Frances Culpeper

Frances Stephens Berkeley Ludwell ( Culpeper; baptised 27 May 1634 – 1690s), most commonly styled Lady Berkeley after her second marriage, was a leader of the Green Spring faction of Virginia politics in the seventeenth century and wife to three colonial governors.

Biography Frances Culpeper was born in Hollingbourne, Kent. Her father was Thomas Culpeper, and her mother was Katherine St Leger; her brother was the John Culpeper who later led Culpeper's Rebellion. The youngest of her parents' five children, she was born into a family with numerous interests in the colony of Virginia; her father had become a member of the Virginia Company of London in 1623, and in 1649 was made one of the original patent-holders of the Northern Neck.

The year in which Frances arrived to the New World is unknown, Her husband became "Commander of the Southern Plantation" in 1662, serving in that role for two years; in 1667 he became governor of Albemarle, holding that position until dying in 1670. As there were no other heirs she received absolute possession of her husband's estate.

The couple lived at Green Spring Plantation, one of the finest houses in seventeenth-century Virginia. Described as "vigorous and energetic", she became a staunch defender of her husband, taking part in the events that led to Bacon's Rebellion, which was led by a distant relative of hers; Her third husband returned to England without her in 1700; she was buried in Jamestown, Virginia, where her ruined tombstone may still be seen. Up to the time of her death she retained a reputation as a woman of intelligence and influence.

Lady Berkeley left no children, although she may have been pregnant at the time of her third marriage. William Byrd twice wrote remarks indicating that she was with child, but never was able to indicate a delivery date; at the time she was close to fifty. She served as stepmother to two children of her last husband.

Through her second husband's will, Frances Culpeper Berkeley became a Lord Proprietor of the province of Carolina; "by a curious combination of circumstances . . . had the good fortune to sell this interest twice, in 1682 and again in 1684, and each time to be paid for it." She was named one of the Library of Virginia's Virginia Women in History for 2008.