96 



Sir William died of the " sweating sickness 99 soon after and 

 willed his body to be buried in this chauntry chapel, " where my 

 father lieth" (P.P.C. 24, Logge i486) and his brother, Sir Edward 

 Berkeley, who is described of Avon, Hants, was subsequently 

 buried in this same chauntry (P.P.C. 4, Adene, 1505). There are, 

 therefore, six Berkeley interments (and probably more) in this 

 Christchurch chauntry. It is a matter of great regret that the 

 present Vicar of Christchurch has seen fit to allow mutilation of 

 the interior of this chauntry, covering up the lower portions' of 

 its frescoed walls and by locking the entrance, preventing the 

 historical visitors from seeing the red and white roses of York 

 and Lancaster painted upon its inside roof. An 18th Century local 

 brewer's tablet disfigures the entrance of this most interesting 

 15th Century chauntry, and is typical of much surrounding 

 vandalism of recent times. 



But who were these Berkeley's, and where did they live? 

 They were a junior branch of the ancient House of Berkeley in 

 Gloucestershire, who claim kinship with Viking kings. A younger 

 son of Thomas, 8th Lord Berkeley, named John Berkeley, was 

 not quite out of his teens when his father died. This John 

 Berkeley, of Beverston, when about 33 years of age, married a 

 Hampshire damsel of 17 named Elizabeth Bettsthorne, daughter 

 and sole heiress of Sir John Bettsthorne, of Bisterne and Min- 

 stead, Hants, who had estates also in Dorset and Wilts. From 

 natural choice, John and Elizabeth Berkeley lived on their Hamp- 

 shire estates, and John followed his father-in-law and became 

 Sheriff of Hants in 1402 and 1406, and we may add here to pre- 

 vent its omission their descendants were Sheriffs on thirteen 

 occasions during the next 150 years. The Bournemouth Society 

 of Natural Science were permitted to see Bisterne House last 

 August by J. Digby Mills, Esq., J. P., its present owner, but, with 

 the exception of the cellarage, the house has been remodelled as 

 well as rebuilt in the 16th and 17th Centuries. The ancient family 

 of Bettsthorne, of Bisterne, whose armorials (made in a later 

 age) are seen over the western doors, were an important family 

 of the 13th and 14th Century. In 1337 a Richard Bettsthorne 

 was elected Prior of Twynham for a few months, a Margaret 

 Bettsthorne appears in the Inquisitions Post Mortems of 1449, 

 and a John Bettsthorne, son of Reginald, is to be found as early 

 as 1248, etc. We are, however, concerned with a later John 

 Bettsthorne, Sheriff of Hampshire in 1378, who died in 1398 and 

 Ties buried in his chauntry in Mere Church, Wilts, and his grave 

 is probably covered by an interesting and unique brass (see 

 illustration). In the same chauntry is a fragmentary brass of 

 his son-in-law, Sir John Berkeley, the founder of the house of 

 the Hampshire Berkeleys and buried near his first wife and father- 

 in-law, from whom he derived the estates. Sir John Berkeley 

 lived through some revolutionary times, he saw the deposition 

 of Richard II. and the accession of Henry IV., with its religious 



