File:Arms of Sir Thomas Berkeley (d.1361) of Stoke Gifford.svg

Arms of Sir Thomas Berkeley (d.1361) of Uley and Stoke Gifford. Arms of Berkeley (of 4 quarters) as shown (impaling Botetourt) on monument to his grandson Sir Maurice Berkeley (1401-1464), of Stoke Gifford, Gloucestershire, MP for Gloucestershire in 1425 and 1429, in The Gaunts Chapel (now St Mark's Church) in Bristol. Both The Gaunts Chapel and St Augustine's Abbey (now Bristol Cathedral) which stands opposite it, were founded by the Berkeley family, feudal barons of Berkeley. See Blunt, Rev. John Henry, Dursley and its Neighbourhood, Being Historical Memorials of Dursley, Beverston, Cam and Uley, London, 1877, pp.97 et seq.file:///C:/Users/Owner/Downloads/DursleyandItsNeighbourhood_10766282.pdf.

As indicated by the impalement, the shield is that of Sir Thomas Berkeley (d.1361)^[1][2] of Uley and Stoke Gifford, Gloucestershire, who married Katherine Botetourt (d.1388), one of the three daughters and co-heiresses of w:John Botetourt, 2nd Baron Botetourt (d.1385). He thus inherited a one third claim to the barony of Botetourt. Sir Thomas Berkeley (d.1361) was the grandfather of Sir Maurice Berkeley (1401-1464), the subject of the monument, whose effigy it contains.

The Berkeley family of Stoke Gifford was descended from Maurice de Berkeley (d.1347), killed at the Siege of Calais, who had acquired the manor of Stoke Gifford in 1337, the second son of Maurice de Berkeley, 2nd Baron Berkeley, 7th feudal baron of Berkeley (1271–1326), Maurice the Magnanimous, of Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire. See pedigree in Cokayne, G. E. & Gibbs, Vicary, eds. (1912). The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct or dormant (Bass to Canning). Vol.2 (2nd ed.). London: The St. Catherine Press, p.234.

• Maurice de Berkeley, 2nd Baron Berkeley, 7th feudal baron of Berkeley (1271–1326), Maurice the Magnanimous, of Berkeley Castle. His eldest son and heir was Thomas de Berkeley, 3rd Baron Berkeley, 8th feudal baron of Berkeley (1293/6–1361) Thomas the Rich. His second son was:

• Maurice de Berkeley (d.1347), killed at the Siege of Calais, who had acquired the manor of Stoke Gifford in 1337.

• Sir Thomas Berkeley (d.1361)^[3][4] of Uley and Stoke Gifford, Gloucestershire, who married Katherine Botetourt (d.1388), one of the three daughters and co-heiresses of w:John Botetourt, 2nd Baron Botetourt (d.1385). He thus inherited a one third claim to the barony of Botetourt.

• Sir Maurice Berkeley (1358-1400), of Uley and Stoke Gifford, MP for Gloucestershire in 1391 (History of Parliament biog[1]). He was a great-grandson of Maurice de Berkeley, 2nd Baron Berkeley, 7th feudal baron of Berkeley (1271–1326), Maurice the Magnanimous, of Berkeley Castle. "His paternal inheritance included the manors of Kings Weston, Aylburton, Bradley and Uley, in Gloucestershire, Kingston Seymour in Somerset, and Brigmerston and Milston in Wiltshire, besides smaller properties in Hampshire. In addition, when his relative w:John Maltravers, 1st Baron Maltravers (1290?–1364) (the husband of Milicent de Berkeley, a daughter of Maurice de Berkeley, 2nd Baron Berkeley) died without male issue in 1364, he inherited the manors of Rockhampton, Stoke Gifford and Wallscourt (Gloucestershire), under the terms of an entail". (History of Parliament biog) He married Joan Dynham (d.1412), daughter of Sir John Dynham of Hartland, Devon. His only son^[5] and heir was:

• Sir Maurice Berkeley (9 Feb 1401-1464), MP for Gloucestershire in 1425 and 1429. Born posthumously. "He was made a ward of one of the ‘King’s knights’, Sir Francis Court, and was destined to be even wealthier than his father, for in 1407, when his father's first cousin Joyce, Lady Burnell (wife of Hugh Burnell, Baron Burnell and daughter of John de Botetourt (dvp.1369), son and heir apparent of the 2nd Baron) suo jure Baroness Botetourt, died childless, he inherited a third part of the abeyant barony of Botetourt. On proving his age in 1423 he took possession of both the Berkeley and his share of the Botetourt estates, and as Sir Maurice Berkeley he was returned for Gloucestershire to the Parliaments of 1425 and 1429". (History of Parliament biog). He married Ellen Montfort, a daughter of William Montfort/Mountfort (d.1452), of Coleshill in Arden, Warwickshire, 8 times a MP for Warwickshire.^[6] William Montfort was buried at St Mary's Church, Aldridge, Staffordshire. The effigies of Sir Maurice Berkeley and Ellen Mountford survive under an elaborate stone canopy in the chancel of The Gaunts Chapel (now St Mark's Church) in Bristol (see[2])

The feudal barony of Beverston was founded by Robert Fitzharding^[7] (c. 1095–1170), an Anglo-Saxon nobleman who was also granted the feudal barony of Berkeley in Gloucestershire. He rebuilt Berkeley Castle, and founded the Berkeley family which still occupies it today. He granted his subsidiary barony of Beverston, with its castle,^[8][9] to his third son Robert FitzRobert Fitzharding (d.1194), who adopted the surname "de Gaunt" and who by his second wife Avice had a son and heir Maurice de Gaunt (1184-1230) who died without issue. Whilst Robert Fitzharding, the patriarch of the Berkeley family, founded St Augustine's Abbey in Bristol (now Bristol Cathedral), the de Gaunts founded "The Gaunts' Chapel" (now called "St Mark's Church" or "The Mayor's Chapel") opposite it, across what is today College Green. The crossed-legged effigies supposed to represent Maurice de Gaunt and his father, survive in the Gaunts' Chapel, together with two monuments to later members of the Berkeley family of Stoke Gifford, Gloucestershire (a junior branch descended from Maurice de Berkeley, 2nd Baron Berkeley, 7th feudal baron of Berkeley (1271–1326), Maurice the Magnanimous of Berkeley Castle).

In 1225 Maurice de Gaunt built a fortified manor house at Beverston without a royal licence, and was subsequently granted by the king a licence to crenellate. On 29 July 1229, King Henry III signed a document allowing the castle to stand and remain for ever.^[10] Maurice de Gaunt was also known as Maurice de Ghent or de Gant, and as Maurice Paynel; Beverston was called Beverestan in the July 1229 document which was written in Latin.^[11][12] On the death of Maurice de Gaunt in 1230 without issue, his heir to the feudal barony of Beverston was Robert de Gournay (d.1269), the son of his half-sister Eve de Gaunt by her husband Anselm de Gournay.^[13] In 1235 the manors of Beverston, Elberton and King's Weston were held by Robert de Gournay, as a tenant-in-chief of the king, for the service of one knight's fee.^[14] The last in the male line was John de Gournay (d.1291) who left a daughter and heiress Elizabeth de Gournay.^[15] At about this time Beverston passed back to the senior line of the Berkeley family and was granted (with extensive other estates) by Thomas de Berkeley, 3rd Baron Berkeley, 8th feudal baron of Berkeley (1293/6–1361) Thomas the Rich to his 4th son Sir John Berkeley (1352-1428),^[16] founder of the Beverston line of that family.

The shield has been restored and re-painted, apparently in the 18th century (based on the style of the lions on the matching shield at left). Berkeley quarterly of four impaling Botetourt (Or, a saltire engrailed sable) (source: information sheet in St Mark's Church, Bristol):

• 1: Gules, a chevron ermine between ten crosses pattée six in chief and four in base argent (Berkeley of Stoke Gifford)
• 2: Gules, a chevron between ten crosses pattée six in chief and four in base argent a bordure of the last (Berkeley of Beverstone Castle, Gloucestershire) (Burke, Sir Bernard, The General Armory, London, 1884, p.74);
• 3: Paly of six or and azure (Gourney/Gournay) (Burke, Sir Bernard, The General Armory, London, 1884, p.416 "Gournay, feudal barons of Yarmouth (sic), Norfolk. The arms are said to have been "pure sable" but paly of six or and azure has been attributed to them"). No such feudal barony exists, according to the definitive lists in Sanders, I.J. English Baronies: A Study of their Origin and Descent 1086-1327, Oxford, 1960.
• 4: Azure, three bars paly or and azure over all a bend gules (should be Barry of six/eight or and azure over all a bend gules) (de Gaunt of Beverstone) (Burke, Sir Bernard, The General Armory, London, 1884, p.391, Barry of eight or and azure over all a bend gules).