James Berkeley (died 1327) was Bishop of Exeter for a period of three months in 1327, a term of office cut short by his death.

[1] Berkeley died on 24 June 1327,[1] having been murdered and having suffered the destruction and despoliation of his manors, according to the account by his successor John de Grandisson.

It is devoid of the monumental brass which originally adorned the Purbeck marble[3] ledger stone top, in the form of a demi-effigy of a bishop wearing a mitre, the indent of which is still visible.

The antiquarian John Leland (c. 1503-1552) saw the monument complete and recorded in his writings that it bore inscribed Latin verse of which one line was: In Barkley natus, jacet hic Jacobus tumulatus[3] ("In Berkeley (Castle) he was born, here lies James covered").

This is similar to the eight-line leonine verse (or "jingling verse") on the ledger stone of Sir Peter Courtenay (1346–1405), KG, situated a few feet away from the bishop's tomb on the floor of the south ambulatory (but originally part of the Courtenay chantry chapel in the nave) which commences: Devoniae natus, comitis (comes) Petrusque vocatus ("Born of the Earl of Devon, called Peter").