Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 04.djvu/372

 BERKELEY, WILLIAM (1639–1666), vice-admiral, was the third son of Sir Charles Berkeley of Bruton, treasurer of the household to Charles II, and younger brother of Charles, earl of Falmouth, the favourite of the Duke of York, killed in the battle of 3 June 1665 [see ]. William, who shared the duke's favour with his elder brother, was appointed lieutenant of the Swiftsure in 1661, and in 1662 was promoted to the command of the Bonaventure. In the summer of 1663 he commanded the Bristol, in the Mediterranean squadron, under Sir John Lawson, engaged in one of the usual abortive attempts to persuade, without overawing, the Dey and Divan of Algiers to abstain from plundering English ships (, Diary, 9, 18 Nov. 1663). The next year he commanded the Resolution; was knighted 12 Oct. 1664, and in November was appointed rear-admiral of the red squadron, of which Lawson was vice-admiral, under the immediate command of the Duke of York. He was then sent into the Channel with six frigates, and there remained, between Dover and the Isle of Wight, till the following April, when he rejoined the fleet and took part in the battle of 3 June 1665. Of his behaviour on this occasion it is impossible to speak with certainty; for whilst one contemporary report describes him as, with a squadron of six ships, chasing nine of the runaway Dutch (Cal. S. P. Dom. 5 June 1666), another says that on hearing of his brother's death he thought it

Nor was the scandal confined to verse, for Pepys records (16 June): 'It is strange to see how people do already slight Sir William Berkeley &hellip; who three months since was the delight of the court.' True or false, however, the duke stuck to his favourite, and appointed him (19 June) to be lieutenant-governor of the town and garrison of Portsmouth. During the next twelve months his time was officially spent between Portsmouth and the fleet. In the four days' battle off the North Foreland he commanded as vice-admiral of the white squadron, his flag still flying in the Swiftsure, which, being cut off from the fleet, was surrounded and captured by the Dutch after the admiral and most of her men had been slain, 1 June 1666. Friends and enemies were agreed that Sir William Berkeley died as became an English admiral (, Columna Rostrata, 173: Leven van Tromp, 320;, Vie de Michel de Ruyter, 351), much to the satisfaction of his father and friends, who had been extremely troubled with a report of his cowardice (Cal. S. P. Dom. 15 June 1666). His body was respectfully embalmed by the Dutch (Gent. Mag. lvii. 214), and sent over to England; in the following August it was buried in Westminster Abbey, where there is a monument to his memory.

He was not married. According to Pepys (6 July 1665), he had paid his court to a daughter of Sir John Lawson, who had, however, refused his suit. His portrait, by Sir Peter Lely, is now in the Painted Hall at Greenwich.



BERKELEY, WILLIAM (d. 1677), governor of Virginia, youngest son of Sir Maurice Berkeley, and brother of, first Lord Berkeley of Stratton [q. v.], was born in or near London. In 1625 he was elected probationer fellow of Merton College, Oxford; in 1629 was admitted master of arts, and in the following year started on his travels. He was one of the commissioners of Canada in 1632 (Cal. State Papers, Colon. Ser. 1574-1660, p. 9). Returning to England with a high reputation for knowledge and experience, he became gentleman of the privy chamber to Charles I (, Environs of London, iii. 691). In 1638 he published 'The Lost Lady, a tragi-comedy,' fol., which is included in the first and fourth editions of Dodsley's ' Old Plays,' but omitted in the editions of 1780 and 1825. Wood states that he was sent to Virginia in 1640; but this is a mistake, for the commission appointing him to the governorship of the colony (Cal. State Papers, Colon. Ser. 1574-1660, p. 321) is dated 9 Aug. 1641. When the parliamentarians were successful, Berkeley offered an asylum in Virginia to gentlemen of the royalist side; whereupon the parliament despatched a small fleet to the colony, and the governor, unable to offer resistance, was forced to resign his authority, but received permission to remain on his own plantation as a private person. At the Restoration Berkeley was reappointed governor. Among the State Papers is a letter of King Charles II for his recall, dated 13 May 1665; but he continued to administer the affairs of the colony for the next eleven years. His secretary, Thomas Ludwell, in a letter dated 24 June 1667, writes to John, Lord Berkeley of Stratton, that the governor had resolved against all entreaties to solicit his return. A few days earlier Berkeley had written a desponding letter to Secretary Lord Arlington, in which he says that 'age and