Lady (Frances Culpeper) Berkeley Was A Formidable Colonial Force

The Virginian-Pilot, Monday, 22 Feb 1999
Section: Local, Page: B3
By George Tucker

Apart from Pocahontas, Lady Frances Berkeley, the strong-willed, thrice-married and childless Colonial dame who ruled the political roost in Virginia from around 1670 until her death in the 1690s, was the Old Dominion's most notable 17th century woman.

Proud, imperious and fiercely partisan, Lady Berkeley was the sworn enemy of anyone who dared to question her own or her three husbands' aristocratic convictions. From the time of her first marriage when she was 18 until her death in her middle 60s, she was in the thick of the Virginia political melee. So much so that during the seven years of her married life to royal governor Sir William Berkeley, she became such a powerful behind-the-scenes factor that many blamed the blunders of her doddering husband on her none-too-subtle tugging at the governmental reins.

Lady Berkeley came from an ancient English family accustomed to command. Her great-great-grandfather, Walter Culpeper (c. 1475-1516), was the Under Marshal of Calais. Also, her haughty cousin, Thomas, Lord Culpeper, was one of Virginia's less distinguished Colonial governors during the latter part of her life.

The youngest of the five children of Thomas and Katherine (nee St. Leger) Culpeper, she was baptized in Hollingbourne Church, Kent, on May 27, 1634. Her father, one of the original proprietors of Virginia's Northern Neck, lost most of his English property during the British Civil War. After the execution of Charles I, he emigrated with his entire family to the Old Dominion in 1650.

Two years later, when she was 18, Lady Frances became the wife of Samuel Stephens, governor of the Albemarle settlement in North Carolina and the owner of Roanoke Island, the site of Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony.

But Lady Frances never exchanged what few amenities Virginia then offered for the Carolina frontier and lived with Stephens at "Balthorpe," his Warwick County plantation until he died in 1669.

Meanwhile, her vivacity and intelligence had attracted the attention of aging Virginia Gov. Sir William Berkeley (1606-1677), and six months after Stephens' death she became Lady Frances Berkeley and mistress of "Greenspring" in James City County, the finest country seat in English America.

Later, in 1676, when Lady Frances' cousin, Nathaniel Bacon, headed a revolt against her husband, the latter sent her to England to enlist help in putting down the troubles headed by Bacon, whom Lady Frances branded as a liar and deep-dyed ingrate.

When she returned in 1677, accompanied by 1,000 troups to restore order, she discovered not only had "Greenspring" been reduced to shambles by Bacon's henchmen, she also learned that their leader had died. Angered by her property losses and the shameful way her husband had been treated, Lady Frances became a leading light in the pro-Berkeley "Greenspring Faction" and in no time wholesale hangings and confiscation of "rebel" property became common.

Later, when Charles II sent three commissioners to Virginia to look into the causes of the rebellion, Lady Frances openly flouted their authority. And this serves to introduce one of those anecdotes that throw a searchlight on the dry bones of history. Here is how Philip Alexander Bruce in his "Institutional History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century" recounts the episode:

"The Commissioners, sent out to Virginia to inquire into the sources of the insurrection of the previous year, had called at Greenspring, the home of Sir William Berkeley, whose bitter enmity they had incurred by their condemnation of his violent conduct in punishing the unfortunate followers of Bacon.

"When they left the house, the Governor's coach was waiting at the door ready to convey them to Jamestown. Apparently they were to be the recipients of an attention worthy of their rank; after taking their seats within the vehicle, however, they observed to their indignant horror their postilion was the common hangman. As they drove away, they saw Lady Berkeley peeping at them in evident derision through a broken quarrel of glass in the window of her chamber."

Even after Berkeley returned to England in 1677 to plead his case before Charles II, Lady Frances continued to be a thorn in the sides of the commissioners.

Finally, when the news arrived at Jamestown that Sir William had died shortly after his return to London, she married Col. Philip Ludwell of "Rich Neck" plantation, her late husband's chief supporter, and remained a power behind the throne in the "Greenspring Faction" that continued to thwart successive attempts on the part of royal representatives to impose arbitrary measures on the Virginia colony.

Interestingly, even though she took Ludwell as her third husband, Lady Frances never relinquished her title and she continued to be known and feared (or respected) as Lady Frances Berkeley until she died in the 1690s and was buried at Jamestown.

In summing up her character, historian Jane D. Carson has this to say: "Opponents called her arrogant, grasping and devious, but friends trusted her and respected her judgment. Her letters, written with force and polish, reveal strength of character and proud integrity, personal warmth and tact, intense loyalty and affectionate regard for kinsmen and friends."