Sir Robert Berkeley (1584 – 5 August 1656) was an English judge and politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

from 1621 to 1624. He suffered considerably for giving a judgement in favour of

Ship Money Ship money was a tax of medieval origin levied intermittently in the Kingdom of England until the middle of the 17th century. Assessed typically on the inhabitants of coastal areas of England, it was one of several taxes that English monarchs co ...

. Berkeley was born at Worcester, the son of Rowland Berkeley and his wife Catherine Hayward, daughter of Thomas Hayward. He was admitted to

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

in 1600 and was called to the bar on 6 May 1608. In 1611 he inherited

Spetchley Spetchley Hall Spetchley is a hamlet and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, that lies in the district of Wychavon, half a mile from Worcester, along the A44 road. Spetchley contains Spetchley Park, a country mansion with extensive gardens ...

on the death of his father and went on to buy further properties including Cudeley.

Justice of the King's Bench

He was

High Sheriff of Worcestershire This is a list of sheriffs and since 1998 high sheriffs of Worcestershire. The Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of th ...

in 1613. In 1620 he became JP and in 1621 became

Recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...

of Worcester. He was elected Member of Parliament for

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...

in 1621. In 1623, he was recorder again and was appointed. one of the Council of the Marches of Wales 30 June, being sworn in as such at Worcester on 13 October. He was re-elected MP for Worcester in 1624. In 1626 he was Autumn Reader of his Inn. He became

Serjeant-at-law A Serjeant-at-Law (SL), commonly known simply as a Serjeant, was a member of an order of barristers at the English and Irish Bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law (''servientes ad legem''), or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are writ ...

on 28 February 1627, King's Serjeant on 12 April 1627 and was knighted on 14 April 1627. On 11 October 1632 he was appointed one of the Justices of the King's Bench. He was appointed one of the Avon compensation commissioners on 9 April 1637. W R Williams ''Parliamentary History of the County of Worcester''
/ref>

Impeached of high treason

Berkeley was

impeached Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a public official for misconduct. It may be understood as a unique process involving both political and legal elements. In ...

by the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...

for high treason on 12 February 1641, after in 1637 he gave his judicial opinion in favour of the legality of Ship-Money. He was arrested in open Court while sitting on the Bench, and was imprisoned in the

Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...

. According to Frederick Charles Cass, "the energetic terms in which he gave expression to the judgment had rendered him more obnoxious to the Commons than his colleagues." In September 1643 the House of Lords deprived him of his office, and fined him £20,000, of which he paid one half to secure the waiver of the remainder and his release.

Civil War

In 1651, before the

Battle of Worcester The Battle of Worcester took place on 3 September 1651 in and around the city of Worcester, England and was the last major battle of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A Parliamentarian army of around 28,000 under Oliver Cromwell def ...

, his house at

Spetchley Park Spetchley Park is a country mansion standing in 4500 acres of gardens and parkland in the hamlet of Spetchley, near Worcester, England. The house and park are separately Grade II* listed. The house is built in two storeys of Bath stone with a ...

was burnt by Scottish Presbyterians to prevent it falling into Parliamentary hands. Berkeley converted the stables into a dwelling-house, and "lived with content and even dignity upon the wreck of his fortune". Berkeley died at the age of 72 and was buried under a monument with a marble figure of the judge in the chancel at Spetchley.Edward Foss ''Biographica Juridica: A Biographical Dictionary of the Judges of England ''
/ref> Berkeley married Elizabeth Conyers, daughter of Thomas Conyers, of East Barnet, Hertfordshire.

References

External links

National Portrait Gallery
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Berkeley, Robert 1584 births 1656 deaths People from Worcester, England Members of the Middle Temple High Sheriffs of Worcestershire Prisoners in the Tower of London English MPs 1621–1622 English MPs 1624–1625 Politicians from Worcestershire Impeached British officials Impeached judges