Reverend George Berkeley
by Alfred Hart, 1731
Oil on canvas, 30" x 25"
Redwood Library Painting
Collection
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Bishop George Berkeley
b. Kilkenny, Ireland,
March 12, 1684
d. Oxford, England, January
14, 1753
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Irish philosopher, dean of Derry, bishop of Cloyne.
M.A. Dublin University.
Arrives in Newport in early 1729 - supposedly a temporary stay - on his
way to Bermuda to establish a college with government (England) funds.
The promised funds were to arrive later.
While in Newport, purchases farm and house as a potential revenue source
to establish the college.
Promised funds never arrive, leaves for homeland in late summer of 1731.
Gives his house, farm and his library to Yale College with the annual profits
to be applied to the maintenance of three resident scholars.
When built in 1729, his house "Whitehall" was in Newport (Middletown, Rhode
Island, was set off from Newport in 1742). A museum today, Whitehall is
located on Berkeley Avenue in Middletown.
"Whitehall" has the distinction of being the first colonial house to be
reproduced photographically in a national magazine in the United States
(appears in the New York Sketch-Book, December, 1874).
Berkeley has an interest in Trinity Church, frequently in pulpit. Presents
Trinity with an organ in 1733. Infant daughter Lucia buried in church graveyard.
A chapel named in his honor, Berkeley Chapel or Berkeley Memorial Church,
is located off Indian Avenue, Middletown, RI.
Legend has it that Berkeley wrote his Alciphron, or Minute Philosopher,
at Hanging Rock, located within the Norman Bird Sanctuary, Middletown.
Portrait of Rev. George Berkeley, ca. 1731, attributed to Alfred Hart,
is in the collection of Redwood Library.
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Bibliography
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