Note 24 — BERKELEY CASTLE, GLOUCESTERSHIRE.

It appears that in the time of the Confessor a “De Berkeley” possessed the adjoining manor and castle of Dursley; and his descendant might probably have joined the Conqueror on, or immediately after, his invasion, and thus retain the possessions until the domain was, during the wars between Maud and Stephen, consigned to Henry, afterwards Henry II. The gift to Robert Fitzhardinge is clear, and, occurring on the very year of his accession to the throne, was doubtless intended by the monarch to mark that event.