The Berkeleys of Spetchley and their Contribution to the Survival of the Faith in Worcestershire

Abstract

Rowland Berkeley, who bought Spetohley in 1606, was a Protestant, as was his son, Sir Robert, who died in 1656. Sir Robert Berkeley disinherited his only son, Thomas, because he became a Catholic and married a Catholic wife (c. 1649); and he left his property to Thomas's elder son, Robert, who was born in 1650, provided that when he reached the age of twenty-one he was a Protestant.