Lady Henrietta Berkeley

Lady Henrietta Berkeley
Picture of woman
Portrait of Lady Henrietta Berkeley (1807)
Born
Henrietta Harriett Berkeley

c. 1664
Disappeared1682
Epsom, England
StatusFound in London later that year
Died1706 (aged 41–42)
London, England
NationalityEnglish
Known forAdultery with sister's husband
PartnerLord Grey of Warke
Parent(s)George Berkeley, 1st Earl of Berkeley
Elizabeth Massingberd

Lady Henrietta Berkeley (c. 1664–1706) was an English aristocrat notorious for having an affair with her elder sister's husband, Lord Grey of Warke. The affair began in 1681 when Berkeley was not yet an adult and was discovered by her mother the following year. Berkeley was removed to the family seat at Epsom. She escaped and went into hiding in lodging houses in London, under the protection of Grey. Her father, George Berkeley, 1st Earl of Berkeley, sued her lover in a trial which became a sensation in 1682.

At the court of the King's Bench, Berkeley claimed to have left home with Grey of her own free will and also to have married William Turner, who was Grey's servant. After a scuffle with her father outside court, she was briefly imprisoned with Turner for her own safety. When Grey was implicated in the Rye House Plot the following year, the couple fled to Cleves, with Turner in their entourage. At the time, Berkeley was pregnant and it is not known if she returned to England with Grey for the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685. She died in London in 1706.