Sir William Berkeley | |
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Governor of Virginia | |
In office 1660–1677 | |
Appointed by | Charles II |
Preceded by | Samuel Mathews |
Succeeded by | Sir Herbert Jeffreys |
In office 1642–1652 | |
Appointed by | Charles I |
Preceded by | Sir Francis Wyatt |
Succeeded by | Richard Bennett |
Personal details | |
Born | 1605 Hanworth Manor, Middlesex, England |
Died | 9 July 1677 Berkeley House, Mayfair, England | (aged 71–72)
Resting place | St Mary's Church, Twickenham Middlesex, England |
Spouse | Frances Culpeper Stephens Berkeley |
Residence(s) | Green Spring Plantation, James City County, Virginia |
Occupation | Planter |
Signature | ![]() |
Sir William Berkeley (/ˈbɑːrkliː/; 1605 – 9 July 1677) was an English colonial administrator who served as the governor of Virginia from 1660 to 1677. One of the Lords Proprietors of the Province of Carolina, as governor of Virginia he implemented policies that bred dissent among the colonists and sparked Bacon's Rebellion. A favourite of King Charles I, the king first granted him the governorship in 1642. Berkeley was unseated following the execution of Charles I, but his governorship was restored by King Charles II in 1660.
Charles II also named Berkeley one of the eight Lords Proprietors of Carolina, in recognition of his loyalty to the Stuarts during the English Civil War. As governor, Berkeley oversaw the implementation of a policy known as partus sequitur ventrem, which mandated that all babies born to enslaved parents take the legal status of their mother. As proprietor of Green Spring Plantation in James City County, he experimented with activities such as growing silkworms as part of his efforts to expand the tobacco-based economy. He was the author of Discourse and View of Virginia, where he argued for diversifying the colony's tobacco economy.