Background
He was born at Berkeley Castle, Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England, the son and heir of Maurice de Berkeley, 4th Baron Berkeley by his wife Elizabeth le Despencer.
He was born at Berkeley Castle, Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England, the son and heir of Maurice de Berkeley, 4th Baron Berkeley by his wife Elizabeth le Despencer.
In 1417 he enfeoffed at Berkeley Castle, shortly before his death, several feoffees to hold all his lands in trust, due to the fact he had no male children as his heirs and that the course of succession then seemed unclear. The catalogue entry made by the British Museum librarian Isaac Jeaves for charter number 581 preserved in the muniments at Berkeley Castle records: "Feoffment by Thomas, Lord Berkeley, Knt, to Walter Poole, Gilbert Denys Knts, Thomas Knolles, citizen of London, Thomas Rugge, John Grevell, Robert Greyndour and Thomas Sergeant, esquires, of all the lands, reversions, and tenants" services in Berkeley, Wotton, Gloucester, South Cerney, Cerneyeswike, Aure, Arlingham, and Horton, and in Berkeley and Bledislow Hundreds. In the City of London.
In Portbury, Portishead, Weston, Bedminster, and in Bedminster and Portbury Hundreds, company
Somerset, and in Sharnecote and Chicklade, company Wiltshire, together with the advowsons of Saint Andrew"s Church in Baynard"s Castle, London, the advowsons of Chicklade, Portishead, and Walton, and the patronage and advowson of Saint Mary"s Abbey of Kingswood.
Witnesses: Thomas FitzNicoll, John Pauncefoot, Knights. Robert Poyntz, Edmund Bassett, Thomas Kendale.
Datum ad Berkeley, Thursday, Feast of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist (24 June) 5 Hen.
V. (1417) Withseal,broken)" The great City of London townhouse of the Berkeleys, known as "Berkeley"s Inn", was at Puddle Dock by Baynard"s Castle, close to the Blackfriars Monastery. Thomas FitzNicholl, one of the witnesses, was many times Member of Parliament for Gloucestershire, including in 1395 when he served jointly with Gilbert Denys. These were very significant positions of trust granted to his feoffees as Berkeley died leaving only a daughter and the succession to the vast Berkeley lands, including the castle itself, became a matter of much dispute amongst his possible heirs resulting in a series of feuds which led in 1470 to the last private battle fought on English soil at the Battle of Nibley Green, between Lord William Berkeley and Viscount Lisle, and there followed the longest dispute in English legal history, which did not end until 1609.
Saul, North. states that such feoffees were likely to have been members of Lord Berkeley"s retinue.
