Maurice Berkeley (abt. 1599 - 1654)

Born about 1599 in Gloucestershire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth (Cooke) Berkeley — married 1622 (to 1623) in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, England

Descendants

Died 1654 at about age 55 in Stoke Gifford, Gloucestershire, England

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Biography

Maurice (Morris) Berkeley must have been born about 1599, as he was the eldest son of twelve children born to Richard Berkeley of Stoke Gifford Gloucestershire and his wife Mary Roe after their 1598 marriage. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}

Maurice Berkeley married twice: ^[3] First, in 1622, to Elizabeth Coke, daughter of the great jurist Sir Edward Coke and his second wife Elizabeth Coke, daughter of Sir Thomas Cecil. Elizabeth Berkeley died the next year, in November 1623, doubtless after giving birth to a daughter Frances Berkeley. He married secondly, by 1627, Mary, the daughter of Sir George Tipping of Wheatfield, Oxfordshire, and his wife Dorothy Borlace.^[3] This second marriage produced two sons: Richard and George. ^[2]

Maurice Berkeley sat as MP for Gloucestershire from 1621 to the dismissal of Parliament by King Charles I in 1692. He was knighted on 11 September 1621. ^[3]

In Parliament, he early became a protege of Sir Edward Coke, in opposition to royal overreach. When King Charles I acceded to the throne in 1625 and attempted to impose a forced loan, Berkeley was named a deputy lieutenant and a member of the commission to enforce it, which led to his imprisonment for refusal. But by the time of the Civil War, he was a royalist. In consequence, he was heavily fined as a delinquent by the victorious Parliamentarian government for his opposition. ^[5]

In 1635, he sold his reversionary interest in much of his father's estate, which went to the buyer at Sir Richard's death in 1661. ^[6]

Sir Maurice was named as overseer of his uncle Sir Thomas Rowe's Will, ^[7] dated 1644.

He died at Stoke Gifford, and was buried there on 3 January 1654/5. ^{[8] [9]}

Sir Maurice's lengthy Will was proved on 22 May 1665 by his son and heir Richard Berkeley.^[10] In it, he named his aunt Eleanor Rowe, "my Lady Rowe" as a beneficiary, stipulating that payments to her must have priority. Also named:

youngest son George Berkeley

"my said wife"

daughter Frances Berkeley

"my deare father" Mr Richard Berkeley

Richard Berkeley Esq, "my son and heir"

brother Robert Berkeley gent.

This Sir Maurice Berkeley should be distinguished from Sir Maurice Berkeley and Sir Maurice Berkeley both contemporary MPs.

Research Notes:

The previous version of this profile included information derived from the 1623 Visitation of Gloucestershire, which proved inaccurate.

Cokayne ^[11] is in error (perhaps a typo) in stating Sir Maurice's death as 1634. He is also incorrect in claiming that Maurice's son Richard was an only son.

Sources

1. ↑ History of Parliament Online: Berkelely (Barkley) Richard (c.1580-1661) HOP
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Smyth, John. The Berkeley Manuscripts: The Lives of the Berkeleys, Lords of the Honour, Castle and Manor of Berkeley, in the County of Gloucester, from 1066 to 1618; with a Description of the Hundred of Berkeley and of Its Inhabitants, Volume 1. p. 265. Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society: 1883. Smyth
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3} History of Parliament Online: Berkeley, Maurice (1599-1564) HPO
4. ↑ Chitting, Henry, et al, The Visitation of the County of Gloucester: Taken in the Year 1623, Volume 21. (page 9) Harleian Society Publications, 1885, GoogleBooks.com accessed April 30, 2015
5. ↑ "Cases before the Committee: January 1647." Calendar, Committee For Compounding: Part 3. Ed. Mary Anne Everett Green. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1891. 1637-1657. British History Online. Web. 5 February 2022. BHO
6. ↑ "Rendcomb." A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 7. Ed. N. M. Herbert. Oxford: Oxford University Press for Victoria County History, 1981. 218-227. British History Online. Web. 5 February 2022. BHO
7. ↑ PROB 11/199/680 TNA
8. ↑ Bristol, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812/Gloucestershire/Stoke Gifford, St Michael Parish Register/1556-1667 Ancestry - Stoke
9. ↑ Gloucestershire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1813 for Maurice Berkeley: Cirencester 1637-1799 Ancestry
10. ↑ Will of Sir Maurice Berkeley of Stoke Gifford, Gloucestershire, proved 22 May 1655. PROB 11/249/637
11. ↑ Cokayne, George E. <The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom : extant, extinct, or dormant, p. 234. London : The St. Catherine Press, ltd., 1910. Cokayne

Also:

• History of Stoke Gifford, Adrien Kerton, ed. "O132 ... Berkeley Monument" Wordpress