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,
Berkeley family docent and genealogist at the Berkeley Castle listed the Barclay clan as also descending from the de Berkeley clan through the matriarchal line Alice De Berkeley -- the woman who married Robert Fitzharding and restored the family's name. Additionally, historians on Scottish clans and surnames point out that the Barclay clan spelling moves into the Berkeley (pronounced Bar-Clay) spelling. This descends from Sir Maurice Berkeley (by 1514–81), a politician who rose rapidly in the Tudor court. He came from the Berkeleys of Stoke Gifford, a cadet branch of the main Berkeley family, as a descendant of Sir Maurice de Berkeley