Berkeley, Frederick Augustus (1745 -1810)

The eldest son and heir of Augustus Berkeley, 4th Earl of Berkeley, and Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Drax, of Ellerton Abbey, Yorkshire, Frederick Augustus succeeded his father in the Earldom in 1755.  In 1766 he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire, High Steward of Gloucester, Constable of St Briavels, and Warden of the Forest of Dean.

He married Mary Cole, the daughter of a local publican and butcher, and had twenty one children. On his death he attempted to settle the family home, Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, onto his eldest son, William Fitz Hardinge Berkeley, 1st Earl Fitz Hardinge, but the latter’s attempt to assume his father’s honours were disallowed by the House of Lords. The 5^thEarl’s titles devolved as a matter of law upon his fifth son, Thomas Morton Fitz Hardinge Berkeley (1796-1882), the 6^thEarl of Berkeley.