By Dr. Amy Stallings, Historian and Interpretive Guide, Preservation Virginia
Society often expects its heroes and villains to conform to distinct templates. Domineering, elitist aristocrats generally do not fit the “hero” mold; to celebrate such figures, we re-write them as scrappy underdogs. Sir William Berkeley and his wife, Frances, resist any such re-writing.
Sir William assumed governorship of Virginia in 1642, on the eve of England’s Civil War, and later made the colony a haven for Royalist exiles; around 1651, the Culpeper family, including his future wife, took up that offer. Sir William and Frances’ marriage in 1670 certainly secured social and material advantages, but it was, I would argue, a devoted partnership. Both members of the ruling class in an era when that conferred real power, they worked together to impose Sir William’s vision of Virginia from the top down. They also maintained unshakably that “rebel” equaled “traitor”: an equation difficult to cheer for today, amid the 250th anniversary of American Independence. When Frances’ young cousin, Nathaniel Bacon, led a revolt against the government in 1676, Lady Berkeley championed her husband as the true hero of the drama.
“The Governor is dealt more sevearlie with…then ever man of his quallitie & Carracter has been in the world,” she told the Royal Commissioners charged with investigating in the aftermath of Bacon’s Rebellion, subscribing herself “the wife of the persecuted Sir Wm. Berkeley.”(1) Frances defended her spouse both publicly, before the Lords of Trade and privately, gathering allies at their home in the wake of his death. She retained the honorific “Lady Berkeley” even after remarriage to Philip Ludwell. Her persistent loyalty is a testament to the respect and affection she felt for Sir William: “My Dear, Dear Sir,” she addressed him, twice in one letter. (2) What made this man, dogged by accusations of cruelty and mismanagement, doubly dear to her?
Sir William displayed intellect, courage, and surprising humility for someone dubbed a tyrant. Not born to title, he attended Oxford as ordinary “Will Berkeley,” a nickname he still used with friends even in 1676. Knighthood was conferred as a royal reward for military services. Parliament’s victory in the English Civil War eventually forced Sir William to surrender governorship of Virginia; yet, Berkeley’s first surviving correspondence after this crushing blow is not his apology to the exiled King—it is a note directing that two lambs be gifted to Tabitha and Matilda, children of a family friend. (1) The portrait emerges of a man who could be critical and stubborn in the political arena but tender and generous in his private life.
Significantly younger than her husband, Frances may have recognized that, by 1676, Sir William adhered to a rule book that was woefully out of date. Yet, the Governor’s attempts to manage the developing clash with his wife’s errant cousin, Nathaniel Bacon, demonstrate that he could adapt—just not fast enough to compete with a charismatic young conman. (3) Perhaps the couple hoped that their headstrong relation would reform; certainly, they never expected Bacon to spearhead a popular revolt. When he did, the insult was personal; the betrayal, profound. “I accuse him of a worse Crime than Poverty,” attested Lady Berkeley after enumerating Nathaniel’s debts, “I…accuse him of Ingratitude, and that [of] a deep dye….to rent the Heart [of]…his Kinswoman.” (1)
Heart, like heroism, is not the sole property of scrappy underdogs. History offers us richer complexity when we discard the templates we want to see and examine in good faith how these figures saw themselves. An epic of political upheaval transforms into the tragedy of one family’s generational conflict and brokenness—a quieter battle, but no less intense.
Sources:
- Billings, Warren M., ed, The Papers of Sir William Berkeley, 1605-1677. Library of Virginia, Richmond, VA, 2007.
- Snyder, Terri, and Dictionary of Virginia Biography. “Frances Culpeper Stephens Berkeley (1634–ca. 1695)” Encyclopedia Virginia. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/berkeley-frances-culpeper-stephens-1634-ca-1695/
- Reed, Isaac Ariail, “Charismatic Performance: A Study of Bacon’s Rebellion.” American Journal of Cultural Sociology, 2013
Want to learn more?
Dr. Amy Stallings is one of our five panelists we had for our event in May, “Women’s Perspectives on Bacon’s Rebellion: Expert Panel Discussion and Open House Tour” which is available on our YouTube under the Resources Tab on “Lecture Videos” or simply on our Preservation Virginia channel.
