He seems to have taken over Cotheridge long before his father died in 1658. Immediately after the Siege of Worcester on 23 July 1646 he had obtained a written pass of safety to his home, Cotheridge, on taking an oath to not again bear arms against Parliament.[4]
He was obliged to pay a fine of £2,030 on 25 August 1646 having been charged that "his house being within three miles of Worcester, he continued to live there while it was held for the king, and was placed on a Commission for the safeguarding of the County, and for raising contributions for the king's forces."[4]
He left a written description of the fight of the evening of 3 September 1651 having, he says, been brought from Cotheridge to Worcester against his will as he had "resolved not to meddle". He wrote to Sir Thomas Cave, his father-in-law, that he was fetched to King Charles by a major with a party of horse. While waiting for audience with the king he learnt a commission had been issued to him and other gentlemen of the county to assist Major-General Massie, Worcester's (Royalist) governor. Berkeley escaped, took horse and fled home while the battle already raged. He was caught once by the Scots (the King's men) but managed to leave them.
Early the next morning a party of Parliament horse arrived at Cotheridge and brought him and his dun colt as far as St John's Worcester where they found they held no order for what they were doing and he was allowed to return home.[4]
Nash, the source of the next tale, was Sir Rowland's great-grandson.
Piebald charger
Nash, in the supplement to his history, mentions that "Sir Rowland Berkeley of the Middle Temple, M.P. for the city of Worcester, and a cavalier officer, happened to have two piebald horses exactly alike, and one of them he rode at the battle of Worcester. When the battle was lost Sir Rowland escaped to Cotheridge as best he might, and leaving his exhausted charger at one of his farmhouses, went straightway to bed. It was not long, as he had foreseen, that a troop of Cromwell's army made their appearance at the Court, and demanded to see Sir Rowland. They were told he was ill in bed, but this did not prevent their rushing into his room.
"So you were fighting against us at Worcester to-day, were you?" asked the crop-heads. "I!" says Mr. Berkeley, faintly and innocently. "Why I am sick and forced to keep my bed!" "All very fine," said they, "but you were there, and very conspicuous, riding a piebald charger." "It could not have been I," says the sick man, "for though I certainly do ride a piebald charger when I am in health, yet he has never been out of the stable all day. If you doubt my word you had better go to the stable and satisfy yourselves."
"Thereupon the roundheads go and find piebald No. 2 as fresh as a daisy, and evidently not from Worcester. So they conclude that they had mistaken their man, and leave the sick Mr. Berkeley to get well and laugh at the ruse he had so successfully played upon them."
—John Noake, Noake's Guide to Worcestershire, 1868 Longman & Co, London
Sir Rowland was one of the gentlemen chosen by King Charles in 1660 to be invested with the order of the Royal Oak, an order which was not instituted.[4]
House of Commons
Sir Rowland Berkeley served as MP for Worcester from 1661 to 1679.[1]
Patronage network
Rowland Berkeley married Dorothy, daughter of Sir Thomas Cave of Stamford and his wife Elizabeth sister of Herbert Croft Bishop of Hereford and dean of the chapels royal to Charles II. Dorothy's brother Thomas was raised to a baronetcy by Charles I the same day as Rowland Berkeley was knighted.
His uncle Robert Berkeley was also MP for Worcester 1621-1624
Sir Henry Herbert was Master of the Revels to both King Charles I and King Charles II, as well as a politician during both reigns.
Sir Thomas Lyttelton, 1st Baronet was an English Royalist officer and politician from the Lyttelton family during the English Civil War.
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Lieutenant-General Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester, known as The Lord Wilmot between 1643 and 1644 and as The Viscount Wilmot between 1644 and 1652, was an English Cavalier who fought for the Royalist cause during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.
John Talbot, 10th Earl of Shrewsbury, 10th Earl of Waterford, was an English nobleman.
Cotheridge Court is a Grade II* listed ancient manor house situated in the south-western part of Cotheridge, in the county of Worcestershire, England, and birthplace of Herbert Bowyer Berkeley. The house bought in 1615 by William Berkeley, eldest son of Rowland Berkeley (1548-1611) of Spetchley, was owned and lived in by the Berkeley family for nearly 350 years, but the manor is over one thousand years old. This family descended from the Berkeleys of Berkeley Castle Gloucestershire, and Eadnoth. Cotheridge Court is now a private residence of sub-divided flats.
The second and longest siege of Worcester took place towards the end of the First English Civil War, when Parliamentary forces under the command of Thomas Rainsborough besieged the city of Worcester, accepting the capitulation of the Royalist defenders on 22 July. The next day the Royalists formally surrendered possession of the city and the Parliamentarians entered Worcester 63 days after the siege began.
This is a list of sheriffs and since 1998 high sheriffs of Worcestershire.
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Grafton Manor was established before the Norman Conquest. Grafton means "settlement at or near the wood" and may indicate a role in woodland management within a larger estate, for instance.
Treadway Russell Nash was an English clergyman, now known as an early historian of Worcestershire and the author of Collections for the History of Worcestershire, an important source document for Worcestershire county histories. He was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.
Henry Bright was a clergyman and schoolmaster in Worcester. He served for 38 years Headmaster at The King's School, Worcester, and is mentioned by Thomas Fuller and Anthony Wood as an exceptional teacher, particularly of Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Many of his pupils are notable for their faculty in Latin and Greek and their impact on theological matters.
Maurice Berkeley was an English landowner and gentleman who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1597 and 1614.
Rowland Berkeley of Worcester and Spetchley was an English clothier and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1593 and 1611.
Thomas Chettle was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1614.
Sir Robert Berkeley was an English judge and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1621 to 1624. He suffered considerably for giving a judgement in favour of Ship Money.
Sir Humphrey Coningsby,, was an English lawyer, a senior judge as a Justice of the King's Bench and a major landholder.
Henry Norwood, of Bishampton, Worcestershire supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War as a distinguished cavalry officer fighting as a volunteer at Bristol and Worcester. After the defeat, trial and execution of Charles I, he set out on what proved to be a difficult journey to Virginia, where a cousin was governor. He returned to England, became active as an agent attempting to aid Royalist uprisings, and spent a significant time imprisoned in the Tower for his pro-Royalist activities. Upon his release he was involved in Booth's Uprising and, subsequently, acted as a messenger between Charles II of England and Edward Montagu, Earl of Sandwich. He was appointed deputy governor in Dunkirk a little after the Restoration and, when Dunkirk was sold to Louis XIV of France, he was sent to Tangier, where he rose to become governor. He was a Member (MP) of the Parliament of England for Gloucester 20 April 1675. He died in Leckhampton in 1689, and was buried in St Peter's Church, Leckhampton.
Sir John Russell, of Strensham in Worcestershire where he held the manor and advowson, was an English landowner, soldier, administrator, courtier and politician.
William Bromley was an English Whig politician, MP for Worcester and Worcestershire.
1 2 Edith Ophelia Browne & John Richard Burton (editors) Short biographies of the Worthies of Worcestershire 1916 E. G. Humphreys, College Street, Worcester
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