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Maurice de Berkeley

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Maurice de Berkeley

Birth
Thornbury, South Gloucestershire Unitary Authority, Gloucestershire, England
Death
Sep 1506 (aged 69–70)
Thornbury, South Gloucestershire Unitary Authority, Gloucestershire, England
Burial
Broad Street, City of London, Greater London, England Add to Map
Memorial ID
View Source
Knight of the Body to King Edward IV.

Second son of Sir James Berkeley and his third wife, Isabel Mowbray, grandson of Sir James Berkeley and Elizabeth Bluet, Sir Thomas Mowbray and Elizabeth Arundel.

Maurice married Isabel Meade, the daughter of London merchant Philip Meade and his wife, Isabel. They married in 1465 and had three sons and one daughter: Sir Maurice Lord Berkeley, Sir Thomas Lord Berkeley, James and Anne, wife of William Denys.

Nicknamed "the Lawier", he was heir to his older brother, William, Marquis of Berkeley, who completely disinherited him. After his brother's death he sued and recovered over fifty lands and manors that had been removed illegally from him. He was also co-heir to a cousin, Thomas Grenville Cokesey, and received the manors of Tetbury, Gloucestershie and Manningford Bruce, Wiltshire. Through his wife, they inherited and lived at Thornbury, Gloucester.

"As soon as the inquisitions after his brother's death were returned into Chancery, Maurice commenced proceedings to recover from the Crown some of the manors which the Marquess had given away, being advised that such alienations were illegal, and contrary to some old settlements and entails. In these litigations he was generally successful, the late Marquess, in his anxiety to barter his lands for honours and patronage, having often overlooked the nature of the titles by which he held them. Maurice's first success was the recovery of the manor of Sages in Slimbridge, consisting of seven tenements and 290 acres of land, and he entered into possession and held his first court there in 1499. Many other similar suits followed, with the like success, and while these were going on the manor and borough of Tetbury, and several others. descended to him as one of the heirs of the lord Breouse. In 1505 he claimed and recovered the advowson of the Church of Wotton-under-Edge, but immediately made it over to the Abbey of Tewkesbury. He also commenced a suit to recover the advowson of Slimbridge, held by Magdalen College, Oxford, which was settled by a compromise. The College retaining the advowson but paying him a sum of money, and undertaking to remember him in their prayers.

In his journeys to and from London, and when visiting his manor of Callowden, near Coventry, finding that he and his suite were not received at the Monastery of Combe, in Warwickshire, with the honour and respect due to him as descendant from one of its founders, Maurice exhibited a bill in Chancery against the Abbot and Monks, claiming his rights in respect of his descent from Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, their founder, and obtained an acknowledgement of his claim." Unknown source.

Maurice died in 1506, and was buried with Isabel in the Church of the Augustine Friars, in London. His eldest son, Maurice, succeeded him.
Knight of the Body to King Edward IV.

Second son of Sir James Berkeley and his third wife, Isabel Mowbray, grandson of Sir James Berkeley and Elizabeth Bluet, Sir Thomas Mowbray and Elizabeth Arundel.

Maurice married Isabel Meade, the daughter of London merchant Philip Meade and his wife, Isabel. They married in 1465 and had three sons and one daughter: Sir Maurice Lord Berkeley, Sir Thomas Lord Berkeley, James and Anne, wife of William Denys.

Nicknamed "the Lawier", he was heir to his older brother, William, Marquis of Berkeley, who completely disinherited him. After his brother's death he sued and recovered over fifty lands and manors that had been removed illegally from him. He was also co-heir to a cousin, Thomas Grenville Cokesey, and received the manors of Tetbury, Gloucestershie and Manningford Bruce, Wiltshire. Through his wife, they inherited and lived at Thornbury, Gloucester.

"As soon as the inquisitions after his brother's death were returned into Chancery, Maurice commenced proceedings to recover from the Crown some of the manors which the Marquess had given away, being advised that such alienations were illegal, and contrary to some old settlements and entails. In these litigations he was generally successful, the late Marquess, in his anxiety to barter his lands for honours and patronage, having often overlooked the nature of the titles by which he held them. Maurice's first success was the recovery of the manor of Sages in Slimbridge, consisting of seven tenements and 290 acres of land, and he entered into possession and held his first court there in 1499. Many other similar suits followed, with the like success, and while these were going on the manor and borough of Tetbury, and several others. descended to him as one of the heirs of the lord Breouse. In 1505 he claimed and recovered the advowson of the Church of Wotton-under-Edge, but immediately made it over to the Abbey of Tewkesbury. He also commenced a suit to recover the advowson of Slimbridge, held by Magdalen College, Oxford, which was settled by a compromise. The College retaining the advowson but paying him a sum of money, and undertaking to remember him in their prayers.

In his journeys to and from London, and when visiting his manor of Callowden, near Coventry, finding that he and his suite were not received at the Monastery of Combe, in Warwickshire, with the honour and respect due to him as descendant from one of its founders, Maurice exhibited a bill in Chancery against the Abbot and Monks, claiming his rights in respect of his descent from Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, their founder, and obtained an acknowledgement of his claim." Unknown source.

Maurice died in 1506, and was buried with Isabel in the Church of the Augustine Friars, in London. His eldest son, Maurice, succeeded him.


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