| Authorised form of name | Berkeley; George (1627 - 1698); 1st Earl of Berkeley and Viscount Dursley; politician and merchant |
| Dates | 1627 - 1698 |
| Nationality | British |
| Date of birth | 1627 |
| Date of death | 10 October 1698 |
| DatesAndPlaces | Burial:
Parish church of Cranford, Middlesex, England, Europe |
| Occupation | Politician; diplomat; merchant; colonial official |
| Activity | Education:
Christ Church, Oxford; Middle Temple (admitted 1669)
Career:
Elected for the shire in the protectorate parliaments (1654, 1655); Justice of the Peaces, Gloucestershire (1655); Committee of Trade (1656); succeeded to his father's seat in the House of Lords (1660) where he promoted the restoration of the monarchy; One of the Commissioners sent to the Hague to invite Charles II to return to the kingdom (1660); Keeper of the house gardens and parks of Nonsuch; Knight of the Bath (1661); Member of the Council of foreign plantations (1661); Founder Member of the Royal African Company (1663), Assistant (1674-1676, 1679-1681, 1684-1686); Privy Councillor (1667, 1678, 1685); member of the Board of Trade and Plantations (1668); Governor of the Levant Company (1680); Master of Trinity House (1681); presented the library of his uncle-by-marriage, Sir Robert Coke, to Sion College, London; member of the Committee of the HEIC (1660-1697, 1698-1699); Custos Rotulorum of Gloucestershire (1660-1689), Surrey (1689-1698); one of the peers who constituted themselves a provisional government after the flight of James II until the arrival of William III
Honours:
Viscount Dursley and Earl of Berkeley 1679 |
| Membership category | Original Fellow |
| Date of election | 20/05/1663 |
| Age at election | 36 |
| RSActivity | Royal Society roles:
Council: 1668-1688 (with short breaks) |
| Relationships | Parents: George Berkeley and Elizabeth Stanhope; succeeded his father (1658)
Married: Elizabeth Massinberd
Children: Charles Berkeley, 2nd Earl of Berkeley (FRS 1667)
Grandchildren: Sir Berkeley Lucy (FRS 1698)
Additional relatives: brother-in-law of Robert Bertie (FRS 1666); father-in-law of Sir Kingsmill Lucy (FRS 1668); father-in-law of Robert Nelson (FRS 1680) |
| OtherInfo | Berkeley was a founding member and assistant of The Royal Adventurers into Africa, later Royal African Company (RAC). The RAC was a British trading company established by Royal Charter in 1660 which enslaved and sold African people. The company was chartered by Charles II, the founding royal Patron of the Royal Society, which was also chartered in 1660. The RAC was made up of and funded by members of the Stuart royal family and London merchants many of whom were, or went on to become, Fellows of the Royal Society. The Royal Society itself held shares in the company from 1682 until 1699. The RAC held a monopoly on English trade on the west coast of Africa. The principal interest of the company was originally gold and secondarily other natural resources. The Company's second charter in 1663 mentions trade in enslaved people, who were mainly sold into slavery on British owned estates in the West Indies and America. The Jesus College Cambridge Legacy of Slavery Working Party has stated that the RAC was responsible for selling more Africans into slavery in America than any other institution in the history of the Atlantic slave trade, and that they ran a brutal regime with the full knowledge of their investors. The company became insolvent in 1708, it survived until 1752 when its assets were transferred to the new African Company of Merchants, which lasted until 1821.
The Honorable East India Company (HEIC) was an English and later British company formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region. The company ended up seizing control of large parts of the Indian subcontinent (and briefly Afghanistan) and colonised parts of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. Originally chartered as the Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East-Indies, by Queen Elizabeth I in 1600, the East India Company rose to account for half of the world's trade, thereby amassing vast wealth, influence and private armies. The East India company used slaves across their territories from 1621 until abolition of slavery in India in 1843. The company ruled large areas of India with its private armies, exercising military power and seizing administrative functions from local rulers from around 1757 until the British Raj which replaced HEIC control with direct colonial rule of India by the British Government in 1858. Under the HEIC and later colonial governance the British systematically oppressed indigenous people and exploited natural resources of colonised regions for commercial gain. The Company was dissolved in 1874. The Royal Society owned shares in the HEIC from 1682-1699 and many of its Fellows, such as Berkeley had positions or financial interests in the Company. These ties were strengthened through his marriage of convenience to Elizabeth Massingberdm the daughter and coheir of John Massingberd, treasurer of the East India Company. |
| Source | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB; GEC; MT; Davies
References:
G C R Morris, 'On the Identity of Jaques du Moulin, FRS 1667' in NR 1993 vol 45 pp 1-10
Mark Govier, 'The Royal Society, Slavery and the Island of Jamaica: 1660-1700' in NR 1999 vol 53 pp.203-217, for information on connections to trading companies.
Notes:
The election date is Berkeley's election date into the Society after the grant of the second charter in April 1663. All Fellows admitted in a two-month window after this charter, until 22 June 1663, are considered Original Fellows. |
| Virtual International Authority File | http://viaf.org/viaf/64351720 |
| Code | NA8039 |