Some corrections and additions to the Complete Peerage: Volume 2: Berkeley (PROPOSED CORRECTIONS)

BERKELEY

See also main section

Volume 2, pages 123, 124:
1. ROGER, styled "Senior," who, having, between 1068 and 1071, been made Provost of the manor of Berkeley by Earl William Fitz-Osbern ... took the name of DE BERKELEY from his residence there ... On 17 Jan. 1091 he became a Monk of St Peter's, Gloucester, and d. 1093.(b)

2. ROGER DE BERKELEY, styled Junior, br. of Eustace of Nympesfield, both being not improbably sons of the above Roger, senior. ... He d. before Michaelmas, 1131.

3. ROGER DE BERKELEY, s. and h. ... He was deprived of the Manor of Berkeley, &c., about 1152 ... He d. about 1170, leaving issue.

Note b:
In the charter of St. Martin at Auchy, mentioned in vol. i, p. 351, note "d," among the benefactors there occurs "Rogerus de Berchelaico cum uxore sua Rissa." (ex inform. G. W. Watson.) V.G.

K. S. B. Keats-Rohan [Domesday People, p. 401; Domesday Descendants, p. 321] gives an account of the early Berkeleys that differs from this in several respects. Most importantly, she says that the third Roger was the son of William, who was a nephew of the second Roger. Also, that the first Roger married Rissa and died c.1091-3; that the second Roger possibly left a widow Racendis; that William accounted for the second Roger's land and office in 1129/30; and that the third Roger succeeded William after c.1141 and died after 1177, leaving a son Roger (d. 1190) as well as a daughter Alice, who married Maurice, the son of Robert fitz Harding.

Volume 2, page 130 (as modified by volume 14):
He [Thomas (de Berkeley), Lord Berkeley (d. 1361)] m., 1stly, in or shortly before 25 July (1320) 14. Edw. II (Papal disp. to remain married with legitimisation of past issue dat. Sep. 1329), Margaret, d. of Roger (MORTIMER), EARL OF MARCH, by Joan, de jure suo jure (according to modern doctrine) BARONESS GENEVILLE, da. and h. of Sir Piers DE GENEVILLE (2nd but 1st surv. s. and h. ap. of Geoffrey, 1st LORD GENEVILLE. She d. 5 May 1337, being under 30, and was bur. at St. Augustine's, Bristol.

The date of Margaret's birth is given as 2 May 1304 by the Wigmore Chronicle [John Rylands Library Latin MS 215; cited by Ian Mortimer, Greatest Traitor: The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England 1327-1330 (2003), p. 320, and in a personal communication]. However, Ian Mortimer has since concluded that a later date of birth is more likely, consistent with the estimate of her age above. This is based on information supplied to him by Mrs Barbara Wright, that an agreement concerning her marriage - made shortly after 10 May 1319 - referred to her as under age, and stipulated that she was to live apart from her prospective husband for four years.

[Ian Mortimer's work was cited by Nichol in June 2003. This question was also discussed by Brad Verity, Paul Reed and John Steele Gordon. Thanks to Ian Mortimer for providing the further evidence and sharing his conclusions.
Item last updated 2 October 2003.]

Volume 2, page 130:
His widow [Elizabeth, widow of Maurice (de Berkeley), Lord Berkeley (d. 1368)] d. 13 July 1389, and was bur. at St Botolph's, London.

Presumably she was the Lady Elizabeth de Berkeley, wife of Sir Maurice Wyth and kinswoman (cognata) of "William" [John], Earl of Pembroke, who is mentioned in May 1372 [T. F. Kirby, ed., Wykeham's Register, vol. 2, pp 162, 163 (1899)].

This seems to be confirmed by the facts that Maurice Wyth's will, dated 1383, specifies burial in the church of St Botolph Aldersgate, London [Douglas Richardson, citing F. W. Weaver, ed., Somerset Medieval Wills, 2nd ser., 1501-1530 (Somerset Record Society, vol. 19), pp. 288, 289 (1903)], while according to Smyth's Lives of the Berkeleys, Elizabeth the widow of Maurice de Berkeley was buried in "St Botulphes in London". (Smyth states that she remained unmarried after Maurice de Berkeley's death, but this may be because she styled herself Dame Elizabeth de Berkeley in a charter the year before her death.) [Tim Powys-Lybbe, citing Lives of the Berkeleys, vol 1, p. 374.]

Elizabeth's description as the cognata of John, Earl of Pembroke, has several possible explanations. Not only were they 4th cousins, through their common descent from Isabel of Angouleme, but there were closer relationships through marriage. John's wife, Anne de Mauny, was a 2nd cousin of Elizabeth, through their common descent from Edward I, and Elizabeth's husband, Maurice de Berkeley, was a 1st cousin of John, both being grandchildren of Roger de Mortimer, 1st Earl of March.

[The evidence from Wykeham's register and Maurice Wyth's will was provided by Douglas Richardson in November 2003. Brad Verity suggested that the Elizabeth mentioned was the widow of Maurice Berkeley, and pointed out the confirmatory evidence of her place of burial. The problem was also discussed by Tim Powys-Lybbe and Adrian Channing.
Item last updated 28 December 2003.]