Berkeley family Constable (Alnod), a high official under King Edward the Confessor. Berkeley Castle, the "caput" of the barony, and the adjoining town of Berkeley are located in the county of Gloucestershire and are situated about five miles west of Dursley and eighteen miles southwest of Gloucester, and northeast of Bristol. The location has conferred various titles on the family over the centuries, including Baron Berkeley (barony by writ), Earl of Berkeley, and Marquess of Berkeley. Berkeley Castle was originally granted by William the Conqueror to the Norman Roger de Berkeley, feudal baron of Dursley, under the feudal tenure of fee-farm. However,
William Berkeley, 1st Earl FitzHardinge petitioner's claim was not made out. William received Berkeley Castle and the other estates by will, and on 2 July, after the adverse decision of the Lords Committee, he claimed a writ of summons as a Baron as Baron by tenure of Berkeley Castle. The claim was fully laid before the Committee for Privileges in 1828 and 1829, but the Lords gave no judgement on the case. The eldest son born after the 1797 Lambeth marriage of the fifth Earl, Thomas Moreton FitzHardinge Berkeley, became on the Earl's death in 1810 "de jure" 6th Earl of Berkeley — however, he