Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 1 Vol 1.djvu/347

 BERKELEY. 325 William Fitzosbern (to whom it had been granted at the Conquest) took the name o£ DC BmiKiiUiY from his resilience there and was confirmed in his office by the King about 1080. At the time of the Survey, 1086, Berkeley was " farmed " by him from the Crown. He was tenant in cnpite of Dursley, Cubberley, Dodington, &c. and (not improbably) was identical with " Roger," farmer of Barton Regis, Bristol. In 1091 he became a Monk of St. Peter's Gloucester and d. 1093. II. Wilt. H- 3. Roger de Berkeley styled Junior, br. of Eustace of NympesGeld, both being not improbably sons of the above Roger, Senior. He began the building of the castle of Berkeley in 1117. He d. before Michmas, 1131. III. Sea. /. 3. Roger de Berkeley afscL, s. and h., who com- pleted the building of the castle of Berkeley. He suffered much in the wars between Stephen, and the Empress Maud at the hands of Walter, son of Milo, Earl of Hereford. He was deprived of the Manor of Berkeley, etc.. by Henry II (for baviug espoused the cause of King Stephen), tho', in 1154, he was restored to tho Honour of Dursley.( a ) He d. about 1170 leaving issue. The castle and " harness " of Berkeley were granted by the King as under. TV. Henry II. 1. Robert Fitz Harding, who " may bee called Robert the Devout," s. of Hahdino.C 1 ) being a Merchant and Alderman nf Bristol, and of great wealth and influence, received from Henry of Anjou, about 1152, shortly before his accession as Henry II, a grant (among others) of the Castle and " harness " of Berkeley (as above mentioned) which was confirmed by the said Henrj when, King, probably in (1155) the first year of his reign,( c ) whereby he the said Robert (doubtless) became feudal LORD OF BERKELEY. In 1108 he entertained, at Bristol, Dermot Mac Murroiigh, King of Leiuster, on his arrival to ( :l ) This Lordship continued in his descendants in the male line, (the issue of his s. Undo. Roger Berkeley, by Helena, 1st da. of Robert Fit?.- Harding, his successorin the lands of Berkeley) for eight generations, when Nicholas Berkeley, the heir male, d. s.p. in 13S-2. By the h. Ken. Robert Wykes, it was aliened in 1587. In 1404, by the death of Sir Nicholas Berkeley of C'oberley, co. Gloue., the whole of the male issue of Roger, the founder of this race, became extinct. C'J The parentage of this Harding has been long and hotly disputed. He has been termed "son of the King of Denmark " (as in the petition of 1661) "Mayor of Bristol" and so forth. The view now generally accepted is that he was the son of Eadnoth, "Staller" to King Harold and to Edward tho Confessor. Mr. Freeman pronounces this descent " in the highest degree probable." Mr. Eyton devoted much attention to the subject. Reference may also be made to tho valuable searches of Mr. A. S. Ellis, and to Mr. Greenfield's most valuable Pedigree of Meriet, tracing the descent of that family from Nicholas of Meriet, elder br. to Robert Fitz Harding.." Ex. inform. J. It. Round. See also note in Smyth's " Iterkeleys," vol. i, p. 19, &c. ('') " And this is that deed from which the Barony of Berkeley, and dignity of being a Baron or Peerc of tho Realme is derived, aud from which ought to bee the precedency of the now Lord's place, for this grant was his very creation of Baron, anil, by it resulted to the said Lord Robert the dignity of a Baron, and to bee a Baron and Beere of ye realme, viz., Baronem nobilitatis yradu ormitum, having by it regularly aud originally the true essentialls of a Baron and Barony, viz., Jurisdiction and territory hi ilden by Knight's service in capitc both for civil aud criminall causes ; nut being cr. a Baroii by writt or patent but by tenure as afsd., which is the most noble and ancient of ye three kinds of Barons that aro in this day." So writes the learned Mi. John Smyth of Nibley, in his " Lives of the Berkeleys," giving the Latin grant in extento, iu which (as may be gathered from his comment thereon) there is pleat] to shew the right of the grantee as to the Lordship of the Manor, but nothing as to any his right to a Peerage of the realm.