Individual Details
Sir Thomas de Berkley 1st Baron
(23 Jul 1245 - 23 Jul 1321)
“Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial & Medieval Families,” Douglas Richardson (2013):
"THOMAS DE BERKELEY, Knt., of Berkeley, Gloucestershire, Wendon, Essex, etc., Vice-Constable of England, 2nd but 1st surviving son and heir, born at Berkeley about 1251 (aged 30 in 1281). He married in 1267 JOAN DE FERRERS, daughter of William de Ferrers, Knt., 5th Earl of Derby, by his 2nd wife, Margaret (or Margery), daughter and co-heiress of Roger de Quincy, Knt., 2nd Earl of Winchester, hereditary Constable of Scotland [see FERRERS 7 for her ancestry]. Her maritagium included the manors of Coston, Leicestershire and Eynesbury Berkeley, Huntingdonshire. They had four sons, Maurice, Knt. [2nd Lord Berkeley], Thomas, Knt., John, and [Master] James [Bishop of Exeter], and two daughters, Margaret and Isabel [Prioress of Buckland Priory]. In the period, c.1254-60, Robert de Ferrers granted the manor of Easton, Leicestershire to his sister, Joan de Ferrers. He was present at the Battle of Evesham in 1265. He and his wife, Joan, presented to the church of Coston, Leicestershire in 1277. He served in the first expedition against Llywelyn, Prince of Wales, in 1277, and again in the second invasion under the king in 1282. In 1284 he was ordered by the Bishop of Worcester against distraining the cattle of the tenants of the church of Cam. He was on the commission to inquire into claims to the Scottish crown in 1292. In 1292 John Tarbaud brought the Replegiare against him; Thomas avowed the taking by reason that he and his ancestors had held the hundred of Berkeley of the king in fee farm, in which hundred all those within the precinct of the hundred ought to come at two Lawdays in the year to present hue and cry. He was summoned to Parliament 24 June 1295 by writ directed Thome de Berkelegh', whereby he may be held to have become Lord Berkeley. He was employed on an embassy to France in 1296, and to Pope Clement V in 1307. He fought at the Battle of Falkirk 22 July 1298, and was present at the Siege of Caerlaverock in 1300. He signed the Barons' letter to Pope Boniface VIII in 1301 as D'n's de Berkele. In 1303, while Thomas and his son, Maurice, were with the king in Scotland, Maurice's officers seized and imprisoned a Bristol burgess named Richard Cornwall at Redcliffe on a charge of murder. The men of Bristol liberated their fellow townsman, and, according to a complaint lodged by Maurice, they made away with goods to the value of 500 marks. This resulted in open conflict with the burgesses of Bristol, in which the burgesses alleged that the Berkeleys' men beat and assaulted them, so that they were not able to venture outside the town on legitimate business. The justices appointed to deal with the case gave judgment against the Berkeleys. A heavy amercement was levied on them which was commuted for service in the Scottish war, but the liberties of the manor and hundred of Bedminster were taken into the king's hands. In 1303 he purchased the reversion of the manor of Frampton on Severn, Gloucestershire from Richard de Clifford son and heir of John de Clifford, Knt.; he subsequently conveyed the manor in 1305 to Robert Fitz Payn, 1st Lord Fitzpayn, and his wife, Isabel, for an annual rent of 22 marks. In 1306 he obtained a license to alienate in mortmain two shops in Wells, Somerset to the Prioress and sisters of Buckland Priory. He was summoned to attend the Coronation of King Edward II in 1308. He was taken prisoner at the Battle of Bannockburn 24 June 1314, paying a large sum for his ransom. His wife, Joan, died 19 March 1309/10, and was buried at St. Augustine's, Bristol. In 1321 the king directed him and 70 others to arrest those that disturb the peace and spread false reports. SIR THOMAS DE BERKELEY, 1st Lord Berkeley, died 23 July 1321.
Dugdale Baronage of England 1 (1675): 348; 2 (1676): 349-369 (sub Berkeley). Brydges Collins' Peerage of England 3 (1812): 591-627 (sub Earl of Berkeley). Rpt. on the Procs. on the Claim to the Barony of L'Isle (1829). Year Books of Edward I: Years XX & XXI (Rolls Ser. 31a) 1 (1866): 338-339. Hardy Syllabus (in English) of the Docs. Rel. England & Other Kingdoms 1 (1869): 211. Turner Cal. Charters & Rolls: Bodleian Lib. (1878): 57 (charter of Thomas de Berkeley dated 1301). Genealogist 4 (1880): 50-58. Burke Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited & Extinct Peerages (1883): 43 15 (sub Berkeley). Smyth Berkeley MSS 1(1883): 153-222 (Thomas styled "cozen" by King Edward I of England). Doyle Official Baronage of England 1 (1886): 169-170 (sub Berkeley). Tresswell & Vincent Vis. of Shropshire 1623, 1569 & 1584 1 (H.S.P. 28) (1889): 30 (1623 Vis.) (Barkley ped.: "Thomas Lo. of Barkley mar. Isabell da. of Wm. Ferrers E. of Derby"). Birch Cat. Seals in the British Museum 2 (1892): 497 (seal of Thomas de Berkeley, [1st Lord Berkeley?] dated early 14th cent. - A shield of arms, a chevron between ten crosses crosslet, six in chief four in base, BERKELEY. Suspended by a strap from a hook, and between two wyverns. Legend: * SIGLLVM : THOME DE *BERKELE. Beaded borders.). Jeayes Desc. Cat. of the Charters & Muniments in the Possession of the Rt. Hon. Lord Fitzhardinge (1892): xxii-xxiii (chart), 118 (charter of Robert de Ferrers dated c.1254-60 to his sister, Joan de Ferrers). C.P.R. 1307-1313 (1894): 385. C.P.R. 1301-1307 (1898): 466. Giffard Episc. Reg. Diocese of Worcester, Reg. of Bishop Godfrey Giffard 2(3) (Worcester Hist. Soc. 15) (1900): 234. Genealogist n.s. 18 (1902): 188-189. Howard de Walden Some Feudal Lords & Their Seals (1903): 74 (biog. of Thomas de Berkeley). Wrottesley Peds. from the Plea Rolls (1905): 386-387. D.N.B. 2 (1908): 339-343 (Berkeley, Fam. of). Weaver Cartulary of Buckland Priory (Somerset Rec. Soc. 25) (1909): xxiv, xxvii. C.P. 2 (1912): 127-128, 145 (sub Berkeley); 5 (1926): chart foll. 320. Year Books of Edward II 13 (Selden Soc. 34) (1918): 31-32. Davis Rotuli Ricardi Gravesend Episcopi Lincolniensis 1258-1279 (Lincoln Rec. Soc. 20) (1925): 160. VCH Huntingdon 2 (1932): 274, 276. Richardson & Sayles Rotuli Ped. Anglie Hactenus Inediti 1274-1373 (Camden Soc. 3rd Ser. 51) (1935): 18-19. Bristol Charters 2 (Bristol Rec. Soc. 11) (1946): 38-41. Lawrance Heraldry from Military Monuments before 1350 (H.S.P. 98) (1946): 3-4. Trans. Bristol & Gloucs. Arch. Soc. 71 (1952): 100-121; 84 (1965): 31-43. Dunham Lord Hastings' Indentured Retainers 1461-1483 (Trans. Connecticut Academy of Arts & Sciences 39) (1955): 56-57. Davis Anc. Of Nicholas Davis (1956): 185-187. Paget Baronage of England (1957) 55: 1-2 (sub Berkeley). Sanders English Baronies (1960): 13. Saltman Cartulary of Tutbury Priory (Colls. Hist. Staffs. 4th Ser. 4) (1962): 83-84. Haines Cal. Reg. of Wolstan de Brantford (Worcestershire Hist. Soc. n.s. 4) (1966): xxxv-xxxvi. VCH Gloucester 10 (1972): 143-148. Ellis Cat. Seals in the P.R.O. I (1978): 7 (seal of Thomas de Berkeley dated c.1300 - Hung from a hook, between two wyverns, a shield of arms: a chevron between ten crosses paty. Legend: SIGILLVM: THOME DE BERKELE); 2 (1981): 10 (seal of Thomas, Lord Berkeley dated 1273 - In a cusped circle, a shield of arms, couché: a chevron between ten crosses formy; helm above with mantling and crest: a mitre, patterned with crosses formy; on right a mermaid with comb and mirror. Legend: SIGILLVM. THOME. D.....). Sutton Rolls & Reg. of Bishop Oliver Sutton, 1280-1299 8 (Lincoln Rec. Soc. 76) (1986): 87-88. Brault Rolls of Arms Edward I 2 (1997): 47-48 (arms of Thomas de Berkeley: Gules, crusily and a chevron argent; he sealed with a crusily and a chevron in 1273 and c.1300). Online resource: http://www.briantimms.net/era/lord_marshals/Lord_Marshal02/Lord%20Marshal2.htm (Lord Marshal's Roll - arms of Thomas de Berkeley: Gules a chevron argent).
Children of Thomas de Berkeley, Knt., by Joan de Ferrers:
i. MAURICE DE BERKELEY, Knt., 2nd Lord Berkeley fsee next].
ii. THOMAS DE BERKELEY, Knt., of Coston, Leicestershire, Wick (in Arlingham), Gloucestershire, Eynesbury, Huntingdonshire, etc., and, in right of his 1st wife, of Wollaston, Northamptonshire, 2nd son. He married (1st) before 1310 MARGERY LE BRAY, daughter and heiress of Robert le Bray, Knt., of Wollaston, Northamptonshire. They had one son, Thomas, and one daughter, Katherine (wife of ___ de la Dale and Richard Chamberlain, Knt.). He married (2nd) before 12 June 1318 (date of grant) ISABEL HAMELYN, daughter and heiress of John Hamelyn, Knt., of Wymondham, Leicestershire. They had one son, John, Knt. SIR THOMAS DE BERKELEY died 15 Feb. 1346. Fosbroke Berkeley Manuscripts (1821): 114 (Berkeley ped.). Burke Gen. & Heraldic Hist. of tbe Extinct & Dormant Baronetcies (1844): 58-59 (sub Berkeley). Jeayes Desc. Cat. of the Charters & Muniments in the Possession of the Rt. Hon. Lord Fitzhardinge (1892): xxii-xxiii (chart). Arch. Cantiana 26 (1904): 326 (Berkeley-Livesey ped.). C.C.R. 1346-1349 (1905): 215. VCH Buckingham 4(1927): 338-343. VCH Northampton 4 (1937): 29-39, 58. Ellis Cat. Seals in the P.R.O. 2 (1981): 10 (seal of Thomas de Berkeley the younger dated 1316- A shield of arms: a chevron between ten sexfoils. Legend: *S'.THOME.DE.BERKELEYE). Berkeley Castle Muniments, BCM/A/1/11/11 (grant dated 12 June 1318 by Thomas de Berkeley, lord of Berkeley, to his son, Thomas de Berkeley, and his wife, Isabel) (available at www.a2a.org.uk/search/index.asp).
iii. [MASTER] JAMES DE BERKELEY, derk, prebendary of Corsley, prebendary of Waltham, Sussex, Chaplain to the Pope, Archdeacon of Huntingdon, Bishop of Exeter, younger son. He died 24 June 1327. Rymer Fædera 2(1) (1818): 358, 369 (Master James de Berkeley, "sacræ theologiæ doctor" styled "kinsman" by King Edward II). Hardy Syllabus (in English) of the Docs. Rel. England & Other Kingdoms 1(1869): 198 (Date: 1318. March 20. - "The King recommends his relative James de Berkele to the pope."), 199 (Date: 1318. July 29.- "The King agains ask the pope to favour his relative James de Berkele."). Jeayes Desc. Cat. of the
"THOMAS DE BERKELEY, Knt., of Berkeley, Gloucestershire, Wendon, Essex, etc., Vice-Constable of England, 2nd but 1st surviving son and heir, born at Berkeley about 1251 (aged 30 in 1281). He married in 1267 JOAN DE FERRERS, daughter of William de Ferrers, Knt., 5th Earl of Derby, by his 2nd wife, Margaret (or Margery), daughter and co-heiress of Roger de Quincy, Knt., 2nd Earl of Winchester, hereditary Constable of Scotland [see FERRERS 7 for her ancestry]. Her maritagium included the manors of Coston, Leicestershire and Eynesbury Berkeley, Huntingdonshire. They had four sons, Maurice, Knt. [2nd Lord Berkeley], Thomas, Knt., John, and [Master] James [Bishop of Exeter], and two daughters, Margaret and Isabel [Prioress of Buckland Priory]. In the period, c.1254-60, Robert de Ferrers granted the manor of Easton, Leicestershire to his sister, Joan de Ferrers. He was present at the Battle of Evesham in 1265. He and his wife, Joan, presented to the church of Coston, Leicestershire in 1277. He served in the first expedition against Llywelyn, Prince of Wales, in 1277, and again in the second invasion under the king in 1282. In 1284 he was ordered by the Bishop of Worcester against distraining the cattle of the tenants of the church of Cam. He was on the commission to inquire into claims to the Scottish crown in 1292. In 1292 John Tarbaud brought the Replegiare against him; Thomas avowed the taking by reason that he and his ancestors had held the hundred of Berkeley of the king in fee farm, in which hundred all those within the precinct of the hundred ought to come at two Lawdays in the year to present hue and cry. He was summoned to Parliament 24 June 1295 by writ directed Thome de Berkelegh', whereby he may be held to have become Lord Berkeley. He was employed on an embassy to France in 1296, and to Pope Clement V in 1307. He fought at the Battle of Falkirk 22 July 1298, and was present at the Siege of Caerlaverock in 1300. He signed the Barons' letter to Pope Boniface VIII in 1301 as D'n's de Berkele. In 1303, while Thomas and his son, Maurice, were with the king in Scotland, Maurice's officers seized and imprisoned a Bristol burgess named Richard Cornwall at Redcliffe on a charge of murder. The men of Bristol liberated their fellow townsman, and, according to a complaint lodged by Maurice, they made away with goods to the value of 500 marks. This resulted in open conflict with the burgesses of Bristol, in which the burgesses alleged that the Berkeleys' men beat and assaulted them, so that they were not able to venture outside the town on legitimate business. The justices appointed to deal with the case gave judgment against the Berkeleys. A heavy amercement was levied on them which was commuted for service in the Scottish war, but the liberties of the manor and hundred of Bedminster were taken into the king's hands. In 1303 he purchased the reversion of the manor of Frampton on Severn, Gloucestershire from Richard de Clifford son and heir of John de Clifford, Knt.; he subsequently conveyed the manor in 1305 to Robert Fitz Payn, 1st Lord Fitzpayn, and his wife, Isabel, for an annual rent of 22 marks. In 1306 he obtained a license to alienate in mortmain two shops in Wells, Somerset to the Prioress and sisters of Buckland Priory. He was summoned to attend the Coronation of King Edward II in 1308. He was taken prisoner at the Battle of Bannockburn 24 June 1314, paying a large sum for his ransom. His wife, Joan, died 19 March 1309/10, and was buried at St. Augustine's, Bristol. In 1321 the king directed him and 70 others to arrest those that disturb the peace and spread false reports. SIR THOMAS DE BERKELEY, 1st Lord Berkeley, died 23 July 1321.
Dugdale Baronage of England 1 (1675): 348; 2 (1676): 349-369 (sub Berkeley). Brydges Collins' Peerage of England 3 (1812): 591-627 (sub Earl of Berkeley). Rpt. on the Procs. on the Claim to the Barony of L'Isle (1829). Year Books of Edward I: Years XX & XXI (Rolls Ser. 31a) 1 (1866): 338-339. Hardy Syllabus (in English) of the Docs. Rel. England & Other Kingdoms 1 (1869): 211. Turner Cal. Charters & Rolls: Bodleian Lib. (1878): 57 (charter of Thomas de Berkeley dated 1301). Genealogist 4 (1880): 50-58. Burke Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited & Extinct Peerages (1883): 43 15 (sub Berkeley). Smyth Berkeley MSS 1(1883): 153-222 (Thomas styled "cozen" by King Edward I of England). Doyle Official Baronage of England 1 (1886): 169-170 (sub Berkeley). Tresswell & Vincent Vis. of Shropshire 1623, 1569 & 1584 1 (H.S.P. 28) (1889): 30 (1623 Vis.) (Barkley ped.: "Thomas Lo. of Barkley mar. Isabell da. of Wm. Ferrers E. of Derby"). Birch Cat. Seals in the British Museum 2 (1892): 497 (seal of Thomas de Berkeley, [1st Lord Berkeley?] dated early 14th cent. - A shield of arms, a chevron between ten crosses crosslet, six in chief four in base, BERKELEY. Suspended by a strap from a hook, and between two wyverns. Legend: * SIGLLVM : THOME DE *BERKELE. Beaded borders.). Jeayes Desc. Cat. of the Charters & Muniments in the Possession of the Rt. Hon. Lord Fitzhardinge (1892): xxii-xxiii (chart), 118 (charter of Robert de Ferrers dated c.1254-60 to his sister, Joan de Ferrers). C.P.R. 1307-1313 (1894): 385. C.P.R. 1301-1307 (1898): 466. Giffard Episc. Reg. Diocese of Worcester, Reg. of Bishop Godfrey Giffard 2(3) (Worcester Hist. Soc. 15) (1900): 234. Genealogist n.s. 18 (1902): 188-189. Howard de Walden Some Feudal Lords & Their Seals (1903): 74 (biog. of Thomas de Berkeley). Wrottesley Peds. from the Plea Rolls (1905): 386-387. D.N.B. 2 (1908): 339-343 (Berkeley, Fam. of). Weaver Cartulary of Buckland Priory (Somerset Rec. Soc. 25) (1909): xxiv, xxvii. C.P. 2 (1912): 127-128, 145 (sub Berkeley); 5 (1926): chart foll. 320. Year Books of Edward II 13 (Selden Soc. 34) (1918): 31-32. Davis Rotuli Ricardi Gravesend Episcopi Lincolniensis 1258-1279 (Lincoln Rec. Soc. 20) (1925): 160. VCH Huntingdon 2 (1932): 274, 276. Richardson & Sayles Rotuli Ped. Anglie Hactenus Inediti 1274-1373 (Camden Soc. 3rd Ser. 51) (1935): 18-19. Bristol Charters 2 (Bristol Rec. Soc. 11) (1946): 38-41. Lawrance Heraldry from Military Monuments before 1350 (H.S.P. 98) (1946): 3-4. Trans. Bristol & Gloucs. Arch. Soc. 71 (1952): 100-121; 84 (1965): 31-43. Dunham Lord Hastings' Indentured Retainers 1461-1483 (Trans. Connecticut Academy of Arts & Sciences 39) (1955): 56-57. Davis Anc. Of Nicholas Davis (1956): 185-187. Paget Baronage of England (1957) 55: 1-2 (sub Berkeley). Sanders English Baronies (1960): 13. Saltman Cartulary of Tutbury Priory (Colls. Hist. Staffs. 4th Ser. 4) (1962): 83-84. Haines Cal. Reg. of Wolstan de Brantford (Worcestershire Hist. Soc. n.s. 4) (1966): xxxv-xxxvi. VCH Gloucester 10 (1972): 143-148. Ellis Cat. Seals in the P.R.O. I (1978): 7 (seal of Thomas de Berkeley dated c.1300 - Hung from a hook, between two wyverns, a shield of arms: a chevron between ten crosses paty. Legend: SIGILLVM: THOME DE BERKELE); 2 (1981): 10 (seal of Thomas, Lord Berkeley dated 1273 - In a cusped circle, a shield of arms, couché: a chevron between ten crosses formy; helm above with mantling and crest: a mitre, patterned with crosses formy; on right a mermaid with comb and mirror. Legend: SIGILLVM. THOME. D.....). Sutton Rolls & Reg. of Bishop Oliver Sutton, 1280-1299 8 (Lincoln Rec. Soc. 76) (1986): 87-88. Brault Rolls of Arms Edward I 2 (1997): 47-48 (arms of Thomas de Berkeley: Gules, crusily and a chevron argent; he sealed with a crusily and a chevron in 1273 and c.1300). Online resource: http://www.briantimms.net/era/lord_marshals/Lord_Marshal02/Lord%20Marshal2.htm (Lord Marshal's Roll - arms of Thomas de Berkeley: Gules a chevron argent).
Children of Thomas de Berkeley, Knt., by Joan de Ferrers:
i. MAURICE DE BERKELEY, Knt., 2nd Lord Berkeley fsee next].
ii. THOMAS DE BERKELEY, Knt., of Coston, Leicestershire, Wick (in Arlingham), Gloucestershire, Eynesbury, Huntingdonshire, etc., and, in right of his 1st wife, of Wollaston, Northamptonshire, 2nd son. He married (1st) before 1310 MARGERY LE BRAY, daughter and heiress of Robert le Bray, Knt., of Wollaston, Northamptonshire. They had one son, Thomas, and one daughter, Katherine (wife of ___ de la Dale and Richard Chamberlain, Knt.). He married (2nd) before 12 June 1318 (date of grant) ISABEL HAMELYN, daughter and heiress of John Hamelyn, Knt., of Wymondham, Leicestershire. They had one son, John, Knt. SIR THOMAS DE BERKELEY died 15 Feb. 1346. Fosbroke Berkeley Manuscripts (1821): 114 (Berkeley ped.). Burke Gen. & Heraldic Hist. of tbe Extinct & Dormant Baronetcies (1844): 58-59 (sub Berkeley). Jeayes Desc. Cat. of the Charters & Muniments in the Possession of the Rt. Hon. Lord Fitzhardinge (1892): xxii-xxiii (chart). Arch. Cantiana 26 (1904): 326 (Berkeley-Livesey ped.). C.C.R. 1346-1349 (1905): 215. VCH Buckingham 4(1927): 338-343. VCH Northampton 4 (1937): 29-39, 58. Ellis Cat. Seals in the P.R.O. 2 (1981): 10 (seal of Thomas de Berkeley the younger dated 1316- A shield of arms: a chevron between ten sexfoils. Legend: *S'.THOME.DE.BERKELEYE). Berkeley Castle Muniments, BCM/A/1/11/11 (grant dated 12 June 1318 by Thomas de Berkeley, lord of Berkeley, to his son, Thomas de Berkeley, and his wife, Isabel) (available at www.a2a.org.uk/search/index.asp).
iii. [MASTER] JAMES DE BERKELEY, derk, prebendary of Corsley, prebendary of Waltham, Sussex, Chaplain to the Pope, Archdeacon of Huntingdon, Bishop of Exeter, younger son. He died 24 June 1327. Rymer Fædera 2(1) (1818): 358, 369 (Master James de Berkeley, "sacræ theologiæ doctor" styled "kinsman" by King Edward II). Hardy Syllabus (in English) of the Docs. Rel. England & Other Kingdoms 1(1869): 198 (Date: 1318. March 20. - "The King recommends his relative James de Berkele to the pope."), 199 (Date: 1318. July 29.- "The King agains ask the pope to favour his relative James de Berkele."). Jeayes Desc. Cat. of the
Events
| Birth | 23 Jul 1245 | ||||
| Death | 23 Jul 1321 |
Families
| Spouse | Joan de Ferrers Baroness Berkeley (1248 - 1309) |
| Child | Maurice de Berkley 2nd Baron (1271 - 1326) |
| Father | Sir Maurice de Berkley (1218 - 1281) |
| Mother | Isabel Fitzroy (1220 - 1277) |