Robert Beverley

Major Robert Beverley (1635–1687) was a British merchant who became wealthy after emigrating to the Colony of Virginia, where he also became a controversial clerk of the House of Burgesses following Bacon's Rebellion. One of the wealthiest men in the northern Tidewater region, he eventually owned about 28,000 acres in four counties and founded the Beverley family of Virginia, one of the First Families of Virginia. Biography Early and family life Born in Kingston upon Hull in Yorkshire, England to the former Susanna Hollis and her husband Peter Beverley, he would have three younger brothers and four sisters. He was educated and learned about commerce in England. He also married his first wife, Elizabeth, who died in 1662, shortly after giving birth to their son, Peter Beverley. Beverley married two more times after emigrating to Virginia as discussed below, and had two more sons who survived him. In 1666, in what later became Lancaster County, Virginia, he married the widow Mary Keeble, who bore a daughter and from four to six sons (of whom three reached adulthood) before her death in June 1678. Beverly married Katherine Hone on March 28, 1679, who bore three sons and one daughter.