Page:A catalogue of notable Middle Templars, with brief biographical notices.djvu/39

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Berkeley — Bernard.
19

Spetchley, burning it to the ground. He died 5 Aug. 1656. Whitelocke (q.v.), though, of course, a political opponent, confesses him to be not only a very learned man, but "a good orator and judge, and moderate in his ways."


BERKELEY, Sir WILLIAM.
Colonial Governor.
d. 1677.

Admitted 3 May, 1624.

Fourth son of Sir Maurice Berkeley, of Bruton, Somerset. He was educated at Oxford, where he graduated M.A. in 1629. In 1632 he was a Commissioner in Canada, and on his return became Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to Charles I. He was appointed Governor of Virginia in 1641, and when there gave asylum to the Royalist exiles, by which he incurred the displeasure of the Parliament, who deposed him. At the Restoration he was reappointed, and continued to administer the Government till the year before his death in 1677.

He was the author of a Play, entitled The Lost Lady, published in 1638, and of an unpublished one, entitled Cornelia, written in 1662.


BERNARD, Sir FRANCIS.
Colonial Governor.
About 1711—1779.

Admitted 22 October, 1733.

Only son of the Rev. Francis Bernard, Rector of Brightwell, Berkshire. He was educated at Westminster and Oxford, and was an excellent classical scholar. He was called to the Bar 29 April, 1737, and was for some time Steward of Lincoln and Recorder of Boston, but in 1758 he was sent as Governor of New Jersey, and thence transferred to the Governorship of Massachusetts Bay in 1760. Here, whilst ably carrying out the policy of the Government, he made himself obnoxious to the colonists, and it was on his representation that troops were dispatched to Boston, an act which greatly intensified their disaffection. In 1769 he was created a baronet, but was recalled from the Colony, to which he never returned. He was Reader at the Inn in 1779, and died at Aylesbury on 16 June of the same year. He took a great interest in Harvard University, and raised funds on its behalf when it suffered from fire.

He published several series of Letters from America. Also an edition of The Latin Odes of Anthony Alsop (1752).


BERNARD, Sir THOMAS.
Philanthropist.
1750—1818.

Admitted 5 October, 1772.

Second son of Sir Francis Bernard (q.v.). He was born at Lincoln, 27 April, 1750, while his father was Steward of that city. He was educated at Harvard University till the settlement of his father in England, when he entered the Middle Temple. He was called to the Bar 24 Nov. 1780, but having acquired a large fortune through marriage, he relinquished the law and devoted himself to schemes for the welfare of the working classes. He became a governor of the Foundling Hospital, and greatly increased its revenues by building upon its estates. In 1796 he projected the Society for the Bettering of the Poor, which led to the establishment in 1800 of a School for the Indigent Blind, and in 1801 of the Fever Institution. In conjunction with Count Rumford, Bernard originated the Royal Institution, Piccadilly (1800). In 1808 he established at Bishop Auckland a training school for teachers, the first of its kind. In 1812 he took an active part in the formation of a Society for the Relief of the Manufacturing Poor, and there was hardly