Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 2.djvu/148

 132 BERKELEY BARONY I. James (de Berkeley), Lord Berkeley, nephew and BY WRIT. h. male,(*) being s. and h. of Sir James de B., by Elizabeth, I. 142 1. da. and h. of Sir John Bluet, of Raglan, co. Monmouth, which Sir James, being next br. to Thomas, the last Lord Berkeley, d.v.f., 13 June 1405. He was b. about 1394, at Raglan afsd., and " may bee called James the Just." He sue. to the Castle of Berkeley (to which the Barony of Berkeley was then very generally con- sidered as appendant) and other estates under an entail of his great- grandfather, but was much hindered in getting possession thereof by the Countess of Warwick (da. and h. of the last Lord), the h. gen.C") By writ directed Jacobo de Berkeley, he was sum. to Pari. 20 Oct. (142 1) 9 Hen. V(') to 23 May (1461) i Edw. IV,('^) and was knighted by Henry VI, 19 May 1426. In Apr. 14 10, being then aged 16, he m., istly, or perhaps was only contracted to, ( — ), da. of Sir John St. John (cont. dat. 19 Apr. 11 Hen. IV). He m., 2ndly, (1415) 3 Hen. V, ( — ), da. of Sir Humphrey Stafford, of Hook, Dorset, but she d. very young and s.p. He m., 3rdly, (1423-24) 2 Hen. VI, Isabel, widow of Henry Ferrers, s. and h. ap. of William, Lord Ferrers (of Groby), and ist da. (whose issue became coh.) of Thomas (de Mowbray), Duke of Norfolk, by Elizabeth, da. of Richard (Fitz Alan), Earl of Arundel. She was, while about to appeal to the King in Council on behalf of her husband, arrested by order of Margaret, Countess of Shrewsbury (granddaughter and coh. of the last Lord Berkeley), and imprisoned at Gloucester, where she d. 27 Sep. 1452, and was bur. in the church of the Greyfriars there. He w., 4thly, (settl. 25 July 1457) Joan, da. of John (Talbot), ist Earl of Shrewsbury, by his ist wife, Maud, da. of Thomas (Nevill), Lord Furnival, which Joan was consequently step-da. of Margaret, Countess of Shrewsbury abovenamed. He d. at Berkeley Castle, Nov. 1463, within 36 days of having (22 Oct.) executed a deed of reconciliation with the said (*) It was probably as h. of entail that he was indebted for his writ. Compare the succession of the Barony of de la Warr in 7 Hen. VI, and that of Latimer in 10 Hen. VI. {ex inform, J. H. Round). (^) " It appeareth that the Earle and his wife pretended right to the Barony oj Berkeley, and to all the manors and lands thereto belonging." (Smyth's Berkeley^). if) "This Writ [1421] must be considered as the origin of the Barony of Berkeley, vested in the Earls of Berkeley [1658-1882] unless a right to a Writ of Summons to Pari, as Barons by Tenure could be established. Such a claim was made in 1828 by Earl Fitzhardinge (then Col. Berkeley), but no judgement was pronounced; and Sir Harris Nicolas, in his statement on behalf of Sir John Shelley Sidney, Bart., in relation to that claim, observes that had the claim been granted it would not only have been without a single precedent, but in opposition to the incontrovertible fact, that no claim to a Barony on the ground of Tenure was ever admitted, and that at no period since the reign of Hen. Ill has Tenure per Baroniam been deemed to constitute a right to a Writ of Summons." [Courthope). For a list of the only recognized Parliaments (down to 1500) which furnish a date of origin for Baronies cr. by writ now (1911) existing, see vol. vi, Appendix G. V.G. i^) There is proof in the Rolls of Pari, of his sitting.