xii. Lord Berkeley’s Men

Henry FitzHardinge Berkeley, Baron Berkeley; succ. 1553; m. Catherine, d. of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey; ob. 1613; father of Thomas Berkeley, nat. 11 July 1575; m. Elizabeth, d. of Sir G. Carey, afterwards 2nd Baron Hunsdon, 19 Feb. 1596; ob. 22 Nov. 1611.

The only London record of this company is in July 1581, when some of them, including Arthur King and Thomas Goodale, were committed to the Counter after a brawl with Inns of Court men. Lord Berkeley apologized to the Lord Mayor on their behalf, and said that they would go to the country (App. D, Nos. xlix, l). Their other appearances are all in the country, at Bristol between 6 and 12 July 1578, where they played What Mischief Worketh in the Mind of Man, at Bath on 11 July 1578 and on another day in 1578–9, at Abingdon in 1579–80, Stratford-on-Avon in 1580–1, Maldon in 1581, Stratford-on-Avon in 1582–3, Barnstaple in 1583–4, and Bath in 1586–7. Long after they, or a later company under the same name, reappear at Coventry in 1597–8, at Leicester in 1598 before Michaelmas, at Saffron Walden in 1598–9, and at Coventry and elsewhere in 1603–10. Lord Berkeley’s name is sometimes misspelt in the account-books as ‘Bartlett’.