tunes had withered his desires and his hopes.' Writing from Virginia on 18 July of the previous year, Ludwell describes the governor as 'pious and exemplary, sober in his conversation, prudent andjust in peace, diligent and valiant in war.' For his careful administration and for the zeal that he displayed in checking the Indians (whom he treated with the utmost severity), he received the honour of knighthood. Religious tolerance was not one of his virtues, and the State Papers show that he put much pressure on the quakers. As a lawgiver he was esteemed wise and just. To him, in 1662, Moryson dedicated the 'Laws of Virginia now in force,' stating in the dedicatory address that Berkeley was the author of all the best laws. In 1676 he resigned the governorship and returned to England, and on 13 July 1677 he was buried at Twickenham. An unpublished play, 'Cornelia,' 1662, by 'Sir William Hartley,' is ascribed in 'Biographia Dramatica' — and no doubt correctly — to Berkeley.
[Wood's Athenæ (Bliss), iii. 1111-12; Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, bk. xiii. p. 173; Biographia Dramatica. ed. Stephen Jones; Indices of the Cal. State Papers, Colon. Ser., American and West Indies, 1574-1660, 1661-8; Hist. Commiss. Report, iv. 47, 100, 237, vii. 467, 493; A Perfect Description of Virginia, 1649.]
BERKENHOUT, JOHN (1730?–1791), physician, naturalist, and miscellaneous writer, was born about 1730 at Leeds, and received the rudiments of his education at the grammar school of that town. His father, a merchant and native of Holland, in order to train him for a commercial career, sent him at an early age to Germany, that he might acquire a knowledge of foreign languages. After spending some years in Germany he accompanied some English noblemen on a tour through Europe. On returning to Germany he stayed at Berlin in the house of his father's relative. Baron de Bielfeld, a man distinguished in politics and literature. Finding the prospect of a commercial life distasteful, Berkenhout became a cadet in a Prussian infantry regiment, where he was speedily promoted to the rank of ensign, and afterwards of captain. In 1756, war being declared between England and France, he quitted the Prussian service, and received a commission in an English regiment. At the close of the war in 1760 he entered Edinburgh University, and applied himself to the study of medicine. While a student at Edinburgh he published in 1762 his 'Clavis Anglica Linguæ Botanicæ Linnæi;' a second edition of this useful lexicon appeared in 1764, and a third edition in 1766. From Edinburgh he proceeded to the university of Leyden, where he took his degree of doctor of physic on 13 May 1765 (Peacock, Index of Leyden Students), composing for the occasion a 'Dissertatio Medica inauguralis de Podagra,' which was dedicated on publication to Baron de Bielfeld. On his return to England he settled at Isleworth in Middlesex, and in 1766 published his 'Pharmacopoeia Medici.' It is stated in Davy's 'Suffolk Collections' (xc. 403) that he practised for some time as a physician at Bury St. Edmunds; but no date is mentioned. In 1769 appeared the first volume of 'Outlines of the Natural History of Great Britain;' the second volume following in 1770, and the third in 1771. The complete work was republished in 1773 in three volumes, and a revised edition in two volumes appeared in 1788 under the title of 'A Synopsis of the Natural History of Great Britain.' His next
publication was Dr. Cadogan's 'Dissertation on the Gout, examined and refuted,' 1771. The work in which his fame chiefly rests is his 'Biographia Literaria, or a Biographical History of Literature, containing the lives of English, Scotch, and Irish authors, from the dawn of letters in these kingdoms to the present time, chronologically and classically arranged,' vol. i., 1777, 4to. This is a book which may still be consulted with advantage; the information, if somewhat scanty, is fairly accurate, the style is pleasant, and the criticism shrewd. In the preface Berkenhout acknowledges his indebtedness to George Steevens, the Shakespearean commentator, who supplied him with information concerning the lives of the poets. Throughout the work the author loses no opportunity of displaying his hostility to all systems of dogmatic theology, and is loud in his praises of Voltaire. The first volume goes down to the end of the sixteenth century; the work was never continued. In 1778 Berkenhout was sent by government with some commissioners to America. Congress would not allow them to proceed beyond New York, but Berkenhout contrived to reach Philadelphia. Here he stayed for some time without interference on the part of the authorities; but at length, suspicion arising that he was tampering with some of the leading citizens, he was thrown
into prison. After effecting his escape or release he rejoined the commissioners at New York, came back to England, and was rewarded with a pension for his services. In 1780 he published 'Lucubrations on Ways and Means, inscribed to Lord North,' a proposal for the imposition of certain taxes. Some of the suggestions contained in this pamphlet were adopted by Lord North, others
