Robert Beverley, Jr.

Robert Beverley Jr. (1667April 21, 1722) was a historian of early colonial Virginia, as well as a planter and politician. Early and family life Beverley was born in Jamestown, the second of three sons of the widow Mary Keeble and her second husband, Major Robert Beverley. Major Beverley had emigrated to the Virginia colony from Hull in Yorkshire, England and became the Clerk of the House of Burgesses, in which several of his descendants would serve. Thus, Major Beverley founded one of the First Families of Virginia during the colonial era. The Beverley household also included an elder half-brother Peter Beverley (who would not only serve in the House of Burgesses but became its speaker and the colony's Treasurer), several full brothers and at least two daughters. His father and elder full brother both died before this Robert Beverley reached legal age, so a guardian, local merchant and future burgess William Churchill, who had succeeded to the Beverley merchant relationship with Jeffreys and Company in London, was appointed to handle the estate for the children. Robert Beverley ultimately succeeded his half-brother Peter as the guardian of his full brother John Beverley. Virginia at the time having no public schools and limited educational options other than private tutors, Robert Beverley was educated in England, possibly at Beverley Grammar School in Yorkshire. Jamestown official and politician Beverley followed the career paths of his father and half-brother, securing influence with a series of public offices of increasing responsibility, as well as securing plantations and eventually becoming a Burgess in his own right. In 1688, the year following his father's death, Beverley worked as a copyist in Jamestown, assisting the colony's secretary as well as becoming a deputy clerk of the surrounding James City County. However, when Governor Francis Nicholson ousted William Edwards as the chief clerk of the General Court and the colony's secretary, Beverley probably also lost his position. However, in the summer of 1692, his uncle Christopher Robinson became the colony's secretary and appointed his nephew as clerk of King and Queen County nearby. Although Christopher Robinson died the next year, his successor was Ralph Wormeley, a planter in Middlesex County and friend of the Robinson family.