Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 2.djvu/152

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136 BERKELEY honour, though the intention, apparently, was to place him as junior Baron. (^) He, however, never took his seat.(^) He m. (cont. 28 Jan. 1484/5) Katharine, da. of Sir William Berkeley, of Stoke Gifford, co. Glou- cester, by Ann, da. of Sir Humphrey Stafford, she being then not much under 17. He d.s.p. legit., 12 Sep. 1523, at Calais, and was bur. In Trinity chapel within the parish church there. Will, dat. i May 1520 to II Sep. 1523, pr. 28 Nov. 1523, in which he calls himself Sir Maurice Berkeley of Yate, kt. Writ for Inq. p. m. as " Maurice, Lord Berkeley," 24 Oct. (1523) 16 Hen. VIII. His widow ^. "not full three years" after- wards, and was bur. at Yate afsd. V. 1523. 5. Thomas (Berkeley), de jure (apparently) Lord [I. 1529.] Berkeley() [1421], br. and h., who "may bee called Thomas the Sheepmaster,'^ he " living a kind of grazier's life, having his flocks of sheep sommering in one place and wintering in other places as hee observed the feilds and pastures to bee sound and could bargaine best cheape." He was b. 1472, probably at Thornbury afsd., and in Apr. 1523, Sir Arthur Plantagenet, Sir Maurice Berkeley, Lieut, of Calais, Sir William Sands, and Sir Nicholas Vaux, were made respectively Viscount Lisle, Lord Berkeley, Lord Sands, and Lord Vaux. It is to be remarked that Fitz-James' letter and this (contemporary) account in the Chronicle of Calais are the only proofs of the alleged summonses, there being no record of his name in the list of summons temp. Hen. VIII. [See however, the evidence for this creation in Round's Peerage and Family History, pp. 356-8]. "This Writ [1523] was considered as having created a new Barony, in the claim made by Colonel Berkeley, already alluded to, and it would certainly appear that Maurice ix [4 or 14] Baron was assigned a place in Parliament as junior Baron, although he never sat therein; but it is equally certain (of which no mention is made in the case of Colonel Berkeley) that Thomas x [5 or i 5] Baron and Thomas xi [6 or 16] Baron (neither of whom was possessed of Berkeley Castle) sat in the precedency of the older Barony, and that the accession of Henry xii [7 or 17] Baron to the Castle of Berkeley in no way altered his place in Parliament; indeed, this latter individual was (in 4 and 5 Ph- and Mary, and even after his controversy with the Lord Willoughby, 39 Eliz.) assigned a lower precedency than had been allowed to his father, who was not possessed of the Castle." (Courthope). (^) The letter of Fitz-James (see note " c " on previous page) is printed in Smyth's Berkeleys, vol. ii, p. 2o8. He writes that as to "thy Honor, which the King's Grace by his writt hath lately called you too, Sir, wee all will advise you to take the honor; and howbeit that as yet yee have not the roome in the Pari. Chamber that the Lord Berkeleys have had of old time, yet wee advise you to take this roome appointed to you at this time and to make noe labor of the higher roome at this time, for causes to longe to write." C") " This Lord, howbeit hee had his proxey [Lord Mountjoy] yet never came per- sonally to that Pari, but still kept at Calais where he d. in Sep. following." (Smyth's Berkeleys). The Journals of the House of Lords from 7 to 25 Hen. VIII are missing. ("=) According to Smyth's Berkeleys, vol. ii, p. 669, he is styled "Lord Berkeley, Mowbray, and Segrave." See ante, p. 134, note " b," as to the titles assumed by his predecessor, the Marquess of Berkeley 1489 to 1492.