William Berkeley, 1st Earl FitzHardinge refused to claim his right to the earldom. In 1831 William Berkeley was raised to the peerage as Baron Segrave, of Berkeley Castle in the County of Gloucester. Berkeley was returned to parliament as one of two representatives for Gloucestershire in 1810 (succeeding his uncle Sir George Cranfield-Berkeley), a seat he only held until 1811. In 1836 he was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Gloucestershire, a post he retained until his death. In 1841 he was further honoured when he was made Earl FitzHardinge. Berkeley never married. He had several mistresses, and in 1821 John Waterhouse succeeded in an action for "criminal
Baron Berkeley that the barony by writ was deemed, extraordinarily, to be in effect a feudal barony (or barony by tenure), dependent on the tenure of Berkeley Castle. Thus when William Berkeley, 1st Marquess of Berkeley, 2nd Baron Berkeley (1426–1492), "William the Waste-All", alienated Berkeley Castle to the king, he effectively disinherited his younger brother from the barony by writ. The heir apparent is his son the Hon. Thomas FitzHardinge Gueterbock (b. 1969) The Earldom of Berkeley, together with the Viscountcy Dursley, was separated from the barony in 1882, but the accession was not fully established. In 1942 both titles became extinct