Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 04.djvu/365

 of Gloucester. From this office he was removed in 1711, but was reappointed on the accession of George I. On 16 April 1717 he was appointed first lord commissioner of the admiralty, and continued in that post for ten years, till the death of the king. In March 1718-9, during the short war with Spain he was appointed commander-in-chief of the fleet in the Channel, with Sir John Norris commanding in the second post. Norris was senior on the list of admirals ; but they were both lords commissioners of the admiralty, and in that capacity Berkeley was the superior. He was also vice-admiral of the kingdom ; Norris was only rear-admiral. These offices have always, except in this one instance, been considered as purely civil, giving no executive command ; but on this occasion Berkeley, 'by a particular warrant from the crown, hoisted the lord high-admiral's flag (the first time it was ever worn in command at sea), and had three captains appointed under him as a lord high-admiral, Littleton, then vice-admiral of the white, being his first captain' ('s Life of Sir John Leaks (1750), 42) ; Hosier was the second. On the rare occasions on which a lord high-admiral has actually commanded a fleet, he has always worn the standard as the flag of command ; but, except by special order from the crown, the first commissioner, as such, has no executive authority.

After this cruise, on 15 April 1719 Berkeley struck his flag and held no further command at sea, but five times he was one of the lords justices when the king went to Hanover. In April 1718 he was installed as a knight of the Garter, and the number of honorary appointments which he held was very great. He died at Aubigny in France, a seat of the Duke of Richmond, on 17 Aug. 1736, and was buried at Berkeley. He married, in 1714, Lady Louisa Lennox, daughter of the first Duke of Richmond, by whom he had one son, who succeeded him as fourth earl, and a daughter.  BERKELEY, JOHN, first (d. 1678), soldier and courtier, the youngest son of Sir Maurice Berkeley of Bruton in Somersetshire (of a family descended from Sir Maurice (d. 1346-7), second son of Maurice, second Lord Berkeley [see ]) by Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Henry Killigrew of Hanworth, Middlesex, was accredited ambassador from Charles I to Christina, queen of Sweden, in January 1636-7, to propose a joint effort, by the two sovereigns for the reinstatement of the elector palatine in his dominions. Probably the employment of Berkeley in this business was suggested by his cousin, Sir Thomas Roe, who had conducted negotiations between Gustavus Adolphus and the king of Poland. Berkeley returned from Sweden in July 1637. In July of the following year he was knighted by the king at Berwick, having then a commission in the army raised for the purpose of coercing the Scots. In 1640 he was returned to parliament for both Heytesbury and Reading, electing to retain his seat for the former place. Next year he was accused in parliament of complicity in the conspiracy to corrupt the army in the interest of the king, expelled the house, and committed to the Tower; he was subsequently bailed by the earls of Dorset and Stamford in the sum of 10,000l., but the outbreak of hostilities prevented any further steps being taken. In 1642 he joined the Marquis of Hertford at Sherborne, and was sent into Cornwall with the rank of commissary-general to act under Sir Ralph Hopton as lieutenant-general. The royalist forces defeated, in May 1643, the Earl of Stamford at Stratton, with great loss of baggage and artillery, and pursued him as far as Wells. In this affair Sir John particularly distinguished himself. He was now made commander-in-chief of all the royalist forces in Devonshire, and sat down before Exeter, into which the Earl of Stamford had thrown himself, and which was further defended by the fleet under the Earl of Warwick. Berkeley succeeded in maintaining a strict blockade, beating off the Earl of Warwick with a loss of three ships, and on 4 Sept. 1643 the Earl of Stamford was compelled to surrender. In 1644 Berkeley was present at the baptism of Henriette Maria, the king's daughter, who was born at Exeter. The same year Hopton and Berkeley joined their forces to oppose Sir William Waller's westward advance, but were severely beaten at Alresford in Hampshire on 29 March. In April 1645 he superseded Sir Richard Grenville, being constituted colonel-general of the counties of Devon and Cornwall, took Wellington House, near Taunton, by assault, and then proceeded to invest Taunton. The advance of Fairfax westward in the autumn of the year changed the aspect of affairs. In January 1645-6 Fairfax was able to concentrate himself upon Exeter, which Berkeley was forced (13 April) to surrender, though on honourable terms. After the surrender Berkeley joined his kinsman, Lord Jermyn, at Paris, in attendance upon Queen Henrietta Maria, with whom he seems to have been a favourite. Here, however, he did not stay long. Having persuaded