George Berkeley, 1st Earl of Berkeley

George Berkeley, 1st Earl of Berkeley was an English merchant and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1654 until 1658.

Berkeley was the son of George Harding, 8th Baron Berkeley. Educated at Christ Church, Oxford, he succeeded his father as 9th Lord in 1658. He served as Member of Parliament for Gloucestershire in 1654 and again in 1656. He was one of the commissioners to proceed to the Hague and invite Charles II to return to the Kingdom.

In 1646 he married Elizabeth Massingberd, daughter of John Massingberd, treasurer of the East India Company, with whom he had two sons, and six daughters.

In 1661 Berkeley participated in the council for foreign plantations, and in 1678 he was a member of the Board of trade and plantations. He was one of the founding members of the Royal African Company, and acquired a share in territory situated between the port of Salee in South Barbary and the Cape of Good Hope. He was also a governor of the Levant Company from 1680 until the rest of his life. He was on the Committee of the East India Company 1660 -1697.

In 1679 he was created Viscount Dursley and Earl of Berkeley.

He is an author of a religious work entitled “Historical Applications and Occasional Meditations upon several Subjects” (1668).