BERKELEY, Sir Henry (c.1578-1667), of Yarlington, Som.

The younger brother of the late Sir Maurice Berkeley† and uncle of Sir Charles* and Sir John*, in 1640 Sir Henry Berkeley was an experienced figure in Somerset local government and a former knight of the shire. For over 20 years he had been one of the most active of the Somerset justices of the peace.28QS Recs. Som. James I, 244-357; QS Recs. Som. Charles I, 1-314; Som. Assize Orders 1629-40, 8, 19, 24-6, 41. His local standing was such that from 1636 he had emerged as one of the leading critics of Ship Money within the county.29CSP Dom. 1636-7, pp. 18, 31; T.G. Barnes, Som. 1625-1640 (Cambridge, Mass. 1961), 214-18.

A veteran of three Parliaments, Berkeley had probably received support from his friend, Sir Robert Phelipps†, to secure his election in 1628 as MP for Ilchester. In the spring of 1640 Berkeley stood there again and was returned with Phelipps’ son, Sir Edward*. That autumn, however, Berkeley probably had to defeat Phelipps in order to regain this seat. As in his earlier Parliaments, Berkeley was largely inconspicuous. His sole committee appointment was to the committee on the army in the north created in the early weeks of the Long Parliament (21 Nov. 1640).30CJ ii. 34a. On 15 February 1641 the Commons overturned the result of the Ilchester election and ordered a new contest.31CJ ii. 85b; Procs. LP ii. 453, 455. This time Phelipps defeated Berkeley and claimed the seat for himself.

When the country descended into civil war in 1642, Sir Henry shared the rest of his family’s strong commitment to the king’s cause. He was part of the delegation that presented one of the pro-royalist petitions to Parliament from Somerset.32Som. DD/HI/B/466: Som. petition, [1642]. Like his nephews, he then joined the royalist forces raised throughout the county by the 1st marquess of Hertford (Sir William Seymour†) and, for that reason, was one of the prominent Somerset royalists against whom the Commons then instigated impeachment proceedings.33LJ v. 360a. Again like Sir Charles, he seems to have been captured by the parliamentarians later that year. By December 1642, when he was moved from the Gatehouse to Winchester House, he was being held as a prisoner by Parliament in London.34CJ ii. 886b; Add. 18777, f. 93. He was subsequently moved to one of the hulks on the Thames before being returned in August 1643 to Winchester House.35CJ iii. 204a. The conditions under which he was held were sufficiently lax that in early October 1643 he was able to escape. However, he had evidently been recaptured by 7 October and on 9 October Sir Edward Hungerford* informed the Commons that Berkeley had turned himself in voluntarily.36CJ iii. 264a, 264b, 266a, 269b. A fortnight later the Commons gave permission to the lord general, Robert Devereux, 3rd earl of Essex, to release him as part of a prisoner exchange.37CJ iii. 286b, 293b.

The king seems to have had no doubts of Berkeley’s continuing loyalty: within days, he was confirmed as a justice of the peace in the new Somerset commission of the peace.38QS Recs. Som. Commonwealth, p. xx. He almost certainly spent next couple of years assisting in the royalist administration of the county. Thus, in April 1645, he attended the meeting at Bridgwater at which the local royalists agreed to raise a army to assist in the defence of the south west.39Mems. of Prince Rupert, iii. 80n. He was also with his nephew, Sir John Berkeley, at Exeter in early 1646 when it remained one of the final royalist redoubts in the south west. Once Exeter had fallen to Sir Thomas Fairfax*, Sir Henry was obliged to compound with Parliament for his estates. It was a measure of his disdain for the process that, on applying to compound in July 1646, he sent an imposter to take the Covenant. His fine was then fixed at £1,187, half of which he had paid by January 1648. Almost immediately, however, his estates were re-sequestered and arguments over the extent of his debts dragged on for several years.40CCC 240, 1405-6. His eldest son, Edward, also compounded in 1649.41CCC 1989. Perhaps unsurprisingly, by 1650 Sir Henry had links with royalist conspirators.42CSP Dom. 1650, p. 153.

Already a septuagenarian, he then understandably fades from view. At the funeral of his eldest son, Henry he placed a sword on the hearse in remembrance of the deceased’s service as a captain in the royalist army. When one of the locals objected, Sir Henry allegedly berated him, as ‘an old rogue’ who ‘had matched in the family of a company of round-headed rogues; but he hoped now the times would turn, and then he would make him rue for it’.43TSP iii. 331.

At the outbreak of Penruddock’s rising in March 1655, Berkeley was accused of contact with the rebels. He was also said to have sheltered the son of James Dugdale, the vicar of Evercreech, after he had murdered a soldier.44TSP iii. 330-1. Writing to the local major-general, John Disbrowe*, several months later, Lieutenant Theophilus Barnard described him, not unfairly, as ‘a very old man, but a desperate enemy to government’ and ‘a wicked cavalier’.45CSP Dom. 1655, p. 252. Disbrowe included Berkeley on the list of Somerset royalists he compiled for the registry office that same year.46Add. 34012, f. 4.

Sir Henry lived long to see the king return in 1660 and be restored to his local offices. He died seven years later and was buried in the parish church at Yarlington on 31 August 1667.47Rogers, Recs. of Yarlington, 41-2. His heir was his only surviving son, Sir Maurice.48PROB11/324/606. After Sir Maurice died unmarried in 1674, the fate of the family estates was disputed between Sir Henry’s three daughters, until it was eventually ruled that all three were co-heiresses and so entitled to equal shares.49VCH Som. vii. 66. Those daughters included Dorothy Godolphin, mother of Sidney Godolphin†, 1st earl of Godolphin.