Adm., 1693; Adm. of the Fleet, 1696). Although an officer in the Fleet assigned to guard against invasion from Holland in 1688, he quickly became one of the leaders of a Williamite conspiracy in the Navy and James II regarded him as one of the 'most factious and disaffected officers of the navy', but after William III seized the Crown he was regarded as a patriot and assured of rapid promotion. He also held army commissions in the Horse Guards (Cornet and Major, 1685), the 2nd Regt. of Royal Marines (Col.) and the 4th Horse, (Col., 1692-93). He was also Groom of the Stole and first Gentleman of the Bedchamber to Prince George of Denmark (1653-1708). A Tory in politics. He is recorded as fighting a duel with Col. Granville, 3 March 1691/2, and shortly afterwards married, 8 March 1691/2, Jane Martha (1672-1751), one of the Maids of Honour to Queen Mary II, daughter of Sir John Temple, kt., of East Sheen (Surrey) and sister of Henry Temple, 1st Viscount Palmerston, and had issue:

(1) Hon. William Berkeley (d. 1696); died in infancy and was buried at Twickenham (Middx), 11 April 1696;

(2) Hon. Mary Berkeley (d. 1696); died in infancy and was buried at Twickenham, 23 March 1696;

(3) Hon. Mary Berkeley (1696?-98), probably born in March or April 1696; mentioned in her father's will in April 1696 but died in infancy, 20 March 1697/8.

He inherited Twickenham Park from his elder brother in 1682, but sold it in 1685 to Robert Brudenell, 2nd Earl of Cardigan. 

He died of pleurisy, 27 February, and was buried at Twickenham, 5 March 1696/7; his will was proved in the PCC, 15 April 1697. His widow married 2nd, 12 May 1700 at Chiswick (Middx), as his second wife, Gen. Hans William Bentinck (1649-1709) KG, 1st Earl of Portland and had issue two sons and four daughters; in later life, as Countess of Portland, she was Governess to the daughters of King George II; she died at Whitehall, 26 June 1751, and was buried with her father at Mortlake (Surrey); her will was proved 20 July 1751.

Berkeley, Rt. Hon. William (c.1670-1741), 4th Baron Berkeley of Stratton. Fourth and youngest son of Sir John Berkeley (1607-78), kt., 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton, and his wife Christian, daughter and heiress of Andrew Riccard (c.1604-72) of London, and the widow of John Gayer (d. 1657) of Stoke Poges (Bucks), and of Henry Rich (1642-59), Lord Kensington, born about 1670 and before 1672. Master of the Rolls in Ireland, 1696-1731 (at that time a sinecure, with the limited duties discharged by deputies); sworn of the Privy Council of Ireland, 1696. He succeeded his elder brother as 4th Baron Berkeley of Stratton, 27 February 1696/7. A Tory in politics, he was Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, 1710-14, First Lord of Trade and the Plantations, 1714-15, and was sworn of the Privy Council of Great Britain, 1710. He married, 30 July 1696 at All Saints, Wandsworth (Surrey), Frances (1673-1707), youngest daughter of Sir John Temple, kt., of East Sheen (Surrey), and had issue:

(1) Rt. Hon. John Berkeley (1697-1773), 5th Baron Berkeley of Stratton (q.v.);

(2) Hon. Jane Berkeley (1699-1744?), baptised at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster (Middx), 9 March 1698/9; unmarried and without issue; probably the woman of this name buried at Bruton, 12 April 1744;

(3) Hon. William Berkeley (1700-33), born 22 May and baptised at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster (Middx), 24 May 1700; an officer in the Royal Navy (Lt., 1721; Cdr., 1726; Capt., 1727); he was unmarried and without issue; died on board HMS Tiger, 25 March 1733;

(4) Hon. Charles Berkeley (1701-65), born 21 June and baptised at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster, 25 June 1701; married, 13 June 1745 at Rushbrooke (Suffk), Frances, daughter of Col. John West, and had issue one daughter; buried at Bruton, 5 August 1765; will proved in the PCC, 27 September 1765;

(5) Hon. Frances Berkeley (1703-57), baptised at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster, 9 April 1703; married 1st, 3 December 1720 at Kensington (Middx), as his third wife, William Byron (1670-1736), 4th Baron Byron of Rochdale, and had issue at least four sons and one daughter; married 2nd, 31 July 1740, as his second wife, Sir Thomas Hay (d. 1769), 2nd bt., of Alderston (East Lothian); buried at Twickenham, 21 September 1757; her will was proved in the PCC, 2 November 1757;

(6) Hon. Barbara Berkeley (1704-72), born 8 November and baptised at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster, 13 November 1704; married, 29 March 1726, John Trevanion (d. 1740) of Caerhayes (Cornw.), and had issue one son and two daughters; died in Bath (Som.), 16 March 1772, and was buried at St Michael Caerhayes (Cornw.); will proved in the PCC, 15 April 1772;

(7) Hon. Anne Berkeley (1707-39), born 24 June and baptised at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster, 4 July 1707; married, 1737 (licence 21 May), as his second wife, James Cocks (c.1685-1750) of Bel Bar, near Hatfield (Herts), MP for Reigate, 1707-10, 1713-47, son of Charles Cocks MP of Powick (Worcs), and had issue one son; died in childbirth, 3 February 1738/9.

He inherited his family's London property (around Berkeley Square), probably on the death of his mother in 1698. He repurchased Bruton Abbey in 1717.

He died at Bruton Abbey, 24 March 1740/1, and was buried at Bruton, 28 March 1741; his will was proved 20 April 1741. His wife died following childbirth, 16 July, and was buried at Twickenham, 21 July 1707.

Berkeley, Rt. Hon. John (1697-1773), 5th Baron Berkeley of Stratton. Eldest son of Rt. Hon. William Berkeley (c.1670-1741), 4th Baron Berkeley of Stratton, and his wife Frances, youngest daughter of Sir John Temple, kt., of East Sheen (Surrey), born 16 May 1697. Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1713). Initially a Tory in politics, he became a friend and political follower of Lord Carteret, who sent him on an embassy to St. Petersburg in 1719 to offer British mediation between Russia and Sweden. MP for Stockbridge, 1735-41. He succeeded his father as 5th Baron Berkeley of Stratton, 24 March 1740/1. Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard, 1743-46. He was sworn of the Privy Council, 1752, and was Treasurer of the Royal Household, 1755-56, Captain of the Gentlemen Pensioners, 1756-62, Constable of the Tower of London and Lord Lieutenant of Tower Hamlets, 1762-70. He was probably married, 24 March 1715/6 in the precincts of the Fleet prison, London to Elizabeth Bridges (d. 1776), but had no issue.

He inherited Bruton Abbey and the London estate from his father in 1741. By his will he left his estates (subject to the life interest of Mrs Anne Egerton, daughter of the Bishop of Hereford, who was the granddaughter of an aunt) to his distant cousin, Frederick Augustus Berkeley (1745-1810), 5th Earl of Berkeley.

He died 18 April 1773, when his peerage became extinct, and was buried at Bruton, 26 April 1773; his will was proved 13 May 1773. His widow died in December 1776, and was buried at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster (Middx), 6 January 1777.

Principal sources

Burke's Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies, 2nd edn., 1841, pp. 57-58; Burke's Dormant and Extinct Peerages, 1883, pp. 46-47; G.E. C[okayne], The Complete Peerage, vol. ii, pp. 147-49, vol. v, pp. 407-10; P. Couzens, Bruton in Selwood, 1968; VCH Somerset, vol. 7, 1999, pp. 9, 18-42, 64; Sir J. Baker, The men of court, 1440-1550, 2012, p. 305; R. Gallannaugh, The Bruton Abbey project, n.d. [c.2012]; Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entries on 1st and 3rd Barons Berkeley of Stratton; History of Parliament biographies of members of the family who were MPs.

Location of archives

Berkeley, John (1697-1773), 5th Baron Berkeley of Stratton: political diaries, 1756-67 [Lincolnshire Archives, BNLW/4/5/4]

Coat of arms

Gules, a chevron ermine between ten crosses pattée argent.

Can you help?

• Can anyone throw any light on the architect responsible for the neo-Jacobean remodelling of Bruton Abbey in the 1760s?
• 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 5 August 2024 and was updated 6 August 2024.