A catalogue of notable Middle Templars, with brief biographical notices/Berkeley, Sir William

3623583A catalogue of notable Middle Templars, with brief biographical notices — Berkeley, Sir WilliamJohn Hutchinson

BERKELEY, Sir WILLIAM.
Colonial Governor.
d. 1677.

Admitted 3 May, 1624.

Fourth son of Sir Maurice Berkeley, of Bruton, Somerset. He was educated at Oxford, where he graduated M.A. in 1629. In 1632 he was a Commissioner in Canada, and on his return became Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to Charles I. He was appointed Governor of Virginia in 1641, and when there gave asylum to the Royalist exiles, by which he incurred the displeasure of the Parliament, who deposed him. At the Restoration he was reappointed, and continued to administer the Government till the year before his death in 1677.

He was the author of a Play, entitled The Lost Lady, published in 1638, and of an unpublished one, entitled Cornelia, written in 1662.