Robert Berkeley, Esq.
(1823-1897)
11 February 1861

Volume 2, page 200, sitting number 2091.

[Identified as ‘Robert Berkeley, Esq.’ in the Silvy daybooks, this is probably the husband of Lady Catherine Berkeley, who sat for Silvy the previous year.]

Born at Blackmore Park in Worcestershire in 1823 (Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 16 October 1823), Robert Berkeley was the son of Robert Berkeley, later of Spetchley Park, Worcestershire.

On 4 March 1851 at the Roman Catholic Church in Chelsea, Robert Berkeley of Spetchley Park, Worcestershire, married ‘Catherine, youngest daughter of the hon. Colonel Browne, and niece of the Earl of Kenmare’ (The Belfast Newsletter, 10 March 1851).

The family appear on the 1871 census living at Wootton House in Warwickshire. The household included eleven children (the eldest was 19 years old, the youngest was 5 months old), two governesses, a Sister of Mercy from France, a housekeeper and sixteen servants, with additional gardeners living on the estate.

By the time the census was taken in 1881 the family had moved to Park Hall in Spetchley. In addition to Robert and Lady Catherine’s children and grandchildren, the household included 22 servants.

Robert Berkely of Spetchley Parks died, aged 74, at St Cloud, Powick, near Worcester on 9 September 1897. He was buried in the churchyard of All Saints, Spetchley.

‘In the person of Mr Robert Berkeley […] has passed away the head of one of the old English Catholic families who have kept the faith for many generations. The Berkeleys trace their descent from Thomas Mowbray, first Duke of Norfolk’ (Dublin Evening Telegraph, 14 September 1897).

Surprisingly for man who kept such a large house and so many servants, his estate was valued at only £241. Nor did her widow leave much more when she died in 1924. Her estate was valued at £371.

[Three Silvy portraits of Lady Catherine Berkeley appear on page 15 of this section.]