John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton

"John Berkeley" redirects here. For other uses, see John Berkeley (disambiguation).

Lord Berkeley of Stratton

John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton (1602 – 28 August 1678) was an English royalist soldier. From 1648 he was closely associated with James, Duke of York, and rose to prominence, fortune and fame. He was the founder of New Jersey along with Sir George Carteret.

Early life

Berkeley was the son of Sir Maurice Berkeley and Elizabeth Killigrew Berkeley. His younger brother, Sir William Berkeley, served as royal governor of the colony of Virginia from 1642 to 1652 and again from 1660 to 1677. John Berkeley was accredited ambassador from Charles I of England to Christina of Sweden, in January 1637, to propose a joint effort by the two sovereigns for the reinstatement of the elector palatine in his dominions; probably the employment of Berkeley in this by his cousin, Sir Thomas Roe, who had conducted negotiations between Gustavus Adolphus and the king of Poland. Berkeley returned from Sweden in July 1637he had a commission in the army against the Scots in 1638, and was knighted at Berwick in that year. In 1640 he was returned to parliament for both Heytesbury and Reading, electing to retain his seat for the former place. Next year he was accused in parliament of complicity in the Army Plots, expelled from the house, and committed to the Tower of London; he was subsequently bailed by Edward Sackville, 4th Earl of Dorset and Henry Grey, 1st Earl of Stamford in the sum of £10,000, but the outbreak of hostilities prevented any further steps being taken.

First English Civil War

Berkeley took a conspicuous part in the First English Civil War, supporting the royal cause. He became Governor of Exeter, and General of the royalist forces in Devon.

In 1642 he joined the Marquess of Hertford at Sherborne, and was sent into Cornwall with the rank of commissary-general to act under Sir Ralph Hopton as lieutenant-general. The royalist forces defeated, in May 1643, the Earl of Stamford at the battle of Stratton, with great loss of baggage and artillery, and pursued him as far as Wells. In this affair Sir John distinguished himself, and was now made commander-in-chief of all the royalist forces in Devon. He sat down before Exeter, into which the Earl of Stamford had withdrawn, and which was further defended by the fleet under Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick. Berkeley succeeded in maintaining a blockade, beating off the Earl of Warwick with a loss of three ships, and on 4 September 1643 the Earl of Stamford was compelled to surrender. In 1644 Berkeley was present at the baptism of Henrietta Maria, the king's daughter, who was born at Exeter. The same year Hopton and Berkeley joined their forces to oppose Sir William Waller's westward advance, but were severely beaten at the battle of Cheriton near Alresford in Hampshire on 29 March. In April 1645 he superseded Sir Richard Grenville, being made colonel-general of the counties of Devon and Cornwall, took Wellington House, near Taunton, by assault, and then proceeded to invest Taunton. The advance of Thomas Fairfax westward in the autumn of the year changed the aspect of affairs. In January 1646 Fairfax was able to concentrate on Exeter, which Berkeley was forced (13 April) to surrender, on honourable terms.

Involvement in the Hampton Court escape

After the surrender of the royalist forces Berkeley joined his kinsman, Lord Jermyn, at Paris, in attendance upon Queen Henrietta Maria. Having persuaded the queen that he possessed influence with some of the principal officers in the army, he obtained from her a letter of recommendation to the king. Having gained access to the king, he set about using his influence with Oliver Cromwell, Henry Ireton, and others, with a view to mediating between them and the captive king; he was supported by John Ashburnham. The result was that a set of propositions emanating from the chiefs of the army were submitted to the king as a basis of reconciliation in July 1647. These the king scornfully rejected.

Berkeley received the king's commands to attend him in his flight from Hampton Court on the night of 10 November 1647. The party pushed on towards Hampshire, and ultimately reached Lymington. Berkeley crossed the Solent and opened the matter to Robert Hammond, parliamentary governor of the Isle of Wight which was the king's goal; who was non-committal. The envoys then conducted Hammond to the king at Lymington, an act later much criticised. Charles felt he had no choice but to nothing for it but to accompany Hammond to Carisbrooke Castle.

After this exploit Berkeley returned to London, still bent upon using his influence with the army. Being badly received by the officers, and arraigned by the parliament as a delinquent, he returned to Paris.

In exile

In Paris, during the absence of John Byron, 1st Baron Byron in England, he obtained, through the influence, as it would seem, of Lord Jermyn, the post of temporary governor to the Duke of York (1648), and on the death of Byron (1652) took over the position. He acquired the control of the Duke's finances, and endeavoured to bring about a match between the duke and Marie de Longueville, but the French court refused approval. Berkeley himself paid court to Anne Villiers, Countess of Morton, widowed in 1651; she turned him down, perhaps on advice from Sir Edward Hyde. Berkeley and Hyde became enemies.

Between 1652 and 1655 Berkeley served under Turenne in the campaigns against Condé, and the Spaniards in Flanders, accompanying the Duke of York as a volunteer. When the Duke placed his sword at the disposal of Spain, and crossed over into the Netherlands early in 1656, he was still accompanied by Berkeley. In the spring of the next year he made a tour with the Duke through some of the principal cities of the Netherlands, took part in the campaigns of that and the following year, and at the request of the duke was raised to the peerage as Baron Berkeley of Stratton, in Cornwall, by a patent dated at Brussels 19 May 1658.

After the Restoration

On the Restoration Berkeley was put on the staff of the admiralty. In 1661 he was appointed lord president of Connaught, for life, a deputy being at appointed to do the work of the office in Ireland. In 1663 (17 June) Berkeley was sworn a member of the privy council, and in the following year was made one of the masters of the ordnance. In January 1665 he was placed on the committee of Tangier.

In 1665 he began building himself Berkeley House, a palace near Piccadilly, which was destroyed by fire in 1733, on the site of Devonshire House. It was in the Italian style, cost nearly £30,000, and was completed about 1673. In 1668 he bought Twickenham Park. In 1670 he went to Ireland as lord lieutenant, holding the office for two years, with a few months' leave of absence. He was considered pro-Catholic, and to favour Peter Talbot. In December 1675 he was appointed, with Sir William Temple and Sir Leoline Jenkyns, ambassador extraordinary on the part of England at the congress of Nijmegen then about to assemble, but bad health affected him. On 26 August 1678 he died, being seventy-two years of age. He was buried (5 September) in the parish church of Twickenham. Although he held many distinguished offices, some authorities assert that, at one time, he was under a cloud, in consequence of his being detected in selling of offices, and other corrupt practices. Samuel Pepys speaks of him as being esteemed "a fortunate, though a passionate, and but weak man as to policy", and "the most hot, fiery man in discourse, without any cause", he ever saw. He was notorious for spinning incredible tales of his exploits; Clarendon wrote that through constant re-telling he may have come to believe them himself.

Family

Berkeley married Christian or Christiana Riccard, daughter of Sir Andrew Riccard, a wealthy London merchant, in the East India Company; she had already been married first to Sir John Geare, and subsequently (14 February 1659) to Henry Rich, Lord Kensington, son of Robert Rich, 5th Earl of Warwick. He left three sons, each of whom succeeded in his turn to the title, and one daughter, Anne, who married Sir Dudley Cullum, Bart., of Hanstead, Suffolk. The title became extinct in 1773.

New Jersey interests

The relations between Berkeley, Charles II and the Duke of York account for the granting to him of an interest in New Jersey, as well as in Carolina, which he had previously received. Berkeley was co-proprietor of New Jersey from 1664 to 1674. In 1665, Berkeley was one of the drafters of the Concession and Agreement, a document that provided freedom of religion in the Province of New Jersey. It was issued as a proclamation for the structure of the government for the colony written by the two proprietors, Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. Berkeley sold his share to a group of Quakers because of the political difficulties between New York Governor Richard Nicolls, Carteret, and himself. He effectively split New Jersey into two colonies: East Jersey, belonging to Carteret, and West Jersey. The colony was divided until 1702 when West Jersey went bankrupt and the colony was given back to the English crown, who unified the colony again.

References

• New Jersey Archives, First Series. Newark, NJ, 1880-1893., Volume 1, page 25.
• Whitehead, William Adee, East Jersey der the proprietary governments. New York, New-Jersey historical society, 1846, page 103.
• O'Callaghan, ed., Documents relating to the Colonial history of the State of New York, 1849 - 1851. Volume 2, page 599.

Political offices
Preceded by The Lord Robartes	Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1670–1672	Succeeded by The Earl of Essex
Peerage of England
Preceded by New Creation	Baron Berkeley of Stratton	Succeeded by Charles Berkeley