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,
James Berkeley Berkeley died on 24 June 1327, having been murdered and having suffered the destruction and despoilation of his manors, according to the account by his successor John de Grandisson. Berkeley was buried in Exeter Cathedral, against the north wall of the south ambulatory, where survives his chest tomb. It is devoid of the monumental brass which originally adorned the Purbeck marble ledger stone top, in the form of a demi-effigy of a bishop wearing a mitre, the indent of which is still visible. Following the Reformation the brass was stripped away in 1561 on the orders of the Cathedral authorities.